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Gaming on the new Mac Pro (Far Cry 4, BF H), drivers, over clocking ...

Stacc said:
Great work agazoo. Its interesting to see how the mac pro improves just by keeping the drivers up to date and removing the thermal constraints. Its great just to see some actual numbers for how the Mac Pro performs with some modern games in windows.

You wouldn't happen to have Star Citizen on hand to really put it to the test?
Click to expand...

Would love to try it out actually. The last space seem i play was Descent 2 probably.

Day Z is on the list too.

The only two games I can play indefinitely really are Fallout 2 and WoW; SC occasionally

Everything else lasts for a week at best for me, than Im getting bored and works piles through the roof ...
 
So anyone else that has a D700 have just as good of luck as agazoo did with their D500?

I've installed the 15.4 Catalyst and crossfire is working in GTA V since it doesn't shutter any more like it did with the bootcamp drivers.
But when I disable ULPS and PowerPlay with MSI afterburner I lose a couple FPS... I think I might be hitting the power supply limit of the MacPro (2013) of only 450 any ideas?
Also I only have 1080p monitor so it's so hard to compare game performance with most people now days. I did find some other benchmarks of D700 running valley at 1080p and is on par with those what is about 64 FPS average min 22 and max 133 at 1920x1080 ultra.

GTA V at 1080p Ultra about every thing and advanced graphics all on with v-sync off, MSAA 2x and post FX at very high I average 40-50 FPS dips down to 20-15 FPS sometimes and in buildings about 100+ using steams FPS counter. I could run the benchmarks again from GTA V

Things I found out on the internet about ATI crossfire with GTA V and I've seen myself anyways too.
Note: v-sync crossfire can cause artifacts whole screen. Why I have that off.
Note: crossfire MSAA on with post FX makes some artifacts at bottom left but isn't to bad so I ignore it.

Just seeing what others with D700 are seeing. I wish I had more time to play and messing around with settings

Specs I have
MacPro 2013
Quad 3.7 GHz
12 GB ram
Windows 8.1 all updates
D700
 
agazoo said:
[/COLOR]

Do you like it?

Waiting for a boxed version to show up in our stores ...
Click to expand...

Looks like a good game. But AMD is being slow with the driver update and crossfire profile. There are issues with crossfire. It is playable but there is flickering and the like.
 
hackintosh5 said:
So anyone else that has a D700 have just as good of luck as agazoo did with their D500?

I've installed the 15.4 Catalyst and crossfire is working in GTA V since it doesn't shutter any more like it did with the bootcamp drivers.
But when I disable ULPS and PowerPlay with MSI afterburner I lose a couple FPS... I think I might be hitting the power supply limit of the MacPro (2013) of only 450 any ideas?
Also I only have 1080p monitor so it's so hard to compare game performance with most people now days. I did find some other benchmarks of D700 running valley at 1080p and is on par with those what is about 64 FPS average min 22 and max 133 at 1920x1080 ultra.

GTA V at 1080p Ultra about every thing and advanced graphics all on with v-sync off, MSAA 2x and post FX at very high I average 40-50 FPS dips down to 20-15 FPS sometimes and in buildings about 100+ using steams FPS counter. I could run the benchmarks again from GTA V

Things I found out on the internet about ATI crossfire with GTA V and I've seen myself anyways too.
Note: v-sync crossfire can cause artifacts whole screen. Why I have that off.
Note: crossfire MSAA on with post FX makes some artifacts at bottom left but isn't to bad so I ignore it.

Just seeing what others with D700 are seeing. I wish I had more time to play and messing around with settings

Specs I have
MacPro 2013
Quad 3.7 GHz
12 GB ram
Windows 8.1 all updates
D700
Click to expand...

I am getting 90.6 average 30.9 min 152.7 max valley benchmark on 1920x1200 on Ultra with clocks 950core/1450memory.

