Why is MATLAB R2012b sluggish and why does the UI hang occassionally?

When I enter the following line at the command prompt,

stem(true(2664,1))

MATLAB becomes unresponsive.

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

With the new interface in R2012b, MATLAB uses more Java Heap Space (graphics components etc.) by default. With the default Java Heap Space the UI may not have enough memory.

As a first step for addressing R2012b sluggishness, please raise the Java Heap Space a fair amount. On my system with 8Gb of RAM running Windows 7x64 Sp1, I have found about 1000MB to be really helpful. Please go to:

Home Tab -> Preferences -> General -> Java Heap Space, and bump it up a bit. Apply the changes and restart MATLAB