Hi everyone,
I'm running macOS 26 on my Lenovo Legion 5i using OpenCore, 1401, and NullMoth. I'm experiencing noticeably worse performance than on Windows 11, not just in benchmarks but also during basic everyday tasks.
The main issue: macOS feels sluggish despite my hardware. Opening System Settings for the first time can take several seconds, settings icons and sections sometimes load slowly, and opening Terminal can briefly trigger the spinning rainbow cursor. The overall UI responsiveness feels far below what I would expect from an i9-14900HX.
Audio and video stuttering have already been resolved after switching browsers and updating macOS and the drivers. However, the general UI sluggishness and low CPU benchmark scores remain.
System specifications
Component| Details
Laptop| Lenovo Legion 5i 16IRX9 Gen 9
CPU| Intel Core i9-14900HX
GPU| NVIDIA 4060 Laptop, 8GB VRAM
RAM| 32GB DDR5 5600MHz
Storage| 1TB NVMe SSD
macOS| macOS 26.7.1 (Build 25G241)
Bootloader/setup| OpenCore + 1401 / NullMoth
NVIDIA driver| NullMoth 2.6.2
CPU benchmark comparison — Geekbench 7
Results from the same laptop running Windows 11 and macOS:
Test| Windows 11 | macOS 26
Single-Core| 2,509 | 1,145
Multi-Core| 19,330 | 9,915
These are substantial differences, and they seem consistent with the sluggish experience I'm getting in macOS.
GPU benchmark comparison — Geekbench
OS | GPU | Graphics API | Score
Windows 11 | 4060 Laptop | Vulkan | 94,108
macOS 26 | 4060 Laptop| Metal | 6,830
Note: These GPU scores use different graphics APIs, so they aren't directly comparable. I'm including them as reference data, not claiming a specific percentage of GPU performance loss.
The NVIDIA driver is installed and its kexts appear to be loaded. Geekbench detects the 4060 and reports Metal 3 support.
What I've checked so far
- "machdep.cpu.brand_string" reports Intel Core i9-14900HX.
- "machdep.cpu.core_count" and "machdep.cpu.thread_count" both report 32.
- "machdep.xcpm.mode" returns "1".
- "pmset -g therm" reports "CPU_Speed_Limit = 100" and "CPU_Available_CPUs = 32".
- "CpuTopologyRebuild.kext" is enabled.
- "ProvideCurrentCpuInfo = True".
- "ctrsmt=full" is present in my boot arguments.
- "X86PlatformPlugin" appears to be active.
- An idle "top" sample showed approximately 94% CPU idle, around 20GB RAM used, 12GB unused, and no swap activity.
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!