Can you confirm that:

(a)PowerPlay is indeed off ( use GPU-Z or Ati Too;) and frequency is locked to whatever you set it too.
(b)Windows is not in powersave or balance mode.
(c)All CPU cores are enabled always (im using CoreParking tool for that). Intel Extreme Tuning Utility is another good tool and will allow you increase core multipliers as well.
(d)USPL is off (second card clock speed must be 300mhz on idle)

Also Im assuming you are on win 8.1 and did full driver reinstall for 5.1 (safe mode, wipe, install, e.t.c.)

Also I am not having any artifacts in any game with V-sync on

In GTAV I had issues with textures filtering. Certain settings were causing short 50% fps drop on some scenes. I don't remember exactly which settings im using but it is mostly maxed out and I have stable 60fps (never goes below 58fps) on 2560x resolution.

If its indeed a power limitation then I am worried. My D700s are waiting for me in my office.

Time to google up power consumption
 
agazoo said:
I am getting 90.6 average 30.9 min 152.7 max valley benchmark on 1920x1200 on Ultra with clocks 950core/1450memory.

Can you confirm that:

(a)PowerPlay is indeed off ( use GPU-Z or Ati Too;) and frequency is locked to whatever you set it too.
(b)Windows is not in powersave or balance mode.
(c)All CPU cores are enabled always (im using CoreParking tool for that). Intel Extreme Tuning Utility is another good tool and will allow you increase core multipliers as well.
(d)USPL is off (second card clock speed must be 300mhz on idle)

Also Im assuming you are on win 8.1 and did full driver reinstall for 5.1 (safe mode, wipe, install, e.t.c.)

Also I am not having any artifacts in any game with V-sync on

In GTAV I had issues with textures filtering. Certain settings were causing short 50% fps drop on some scenes. I don't remember exactly which settings im using but it is mostly maxed out and I have stable 60fps (never goes below 58fps) on 2560x resolution.

If its indeed a power limitation then I am worried. My D700s are waiting for me in my office.

Time to google up power consumption
Click to expand...

I disabled v-sync; I am getting 82-88 fps on average. No drops. Setting on max with the exception to shadows (its on high, not enough VRAM for very high). MSAA IS OFF

with MSAA at 2X im getting 68-78 FPS without any drops below 64;

Something gotta be wrong with your installation. There is no way you should be getting less performance with much advanced GPUs.

Clocks were set to 942 GPU 1442 Memory; CoreParking: 100% enabled; Frequencies x38 on 6 core usage;

Edit: It seems D700 (W9000) needs considerably more power to run but from the info I was able to obtain so far, there should still be enough power to run at base clocks stable at least.

Waiting for a follow up :)
 
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From the various data available, it seems it may be impossible to do anything with D700's as far as performance improvement; These boards may require a lot more power then available to even run normal boost frequencies (850mhz?);

Seems the setup may rely on throttling ...

This is very, very sad ...
 
hmmm. I've double checked and even used DDU 5.2 in safe mode and reinstalled Catalyst 15.4 beta and I'm still not benefiting for disabling ULPS and Powerplay like you are with D500. I'm pretty sure ULPS was off Powerplay I think it is with afterburner setting of overclocking mode without power play. If Powerplay is off how would I tell for sure? both in Afterburner and GPU-Z shows both GPU idle 300 MHz all the time and 850 MHz when running games and benchmarks.
I've checked ever where I can think of on the internet and I get about the same FPS as other D700 users that posted benchmarks at 1080p like valley and 3dmark

If I disable crossfire I get half the FPS for GTA V and Valley so I don't think it's a power supply issue either then. Also this article says there is some wiggle room too:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/01/two-steps-forward-a-review-of-the-2013-mac-pro/7/


agazoo - if you can or have what you get in valley disabling crossfire? using the bootcamp 14.301 drivers disabling ULPS and Powerplay does it give you boost then too like with Valley? Also with beta 15.4 firepro control panel you have application settings at default?

