Sluggish Safari on new MBP 16

[SirJohn871]

So was this issue resolved for you all on the iGPU with the latest update? A search brought me here, I don't have a MBP but a 2020 Air and I get frame drop scrolling, not terrible but noticeable. This is in the system and safari. I'm on 10.15.5. Thanks.

Brand new i7 MBP 13 here. Really annoyed with frame drops I’m seeing with mission control mainly but also with scrolling. Had the same problem on i7 MBA 2020. Both brand new machines have the problem on 10.15.4, 10.15.5 and 10.15.6 beta even before installing third party software. Anyone with a 16 inch seeing this?

I’ve done the usual things to troubleshoot (PRAM, SMC, fresh install). Must be software. Interesting because the GPU doesn’t spike at all - just hovers around 25% utilization. My wife uses a 2015 MBA on high sierra with no mission control frame drops at all.

Hopefully Big Sur solves all of our issues. I feel for all the 16 inch users. You are not alone, as 13 inch users are seeing a lot of issues too.

No reason UI animations should ever fall below 60 FPS. My 2017 iPad Pro can do 120hz without a problem ?

 

[Supra Mac]

Brand new i7 MBP 13 here. Really annoyed with frame drops I’m seeing with mission control mainly but also with scrolling. Had the same problem on i7 MBA 2020. Both brand new machines have the problem on 10.15.4, 10.15.5 and 10.15.6 beta even before installing third party software. Anyone with a 16 inch seeing this?

I’ve done the usual things to troubleshoot (PRAM, SMC, fresh install). Must be software. Interesting because the GPU doesn’t spike at all - just hovers around 25% utilization. My wife uses a 2015 MBA on high sierra with no mission control frame drops at all.

Hopefully Big Sur solves all of our issues. I feel for all the 16 inch users. You are not alone, as 13 inch users are seeing a lot of issues too.

No reason UI animations should ever fall below 60 FPS. My 2017 iPad Pro can do 120hz without a problem ?

@SirJohn871 Thanks for the reply.

I found for me using secondary click on the track pad makes it much worse, so I have that unchecked.

My GPU utilization is in the 30s as well. Cutting back on the track pad gustures actually helped me a lot but still getting frame drops (micro stutters) like 10% of the time.

What is interesting is I can put two fingers on the track pad and move it up and down fast or slow and not get frame drop, its when I flick slow or fast is when it stutters.

Can anyone test this gesture, with secondary click on and off and see how it scrolls in Safari, maybe the track pad input is interfering.

 

[SirJohn871]

@SirJohn871 Thanks for the reply.

I found for me using secondary click on the track pad makes it much worse, so I have that unchecked.

My GPU utilization is in the 30s as well. Cutting back on the track pad gustures actually helped me a lot but still getting frame drops (micro stutters) like 10% of the time.

What is interesting is I can put two fingers on the track pad and move it up and down fast or slow and not get frame drop, its when I flick slow or fast is when it stutters.

Can anyone test this gesture, with secondary click on and off and see how it scrolls in Safari, maybe the track pad input is interfering.

I just looked into this on my MBP I can confirm that I also have this issue. I see the frame drops in safari when scrolling and I can really elicit the stuttering when scrolling a word document with photos in it. Interestingly, it's worst during the "deceleration" portion of the animation after I flick. I can also confirm that the stuttering appears to be improved when I disable two finger secondary click on the trackpad. Not 100%, but it's not offensive.

Most interestingly, this stuttering is similar to what I am seeing with mission control when I "flick" to launch it. Perhaps it's all related.

I really hope they fix this!

 

[michaelmm4]

Guys, this is what I am experiencing https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/animation-lag-mbp-16.2245549/

Fullscreen apps have some sort of animation lag when sliding.

 

[northernlight]

So, the trick appears to be turning off the Automatic Graphics Switching in the Energy Settings. So far so good.

Update: there's significant lagging in videos, scrolling and typed text when 2 users are logged into the machine. (Catalina 10.15.6). Bewildered.

 

[meteoreos]

I have the 13” 2020 (i5) and it’s exhibiting similar issues as those posted above. Safari, for example, doesn’t exactly stutter when scrolling, it just doesn’t feel as smooth as it should. I’ve noticed that scrolling down is generally fine, but these ‘micro stutters’ seem to appear when scrolling up a page. My 15” MBP 2015 never experienced this. Furthermore, in Microsoft Word, zooming in and out is slightly laggy. I’ve done a clean install of Catalina but these issues still remain, which may suggest a hardware problem? Interestingly, 4K video and video in general have no issues, smooth as butter.

Does anybody have an idea as to what could be causing this? Also, is there an app I could download to check if there are indeed frame rate drops in Safari etc?

