MBP 2015 users, does it feel like its moving in slow motion?

[MacBH928]

When I bought this machine it was flying. Although most native apps run just as fast, the problem is happening with websites. Websites with web apps, twitter, and youtube feel like they are so heavy and moving in slow motion. This is confusing to me since I do not believe any new web technology was invented since 2015, all website design elements are the same (Javascript, CSS) so how come it became so slow?

I am using Firefox but safari and Chrome are not doing much better. I got this machine in 2017, while it has been 7 years 😛 its completely solid and feels like a waste to just replace it when everything else works just fine. Not helping that last MacOS 12 Monterey is the last OS it can run.

 

[dmr727]

I found that Catalina was the last OS that felt snappy with my 2015 MBP. Upgrading to Big Sur had me immediately reach for a Time Machine backup (and perhaps my wallet for a shiny new M1 MBA).

7 years is a good run - time to jump on the Apple Silicon bandwagon!

 

[Andrey84]

When I bought this machine it was flying. Although most native apps run just as fast, the problem is happening with websites. Websites with web apps, twitter, and youtube feel like they are so heavy and moving in slow motion. This is confusing to me since I do not believe any new web technology was invented since 2015, all website design elements are the same (Javascript, CSS) so how come it became so slow?

I am using Firefox but safari and Chrome are not doing much better. I got this machine in 2017, while it has been 7 years 😛 its completely solid and feels like a waste to just replace it when everything else works just fine. Not helping that last MacOS 12 Monterey is the last OS it can run.

My 2015 MacBook Pro i7/16/512 runs Mac OS Sequoia 15.2 via OCLP.
Overall, the performance is acceptable.

Yes, browsing in Safari is much slower than it used to be. Still very useable though. But I agree it's a little annoying.
Chrome is flying though. Not sure why it's slow for you. I'm still using Safari as it supports the Screen Time better.

Did you change the performance settings? 1. Reduce motion 2. Reduce transparency 3. Make the wallpaper static 4. Change window minimizing effect to Scale.

I'm waiting for the new MacBook Air to come out - ideally thinner and with a nano screen. I think it's too early to upgrade for me, as I'm only using the machine for browsing and it works well still.

 

[MacBH928]

7 years is a good run - time to jump on the Apple Silicon bandwagon!

Feels kind of waste 😄 The apps and everything works just as good and the hardware is very solid, battery life I would say last good 4 hours or more. Its only the browsing that feels "heavy" .

Remember that thing when they say "computer used to be fast but got slower?" it is still just as fast, only when it comes to heavy websites is feels like a man pulling a car.

Yes, browsing in Safari is much slower than it used to be. Still very useable though. But I agree it's a little annoying.
Chrome is flying though. Not sure why it's slow for you. I'm still using Safari as it supports the Screen Time better.

Did you change the performance settings? 1. Reduce motion 2. Reduce transparency 3. Make the wallpaper static 4. Change window minimizing effect to Scale.

I am mainly using Firefox but all heavy websites are well...heavy. You kind of like need to wait until things load in, very usable but still... I feel like its a waste to upgrade to a $1500 MBP just to get the websites faster.

Whats frustrating me is nothing new in web technology was been introduced. Twitter and Youtube have been around for more than a decade doing the same exact thing so why did it get slower now? I wonder if it has to do with websites being optimized for Chrome. The web should be a standard.

 

[macman4789]

I’m no expert so I’m sure someone with more knowledge will tell me if I’m wrong but is it a combination of:

The single core performance being so much more snappy for day to day tasks (even web browsing).

Web services such as O365 are so much more web based than they used to be that I’m sure the ‘heaviness’ of them will have increased in nearly a decade since 2014/15. More people/companies are going web based so tasks that would normally be ran locally are dependent on performance of browsers etc?

The efficiency of unified memory and the gpu on Apple silicon working together to render/load content so quickly?

I assume most if not all SSD’s in modern macs will be significantly quicker than your old Intel Mac and thus load content quicker.

Even something as simple as WiFi technology and speed may play a factor (I’m assuming yours is WiFi 5?). WiFi 5 is still ok for today but if the antenna quality wasn’t as good back then for example then signal and thus speed may reduce and thus reduce loading times.

Like I said, I’m no expert but if just a few of the above is playing a part I’m sure it could could impact? Just my thoughts.

 

[MacBH928]

I did speedometer tests.

Firefox Speedometer 2.0 : 69
Firefox Speedometer 3.0: 2

Brave (Chrome) Speedometer 3.0: 4

I looked into some youtube videos and it seems M machines reach about 30 on SM 3.0 . So 10x or so faster. Guess this machine is officially elderly computer.

 

[MacBH928]

Even something as simple as WiFi technology and speed may play a factor (I’m assuming yours is WiFi 5?). WiFi 5 is still ok for today but if the antenna quality wasn’t as good back then for example then signal and thus speed may reduce and thus reduce loading times.

in my experience, all those fancy Wifi lingo does not do anything in the real world. Just marketing terms.

