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Loss of performance after GTX 680 - Any of you?

A

Akira28.com

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 2, 2013
35
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Since i installed my flashed GTX 680 SC in my mac pro i noticed a loss of overall performance...
The GPU gives great results on ungine heaven, so it looks like it's running great.. But i see hard disks slower when accessing to data, overall behaviour slower, more time to boot, all the mac seems more noisy (i think that could be the GPU).. I saw i lost hundreds of points on the geekbench benchmark.. I know that can't be a reference but WTH, with the 5770 i touched the 10.200, i now touch 9.400/9.600.. Enough to be almost sure something it is not working properly.

Any of you with a GTX 680 noticed this?
Is there some patched kext or something to change via terminal?

I'm on:
MacPro 5.1 Quadcore Nehalem @2.8
16 GB G-Skill Ripjaws
Snow leopard and Mountain Lion on 2 HDs, slowing problems noticed in both
 
Last edited:
Akira28.com said:
Since i installed my flashed GTX 680 SC in my mac pro i noticed a loss of overall performance...
The GPU gives great results on ungine heaven, so it looks like it's running great.. But i see hard disks slower when accessing to data, overall behaviour slower, more time to boot, all the mac seems more noisy (i think that could be the GPU).. I saw i lost hundreds of points on the geekbench benchmark.. I know that can't be a reference but WTH, with the 5770 i touched the 10.200, i now touch 9.400/9.600.. Enough to be almost sure something it is not working properly.

Any of you with a GTX 680 noticed this?
Is there some patched kext or something to change via terminal?

I'm on:
MacPro 5.1 Quadcore Nehalem @2.8
16 GB G-Skill Ripjaws
Snow leopard and Mountain Lion on 2 HDs, slowing problems noticed in both
Click to expand...


Just to confirm there is an actual performance decrease connected with the new card, I would put the 5770 back in and see if the condition reverses itself.

I have no first hand knowledge of the 680 but perhaps you have a defective unit.
 
This is very strange. I don't see how the video card can affect disk performance or Geekbench scores. Have you returned to using the Radeon 5770 for now? Are you using the Nvidia web drivers? How are you powering your GTX 680?
 
I have ML + nvidia cuda + nvidia driver manager all full updated.
Unfortunately i'm powering the gtx 680 through the mobo of the mac pro, that's why i'm now suspecting a lower power to the other components, even if i know it's almost impossible.
I tried putting back the 5770 and on the avg results i'm still 300 higher!

I don't know how i could check if the gtx maybe is faulty, but i'm pretty sure it's not.

I feel really an overall slow.. I'll try to compare the geekbench results to see if in some fields there are visible differences
 
Last edited:
After reading your 1st post again, I realized that you are booting 2 different OSX installs with the same result. This seems to indicate a hardware problem. It could also be a configuration issue. Put the card in the other 16x lot and see if that helps.
 
I'm running dual 680's and for sure my boot time increased. It also increased when I added more ram. But once boot is complete and I'm up and running the performance is insane. Your GPU should have no bearing on your Geekbench score. When diagnosing these performance issues it's best to strip your machine to the basics. If you have a spare drive put a clean install of OS X on it and boot from it. Strip the ram to one stick, pull all unnecessary pci-e cards, unplug all peripherals. Then do some testing/benching while re-installing the items one at a time.

Running dual flashed 680's on Mavericks this is my current Geekbench...
 

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Last edited:
Akira28.com said:
Unfortunately i'm powering the gtx 680 through the mobo of the mac pro, that's why i'm now suspecting a lower power to the other components, even if i know it's almost impossible.
I tried putting back the 5770 and on the avg results i'm still 300 higher!
Click to expand...

Just checking, have you got the 2x6 pin power connectors plugged in? Something about the way you worded that made me wonder?
 
I installed a 680 and am getting video tearing in my viewer in Final Cut 7 and stuttery fullscreen playback on stuff like youtube and vimeo.
 
You have a few things to check

Power connecters
Is this the only vid card in the machine? If not, remove the other. Try the 2nd slot for 16x. Also try a lesser bus slot.
Appropriate drivers (Mac's vs native)
Application settings (is there a vertical refresh synch option?)
Application test - have you tried running the project image in full screen (see application settings and if it matches monitor refresh)?
Is there a 2nd monitor attached? If so, unplug it from your MP and try again with the above best configured if possible.

It has been a long while since I dealt with this type of issue but you can also check other moving image software and see if the problem persists with a test file that tears on your said application. Try VLC in both window and full screen...also perhaps try MPlayerX and perhaps XBMC/Plex. The exercise is to see if it is only your one app having this problem or if its systemic. If it is the app then focus on drivers and settings. If it is across the various apps, then you have to consider drivers, bus slot, power etc.

