My Mac Studio system is sluggish and completely crashes

I definitely second the suggestion to use the Etrecheck application

This is a Diagnostic Tool that makes no changes to the computer.

It makes a coherent and readable inventory of both the Hardware and Software used on the computer 

The application is free or paid for added features. 

The Report will Not Reveal Any Personal Information. 

Post back the Full Report - Share Report >> Copy , then  paste  >>>> using the Additional Text Icon  <<<<

See if you can give etrececk full disk access then show us a report…

https://etrecheck.com/en/index.html

Mangoat wrote:

I think that is remnants of when I transferred from another Mac to this Studio. I've never run it on this machine.

Still, it is there, and the report says installed May 15, just a short time ago:

User Login Items:

[Not Loaded] CleanMyMac_5_MAS_HealthMonitor (App Store - installed 2025-05-15)

Modern Login Item

/Applications/CleanMyMac_5_MAS.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/CleanMyMac_5_MAS_HealthMonitor.app

[Not Loaded] CleanMyMac_5_MAS_Menu (App Store - installed 2025-05-15)

Modern Login Item

/Applications/CleanMyMac_5_MAS.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/CleanMyMac

Sorry I seem to late to the game per se

A lot of good observations / suggestion have been put forth from each of my colleagues

I tend to agree with the idea from @ HWTech " If you can reproduce the issue with just a clean install of macOS (no third party apps or restore from a backup), then that will make it easiest to get Apple's attention for a hardware or firmware issue that needs to be repaired or addressed respectively. "

You can do this now on you own or if you should need to have the Apple Technician evaluate the machine

They may insist on doing a wipe and clean installation before they may move forwards with possible Hardware explorations

Spotlight is still indexing the clean OS. Even at the time of the report Splotlight (aka mds) is showing 65% CPU utilization although this should not cause too much impact.

Plus there are multiple crashes for macOS components (coreaudio & lsd). With a clean install, this would seem to indicate a hardware issue of some sort since there shouldn't be any crashes with a clean install. If you have the same issues with all external devices disconnected, then it would indicate the hardware issue is with the computer itself. I would try using just a single display. If possible try connecting the display using HDMI.

I did notice your WD MyBook 1110 1TB external drive is only connected using USB2. That could occur with connecting the drive to a USB2 only port on a dock or hub, or a USB2 only cable such as the USB-C charging cable Apple used with the 2016-2020 Intel laptops, or it can indicate a bad USB controller on the WD MyBook drive.

from EtreCheck report:

panic(cpu 9 caller 0xfffffe002ec1b598): DCP PANIC - IOMFB int_handler_gated: failure: axi_rd_err

DCP is the Display Co-Processor.

IOMFB is the I/O Mobile Frame Buffer

int_handler_gated ...... Interrupt Handler

Unfortunately this Kernel Panic could be caused by just about anything that is using the DCP....could be hardware or software. You are using multiple video related apps such as OBS, Twitch, PrimeVideo, etc.

There are multiple forum threads from 2021 for users of macOS Monterey reported a very similar KernelPanic when watching HDR videos. Supposedly macOS 12.1 resolved the issue with 2021 M-series Macs where they would panic when watching HDR YouTube videos. However, I have seen other threads from as late as 2023 reporting what appears to be the same DCP Kernel Panic as shown here. Unfortunately I have not found any threads where anyone followed up with a final resolution. I guess people never contact Apple about the issue & escalate to the system engineers to get a final resolution to determine if it is a hardware, software, or firmware issue. Or they just never post any updates after getting it resolved.

I would recommend contacting Apple support directly for assistance. You will likely need to have them escalate it so an engineer will actually examine & interpret the Kernel Panic. You can really help by performing a clean install of macOS & testing the laptop thoroughly before installing any third party software & before restoring from a backup. This is the only way to confirm whether it is a hardware or software issue. In fact, if you have access to another Mac running macOS 15.x Sequoia, then it would be best to perform a DFU Firmware Restore since it resets the security enclave chip, system firmware, internal SSD and pushes a clean copy of macOS onto the internal SSD (the current data will be lost, so make sure to have a good backup first). However, if you cannot perform the DFU Firmware Restore, then a clean install of macOS through traditional means is close enough for now.

If you can reproduce the issue with just a clean install of macOS (no third party apps or restore from a backup), then that will make it easiest to get Apple's attention for a hardware or firmware issue that needs to be repaired or addressed respectively.

If you can identify exactly what triggers the Kernel Panic, then that can be useful information for Apple especially if it occurs using Apple's own apps. If it only occurs with a specific third party app, then contact that app's developer to report the issue.

If a clean install with no third party apps works fine, then try installing your third party apps one at a time makeing sure to test them thoroughly before installing the next one. Since this is a video/GPU related issue, I would suggest testing each third party video app first after you test watching videos using Apple's built-in apps first.

Of course you can try uninstalling various apps from your current installation to see if you can locate the troublesome app (assuming it is a software related issue) although this can be a bit tricky since some apps may not uninstall completely.

And as others have already noted, CMM definitely needs to go since it is notorious on this forum for causing all sorts of problems.

Mangoat wrote:

You mentioned OBS, which I deleted back in early 2024. Was that still listed in the report?

It appears to be a camera extension support for OBS & not the full OBS.

I deleted the application CMM from my applications folder. Anything else need to be done with that? I've read it is difficult to remove, but the 3 library folders I've seen people mention to check in, I saw nothing.

Best to run EtreCheck again to see if any trace of it remains.

Ouch. I was afraid of doing anything to wipe my system.

