Anyone know the details, and nature of the update that has to be done?
I don’t know what is happening specifically with these apps (we’d have to look at their source code on a case by case basis) but to hypothesize:
Since 60hz has been a de facto standard on the Mac for decades I can imagine that a lot of apps may have a hard-coded 60hz timer for updating their window contents. This would completely negate the advantages of a 120hz on things like scrolling smoothness. These apps would need to be updated to not assume 60hz and instead update their window contents when requested to do so by the system. Furthermore, some applications which generate their window contents on demand (based on their internal data structures) may need new algorithms if they are too slow to update at 120hz. I know that many applications (including web browsers) I’ve used over the years can’t even keep up with 60hz updates when scrolling through a complicated document.
I don’t know what is happening specifically with these apps (we’d have to look at their source code on a case by case basis) but to hypothesize:
Since 60hz has been a de facto standard on the Mac for decades I can imagine that a lot of apps may have a hard-coded 60hz timer for updating their window contents. This would completely negate the advantages of a 120hz on things like scrolling smoothness. These apps would need to be updated to not assume 60hz and instead update their window contents when requested to do so by the system. Furthermore, some applications which generate their window contents on demand (based on their internal data structures) may need new algorithms if they are too slow to update at 120hz. I know that many applications (including web browsers) I’ve used over the years can’t even keep up with 60hz updates when scrolling through a complicated document.