Resolved Are Intel Apple computers being deliberately slowed?

[Elusi]

I have a 2019 Mac Pro and I’m running Monterey. I’ve noticed FCP get noticeably slower with the recent updates. Safari has also gotten slower.

Apple addressed some of this a few years back when they admitted that they only build OS to take advantage of hardware that is 2 generations old. After that, they do make sure it works for, typically, 5-7 years from release date, but they don’t optimize the OS or software for the older hardware.

Basically, this is slowing stuff down. Apple’s position is that this reduces lines of code thereby making the software for efficient.

I’m not sure I buy that argument but it is their position.

Don't think it makes sense for them to re-build their x86 version of MacOS into utilizing AVX2 in 2022, something Apple Silicon macs gain no benefit from, if that was the case. Seems to me they're still on the motto of trying to make as good products as possible as that will retain customers and win out in the long haul.

 

[trimblet]

That would entail that the FEED is being slowed. I'm talking about on the Apple end that when I simply stop a video it takes ~4 seconds for the input to register.

I'm talking basic functions on the computer that are being slowed by a significant margin. If this is due to malware I downloaded or something, I'd be interested to know how I'd track that. Otherwise I've noticed this on a few other older machines where basic functions seem to take longer now than they did ~5 years ago.

What do you mean by "feed?" What do you by "apple end?" These are not technical terms (in this context).

Browser extensions are a feature of Safari, Chrome, Firefox, etc. which let you run third party software inside the browser. Here's the Apple help page for Safari for macOS.

I can add a data point that I have a 2020 Intel MBA that is functioning just as well today than it was in 2020.

If you want help troubleshooting your specific problem, it would be good to share more specifics about what works and doesn't work and what else you have tried to fix the problem (beyond a restart). Does YouTube work well on Chrome or Firefox? Does google.com work okay anywhere? duckduckgo.com? Macrumors? Is Maps slow? Opening PDFs or photos in Preview? What version of macOS are you running?

There's lots of possible causes for your browser being very slow, including issues with your user configuration (such as extensions, open tabs, cache, bookmarks, etc.), other apps, or even hardware failure in your RAM or SSD. But it's impossible to say with only one data point of YouTube videos being slow to pause

 

[MacProFCP]

Don't think it makes sense for them to re-build their x86 version of MacOS into utilizing AVX2 in 2022, something Apple Silicon macs gain no benefit from, if that was the case. Seems to me they're still on the motto of trying to make as good products as possible as that will retain customers and win out in the long haul.

When selling products, especially expensive products like the Mac Pro, you have an obligation to maintain the business relationship with your customers. This means ensuring that your products work at their best, for the duration of the lifespan.

For business machines, the expected lifespan, should be no shorter than 4-5 years.

If you buy a new computer today, do you expect it to get slower, to the point of being unusable, in two or three years just because they’re new products available? Or, would you expect that computer to work well, for the intended lifespan, regardless of when new products are released?

In any other field, consumer advocacy groups would be up in arms if, say, Tesla did a firmware update that resulted in significant mileage reductions between charges.

 

[SpotOnT]

Like they did with the iOS on their iPhones to 'save battery power'?

You’re misunderstanding that situation.

It had nothing to do with old versions of iOS, but rather old and degraded batteries. If you replaced the battery, you got full performance, regardless of how old your version of iOS was.

And as someone who suffered from the random shut downs, where you couldn’t turn your phone back on, yes, having your performance throttled was much much better.

 

[nathansz]

Don't think it makes sense for them to re-build their x86 version of MacOS into utilizing AVX2 in 2022, something Apple Silicon macs gain no benefit from, if that was the case.

macOS started using avx2 in Ventura

 

[Shirasaki]

Safari is the worst browser out there. Maybe that is the issue.

This I wholeheartedly agree.