Since you have stuff clinging on from an older system a clean install followed by just migrating the home user folder(s) is a good way to help clean things up especially when going to a whole new architecture. Manually downloading & reinstalling the current versions of third party apps you want & use today is a good option. I always do this when moving to a different architecture such as Intel to M-series Macs, or when I know my older system has a lot of apps installed which I no longer want or need (hold over from my days of using Windows perhaps).

Since the EtreCheck report only references a single Kernel Panic, this could be good news & it is an issue with some third party software. The performance issues can easily be due to some of that third party software as well. You do have some items installed which I am unfamiliar, but I'm also not a macOS software expert. I will need to leave the more detailed software analysis to the other more knowledgeable contributors.

For performance issues, you can also try disconnecting all external devices to see if that makes any difference in performance. External drives can certainly cause problems especially if the drive has a hardware issue. Sometimes two different attached devices can have compatibility issues as well.

You can certainly try uninstalling various apps to see if it helps instead of a clean install. It all depends on how you want to troubleshoot it. Both are valid options. Since you do have 128GB of Free storage space as of the time you ran the first EtreCheck report (that is just barely enough), you could create a new APFS volume and install macOS onto that new volume for some quick testing. It isn't quite as good of a test as a true clean install which involves erasing the disk, but it is close. Just make sure you never get below 20GB of Free storage space (only shown in Disk Utility and the Apple System Profiler, that space can disappear very quickly).....ignore the very misleading "Available" storage value shown everywhere within macOS. In macOS Free is not synonymous with Available.

Mangoat wrote:

I removed the OBS extension from the System Settings. CMM app is also deleted. Hopefully both apps are gone.

The OBS related extension is still there although not loaded at the time of both EtreCheck reports.

from the EtreCheck report:

System Extensions:

[Not Loaded] com.obsproject.obs-studio.mac-camera-extension - version 30.0.0 (Wizards of OBS LLC - installed 2023-11-10)

Application: /Applications/OBS.app - version 30.0.0 (Wizards of OBS LLC - installed 2023-11-10)

Description: This Camera Extension enables virtual camera functionality in OBS Studio.

Since it is shown as a System Extension I'm not sure if it can even be deleted, or if it may required temporarily reducing system security. See if you can delete the following file from "/Library/SystemExtensions" folder:

com.obsproject.obs-studio.mac-camera-extension

today I was too busy out of state to do anything with the computer. When I came home, it apparently had another kernel crash. While out, no game was open, no YT videos playing, but did have 1 Twitch stream open at 160p. Ran another report,

FYI, the EtreCheck report doesn't list any more recent Kernel Panics since the first one on 2025-06-04, but sometimes the system isn't able to save the Kernel Panic log....assuming it was a Kernel Panic this time.

If it was me and I didn't feel like completely erasing the system, I would install macOS into a new APFS volume where I could experiment a bit while keeping my existing macOS boot volume intact so I could still work when needed. It isn't a perfect test, but it could lead you to discovering some important clues & information.

Mangoat wrote:

I do have a few external drives connected through USB hubs, due to the low port numbers on the Mac Studio. If I had the money, I'd cut down on the number of drives I had.

I would get rid of that USB2 hub since it is extremely old and it will severely hamper the performance of any drives connected to it. If you must keep that particular hub, then try to connect slower devices such as mouse & keyboard to it or USB sticks/thumbdrives.....all of which are naturally slow & generally operate at USB1/2 speeds anyway.

When purchasing a USB3 hub, it is best to get one which supports UASP to help with performance of USB3 drives. UASP also prevents slower USB1/2 devices from impacting performance of actual USB3 devices.

That said, my Mac has been running better lately, until just a minute ago. Had another kernel panic crash while once again having a few Twitch streams open + playing Raid Shadow Legends. My usual tasks. Haven't even finished installing all the software from before the wipe.

That Kernel Panic is a great help since it indicates an issue with the Display Co-Processor (aka DCP). Unfortunately there are a lots of different variations of those DCP kernel panics on the forums.

However, I have seen a lot of your specific Kernel Panic as well: "DCP PANIC - IOMFB int_handler_gated: failure: axi_rd_err". IIRC, this was supposedly an Apple software/firmware issue that was supposedly patched a year or two ago (I think at the time people were getting them when watching YouTube videos in HDR), but I have seen another user post one recently as well.

If you find the issue only occurs when running a particular app such as that game (or games), then it may be a software issue (or another macOS or firmware bug). Contacting the app developer would be the best way forward if you are that lucky. Dealing with Apple for Kernel Panics can be difficult since the low level support have no idea how to analyze Kernel Panic logs. @Grant Bennet-Adler in this other thread for the same Kernel Panic as yours reported in 2023 gives some advice for getting assistance from Apple:

DCP PANIC - Apple Community

You've already done well by the DFU Firmware Restore & only having a few third party items installed. This already narrows things down tremendously. If you can narrow it down to a specific app or apps, then it will help. Providing feedback to the app developers is probably the most fruitful since they would have more sway with reporting issues to Apple, or possibly even finding workarounds in their own apps. Or if you do contact Apple, then you may be able to try & skip the low level support since you've already performed all their normal troubleshooting advice (you may still be stuck answering dozens of questions since the low level agents do get stuck in their support scripts).

FYI, here is another similar Kernel Panic from 2024 involving Sequoia (only the first post is relevant since other posts may not have the same Kernel Panic as yours):

https://www.codeweavers.com/support/forums/general/?t=27;msg=310790

Unfortunately I have no idea if your Kernel Panic is due to a hardware issue or software issue. Any posts I find online never have anyone come back with any updates....except several years ago for the YouTube HDR video issue. That does give hope this could be a software related issue again.