2012 3.2 Quad w/ Gtx 680 Gaming, Upgrade?

[RoastingPig]

im wondering if this configuration should be handling 1440p gaming no sweat, im currently running this but im not getting optimal performance as i do in my 12 core machine with just a 670. in bioshock infinite on ultra everything i experience lots of micro stuttering and screen tearing. As well in battlefield 3 i experience lots of dips in the frame rate. now the question is would a 3.3 hex upgrade really improve gaming? i've done this upgrade for a friend before but he's into adobe suite programs and uses his gtx 570.

 

[Macman45]

I have the 2GB 680M in my 2012 27" iMac, and have no issues with tearing or slow performance at all. I play Bioshock too so it's a valid comparison...do you have the 2GB card or the 1...That could be the difference here.

We also have a Mac Pro 5.1 Hex with a 1GB ATI 5770 in it, and of course the imac kicks it to pieces in games...we are shortly upgrading the card in the MP though, so with 32GB of RAM in both things will get interesting. In theory, most games should run better with a decent card in the Pro...looking for a 3GB Nvidia that's pre-flashed for OSX, but they don't come cheap.

MP is bootcamped but my Fiancee who is the real gamer in the house finds the current card okay if you turn the detail and FSAA down a little.

If you do have the 2GB 680M with adequate RAM then I'd get Apple to take a look...mine is smooth as silk, and the only difference is that I have the 3.4GHZ CPU which shouldn't really make a big difference.

 

[RoastingPig]

I have the 2GB 680M in my 2012 27" iMac, and have no issues with tearing or slow performance at all. I play Bioshock too so it's a valid comparison...do you have the 2GB card or the 1...That could be the difference here.

We also have a Mac Pro 5.1 Hex with a 1GB ATI 5770 in it, and of course the imac kicks it to pieces in games...we are shortly upgrading the card in the MP though, so with 32GB of RAM in both things will get interesting. In theory, most games should run better with a decent card in the Pro...looking for a 3GB Nvidia that's pre-flashed for OSX, but they don't come cheap.

MP is bootcamped but my Fiancee who is the real gamer in the house finds the current card okay if you turn the detail and FSAA down a little.

If you do have the 2GB 680M with adequate RAM then I'd get Apple to take a look...mine is smooth as silk, and the only difference is that I have the 3.4GHZ CPU which shouldn't really make a big difference.

Difference is you have 3770k ivy bridge which is way newer tech than this old stinking Xeon and prolly way better optimized for gaming..I think the w3680 is the 980x which allot of cats had in there rigs not too long ago

 

[Macman45]

Difference is you have 3770k ivy bridge which is way newer tech than this old stinking Xeon and prolly way better optimized for gaming..I think the w3680 is the 980x which allot of cats had in there rigs not too long ago

Ahh...I see. I guess it's time for an upgrade then. I've been looking around for a decent card for the MP...Looks like the best cards are going to cost around the £300-400 mark. Going to have to wait a while for that one...I've considered flashing one myself...done it before, but theres always a chance you wind up with a bricked card...I'd rather get one that's Mac ready.

 

[DanielCoffey]

Which of the machines in your sig are you using for the games?

The 3.2 quad needs the better card if you are using that one and going to a 3.33 hex won't make much difference if the game is not written to take advantage of more cores. The 3.46 hex is too expensive for the performance improvement.

If you are gaming on the 2.66 2x6-core than yes, higher clock speed would help but again the game may not take advantage of more than about 4 cores. The 670 should be fine in that machine.

How much RAM have you got in each machine?

 

[N19h7m4r3]

Difference is you have 3770k ivy bridge which is way newer tech than this old stinking Xeon and prolly way better optimized for gaming..I think the w3680 is the 980x which allot of cats had in there rigs not too long ago

The W3680 is still a very good CPU, even today.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/551?vs=142

Unless you're playing at a low resolution( which is more CPU intensive), or a game that uses the GPU more;you won't notice much at resolutions over 1920x1080.

This is one of the few reviews to include the i7 980x in reviews with the latest tech. It holds up extremely well at HD resolutions and higher. We're talking about 1-3 fps differences.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/core_i7_4960x_processor_review,11.html
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/core_i7_4960x_processor_review,15.html

To quote their handbrake scores

The Gulftown Core i7 980X pushed out 28 FPS in 2008.
The Sandy Bridge-E based Core i7 3960X pushed 30 20 2011.
Now the Ivy Bridge-E Core i7 4960X manages 33 transcoded frames per second in 2013.

Also speaking of a GPU upgrade, I put an old EVGA GTX660 in my mac pro, and sadly the NVIDIA drivers have been giving me graphics kernel crashes in video editing.

I'm currently looking at the Mac 7950, which is great for OpenCL in FCP X, although the GTX 680 offers the best overall performance in everything except OpenCL.

EDIT:. Also not sure what the State of the 7950 is now for performance. Apparently it's bad performance in early reviews was down to driver issues. There's also the fact that Apple is now switching to AMD GPU's in the future MP, so performance and drivers might get better.

 

[RoastingPig]

Which of the machines in your sig are you using for the games?

The 3.2 quad needs the better card if you are using that one and going to a 3.33 hex won't make much difference if the game is not written to take advantage of more cores. The 3.46 hex is too expensive for the performance improvement.

If you are gaming on the 2.66 2x6-core than yes, higher clock speed would help but again the game may not take advantage of more than about 4 cores. The 670 should be fine in that machine.

How much RAM have you got in each machine?

The 3.2 quad is using the gtx 680..its not the card because it performs beautifully in adobe programs ..it must be some driver issue or some nvidia control panel setting

 

[costabunny]

I would suggest its a driver/DirectX issue.

That card can easily handle what you are throwing at it. Unless there is some other intensive app running in the background?

I guess it 'could' be a card power issue - I am going to assume nothing and ask if you have both power cables firmly attached to the card? Otherwise a cooling issue could also result in such problems, if the fan isn't spinning up on the card fully or a bad heatsink mating.

You could run GPUZ on the sensors tab and have it save to log file in the background, run the game until you see issues, and then check the history of GPUZ for temps, fanspeeds and voltages etc to see if anything looks out of place?

 

[RoastingPig]

Everything is hooked up and fans are acting accordingly to the task be used for. I feel like every time I get a new game a different games setting get messed with..steam for some reason installs a new copy of directx for first time installations on new games

 

[N19h7m4r3]

..steam for some reason installs a new copy of directx for first time installations on new games

That's because some games use different parts of the DX feature set, and those needs to be installed for it.