jupyterlab unresponsive on new computer

[zpenoyre]

I've just moved to a new laptop (2017 macbook pro from a 2014 model) and installed jupyterlab. To my surprise I've found the performance on the new machine much worse - the notebooks frequently freeze up - most of the time for less than a second or two, but very frequently (a few times a minute, and that's only when I notice it because I'm typing).

It would seem counterintuitive that jupyterlab should perform worse here, so I'm wondering if anyone has any insight into why it might be lagging?

Happy to attach any further information, just let me know what you need :)