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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.
Thanks.
Wipr is not free anymore, it's £1.99.
I've installed "AdBlock for Safari" - it had high ratings in the App Store.
The MacRumors Forums website loaded 5 times faster :)
 
14.8 is a great result.. What tweaks.. which CPU..
i7-4870HQ
In the second case, it's not exactly Chrome, but Chromium, which I built with tweaks, with PGO, LTO and AVX2, GPU, and aggressive optimization. Stock Chromium is almost twice as slow, and will lose to Chrome. In the second test, in addition to overclocking the processor, the browser was without plugins, and for the result it works in a small window, which is also +1 to the result. A litte cheat. ;)

There is no noticeable difference in normal browser usage. Both work fast enough.
As I wrote, this Mac is weak for compilation, and there are few cores, and more RAM, and the SSD speed is not enough for intensive work.
But SolidWorks and the like work great. Also possible to play games, RDR2 and Cyberpunk are playable. Yes, on minimum settings, but even for this you need performance.
So talking about lags in the browser is inappropriate.
The slow Mac discussed in this thread is faulty.
 
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.
I'm using a 2015, not having any issues with slow loading websites. Maybe a wipe and clean install are in order or possibly the battery? I've heard a bad battery can cause slow system behavior.
 
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in my experience, all those fancy Wifi lingo does not do anything in the real world. Just marketing terms.

and yet here you are wondering why things are slowing down... mmmmm

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 dont think you are right about no forward progress... but regardless what has definitely changed is that websites assume great and great performance and adjust their content accordingly, years ago 720 p was standard on you tub, now its more like 1024 and even 4k ... the web sites are far more demanding graphically, while you have stood still.
 
idk ,I am guessing RAM and my i5 processor has something to do with it.

8GB is not optimal these days but not terrible if everything else is lined up.

Few things I note:
-Ad blockers, etc can also slow down your browser. Not that you should get rid of them -- I wouldn't -- but check that the ones you are using aren't slowing things down more than you think
-Check your memory usage -- what I've been seeing is that overwrought web pages drive my browser to fill up memory which then gets turned into Compressed Memory which then makes the whole browser slow

Also consider the Orion browser. It's like a Safari+ that runs the latest Webkit on macOS back to Mojave (not to mention your Monterey). Builtin content blocking, tracking prevention (plus option to use 3rd party extensions for that instead). It ran well on a MacBook Pro 2016, which was as far back as I could test, and it might get you to a Speedometer 3.0 score ~ 10.
 
**UPDATE**

I switched to Brave and things seem back to smooth/er . I think it has to do with Firefox+million tabs open. I do have just as many opened on Brave but maybe the combination of FF and tabs on the older hardware make it cripple a bit.


Thanks.
Wipr is not free anymore, it's £1.99.
I've installed "AdBlock for Safari" - it had high ratings in the App Store.
The MacRumors Forums website loaded 5 times faster :)

you are correct, I forgot I paid that measly amount sometime ago.

But SolidWorks and the like work great. Also possible to play games, RDR2 and Cyberpunk are playable. Yes, on minimum settings, but even for this you need performance.

Unless your MBPro has built in graphics card, I do not believe you that Cyberpunk is playable. CIV V (2010) was about to melt my MB pro internals when I played it years ago. how do you get Cyberpunk on Mac any way? I just checked Steam and its Windows only.

I'm using a 2015, not having any issues with slow loading websites. Maybe a wipe and clean install are in order or possibly the battery? I've heard a bad battery can cause slow system behavior.

I am still running original battery.

I dont think you are right about no forward progress... but regardless what has definitely changed is that websites assume great and great performance and adjust their content accordingly, years ago 720 p was standard on you tub, now its more like 1024 and even 4k ... the web sites are far more demanding graphically, while you have stood still.

the video part is true, I think it can not render 4K, but I never watch 4k. 1080P is just fine. Things haven't changed too much. This is YouTube from 2015

1735132213209.jpeg


8GB is not optimal these days but not terrible if everything else is lined up.