 

[canadianreader]

It's a big corporation like any corporation similar in size, money and shareholders come before ethics, product quality, software quality and before users' satisfaction.
I don't know if they're slowing down Intel macs but they already tried to slow down the iPhone without telling customers about it many iPhone 6s users at the time thought the their phone has become slow because of the new iOS upgrade and added features so they bought a new one.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

I don’t think so
Sent from my 2013 Air

 

[canadianreader]

Also if anyone wants to label me a conspiracy theorist please do so.

I had the misfortune of getting a 2008 unibody pro that didn't turn on unless it was physically warm. I then went on to get a secondhand 2011 pro with defective video processor that burned out two years ago. I'm used to being disappointed by Apple but figure it's easier taking the disappointment now and again than trusting a Windows-brand computer.

Yes, I have been burned a few times with Apple in the past and am glad this doesn't appear to be another.

EDIT: I also forgot to mention I got an iBook G4 (2005) with defective display which Apple kindly took care of at their expense.

You're free to theorize if that triggers some here and start acting like gatekeepers it's not your problem usually open minded people show curiosity and ask you questions.

 

[Agincourt]

I don’t think so
Sent from my 2013 Air

I think so, as it's objectively proven that Apple did as such without consent or notification... for their iPhones.

Not that it's bad, but their refusal to notify users of this was objectionable to say the least.

 

[Agincourt]

You're free to theorize if that triggers some here and start acting like gatekeepers it's not your problem usually open minded people show curiosity and ask you questions.

All I'll say is that I actually encountered problems with Apple products in the past and am not making problems for no reason.

My father owned a powerbook G3 upgraded to a G4 and it's working more than 20 years later. So there are outliers to my experience. I'm saying that I've been burned three times before with Apple laptops over last 20 years and am concerned it's happening again.

Thus far it seems this isn't common, so I'm an outlier here. I'm glad for that, I don't want my fear to become reality. I want Apple to produce quality products, because I don't want to switch to a PC.

 

[singularity0993]

I don’t think they are deliberately slowing down Intel, they just have stopped optimizing for them.

 

[redheeler]

Okay I've got an obsolete Intel MacBook Pro (2019) and have recently begun to notice some extreme delays in basic processes. While surfing Safari something as basic as stoping a video on YouTube with a curser click literally takes 4 or five seconds to respond. One would think the input wasn't good, but the video stops and restarts based on how many times one clicks.

I'm not doing any high-end functions, my RAM isn't anywhere near its max of 16 GB, and yet I'm experiencing significant delays in basic inputs... making me wonder whether Apple is deliberately slowing such functions to compel me to buy one of their silicon notebooks. I do understand that Apple will likely stop supporting intel machines sooner than later, but the idea that they would sabotage those who bought their older generation products?!

At this point I can't say I'm really surprised, given Apple's greed. Does anyone else have similar experiences?

I definitely haven’t experienced anything like that on my 2019 MacBook Pro with Ventura.

 

[redheeler]

Also if anyone wants to label me a conspiracy theorist please do so.

I had the misfortune of getting a 2008 unibody pro that didn't turn on unless it was physically warm. I then went on to get a secondhand 2011 pro with defective video processor that burned out two years ago. I'm used to being disappointed by Apple but figure it's easier taking the disappointment now and again than trusting a Windows-brand computer.

Yes, I have been burned a few times with Apple in the past and am glad this doesn't appear to be another.

EDIT: I also forgot to mention I got an iBook G4 (2005) with defective display which Apple kindly took care of at their expense.

You happened to get exactly the two defective MacBook Pro models Apple produced when it comes to GPU issues - 2008 and 2011. That’s extremely unfortunate.

edit: the 2008 was a unibody so it might’ve been the model before that. I recall hearing about GPU problems from that particular year though.

 

[MBAir2010]

both of my M1 mac are faster than the intel ones

simply because that is the reason for the better M series processor!

 

[redheeler]

Intel Apple computers are not being deliberately slowed by apple

I don’t really get why this is your first conclusion

Software is generally optimized to take advantage of newer hardware

Having said that, 2019 iMac isn’t that old. If it’s suddenly slowed significantly maybe there is something else going on

Incidentally I’m running macOS on brand new intel computer and it has never felt snappier. So again, nothing to do with intel

My ‘19 Pro isn’t slow. My only complaints are the battery life not being as good as Apple Silicon and how there are already a lot of incompatible apps.

