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Why is Safari such a heavy beast on my 12-core Mac Pro?

PowerMac G4 MDD said:
The issues you are having may be related to your boot disk. Do you use an HDD as your boot disk, or are you using an SSD? Things shouldn't be terrible, with an HDD, but an SSD is way better.
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SSD's throughout. M2 NVME SSD for boot drive, and a couple of Samsung Evo SSD's for data, etc.
 
h9826790 said:
System preferences -> iCloud -> deselect Keychain.
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Thanks, I didn't know about that. I made that change and my browser bar URL autocomplete is back to being snappy again. Keychain access is still a bit on the pokey side though. It's improved enough that I no longer want to scream.

I had similar issues the last time I upgraded to a new MBP. Keychain related lookups were really slow for a while and eventually after some software updates, it cleared up.
 
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Zenithal said:
Ah. Mr. Neiman Marcus! So good to see you again.

From the sounds of it, you may have to disable hardware acceleration in Safari. Older GPUs can wreck havoc with modernized systems. They're not just a bottleneck in games anymore. Certain extensions can also slow down your browser. Try Chrome x64 and see how it behaves. Your GPU's nVidia software should also come with a power mode if it's anything like the Windows configurator.
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xD Hi again.

On a clean user, Safari is better in general - and the Tech Preview is even better. Chrome is better than my normal Safari on my crowded user account; but it's not better on the clean user account. I'm gonna start with just wiping my whole user and installing from scratch (then doing a MANUAL transferring of files only), over the summer.
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h9826790 said:
Possible iCloud issue. Did you try to use keychain only, but not iCloud Keychain?
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I personally made sure that it was all off, and it is.
 
So, I just used a 13" MacBook Air (whenever those were last updated - 1.6 GHz i5 and 4GB RAM, or something), and the lame 21.5-inch, low-end iMac...

and, both machines could load up Safari quickly and without any of that address bar lag I've had. (The iMac has a mechanical HDD, BTW.) It even felt a tad faster than it does when I run that clean user that I made.
 
PowerMac G4 MDD said:
both machines could load up Safari quickly and without any of that address bar lag I've had.
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Indeed, I'm still having lag even after turning iCloud off. It's better, but my 2016 is still slower than the 2012 it replaced in this and other areas of basic navigation.

I assume it's a software bug and hope its fixed real soon.
 
I went back - again - to that clean user that I made on the side, and both Safaris (normal and Tech Preview) are SO much faster and smoother in comparison to how they are on my main user.

I definitely need to wipe this user; and perhaps I should start keeping all my extra-bulky files off-site, on an HDD. My main user is so bogged down. Though, I believe it's mostly because I've ported this user all the way from Mountain Lion, on a 1,1 Mac Pro. Not 100% sure (because I do this a lot), but I believe that I have not made a new installation since then. Everything has been an OS upgrade.

Tech Preview, BTW, is always faster. It opens quickly, there's no lag at the address bar, and things load quickly and smoothly. Can't wait until I have the time to wipe and start anew, bringing over only basic things (manually), like my applications and files.

Additionally, since this is a clean user, applications (esp. Finder) are more snappy, upon their opening. If I ever get a GTX 980, this will definitely be even smoother and snappier! Can't wait.
 
PowerMac G4 MDD said:
Hi,

So, I have noticed that Safari has gotten a great deal heavier in recent years. What stood out to me the most, though, is how exceptionally poorly it performs on my Mac Pro - especially after I upgraded it to a '5,1' and put in dual hex-core CPUs. I have 32GB of RAM and a PCIe-SSD as my boot volume, so I definitely don't need to worry about a browser taking up too much RAM or being slow to function in itself.

Anyway, the moment I open up Safari and try to type into the URL bar, it gives me a moment of typing lag, and it doesn't render pages as quickly as it should. I'm on 90/90 Ethernet w/ 1ms ping. Obviously not gigabit, but still fast. I take this as a performance issue with Safari - not with my computer or internet. Other than that lag, I also have typing and scrolling lag (very bad) on sites such as Facebook; and what's odd is that my Core 2 Duo 2009 MacBook Pro seems to do better on sites like that.

So, I've come to my own conclusion that Safari is very GPU-heavy, but that is NOT to say that I believe one needs a good GPU in their system. I think it has to do with the GPU being genuine and receiving stock Apple drivers. My own GPU in my 2009 Mac Pro is a non-flashed GTX 660, which performs somewhat dismally under the heavy stress of El Capitan, Apple's more recent bloated operating system. My 660 is fine under Windows (of course), and browsing in Windows is extremely fast and zippy. I'm not just talking about loading times - I am referring to the browser itself and how it responds.

Is the modern Safari just way too GPU-depedent?
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Frankly, it's not very good. Open Activity monitor and prepare to be surprised by how many other horror-shows you're running.
 
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