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Forum Update on Monday, May 27th 2025

Rendering performance problems on iMac with Retina 5K

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qgraphicsviewmacretinaperformancerendering
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  • J jcelerier

    @mrjj @ShikiSuen there is a real performance problem not with QWidgets, but with QWidgets's macOS implementation. I'm dual booting macOS/Linux on a retina macbook, and all the QWidgets applications I use, QtCreator, Clementine, Wireshark, (and the ones I develop) are much more fluid and smooth under Linux than MacOS even though it's the same hardware and screen resolution.

    mrjjM Offline
    mrjjM Offline
    mrjj
    Lifetime Qt Champion
    wrote on last edited by
    #21

    @jcelerier
    What resolution was it ?

    J 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • mrjjM mrjj

      @jcelerier
      What resolution was it ?

      J Offline
      J Offline
      jcelerier
      wrote on last edited by
      #22

      @mrjj (sorry for the long response, didn't get any mail notification)

      I'm on 2880*1800 resolution.

      1 Reply Last reply
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      • J Offline
        J Offline
        jcelerier
        wrote on last edited by jcelerier
        #23

        If anyone's interested I did a pass through Xcode's performance tools and put the trace here :

        https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-61384?focusedCommentId=361794&page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels%3Acomment-tabpanel#comment-361794

        as you can see, roughly 25% of the time is spent in CGContextDrawImage. This was with QtCreator, but I have similar findings when benchmarking my app.

        SGaistS 1 Reply Last reply
        1
        • mrjjM Offline
          mrjjM Offline
          mrjj
          Lifetime Qt Champion
          wrote on last edited by
          #24

          Super.
          Hopefully a fix comes out of it if possible.

          1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • L Offline
            L Offline
            linoleo
            wrote on last edited by
            #25

            I experience intolerably poor graphics performance on Macs with QtWidgets in the following constellation:

            • Qt 5, any version - Qt 4 on the same hardware is fine.
            • macOS 10.10 and up - 10.9 or older on the same hardware is fine.
            • not limited to retina displays, though obviously worse on them.

            This is becoming a major PITA as it means my cross-platform app remains stuck at Qt 4.8.6 / Quick 1.1 on macOS, vs. Qt 5.6 / Quick 2.3 everywhere else.

            L 1 Reply Last reply
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            • L linoleo

              I experience intolerably poor graphics performance on Macs with QtWidgets in the following constellation:

              • Qt 5, any version - Qt 4 on the same hardware is fine.
              • macOS 10.10 and up - 10.9 or older on the same hardware is fine.
              • not limited to retina displays, though obviously worse on them.

              This is becoming a major PITA as it means my cross-platform app remains stuck at Qt 4.8.6 / Quick 1.1 on macOS, vs. Qt 5.6 / Quick 2.3 everywhere else.

              L Offline
              L Offline
              linoleo
              wrote on last edited by
              #26

              To be precise, by Qt5 widgets being "fine" on macOS 10.9 or older I mean that the lag is "only" ~50ms, not seconds. I suspect (though can't test right now) that adding a GL widget (cf QTBUG-61384) might get me in the same 50ms ballpark on newer versions of macOS, but that's still too much for my software (a strobe tuner, which needs fast rendering).

              @jcelerier Right on, the last Qt version with decent QWidgets rendering performance on macOS was 4.8 with the raster engine. Qt5 widgets have been unusable for real-time graphics on Macs from the start, and it hasn't gotten any better. @ShikiSuen Steinberg has my full sympathies, I know how it feels like.

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              • SGaistS Offline
                SGaistS Offline
                SGaist
                Lifetime Qt Champion
                wrote on last edited by
                #27

                @linoleo Did you check the latest 5.9 or 5.10 ? The fixe for this bug report has been merged for these two branches.

                Interested in AI ? www.idiap.ch
                Please read the Qt Code of Conduct - https://forum.qt.io/topic/113070/qt-code-of-conduct

                J 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • SGaistS SGaist

                  @linoleo Did you check the latest 5.9 or 5.10 ? The fixe for this bug report has been merged for these two branches.

                  J Offline
                  J Offline
                  jpalmer
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #28

                  @SGaist Which bug numbers were those?

                  1 Reply Last reply
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                  • J jcelerier

                    If anyone's interested I did a pass through Xcode's performance tools and put the trace here :

                    https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-61384?focusedCommentId=361794&page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels%3Acomment-tabpanel#comment-361794

                    as you can see, roughly 25% of the time is spent in CGContextDrawImage. This was with QtCreator, but I have similar findings when benchmarking my app.

                    SGaistS Offline
                    SGaistS Offline
                    SGaist
                    Lifetime Qt Champion
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #29

                    @jcelerier said in Rendering performance problems on iMac with Retina 5K:

                    https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-61384?focusedCommentId=361794&page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels%3Acomment-tabpanel#comment-361794
                    .

                    That one.

                    Interested in AI ? www.idiap.ch
                    Please read the Qt Code of Conduct - https://forum.qt.io/topic/113070/qt-code-of-conduct

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    1

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