I speced up this laptop not expecting the transition to ARM to happen so soon so I did get burned by that. But regardless, it’s likely I’ll continue using my x86-based hardware on an Apple or non-Apple OS for a while.

 

[SamRyouji]

That's like reverse culture shock. When you first move to Apple Silicon everything seems to happen instantaneously, but when you move back to older machines previously normal delays seem totally unacceptable now. Human time perception and memory from five years ago aren't reliable anyway. If you're happy, time moves faster.

This. I could attest to this. Been using an M1 MBA since its inception, I found this the hard way a couple of weeks ago I dust off my Intel Core m5 MacBook 12" and playing with it. Funny how I used to regard this little machine fast, but now it feels so slow that it successfully drained my patience to almost zero in mere seconds.
Extremely hilarious, if I might add. 🤣

 

[Chuckeee]

Okay I've got an obsolete Intel MacBook Pro (2019) and have recently begun to notice some extreme delays in basic processes. While surfing Safari something as basic as stoping a video on YouTube with a curser click literally takes 4 or five seconds to respond. One would think the input wasn't good, but the video stops and restarts based on how many times one clicks.

Was the observed slowdown associated with an OS update?

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

I think so, as it's objectively proven that Apple did as such without consent or notification... for their iPhones.

Not that it's bad, but their refusal to notify users of this was objectionable to say the least.

I don’t think so

 

[ipaqrat]

My 2019 runs Sonoma 14.2 just fine. Battery is down. Safari is quick and stable (don't understand Safari hate). Chrome and Firefox, too. Lightroom + Affinity Photo, Designer, Publisher. MS Office. DaVinici Resolve... All as fast as they ever were (which is a matter of managing expectations). No indications that performance is actively suppressed. Similarly, my iPhone X seems as fast as it ever was (again, expectations), despite battery capacity of... 77-ish%? Not sure. I got a battery case to nurse it along until the iPhone 31 which will have that laser camera lens from Paycheck - so I can see myself, from behind, in the future, so I'll know if my Akhal Teke horse makes my butt look fat. You heard it here first.

 

[Tagbert]

Safari is the worst browser out there. Maybe that is the issue.

No, it’s not, but YouTube has repeatedly added things to its site that it says is to prevent ad-skipping but somehow ends up impacting the performance of non-Chrome browsers. There was such an issue reported recently that was slowing down Firefox noticably.

 

[mineralwalker]

Has it occurred to you maybe they’re optimizing the OS to run on silicon hardware and no longer optimizing for Intel beyond maybe a bare minimum?

Any iPhone I’ve had that gets a newer iOS seemed to struggle slightly with new features implemented and Apple is all about integrating hardware and software so of course new features will leverage some aspect of new hardware.
Just my opinion

 

[nathansz]

Has it occurred to you maybe they’re optimizing the OS to run on silicon hardware and no longer optimizing for Intel beyond maybe a bare minimum?

Any iPhone I’ve had that gets a newer iOS seemed to struggle slightly with new features implemented and Apple is all about integrating hardware and software so of course new features will leverage some aspect of new hardware.
Just my opinion

I noticed a pretty decent improvement in performance in Sonoma over Ventura on intel.

now that I'm running on 14 gen intel it's crazy fast

basically same gb and cb scores as m3

I think op has something else going on altogether

 

[Sun Baked]

Norton strikes again, a software conflict.

Or the most likely spotlight indexing every website.

 

[eicca]

I can tell you, at least with YouTube, that my 2018 MacBook Pro 16 running Sonoma does far FAR worse with YouTube than my 2010 MacPro on Mojave.

Said MacBook is a relatively fresh install, my Mac Pro is many years old, and both are using Firefox with uBlock.

In fact my Mac Pro just seems much more smooth and consistent overall. It never lags or stutters. The MacBook Pro lags quite a bit and all I do on it is web-based things with a handful of tabs open.