macOS Tahoe Performance Regressions and Typing Delays

Rolled back to Sequoia on the same MacBook and experienced no issues there. Thankfully, I've recorded how stage manager, typing, scrolling and UI animations/navigation plays out in Sequoia (using the same versions of those apps that I was using on 26.0.1) so that I can compare to Tahoe. So I reinstalled Tahoe (again, this is getting exhausting) and the issues began again.

This all points to poor software optimization on Apple's behalf and not necessarily something that's hardware-related. I talked to Apple Support and they told me I shouldn't have to upgrade for another four years as an M1 Max should last me about eight years total. Plus, for the grace of upgrading to M4 Max, I can get similar, if not better performance and compatibility on a prebuilt Windows PC with better specs for around the same price.

I had some other people at the stores check how my MacBook ran and their conclusions corroborated what I mention about responsiveness being sluggish when using stage manager, scrolling in Apple Music, etc.

It's really unfortunate since Tahoe has some amazing features that I can really use, but this is the worst performance I've seen in my lifetime from an Apple product. There's no way I'm spending $7,000 just to use my MacBook comfortably.

Hey!

Thanks for the info. The issue's already been discussed with the development team at Scrivener, who concluded it's an Apple regression introduced in Tahoe. Here's the link for that, which delves into more detail:

https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/scriptwriting-elements-list-delay-on-macos-26-tahoe/150779

As for the latter part, I don't believe it to be an accessibility issue as much as it is an optimization issue. Most of these features I used in Sequoia without a hitch, yet in Tahoe they seem to be struggling (which shouldn't be happening on a machine that cost around $6,000, especially in everyday navigation).

I've tried booting in Safe Mode and even tried creating a separate clean user account to test the issues, which were still present there. I ran First Aid on my MacBook and it said it was fine.

The issue isn't with Reduce Motion turned on, it's when it's turned off (which is by default), in which all animations appear and play out.

Additionally, the predictive text replacement in Safari looks different than the one in Scrivener since here it's a bubble. I'm speaking out of ignorance here, but it appears different. I can attach a video that demonstrates the issue in motion in Scrivener. The fact that when turning off reduce motion all the issues play out leads me to believe the issue fundamentally lies in Apple's animations introduced in Tahoe, which don't match the 120hz as closely as they used to in Sequoia.

It might be because I'm using an M1 Max, but still the animations feel choppy when I have about 12 apps open (which didn't happen on Sequoia). I'll re-direct you to the link I sent Leroydouglas (a bug report has already been filed and reported to the engineers, but I'm wondering what I can do in the meantime).

https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/scriptwriting-elements-list-delay-on-macos-26-tahoe/150779

If you scroll down to the section from September 30th, you'll see the issue isn't with Scrivener itself as they did internal testing and found the issue arises with a new animation mechanic that appears when prompting the auto-complete list that they don't have control to remove (this would be an Apple-side thing). I used the same version of the app (Scrivener 3.5) on Sequoia 15.7, but upon upgrading to Tahoe 26, that's when the issue began. The only variable that has changed is upgrading to Tahoe, which has caused all of the issues.

Can you try testing out scrolling in Apple Music? I just want to make sure all variables point to a machine-specific issue (despite sending system diagnostics saying everything is working perfectly fine, which is confirmed by the First Aid I ran on my MacBook). The scrolling should be buttery smooth and have no jittery choppiness.

It's disappointing that this machine only lasted about 3 years (I bought it from Apple back in '22) because of a poorly optimized software update that doesn't account for a lower denominator (despite the M1 Max being a beast and not a low denominator). I've sent it to a Certified Apple Repair Center, paid around $160 dollars to check it (since AppleCare expired; even if it didn't, it doesn't cover software) and they said everything's in perfectly good condition, both on the hardware side and software side.

Okay it might be machine specific. I think it's time for an upgrade.

I do 8k video editing (Premiere Pro, Final Cut), 3D animation/VFX with Blender, Houdini, Nuke and Maya with some gaming at 4k, but as mentioned above, lots of writing as well as graphic design and 4k photo editing.

Which combination of specs for the M4 chip (either M4 Pro or M4 Max) would excel in these fields?