 

[Nermal]

I have the same machine and it gets around 700 Mb/s over Wi-Fi. That's more than enough for a browser!

 

[Andrey84]

I am mainly using Firefox

Can you try using Chrome for a couple of days? It feels much faster for me.

The web should be a standard.

Well, there is what should be and there is reality. The web frameworks & libraries are growing larger to accommodate for more functionality, and it requires more computing power to run the components would be my guess.

 

[Andrey84]

Firefox Speedometer 3.0: 2
Brave (Chrome) Speedometer 3.0: 4

I can't believe how low your numbers are, this is very strange.

Can you test Safari please?

My results are below. I have MBP 2015 (11,4) i7/16/512, running Mac OS Sequoia 15.2 via OCLP.

Speedometer 3 | Chrome: 8.6
Speedometer 3 | Safari: 9.1

What is your MBP model and specs and are you running Monterey? You should maybe consider upgrading to Sequoia.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

The big problem is the creep of "required power" to run modern websites. Thus modern web browsers have become hogs, too. But, if you pick carefully, you can get an older system usable in modern times.

Also note that older OSes are faster than newer - but you have the trade-off of less security (unpatched security vulnerabilities.) If you're looking to "daily drive" an older machine, and are at least a little tech-savvy, I'd suggest putting Linux on it. You can run a modern secure Linux that is fast on older hardware.

If you just want it for light use, and don't mind the risk of less security, run an older OS with a speed-focused web browser, like Pale Moon, Arctic Fox, Chromium Legacy, InterWeb 55.

I run Lion on my 2012 Retina MacBook Pro (2.6 GHz quad-core Core i7, 8 GB RAM,) and Pale Moon can load pretty much every modern web site, YouTube videos play in 4K60 no problem, etc.

 

[Furka]

Try to run Onyx from Titanium Software and clean the System. Sometimes it helps to back to normal performance.

 

[Saturn007]

Still rockin' a 2015 MacBook Air here from time to time. No slow downs even when browsing with Safari with multiple tabs open. I'm running Monterey!

Have you tried installing ad blockers? They make browsing a treat again.

Also, turn off pop-up windows, and routinely clear out all cookies during browsing sessions.

A MacBook Pro should do even better than my MBA! Don't give up on that classic laptop!

 

[Mega ST]

MBP 15, 2018, 15.2, not slow in any way.

 

[MacBH928]

I can't believe how low your numbers are, this is very strange.

Can you test Safari please?

My results are below. I have MBP 2015 (11,4) i7/16/512, running Mac OS Sequoia 15.2 via OCLP.

Speedometer 3 | Chrome: 8.6
Speedometer 3 | Safari: 9.1

What is your MBP model and specs and are you running Monterey? You should maybe consider upgrading to Sequoia.

hey thanks for replying. I did extra tests and I think my lower scores was because I was using the laptop unplugged and the battery might have been low.

MBP 2015, 2.6Ghz i5, 8GB RAM, mac OS Monterey 12.7

Speedometer: Responsiveness of Web Applications
MotionMark: tests animate complex scenes at a target frame rate
JetStream: Measure Javascript+ Web Assembly

	Speedometer	JetStream	Motion Mark
Firefox	7.81	99	239
Brave (Chrome)	5.63	133	226
Safari	5.8	129	613​

The results are surprising. Firefox is actually the fastest one Speedometer while Brave is the fastest when it comes to JavaScript, although Speedometer says it measures "Web Applications" which I thought it means Javascript web apps.

Maybe the faster Javascript is what makes Brave/Safari "feel faster" . Not sure if I should choose the faster browser based on the Speedometer score or JetSream , or just go on "feels".

I do not want to run Sequoia on OCLP because I heard there were privacy issues since it gives some hardware access to the OCLP. I am kind of paranoid when it comes to privacy. I can see using it for side computer but all my personal stuff is on this one.

 

[Andrey84]

Maybe the faster Javascript is what makes Brave/Safari "feel faster" . Not sure if I should choose the faster browser based on the Speedometer score or JetSream , or just go on "feels".

I do not want to run Sequoia on OCLP because I heard there were privacy issues since it gives some hardware access to the OCLP. I am kind of paranoid when it comes to privacy. I can see using it for side computer but all my personal stuff is on this one.

I'd go with Chrome, i.e. with what feels faster, because this is actually what counts. Why do you have to use Brave specifically and not Chrome? Brave might be slower than pure Chrome. On Sequoia via OCLP, this is up to you. Seeing your new results, there is no guarantee Sequoia will improve the browser performance anyway.

I also found something unexpected during my 2015 MBP testing.

First I plugged into mains: no change. Then, I tested with the CPU Turbo Boost On. I saw a big improvement!

Speedometer 3 | Safari | Turbo Boost On: 🔼 12.4 🥳 up from 9.1.

I had TB permanently switched off to avoid overheating and fan noise. I've been using the TurboBoost Switcher Pro app for the last 5 years - I've now switched to disabling TB only while the fan RPMs are high.

So, this discussion and your idea of browser testing helped me gain a 36% uplift in browser performance. I can actually feel the improvement.