The most difficult is when it turns out to be a combination of more than one of the above - have patience and good luck.
 
pastrychef said:
Try using the built-in OS X drivers instead of the Nvidia web drivers.
Click to expand...

Just tried. Still the same avg results

crjackson2134 said:
After reading your 1st post again, I realized that you are booting 2 different OSX installs with the same result. This seems to indicate a hardware problem. It could also be a configuration issue. Put the card in the other 16x lot and see if that helps.
Click to expand...

I have 3 HDs + one SSD. One HD has SL 10.6.8, the SSD has ML 10.8.5.
I can boot using both and on both I see slowdowns.
I'm gonna check the other 16x and see

Dr. Stealth said:
I'm running dual 680's and for sure my boot time increased. It also increased when I added more ram. But once boot is complete and I'm up and running the performance is insane. Your GPU should have no bearing on your Geekbench score. When diagnosing these performance issues it's best to strip your machine to the basics. If you have a spare drive put a clean install of OS X on it and boot from it. Strip the ram to one stick, pull all unnecessary pci-e cards, unplug all peripherals. Then do some testing/benching while re-installing the items one at a time.

Running dual flashed 680's on Mavericks this is my current Geekbench...
Click to expand...

I know the GPU is not involved in the Geekbench, that's why i can't understand what it could be. I'm gonna take the mac back to the basic configuration to see the changing of the benchs when adding everything i added

scotttnz said:
Just checking, have you got the 2x6 pin power connectors plugged in? Something about the way you worded that made me wonder?
Click to expand...

I'm using both the 6 pin connectors on the mac's MoBo, one of them with an adapter cable.

sunsetsothickly said:
Also, isn't the 680 SC 1x6 and 1x8 pin? How are you powering it?
Click to expand...

I'm using a 6 to 8 adapter for one of the cables. Unluckily 5.25" psus like the FPS X5 are not easy to find here in EU, so I'm using the mac pro psu.

phrehdd said:
You have a few things to check

Power connecters
Is this the only vid card in the machine? If not, remove the other. Try the 2nd slot for 16x. Also try a lesser bus slot.
Appropriate drivers (Mac's vs native)
Application settings (is there a vertical refresh synch option?)
Application test - have you tried running the project image in full screen (see application settings and if it matches monitor refresh)?
Is there a 2nd monitor attached? If so, unplug it from your MP and try again with the above best configured if possible.

It has been a long while since I dealt with this type of issue but you can also check other moving image software and see if the problem persists with a test file that tears on your said application. Try VLC in both window and full screen...also perhaps try MPlayerX and perhaps XBMC/Plex. The exercise is to see if it is only your one app having this problem or if its systemic. If it is the app then focus on drivers and settings. If it is across the various apps, then you have to consider drivers, bus slot, power etc.

The most difficult is when it turns out to be a combination of more than one of the above - have patience and good luck.
Click to expand...

I'm quite basic: one GPU (the gtx 680 SC) connected to a 27" IPS monitor and nothing more.
I have updated and modified After Effects to be able to use my GPU, but I still haven't tried to use it massively.
What I'm seeing and feeling is a quite heavy overall slowdown and i can't really understand how could the GTX be part of this, but it looks like it is
 
Most EVGA 680 cards with a 6 & an 8 pin plug will work just fine with just 2 @ 6s plugged in. (exception being Classified cards)

There are SOME 6 to 8 adapters that only power 2 or 3 of the pins to trick the "sense" pins only, these actually DECREASE the amount of current that can flow and concentrate it, the OPPOSITE of what you want.

If your adapter doesn't have at least 4 "grounds" going to 8 pin, you may as well run without adapter and just use 6 pin cables. Card was DESIGNED that way.
 
MacVidCards said:
Most EVGA 680 cards with a 6 & an 8 pin plug will work just fine with just 2 @ 6s plugged in. (exception being Classified cards)

There are SOME 6 to 8 adapters that only power 2 or 3 of the pins to trick the "sense" pins only, these actually DECREASE the amount of current that can flow and concentrate it, the OPPOSITE of what you want.

If your adapter doesn't have at least 4 "grounds" going to 8 pin, you may as well run without adapter and just use 6 pin cables. Card was DESIGNED that way.
Click to expand...

You mean plugging the 6 pin into the 8 female letting one 2pin column alone?
 
pastrychef said:
Yes, that's what he means.
Click to expand...

I just tried ( the column alone seems the left one, having the 8 female down and the 6 one up).
It looks like i bought an adapter for nothing, it works perfectly without it too. Good, i like wasting money &&\=#&@
 
anyway you can power the GPU from another external PSU temporarily to test performance when its not drawing power from the main system ?
 
I don't have these problems with my eVGA FTW model.

Out of curiosity, I'd check Activity Monitor for any problems. But ultimately I agree with the others, the only way to completely rule out software is to try it on a fresh install of OS X. Many of us are running GTX 680 without these problems.
 
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