I can't get through my head when I come from time where 256MB was nice amount of RAM. 8GB is like as big as a full PS3 game stored in RAM 😂

-Check your memory usage -- what I've been seeing is that overwrought web pages drive my browser to fill up memory which then gets turned into Compressed Memory which then makes the whole browser slow

This could be it as I have many tabs open (although I do have memory saver feature which de-activates background tabs)

Also consider the Orion browser. It's like a Safari+ that runs the latest Webkit on macOS back to Mojave (not to mention your Monterey). Builtin content blocking, tracking prevention (plus option to use 3rd party extensions for that instead). It ran well on a MacBook Pro 2016, which was as far back as I could test, and it might get you to a Speedometer 3.0 score ~ 10.

I am actually a Kagi subscriber. Orion can be a nice side browser and indeed it can be a nice "side" browser , reddit was smoother on it than Firefox and LibreFox(FF fork). But the latest release was buggy and malfunctioning with tabs crashing completely. It feels more like a hobby project.
 
the video part is true, I think it can not render 4K, but I never watch 4k. 1080P is just fine. Things haven't changed too much. This is YouTube from 2015

its all true :) and regardless of you thinking it should work the same, they do serve up more, its not just one 1080 p source, but all the adds, often with video, and all those tabs, all taking more ram than they used to because of the additional content on each page. which will slow down a machine not designed for it. Your 2015 Mac is just not up to it. what answer are you seeking here? or are you looking for people to agree that your 2015 Intel Mac should perform like a 2023 apple silicon Mac? you dismiss any reply that suggests the times have changed.
 
Your 2015 Mac is just not up to it. what answer are you seeking here? or are you looking for people to agree that your 2015 Intel Mac should perform like a 2023 apple silicon Mac? you dismiss any reply that suggests the times have changed.

I am not looking for an answer, I am looking for others experience if its similar or something wrong on my side. While I am not expecting my computer to run Cyberpunk 2077 in 4K like an Apple Silicon machine , I think it should at least load twitter or youtube without having to wait for images to load in like its 1997.
 
Unless your MBPro has built in graphics card, I do not believe you that Cyberpunk is playable. CIV V (2010) was about to melt my MB pro internals when I played it years ago. how do you get Cyberpunk on Mac any way? I just checked Steam and its Windows only.
Yes, MBP15 2015 with AMD GPU. Obviously, such heavy games only work in Bootcamp.
I play rarely, and then only in Minecraft and Kerbal. But, on long trips, I sometimes play more actively.

G5isAlive:
all the adds, often with video, and all those tabs, all taking more ram than they used to because of the additional content on each page. which will slow down a machine not designed for it. Your 2015 Mac is just not up to it
Browsers fly without problems on slower low-budget devices on Celeron N5095.
Comparing MBP2015 and M1+ may be inappropriate, but you have to try really hard to notice the visual difference in browser speed.
 
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I don’t have a 2015 Mac, nor my 2012 Mac mini (Core i5) any longer. But… I haven’t yet taken in my 2007 MacBook for recycling. 😁

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.
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

SpeedometerJetStreamMotion Mark
Firefox7.8199239
Brave (Chrome)5.63133226
Safari5.8129
613

So… some numbers:

1735245142538.png


* Single pass tests
** MBP was on battery power
*** Speedometer 3 wouldn’t run on the 2007 MB, the page loads but nothing happens when I click “Start Test"
**** The force dark mode flag is enabled on Chrome and Edge

Despite the values, I don’t notice a difference in browsing on the M1 vs. M4 — this is fairly common in benchmark comparisons. Even the MacBook is usable regarding performance, slow with the only frustrating behavior being a mostly unresponsive screen zoom. However, indeed, compatibility with anything modern is nearly non-existent.
 
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Slow? Open the chasis and give it a good cleaning with compressed air. While open, apple thermal paste to the chips. Might help with heat and speed issues.
 
apple thermal paste to the chips
No, no, no. And just no. Thermal paste is designed to fill the interface between a chip (generally the CPU) and a cooler. The chip must be designed to use a cooler. Spreading thermal paste on regular chips will just make a mess. If the thermal paste is conductive, it will most likely make the system non-operational.
 