Anyway awesome find with the D500 by turning ULPS and PowerPlay off. Crazy performance boost. Makes you wonder what is going on with the D700??? Maybe the beta drivers are not giving the D700 the justices it deserves. So any one else having good luck with disabling ULPS and PowerPlay? Especially D700 users?
 
[So any one else having good luck with disabling ULPS and PowerPlay? Especially D700 users?[/QUOTE]

I've been overclocking my D500 nMP this way without any issues since early March. See:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1853090/

I thought someone would like to know that my nMP has not yet exploded ;-)

My maximum overclock with the Omega drivers is 1000 core / 1500 memory. Stability does seem to depend on the game, though. I reverted to the Omega drivers after I found that I was getting quite a few BSODs overclocking with the 15.4 Beta drivers and that they lowered performance in everything but GTA V.

I can report, however, that my method for installing the 15.4 beta drivers HAS WORKED for the strange unofficial version of the 15.5 beta which has been posted by Asder on Guru3d. As others have found, though, that particular version still does not have support for Crossfire in the Witcher 3. I am hopeful that when the "real" 15.5 beta which AMD have promised to us (due to be released soon, apparently) is released, we will be able to use the same method to install those, and that we will then have crossfire support in the Witcher 3.

Incidentally, although I was able to install the 15.5 driver, Catalyst Control Centre was then crashing (something which I've solved before by uninstalling and reinstalling it) and I then tried going all the way back to the "official" bootcamp drivers. It may be my imagination but I think they're a bit better for the Witcher 3 than the Omega drivers, although they can't sustain as high an overclock, it seems.
 
hackintosh5 said:
hmmm. I've double checked and even used DDU 5.2 in safe mode and reinstalled Catalyst 15.4 beta and I'm still not benefiting for disabling ULPS and Powerplay like you are with D500. I'm pretty sure ULPS was off Powerplay I think it is with afterburner setting of overclocking mode without power play. If Powerplay is off how would I tell for sure? both in Afterburner and GPU-Z shows both GPU idle 300 MHz all the time and 850 MHz when running games and benchmarks.
I've checked ever where I can think of on the internet and I get about the same FPS as other D700 users that posted benchmarks at 1080p like valley and 3dmark

If I disable crossfire I get half the FPS for GTA V and Valley so I don't think it's a power supply issue either then. Also this article says there is some wiggle room too:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/01/two-steps-forward-a-review-of-the-2013-mac-pro/7/


agazoo - if you can or have what you get in valley disabling crossfire? using the bootcamp 14.301 drivers disabling ULPS and Powerplay does it give you boost then too like with Valley? Also with beta 15.4 firepro control panel you have application settings at default?

Anyway awesome find with the D500 by turning ULPS and PowerPlay off. Crazy performance boost. Makes you wonder what is going on with the D700??? Maybe the beta drivers are not giving the D700 the justices it deserves. So any one else having good luck with disabling ULPS and PowerPlay? Especially D700 users?
Click to expand...

I didn't to any testing with 14.301 driver at all.
PowerPlay essentially rolls back the core speed (and supposed to roll it on, as needed, but that doesn't happen). If your clock speed is static, then it is probably off.

Also, the version of Aterbuner I'm using, you must over clock Atleast 1mhz for it to correctly apply other settings.

CCC is on default. (If it crashes, it could be Visual C redistr. package problem)

I'll get to try all that stuff for D700 myself soon.

----------
Mattstrete said:
[So any one else having good luck with disabling ULPS and PowerPlay? Especially D700 users?
I've been overclocking my D500 nMP this way without any issues since early March. See:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1853090/

I thought someone would like to know that my nMP has not yet exploded ;-)

My maximum overclock with the Omega drivers is 1000 core / 1500 memory. Stability does seem to depend on the game, though. I reverted to the Omega drivers after I found that I was getting quite a few BSODs overclocking with the 15.4 Beta drivers and that they lowered performance in everything but GTA V.