THANK YOU 🤗

 

[Andrey84]

Have you tried installing ad blockers? They make browsing a treat again.

This sounds very interesting. Can you please recommend any good ones - I'm using Safari?

 

[schnaps]

Firefox Speedometer 3.0: 2
Brave (Chrome) Speedometer 3.0: 4

The results of the tests you provided are abnormally low. Why has the performance dropped so much? Maybe the reason is a worn out battery or its complete absence, which is why MacOS has limited the performance?

I have MBP 15 2015 i7 16/2048, Monterey/Sequoia/Win11/Debian.
I definitely haven't noticed any performance issues in browsers or YouTube. But it's a weak when compiling.
I use it for drawing 3D models for the printer, office, internet, programming. And I don't use Safari.
Result in Speedometer 3, Chrome - 9.8.
With Turbo Boost and tweaks - 14.8. But I don't use this mode. Visually there is no difference.

 

[Andrey84]

The results of the tests you provided are abnormally low. Why has the performance dropped so much? Maybe the reason is a worn out battery or its complete absence, which is why MacOS has limited the performance?

I have MBP 15 2015 i7 16/2048, Monterey/Sequoia/Win11/Debian.
I definitely haven't noticed any performance issues in browsers or YouTube. But it's a weak when compiling.
I use it for drawing 3D models for the printer, office, internet, programming. And I don't use Safari.
Result in Speedometer 3, Chrome - 9.8.
With Turbo Boost and tweaks - 14.8. But I don't use this mode. Visually there is no difference.

14.8 is a great result!
What tweaks did you do please?
Also, which CPU do you have? There were three Core i7 options for the 15" 2015 MBP: 4770HQ (mine), 4870HQ and 4980HQ.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

How much RAM do you have?
How much "free space" is left on the internal SSD?

 

[spacebyte]

This sounds very interesting. Can you please recommend any good ones - I'm using Safari?

I use uBlock Origin, which is apparently not avaliable for Safari, but in my opinion Firefox is also a really good browser.

 

[MacBH928]

If you just want it for light use, and don't mind the risk of less security, run an older OS with a speed-focused web browser, like Pale Moon, Arctic Fox, Chromium Legacy, InterWeb 55.

I run Lion on my 2012 Retina MacBook Pro (2.6 GHz quad-core Core i7, 8 GB RAM,) and Pale Moon can load pretty much every modern web site, YouTube videos play in 4K60 no problem, etc.

interesting choice of browsers there. Extremely obscure. Did you try LibreWolf? it supposed to be "lightweight" firefox fork.

Try to run Onyx from Titanium Software and clean the System. Sometimes it helps to back to normal performance.

I do not like to use those types of apps, they kind of tend to mess the system files and I am not up to breaking my machine. Maybe someone who knows what he is doing can benefit from it.

 

[MacBH928]

Still rockin' a 2015 MacBook Air here from time to time. No slow downs even when browsing with Safari with multiple tabs open. I'm running Monterey!

Have you tried installing ad blockers? They make browsing a treat again.

Also, turn off pop-up windows, and routinely clear out all cookies during browsing sessions.

A MacBook Pro should do even better than my MBA! Don't give up on that classic laptop!

I'll give a test to Brave (Chrome in a different brand) . I use adblockers, they are superb!

 

[MacBH928]

Have you tried installing ad blockers? They make browsing a treat again.

Of course! The web is none-usable without an adblocker! I even have pihole installed.

I'd go with Chrome, i.e. with what feels faster, because this is actually what counts. Why do you have to use Brave specifically and not Chrome? Brave might be slower than pure Chrome. On Sequoia via OCLP, this is up to you. Seeing your new results, there is no guarantee Sequoia will improve the browser performance anyway.

Chrome is data hoarding spyware

This sounds very interesting. Can you please recommend any good ones - I'm using Safari?

Wipr (Free) , 1blockr (free tier, subscription, 1 time payment available) for Safari.
There is also Adguard. I'd say Wipr is light weight but up to you.

I use uBlock Origin, which is apparently not avaliable for Safari, but in my opinion Firefox is also a really good browser.

Firefox is great, I do not understand why people use Chrome spyware when Firefox is equally good and free. I am only switching because its getting slower on my machine.

 

[MacBH928]

The results of the tests you provided are abnormally low. Why has the performance dropped so much? Maybe the reason is a worn out battery or its complete absence, which is why MacOS has limited the performance?

I have MBP 15 2015 i7 16/2048, Monterey/Sequoia/Win11/Debian.
I definitely haven't noticed any performance issues in browsers or YouTube. But it's a weak when compiling.
I use it for drawing 3D models for the printer, office, internet, programming. And I don't use Safari.
Result in Speedometer 3, Chrome - 9.8.
With Turbo Boost and tweaks - 14.8. But I don't use this mode. Visually there is no difference.

idk ,I am guessing RAM and my i5 processor has something to do with it.

OP:

How much RAM do you have?
How much "free space" is left on the internal SSD?

8GB RAM , I got like 300GB left in SSD