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Safari scrolling performance vs Intel
- Thread starter gtg465x
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sometimes, not in safari I don't think. its got worse on some stuff in the iOS 14 compared to previous version. The iPad has always been super smooth for me, apart from the latest iOS. hopefully they will fix it soon.
Plugging in on its own makes no difference, they fire up with an external monitor always and then it depends on programs running and whether they need GPU.
I have an i9 Intel high end MacBook and my PowerBook M1 with 16GB/2TB has it beat hands down. Everything is butter smooth.
One of the problem with the demo machines is that often they run them in Guest mode continuously rebuilding caches.
One of the problem with the demo machines is that often they run them in Guest mode continuously rebuilding caches.
I was going to make a thread like this to see if others were having the same experience. I can confirm that Safari on the M1 is performs very inconsistently, the scrolling on complex websites can be pretty bad. It can be pretty aggravating. I reinstalled Big Sur twice and still have this issue. Page loading on the M1 in faster than on my Intel i5 MacBook, but once the page is loaded my Intel system was more responsive and overall experience is better.
Kind of entirely absurd how some people will chalk up any other reason. These kinds of reports are helpful to people (e.g. me) considering buying the M1s.Just tried theverge.com on my M1 MBA. Complete butter. Must have been the internet connection at Costco.
Anyway, M1 blows the Intel models away for all the reasons already noted, but you do you.
I think one variable in people’s reports of buttery smoothness vs jittery scrolling is the resolution they are running at. I have mine set at the highest possible on my M1 MBA and imagine that is a factor in occasional stuttering on complex websites.
Have you guys reported this to Apple (or webkit)? If it is this inconsistent, they most likely are not aware of this.
Record a video, follow their instructions for Safari logs, and file it. Make sure you disable all extensions when you record the video and/or collect logs; Apple will ask you to do anyway, so save time by doing this for them.
One thing you could do is install Safari Technology Preview to see if it is worse or better. If not, that information will be useful for them too.
Record a video, follow their instructions for Safari logs, and file it. Make sure you disable all extensions when you record the video and/or collect logs; Apple will ask you to do anyway, so save time by doing this for them.
One thing you could do is install Safari Technology Preview to see if it is worse or better. If not, that information will be useful for them too.
I haven't seen anyone confirmed that. One person said they "heard" but one person with STP said no and macOS 11.1 betas also doesn't fix this. STP is ahead of Safari beta, so if STP doesn't have this fixed, then it is very unlikely Safari beta has this fixed.
So, no, it is not resolved at all at the moment.
I tried uploaded a video of this performance in action. Its pretty disappointing and never occurring on my Intel machine. Since I refuse to touch Chrome I'm stuck with this.
There are other browsers than Safari and Chrome.
Also, Youtube has been messing up with scrolling recently. Scrolling triggers the loading of additional comments and thumbnails, which causes hiccups. This didn't happen before, or at least it was less noticeable.
But your case, it doesn't really looks like it's skipping frames. It looks like the page does not scroll at the right pace. I've seen it from time to time in Safari. Scrolling would judder under certain conditions, as if there were conflicting information as to where to scroll.
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Yeah they are. I prefer Firefox, but I will wait until its ARM ready in a few weeks.
Also, your video appears to be capped at 30 fps for the most part (judging from the Quartz Debug frame counter). This doesn't help to investigate the issue. And I can't find a way to download it.
EDIT: found it! It's 60 fps.
It looks like scrolling is fine a the beginning. I see no frame drop. At the end, there are hiccups, but it does not look like a performance issue. More like if it didn't know precisely where to scroll.
EDIT2: I also have random hiccups when I go back to a YouTube tab. They then tend to go away. I think it's related to the way youtube loads stuff while scrolling (even it we don't always see this stuff loading on screen).
Yep, definitely something fishy with youtube. As certain points, when scrolling slowly, it would hit some invisible barrier (with the rubber band effect) as if it was hitting the end of the page. This doesn't even happen consistently. It's Youtube messing around or Safari not properly interpreting something.
This doesn't happen with firefox. This could be related to Safari's translucent title bar, which shows the underlying content.
I'm not alone: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252092264
EDIT: found it! It's 60 fps.
It looks like scrolling is fine a the beginning. I see no frame drop. At the end, there are hiccups, but it does not look like a performance issue. More like if it didn't know precisely where to scroll.
EDIT2: I also have random hiccups when I go back to a YouTube tab. They then tend to go away. I think it's related to the way youtube loads stuff while scrolling (even it we don't always see this stuff loading on screen).
Yep, definitely something fishy with youtube. As certain points, when scrolling slowly, it would hit some invisible barrier (with the rubber band effect) as if it was hitting the end of the page. This doesn't even happen consistently. It's Youtube messing around or Safari not properly interpreting something.
This doesn't happen with firefox. This could be related to Safari's translucent title bar, which shows the underlying content.
I'm not alone: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252092264
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I think its a bug in Safari as others say they don't have these issues on other browsers. I also don't think its a performance issue, because the M1 is roughly equal to a modern 6-8 core AMD/Intel Chip. A dual core i3 would not have these issues on YouTube. Big Sur is a big update and its a major undertaking to recompile a complex OS for ARM. I'm sure it will be fixed in due time, still doesn't make it any less annoying. It all seems a bit rushed, along with the issues with reinstalling the OS, which caused bricked systems. I posted the video since some users wanted to see it.
A small note. I actually use my iPad Pro more than I use my M1 Mac. It has no such issues with browsing
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Safari scrolling on my M1 MBA is fast - zero complaints.
As an aside, I'm super stoked with my MBA. Zero complaints. And the SSD is super fast with Black Magic write times of 3,700+ MB/s and read times of 2,700+ MB/s. Battery life is crazy long, too.
As an aside, I'm super stoked with my MBA. Zero complaints. And the SSD is super fast with Black Magic write times of 3,700+ MB/s and read times of 2,700+ MB/s. Battery life is crazy long, too.
Even I see on my MBA and this is the only site where I have noticed this. I feel its a problem in youtube rather than M1 MBA.
Just a general note: One ‘sees’ something as an issue more, others - less, or some specific issue is more important for somebody, while other issue - for someone else. Margins of what is acceptable or what can be called as ‘issue’ are very different for different users, and that is totally ok.
P.S. I do not say that different (M1) machines cannot act differently as well. The technology is very new, and certainly thee will be updates.
P.S. I do not say that different (M1) machines cannot act differently as well. The technology is very new, and certainly thee will be updates.
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