I can report, however, that my method for installing the 15.4 beta drivers HAS WORKED for the strange unofficial version of the 15.5 beta which has been posted by Asder on Guru3d. As others have found, though, that particular version still does not have support for Crossfire in the Witcher 3. I am hopeful that when the "real" 15.5 beta which AMD have promised to us (due to be released soon, apparently) is released, we will be able to use the same method to install those, and that we will then have crossfire support in the Witcher 3.

Incidentally, although I was able to install the 15.5 driver, Catalyst Control Centre was then crashing (something which I've solved before by uninstalling and reinstalling it) and I then tried going all the way back to the "official" bootcamp drivers. It may be my imagination but I think they're a bit better for the Witcher 3 than the Omega drivers, although they can't sustain as high an overclock, it seems.
Click to expand...

Good to know! :)

Which Omega package have you used to install? The latest one fails to install on my machine (installer stuck)?
 
agazoo said:
I didn't to any testing with 14.301 driver at all.
PowerPlay essentially rolls back the core speed (and supposed to roll it on, as needed, but that doesn't happen). If your clock speed is static, then it is probably off.

Also, the version of Aterbuner I'm using, you must over clock Atleast 1mhz for it to correctly apply other settings.

CCC is on default. (If it crashes, it could be Visual C redistr. package problem)

I'll get to try all that stuff for D700 myself soon.

----------



Good to know! :)

Which Omega package have you used to install? The latest one fails to install on my machine (installer stuck)?
Click to expand...

I didn't even try any over clocking I just assumed the power play would be off. Go figure. I'll have to test that out. But right now I had put the bootcamp dec 2014 drivers back on to just tests different things. With those drivers I did do a 1 MHz over clock with ULPS and power play off. In valley I had about 5 fps increase. Once I have time I'll put the 15.4 drivers back on to try it again.
 
I guess I'll have to wait and see what you find Agazoo... I went back to the 15.4 beta drives I disabled the ULPS and PowerPlay I was able over clock 950core/1450memory I saw like 5-8 FPS better than stock frequency in valley. PL+10% didn't seem to help and might of been a little less for FPS. I did turn off crossfire and just the single GPU was about half yet again.
GPU usage% was more jumpy when overclocked
1080p Ultra settings:
Valley CrossFire stock/overclocked ~64FPS/~72FPS
Valley 1GPU Stock/overclocked ~36FPS/~39Fps

Here is a link to Anandtech shows the specs of each of the cards.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7603/mac-pro-review-late-2013/9

Hope someone can figure out what's going on for sure. I'll do more testing when I get time.
 
hackintosh5 said:
I guess I'll have to wait and see what you find Agazoo... I went back to the 15.4 beta drives I disabled the ULPS and PowerPlay I was able over clock 950core/1450memory I saw like 5-8 FPS better than stock frequency in valley. PL+10% didn't seem to help and might of been a little less for FPS. I did turn off crossfire and just the single GPU was about half yet again.
GPU usage% was more jumpy when overclocked
1080p Ultra settings:
Valley CrossFire stock/overclocked ~64FPS/~72FPS
Valley 1GPU Stock/overclocked ~36FPS/~39Fps

Here is a link to Anandtech shows the specs of each of the cards.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7603/mac-pro-review-late-2013/9

Hope someone can figure out what's going on for sure. I'll do more testing when I get time.
Click to expand...


Ultra setting with AA or no AA?
 
