Big Sur for MBP 16's - iGPU (Intel UHD 630)

[TL24]

How is Big Sur on your MBP 16's? The performance when allowing the OS to pick which GPU (iGPU vs dGPU) is just horrible, there's stuttering everywhere and this shouldn't be the case on a laptop that is this expensive. If you take a look at iStat and use the Sensor to view the Intel GPU frequency you'll notice that the iGPU runs at extremely low frequencies until it needs to ramp up. I think this is what's causing the damn stuttering issues that a lot of users (including myself) have been experiencing. All of this of course goes away if you disable "Automatic graphics switching" in Settings > Energy Saver so that you're always running off of the dGPU (5300m, 5500m or 5600m).

I really don't want to always run off of the dGPU (5600m) in my MBP 16 so I'm really hoping that Apple has tweaked how the iGPU is handling the workload if you enable "Automatic graphics switching".

Oh and I should also point out that I had a Gigabyte Aero 15S XB (4K OLED) with an Intel i7-10875H which uses the same exact Intel UHD 630 gpu and it had zero issues pushing that amazing OLED display at it's native 4K resolution. There was zero lag, zero stuttering and everything was as smooth as butter so I can only assume it's how Apple has decided to throttle the iGPU on our MBP 16's to get as much battery life as possible.

Feedback?

 

[FNH15]

It’s fine for me in general usage - although it’s apparent that the iGPU isn’t up to the task when I have a lot of desktops and windows open - the system stutters a bit at that point. I’ve not noticed the same behavior on Intel Iris systems, so I’d lay the blame more with the 630 UHD than anything else. I’ve also noticed stuttering on Mac mini’s running 4K displays...

 

[Lobwedgephil]

Here is a thread on it.

MBP 16" - How is Big Sur running for you?

So I've been testing out Big Sur every now and then, to see the stability improving. Now we're at Beta 5 and not too far away from it being released(September, unless it's delayed). How's it running on your 16" MBP? Seems to be pretty polished now with a few visual glitches every now and...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[MrGunnyPT]

It’s fine for me in general usage - although it’s apparent that the iGPU isn’t up to the task when I have a lot of desktops and windows open - the system stutters a bit at that point. I’ve not noticed the same behavior on Intel Iris systems, so I’d lay the blame more with the 630 UHD than anything else. I’ve also noticed stuttering on Mac mini’s running 4K displays...

Yeah I suffer the same issue, I rarely use my dGPU unless it's hooked up to the external monitors. But man do I feet tempted to start the dGPU when I'm ding multi tasking

 

[chipsandsalsa]

We're briefly discussing this in the Catalina forum/thread about degradation of iGPU performance which I sadly believe is this same bug/issue. From my brief research its been around for a long time and has something to do with the iGPU not fulling coming out of a sleep mode and staying at a lower performance threshold. Its very annoying and seemingly only a restart fixes it.

 

[FNH15]

We're briefly discussing this in the Catalina forum/thread about degradation of iGPU performance which I sadly believe is this same bug/issue. From my brief research its been around for a long time and has something to do with the iGPU not fulling coming out of a sleep mode and staying at a lower performance threshold. Its very annoying and seemingly only a restart fixes it.

Could also be the inherent limiations of an iGPU - I’ve only noticed slowdowns when RAM is at a premium - which makes sense given that the iGPU shares VRAM with the system. FWIW, Big Sur is much better in graphics performance vs. Catalina.

 

[TL24]

Could also be the inherent limiations of an iGPU - I’ve only noticed slowdowns when RAM is at a premium - which makes sense given that the iGPU shares VRAM with the system. FWIW, Big Sur is much better in graphics performance vs. Catalina.

I've got 64GB of RAM in my MBP 16 with the 5600m GPU as well so hopefully it's better with Big Sur.

Can you elaborate how Big Sur is much better in the GFX department over Catalina?

 

[chipsandsalsa]

Could also be the inherent limiations of an iGPU - I’ve only noticed slowdowns when RAM is at a premium - which makes sense given that the iGPU shares VRAM with the system. FWIW, Big Sur is much better in graphics performance vs. Catalina.

The performance gains are a nice thing to hear about. Its entirely possible it is ram limited, but again the iGPU not fully spinning up to max performance has been tracked with Intel Power Gadget and iStat by various people. Who knows, but its very obnoxious. Luckily a quick restart always fixes it.

 

[FNH15]

I've got 64GB of RAM in my MBP 16 with the 5600m GPU as well so hopefully it's better with Big Sur.

Can you elaborate how Big Sur is much better in the GFX department over Catalina?

I’ll put it this way: there are times where I’ve checked Activity Monitor because I was sure the 560X was being used. It’s that smooth. Normal day-to-day use is fine, and when I’m using more intensive apps I tend to switch to the 560X anyway as I need the extra 3.5GB (I only have 16GB RAM in my 2018 15”).

 

[TL24]

The performance gains are a nice thing to hear about. Its entirely possible it is ram limited, but again the iGPU not fully spinning up to max performance has been tracked with Intel Power Gadget and iStat by various people. Who knows, but its very obnoxious. Luckily a quick restart always fixes it.

Yeah that’s the first thing I noticed when I installed iStats, the iGPU was in such a low power state that I basically ran at 0mhz till it was needed. They need to keep it at around 200mhz at the minimum to make sure there’s no lag.

 

[TL24]

I’ll put it this way: there are times where I’ve checked Activity Monitor because I was sure the 560X was being used. It’s that smooth. Normal day-to-day use is fine, and when I’m using more intensive apps I tend to switch to the 560X anyway as I need the extra 3.5GB (I only have 16GB RAM in my 2018 15”).

I’d love to try Big Sur, I’ll think about it. I’m not using any big apps at the moment where I’m scared it’ll break something so I may give it a shot.