Slow (laggy) Spaces after some usage

[Jakerno]

Recently upgraded to Mountain Lion and have noticed that switching between spaces (I usually use the four-finger swipe gesture) becomes quite laggy after some time of usage. I've found out that if I log out and log in again, the responsiveness becomes smooth again. But after I'd say a good 3 to 4 hours, really depends since it feels like the lag gradually 'builds up' over time, the animation becomes choppy.

Anybody have an idea of why this might be happening, or why a log out/log in would "refresh" the animation's smoothness?

I'm on an Early 2008 Macbook Pro with 4GB of ram, ML 10.8.3

 

[Hazza42]

I think I have a solution

Hi,
I've had this issue for ages with my new slim iMac which, like your Macbook, should be able to handle the animation for switching spaces without struggling.

After years of having this issue with my current Macbook and even my previous 2007 iMac I've finally found a very simple solution:

Delete your spaces. I used to have at least 8 spaces running in Mission Control that I never used, each with different background images that changed every 15 minutes to another image from my photo library. Once I deleted all but 5 spaces from Mission Control everything turned smooth as silk again. Deleting them is as easy as hovering over a 'Desktop' in mission control and clicking the little X.

Let me know if this solves your problem!

 

[pastrychef]

Try launching Activity Monitor from your Utilities folder to see how much memory you are using. If you have lots of page outs, it can cause lagging in many situations.

 

[crjackson2134]

I don't know how many spaces we're talking here, or what oner apps have been opened but it sounds like your using more memory that the 4GB can handle.

Install the free memory cleaner from the App Store and run that when it starts getting sloe. I have double the memory you have and I have to do this often. Close l unnecessary apps and run the cleaner.