Last edited:
Some late night testing:

Ran Fur Benchmark at full screen 2560x1600: nice 99-100% utilization;
Ran Fur along with CPU burner: utilization dropped to 84-85%; with all CPU cores at 100%; FPS dropped 4 frames; Stable CPU 3.7ghz; Temps Ok

So, 6c/d500, no PSU issues;

Raised CPU to 3.9ghz, 20 seconds into the test, CPU falls back to 3.5 and jumps between that and 3.9ghz; Probably a temperature issues (CPU breaks 92C with these settings) GPU is around 86-87C;

Overal GPU utilization in BFH and GTAV is solid 98-100%;

Far Cry 4 is a different story, jumps between 100% and 50%; Seems to be an issue with this particular game;
 
agazoo said:
(2) MSI Afterburner for: over-clocking, core frequency (speed) drop fix, disable ULPS and PowerPlay; ( Running 940 core, 1440 memory speeds atm, no issues; Gives good +10-15 fps;
Click to expand...


Agazzoo, what temp are you getting with those settings. I was keeping mine within official clock setting (800 mhz) just to keep my machine cool.
But now I'm thinking now about stretching it up to 950 and 1440.

And what are the temps i should be worried about anyway? I was keeping my gpus at constant 60 - 65 C.


One more thing, how did you even get those speed with msi since i can't get over 825 - 1350 MHz cap. I do have extend official overclock option on in msi afterburner.
 
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ojanb said:
Agazzoo, what temp are you getting with those settings. I was keeping mine within official clock setting (800 mhz) just to keep my machine cool.
But now I'm thinking now about stretching it up to 950 and 1440.

And what are the temps i should be worried about anyway? I was keeping my gpus at constant 60 - 65 C.


One more thing, how did you even get those speed with msi since i can't get over 825 - 1350 MHz cap. I do have extend official overclock option on in msi afterburner.
Click to expand...

Temps are 78-83C where optimised games like BFH are on the higher end and Far Cry 4 on the lower end (this game has CPU utilisation issues which results in bottleneck and lower temps since GPU isn't utilised to 100%)

Should you be worried with such temps? I honestly don't know but my system runs stable.

Fur benchmark pushes GPU temps to 89C and OS X appears to be ok with that.

My caps (without extension of official overclock) are high with 15.4 driver; I am not sure why you capped at 825;
 
hmm, yea that is weird, since i am using 15.4 driver as well.
i have to figure out why i am capped at 825.


ok, this is a bit embarrassing, i had unofficial ovc disabled after all, now i have it without powerplay support.
gonna keep it now at 900-1400 just to see the temps.
 
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agazoo said:
Ultra setting with AA or no AA?
Click to expand...

I'm using the AA since that was in the default settings of Valley.

Also for me with the mac fan controls I'm staying in ~60-70C for temps even with with over clocking up to 950core/1450memory but the D700 has higher normal clock rates to start with...
 
Ah ok, didn't know you are on D700.

I have just tested Battlefield 4 on 900/1400, everything ultra with 2560*1600
and it is working insanely good (60fps). i still cant believe that i could manage to do that with these outdated gpus, it is insane.

MacFan control showing gpu diode at 75-85C, msi is showing one gpu at 89C.

I hope im not gonna see black smoke soon.


PS
GTA V is showing much lower temperatures, around 70C which is great.
 
ojanb said:
Ah ok, didn't know you are on D700.

I have just tested Battlefield 4 on 900/1400, everything ultra with 2560*1600
and it is working insanely good (60fps). i still cant believe that i could manage to do that with these outdated gpus, it is insane.

MacFan control showing gpu diode at 75-85C, msi is showing one gpu at 89C.

I hope im not gonna see black smoke soon.


PS
GTA V is showing much lower temperatures, around 70C which is great.
Click to expand...

Make sure you take a picture or better shoot a video if that black smoke to begin coming out of your mac ...

Purely for statistics purposes :)
 
do you gamers actually play games for fun or do you just spend all your time testing performance
 
agazoo said:
I'll get to try all that stuff for D700 myself soon.
Click to expand...

How soon will you be seeing the D700? I just want to know what you find, just to make sure it's not just me. If you get the same results we'll have to figure out the root cause, power-supply or the drivers...
 
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