FIRST: if you feel the urge to say "get a PC" or "try linux" please don't. This is about apple/mac/macos hardware. suggestions to linux or other things isn't helpful.

I have a macbook pro, 32G ram, lightning fast nvme drive. There is NO REASON to upgrade the hardware.

I've followed the upgrade path to their latest (Tahoe) and they announced this is the last.

But it has become UNBEARABLY slow and painful for some operations. Most notably screen sharing drives it into the ground.

I've tried all sorts of things from os settings to whatever--short of redoing the heat paste on the CPU itself. I even installed Fedora on a generation before mine without the security chip (the first gen touch bar). Fedora was /lightning/ fast. (I even re-installed fresh from Tahoe, no difference).

It is undeniable: Apple has made the newer MacOS run slower on Intel.

I downgraded two steps to Sonoma. And it's back to running in a bearable manner.

I'm absolutely confident Apple will have all sorts of plausible deniability around "we didn't nerf it on purpose" but whether it was with intent or "oooops did that little thing happen?" doesn't matter.

Just for context: prior to upgrading my mac would average around 74°c. If I started zoom it would spike up to 100°c and then start throttling, making everything unusable. But it wasn't just zoom. Some other apps (especially those in the node world) also would be come dog slow over time.

Now that I'm on Sonoma, and what's so frustrating about this situation, is how blatant it is. I started a screenshare in zoom, there was a small spike to the temperature, then it trended DOWN even lower than when I started. Why? No idea. This is entirely circumstantial, but the real key here is that it didn't go UP.

What do I want? Maybe Apple just needs to stop trying to push people to an OS that is nerfed so they'll feel like buying new hardware.

And I'm curious what others think about the whole situation, or your own experiences.

Steps off soapbox.

(Context: MacBook Pro16, 2019, 32G ram, AMD gpu). And again: i've tried all sorts of setting changes from enabling gpu/disabling/etc. The heart of it is the windowing system runs everything dog slow.

TL;DR: if on intel stop at Sonoma, do not go past that.

user:	adamgreen795
created:	June 11, 2026
karma:	0