My SR MBP runs GPU-reliant apps and Quartz Extreme effects like crap

[Jickel]

My 2.2GHz MBP has serious issues with Quartz Extreme effects and apps such as Aperture in iDVD.

Exposé often stutters unless I activate it repeatedly in quick succession.

Aperture (which is known to be GPU-reliant) crashes constantly (at least once every working session while applying image adjustments), beachballs a lot, and is extremely sluggish in applying changes after a crop has been done.

The DVD menu previews in iDVD 6, which are dynamically generated, lag the first couple of seconds.

Finally, dock animations, such as jumping icons, also stutter.

The last drop which made me post this was seeing a Mac Mini display the RSS screensaver silky smooth on a huge LCD-display, while my MBP stutters when the text rotates by.

Alright, at this moment I cannot recreate the RSS stuttering, but I still find all this very odd, as it's nothing I've experienced while trying out other, older generation Macs in stores. Is all this just due to Apple still not having optimized the 8600GT-drivers? A friend of mine actually went with Lightroom instead of Aperture just because of it's appalling performance on SR-based MBPs.

 

[pchedraoui]

Me too!!!

Just read this and i am having the same issue as well. When i go to dashboard it lags and when i use expos'e it lags. both lag until i do it repetitive and then they glide like they should. i was searching google and someone quoted that power is one of the problems. i did a test and took out the power cord and set the power mode to better enery savings and they lagged alot. then i set it to normal and they lagged like they are now, then i set it to better performance and there has been no lag at all.

Hope that solves yor problem. if it happens again im going to take it back to the apple store for a new logic board as some other guys did and the lagging disappeared.

i did a really hard test which i think a mac pro cant even handle and launched itunes, mail, firefox, messenger, photo booth, dictionary, iphoto, imovie, chess, garageband, eyetv, ical, quicktime, limewire and grab and when i done expos'e, it lagged alot... lol

 

[bplein]

Something is definitely wrong, you should start debugging it or take it to the Apple Store if you have one nearby.

I have a 2.2GHz MBP, formerly with 2GB RAM (now with 4) and never had any such problems.

My guess is that you are actually swapping like crazy. Fire up Activity Monitor and see what your memory usage is like. If it's high, and you are swapping, find out what is causing it.

 

[TheStu]

That really is the only explanation that I could come up with as well. My Core Duo MacBook (GMA950 graphics) handles all those things just fine (except maybe Aperture) so I am think you have something else going on.

 

[Jickel]

That's an interesting suggestion, I'll check out that activity monitor more in the future. I suspect it isn't a hardware issue, as the computer performs wonderfully in Windows (I've run a lot of different benchmarks and games).

 

[ScottDrummer]

if your on battery (and maybe on charge too) your gpu is clocked down when not being utilised fully. hence after one open of expose the gpu is clocked up and runs smooth again, saves power.