No, no, no. And just no. Thermal paste is designed to fill the interface between a chip (generally the CPU) and a cooler. The chip must be designed to use a cooler. Spreading thermal paste on regular chips will just make a mess. If the thermal paste is conductive, it will most likely make the system non-operational.
Hate to break it to you but all the MBPs come with thermal paste from the factory. It diffuses heat through the heat sink and then dissipated with a fan. This is how literally all laptops function to control heat and helps to protect the CPU/GPU. Anyway, the thermal paste wears away with time -- especially after ten years. So a reapplication can only help and prevent throttling, which will reduce speed.
 
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Hate to break it to you but all the MBPs come with thermal paste from the factory.
I know that. The post stated “chips”, plural, as in more than one chip. Macs only have one CPU that requires thermal paste. Thermal paste does not wear “away” over time.
 
I know that. The post stated “chips”, plural, as in more than one chip. Macs only have one CPU that requires thermal paste. Thermal paste does not wear “away” over time.
You are not helping with all the wrong information. The 2015 MBP can be equipped with two chips -- a CPU and a dedicated GPU in some. They all, of course, have one CPU, which has thermal paste. Thermal paste degrades over time. These are all facts.
 
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@Madhatter32 @raythompsontn

Perhaps my recollection is faulty, it being from the PowerPC era, but I recall Apple using mostly thermal putty rather than paste.

It’s also possible they utilize thermal grease as the TIM for the M series SOC. I haven’t paid close enough attention to the iFixit teardown. So, that’s just my rambling guess.
 
I don’t have a 2015 Mac, nor my 2012 Mac mini (Core i5) any longer. But… I haven’t yet taken in my 2007 MacBook for recycling. 😁




So… some numbers:

View attachment 2465940

* Single pass tests
** MBP was on battery power
*** Speedometer 3 wouldn’t run on the 2007 MB, the page loads but nothing happens when I click “Start Test"
**** The force dark mode flag is enabled on Chrome and Edge

Despite the values, I don’t notice a difference in browsing on the M1 vs. M4 — this is fairly common in benchmark comparisons. Even the MacBook is usable regarding performance, slow with the only frustrating behavior being a mostly unresponsive screen zoom. However, indeed, compatibility with anything modern is nearly non-existent.

thanks for the scientific study. FF seems to be doing incredibly bad with Motion Mark

Slow? Open the chasis and give it a good cleaning with compressed air. While open, apple thermal paste to the chips. Might help with heat and speed issues.

maybe I can open the back panel for dust cleaning but I rather not fiddle with the thermal paste. But Maybe i can send it to a local shop to do it for me. The proprietary screws are not easy to come by and I do not have them.
 
I can't get through my head when I come from time where 256MB was nice amount of RAM. 8GB is like as big as a full PS3 game stored in RAM 😂

I find it crazy too. Major websites that ran fine under say a G4/512 now overrun my laptop with 16GB of RAM despite seemingly identical layouts and content. There was an informational site the other day that brought my whole browser to a crawl even though it looked like it could have been written in traditional HTML. I don't know what all that JavaScript was doing but I am sure it wasn't for my benefit...

I think it all comes down to optimizing for what you have and developers these days have i9-XXX w/32GB or M3 Max or whatever. My modest proposal is that all website developers should have to build their sites on a Raspberry Pi 2. If a site works well there, it will work great everywhere else. So far idea has not sold...

This could be it as I have many tabs open (although I do have memory saver feature which de-activates background tabs)

Yes, I would just check Activity Monitor when it starts to feel slow. Invariable when my laptop does, I see either a) a runaway browser tab (it looks static but somehow it manages to peg a CPU...which is noticable on a 2 core system) and/or browser processes overflowing memory into Compressed. Compressed may be better than swap but it's not the same as never being compressed. It seems to hit latency / responsiveness more so than throughput too.

In any case, on browsers that do a good job restoring sessions, I find it helpful to do a graceful Quit/Open before things get too bad. I liked to keep browser sessions open for days but I haven't found that practical lately so I basically reboot frequently. Like we used to have to do back in the Windows 3.x days and such...

I am actually a Kagi subscriber. Orion can be a nice side browser and indeed it can be a nice "side" browser , reddit was smoother on it than Firefox and LibreFox(FF fork). But the latest release was buggy and malfunctioning with tabs crashing completely. It feels more like a hobby project.

That's too bad to hear. I've had good luck with it circa 128.2-129 (99.128.2 - 99.129.etc) but haven't had a chance to update it since (the problem with software these days is not that Check for Updates that takes time but the aftermath of any regressions that can quickly become a time sink...).

