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I've go two MacBooks:

  1. MacBook Air, 11-inch, 2013, running 10.11.6, 8GB RAM, 1.7 GHz Intel Core i7, integrated graphics
  2. MacBook Pro, 15-inch, 2018, running 10.13.6, 32GB RAM, 2.9 GHz Intel Core i9, Intel UHD Graphics 360 and Radeon Pro 560X

I have the same problem for both MacBooks but under slightly different circumstances: After my Mac is used for a while, the animations (eg. when opening a window or clicking an icon or scrolling a terminal window) on my macOS GUI become jerky and not smooth, and it takes a while to respond to a click or key press. This happens OS-wide, and not specific to any app.

This problem has been plaguing my Macs for a long time.

Why is this so and how can I improve this? I hope to get an answer from a computer architecture / "under-the-hood" perspective eg. Has it got to do with RAM, disk writes, GPU.

Some notes:

  1. My Mac usually starts off pretty fast. It's only after a while then it slows down

  2. When my Mac is slow, and I check the Activity Monitor, there are cases where I get something like the following:

    • 9.64 of 32GB memory in use, 0 swap used
    • 94% CPU idle
    • Disk Utility check - no issue

    And it's still slow.

  3. When I restart my Mac, the problem usually disappears, but the problem recurs after a while after I use the Mac.

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  • Run "First Aid" in disk utility, see if what yields results.
    – Kevin Grabher
    Dec 7, 2018 at 19:08
  • Also, give us some more data on your device. Which device, OS X version, wether problems are application specific, ...
    – Kevin Grabher
    Dec 7, 2018 at 19:09
  • Run etrecheck, a macOS diagnostic tool. Download etrecheck from etrecheck.com The first five runs are free. Using EtreCheck by etresoft, the author discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-11591
    – historystamp
    Dec 7, 2018 at 19:27
  • You might try starting up in "Safe Mode" to see whether that has any effect: support.apple.com/kb/ph25617?locale=en_US
    – jefe2000
    Dec 7, 2018 at 21:38
  • The scenario you describe is not normal behavior for a Mac - and as such it is peculiar that you have the same experience with two Macs. Did you by any change copy your user account from one to the other during installation? (or using the Migration Assistant later) ... Or do you have any special software on both?
    – jksoegaard
    Dec 8, 2018 at 11:38

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