I'm running the late 2020 MBP (4 ports, i7 Intel, 16GB of RAM) and when running the new wallpapers as screensavers and/or Lock Screen, they're incredibly choppy. This should not be acceptable. Is anyone else having the same problem?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
New screensavers are incredibly choppy on my Intel?
- Thread starter KoolAid-Drink
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Change your screen hertz to 60hz. Frames skipping because it's not playing in the correct refresh rate.
Thanks, but I have a 2020 13” so that doesn’t really apply, unfortunately. Appreciate the help though!
My maxed-out 2019 iMac 5K was experiencing the same issue. The wallpaper was very, very choppy, but I downloaded and briefly switched to another one of the video screen savers, and the problem seems to have resolved itself. Even switching back to the original Sonoma screensaver, the video and the transition to the desktop is now smooth. Hopefully it will stay that way.
Did you try any of the other video screen savers?
Did you try any of the other video screen savers?
Ok, so I tried what @toohectic did, but it didn't work 😕 I downloaded two other animated wallpapers: California's Temblor Range and Utah Evening, both of which ran very smoothly on the lock screen and the transitional animation to the desktop after logging in. However, when switching back to the default Sonoma Horizon, it's now even choppier than before! Switched back to the other two and they still ran fine. Switched back again to Sonoma Horizon and still no difference--super choppy! Freaking bizarre!
Glad it's not just me. Conspiracy theory alert: do you think this is intentional behavior on Apple's part to drive M1/M2 upgrades?
I'd think they'd pick a much more major feature than that if that were the case, lol! Besides, for me it just seems to be the one specific wallpaper (Sonoma Horizon) that's doing this. Still bizarre, though. You'd think they'd all be choppy.
Strange. The default wallpaper (Sonoma Horizon) seems fine but others (especially the underwater ones) are super choppy.
Is anyone with a M1/M2 experiencing the choppiness? Conversely, is anyone with an Intel Mac experiencing smoothness?
I'm revising my comments on the default Sonoma Horizon wallpaper. That one still runs pretty poorly on my maxed 2019 iMac. It's good for a short while after a switch, but it sooner than later it starts to get choppy. I guess I didn't test it long enough on my original test above before I moved on to other options. I have only tested about 4 of the other landscape wallpapers, and so far only the default Sonoma Horizon gives me problems. I have not tested any of the other categories like cityscape or underwater ones yet. I've been consistently using the Sonoma Evening one and it has been working very smoothly. I figure there must be a bug that will be resolved in a future OS release.
Where are these videos stored on the SSD? Perhaps we can delete and redownload the original to see if it resolves the issue on that particular one at least.
Where are these videos stored on the SSD? Perhaps we can delete and redownload the original to see if it resolves the issue on that particular one at least.
MacBook Pro M1 Max running Sonoma 14.2.1 having this issue with the aerial screensavers running choppy a day or so after restarting.
On my MacBooks, it is always the "VTDecoderXPCService" process that extremely overloads🤬 the CPU when the Sonoma screensavers are running. Under Ventura, everything worked perfectly.
These aerial screensavers imho, do not have sense on Intel based Macs. They need the 'extra' power and low battery consumption that only offer the newer ARM powerful processors. The 2 Intel MBP that I have, one from 2012 and the other from 2015, work perfectly on Ventura (not so good on Sonoma), with no screensaver at all, and no dynamic and simple wallpapers (usually darker than lighter).