It and FF ESR 115 are one of the few modern browsers that run on older OS, and I've found it about 25% faster. FF ESR 128 may be more competitive but that doesn't help users of Mojave and prior. Hopefully its author can make time to ensure it's at least Safari-level reliable soon.
 
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I find it crazy too. Major websites that ran fine under say a G4/512 now overrun my laptop with 16GB of RAM despite seemingly identical layouts and content. There was an informational site the other day that brought my whole browser to a crawl even though it looked like it could have been written in traditional HTML. I don't know what all that JavaScript was doing but I am sure it wasn't for my benefit...

I think it all comes down to optimizing for what you have and developers these days have i9-XXX w/32GB or M3 Max or whatever. My modest proposal is that all website developers should have to build their sites on a Raspberry Pi 2. If a site works well there, it will work great everywhere else. So far idea has not sold...



Yes, I would just check Activity Monitor when it starts to feel slow. Invariable when my laptop does, I see either a) a runaway browser tab (it looks static but somehow it manages to peg a CPU...which is noticable on a 2 core system) and/or browser processes overflowing memory into Compressed. Compressed may be better than swap but it's not the same as never being compressed. It seems to hit latency / responsiveness more so than throughput too.

In any case, on browsers that do a good job restoring sessions, I find it helpful to do a graceful Quit/Open before things get too bad. I liked to keep browser sessions open for days but I haven't found that practical lately so I basically reboot frequently. Like we used to have to do back in the Windows 3.x days and such...



That's too bad to hear. I've had good luck with it circa 128.2-129 (99.128.2 - 99.129.etc) but haven't had a chance to update it since (the problem with software these days is not that Check for Updates that takes time but the aftermath of any regressions that can quickly become a time sink...).

It and FF ESR 115 are one of the few modern browsers that run on older OS, and I've found it about 25% faster. FF ESR 128 may be more competitive but that doesn't help users of Mojave and prior. Hopefully its author can make time to ensure it's at least Safari-level reliable soon.

I have a feeling the slow down was mainly because of Javascript on Firefox (the browser I use). In MacCheetah3 post, Firefox showed it was behind in the Jetstream test (for javascript) compared to Chrome and Webkit browsers. I am seeing far less slowdowns using Brave (Chrome) .

I got no idea why Firefox is lacking in that department
 
I have a feeling the slow down was mainly because of Javascript on Firefox (the browser I use). In MacCheetah3 post, Firefox showed it was behind in the Jetstream test (for javascript) compared to Chrome and Webkit browsers. I am seeing far less slowdowns using Brave (Chrome) .

I got no idea why Firefox is lacking in that department

I'd say the issue is more why do so many websites use so much JavaScript that you need what was once a supercomputer to render them? Google's full office suite runs pretty well in a browser running on my 6 year old desktop but some static text sites seem to bog down even newer computers.

Then I'd say running JavaScript/etc fast is hard and Firefox does perform reasonably well on the benchmarks (e.g. Speedometer is 80% of WebKit on my Intel Mac) but that doesn't seem to be enough these days even though we're throwing more hardware and software at it then ever. WebKit from Apple and Chrome/ium from Google have a lot more resources to make JavaScript less slow but I'd still say it's a hard problem...that a lot of website developers make harder...
 
I'd say the issue is more why do so many websites use so much JavaScript that you need what was once a supercomputer to render them? Google's full office suite runs pretty well in a browser running on my 6 year old desktop but some static text sites seem to bog down even newer computers.

Then I'd say running JavaScript/etc fast is hard and Firefox does perform reasonably well on the benchmarks (e.g. Speedometer is 80% of WebKit on my Intel Mac) but that doesn't seem to be enough these days even though we're throwing more hardware and software at it then ever. WebKit from Apple and Chrome/ium from Google have a lot more resources to make JavaScript less slow but I'd still say it's a hard problem...that a lot of website developers make harder...

that I do not know. My only guess they are using bloated software behind that scenes that tracks and collects all your data and serve you ads.

I am pretty understanding when the website is basically a web-app like Google Docs (which for a guy that have been using the internet since it websites had grey backgrounds is skull shattering impresssive)
 
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