Thanks for the suggestions, this all sounds plausible, however: - I routinely clean, or at least de-dust everything accessible after removing back cover - th

Thanks for the suggestions, this all sounds plausible, however: - I routinely clean, or at least de-dust everything accessible after removing back cover - the lag is there always, even right after resuming the mac, before any thermal throttling should be kicking in. I also don't observe throttling with `pmset -g thermlog` - I'm not using an external monitor At this point the most likely culprit is the battery, mine is at 789 cycles although the condition is reported as "normal". I wish it were possible to confirm whether battery is an issue before spending couple hundred $ on replacement though