 

[Supra Mac]

I have the 13” 2020 (i5) and it’s exhibiting similar issues as those posted above. Safari, for example, doesn’t exactly stutter when scrolling, it just doesn’t feel as smooth as it should. I’ve noticed that scrolling down is generally fine, but these ‘micro stutters’ seem to appear when scrolling up a page. My 15” MBP 2015 never experienced this. Furthermore, in Microsoft Word, zooming in and out is slightly laggy. I’ve done a clean install of Catalina but these issues still remain, which may suggest a hardware problem? Interestingly, 4K video and video in general have no issues, smooth as butter.

Does anybody have an idea as to what could be causing this? Also, is there an app I could download to check if there are indeed frame rate drops in Safari etc?

@meteoreos

For track pad settings, are you using "tap to click" and "secondary click"?

If I use tap to click and secondary click on two finger then I get bad frame drops when scrolling in Safari. I do like tap to click so I can use it but do not use two finger secondary click, I just click bottom right hand corner.

Test those out and see if it helps. Way better here but still get the micro stutters but way less.

Also you can go into accessibility>pointer control>trackpad options...

You can get rid of the frame drops all together if you scroll without inertia, but I don't like that so I found if you slow your scrolling speed it helps. I am on the 3rd from the slowest.

Hope this helps. Let me know.

 

[meteoreos]

@meteoreos

For track pad settings, are you using "tap to click" and "secondary click"?

If I use tap to click and secondary click on two finger then I get bad frame drops when scrolling in Safari. I do like tap to click so I can use it but do not use two finger secondary click, I just click bottom right hand corner.

Test those out and see if it helps. Way better here but still get the micro stutters but way less.

Also you can go into accessibility>pointer control>trackpad options...

You can get rid of the frame drops all together if you scroll without inertia, but I don't like that so I found if you slow your scrolling speed it helps. I am on the 3rd from the slowest.

Hope this helps. Let me know.

I’ve tried all of your recommendations and the issue remains. Even the volume slider on the menu bar is laggy for me. I’ve got an appointment at the Apple store tomorrow and I’ll probably just have it exchanged.

Edit: all the MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs exhibited the same issue at the Apple Store. So it’s 100% software related, possibly Intel’s drivers

 

[meteoreos]

Shameless bump, but I’m wondering if Big Sur fixes these issues since they’re probably software related.

 

[MacMan988]

I think I have the same issue. I see a stutter when scrolling websites like YouTube or reddit.
I noticed similar stutter in the animation when switching between desktops.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Shameless bump, but I’m wondering if Big Sur fixes these issues since they’re probably software related.

I'm having lags on a 2019 16-inch MBP. And I don't think it's graphics based. I entered two numbers in the Calculator app, and it took many seconds for the answer to pop up. It's also plugged in nearly all the time so I would think that 'graphics switching' wouldn't be an issue. Right?

It's just weird to have this system, with so much power, appearing to stumble like a drunk after a bender... 'Uh, 2 + 2 is... Uhh... It's uh... Hold on, I got this... It's... It's... Oh, it's 4!'...

 

[MacBookGamer]

I'm having lags on a 2019 16-inch MBP. And I don't think it's graphics based. I entered two numbers in the Calculator app, and it took many seconds for the answer to pop up. It's also plugged in nearly all the time so I would think that 'graphics switching' wouldn't be an issue. Right?

It's just weird to have this system, with so much power, appearing to stumble like a drunk after a bender... 'Uh, 2 + 2 is... Uhh... It's uh... Hold on, I got this... It's... It's... Oh, it's 4!'...

I don't have this issue on my M1 MacBook Pro but did on Intel models. Something must be up with them.

 

[Kung gu]

I'm having lags on a 2019 16-inch MBP. And I don't think it's graphics based. I entered two numbers in the Calculator app, and it took many seconds for the answer to pop up. It's also plugged in nearly all the time so I would think that 'graphics switching' wouldn't be an issue. Right?

It's just weird to have this system, with so much power, appearing to stumble like a drunk after a bender... 'Uh, 2 + 2 is... Uhh... It's uh... Hold on, I got this... It's... It's... Oh, it's 4!'...

The recent MB intel models have bad graphic drivers, even the AMD ones are bad and are not optimised.

The only Macs to not have slow or buggy UI are the M1 Macs. Since Apple optimises them very well.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

The recent MB intel models have bad graphic drivers, even the AMD ones are bad and are not optimised.

The only Macs to not have slow or buggy UI are the M1 Macs. Since Apple optimises them very well.

I never had this issue with my old faulty keyboard MBP. I just had issues with that damned keyboard.