Mac GTX 680 5,1 Half of Games Half Performance

[Tucom]

The attachments don't show anything for me. I just get the "missing image" indicator.

Ok, let me try converting them with Preview.

As you can see, it's not a matter of the GPU or game being incompatible or unoptimized necessarily, it's that every other game besides Robo Dodgeball just doesn't use more than ~30% GPU usage.

Note that the Valley benchmark matches Barefeats nearly PERFECTLY using the same settings that they did -

 

[Fl0r!an]

I think your assumption is incorrect. Barefeats did a ton of GTX 680 Mac Edition testing in a wide assortment of games and pro applications in OS X. The GTX 680 was comprehensively faster than the 5770--usually at least twice as fast or more.

They didn't test a single game Tucom complains about, so this doesn't mean very much. He has already verified that his Unigine performance is perfectly in line with the benchmark at barefeats.
Of course the card could be somehow faulty, but my bet is that the mentioned games just don't perform very well on this card in OS X because of the drivers.

 

[Tucom]

They didn't test a single game Tucom complains about, so this doesn't mean very much. He has already verified that his Unigine performance is perfectly in line with the benchmark at barefeats.
Of course the card could be somehow faulty, but my bet is that the mentioned games just don't perform very well on this card in OS X because of the drivers.

Turns out only the Robo Dodgeball games works properly - Guns of Icarus, which also runs on Unity, does not. Worse than 5770.

As you can see from the screen caps that I posted above, the GPU just isn't being pushed passed ~30%

I would agree that it's optimization if it weren't for other Barefeats games such as Source Engine games also running really bad, vs. Barefeats sores of super high FPS.

CS GO for example was in the 50's. vs 70-80 on 5770.

 

[Synchro3]

Note the FPS in the bottom right in both screen caps.

I don't have any of your games. But can you start Unigine Valley (Preset Extreme) for comparison?

 

[ActionableMango]

They didn't test a single game Tucom complains about, so this doesn't mean very much.

Well okay, not exactly the same games, but Tucom reported terrible results with Source engine games.

Here is Barefeats L4D2 bench (a Source engine game) which shows results that I would expect to be normal for AMD and Nvidia cards. I know the 5770 isn't listed, but we can expect it to be noticeably lower than the 5870, which would put it far below the 680.

http://barefeats.com/gtx980.html

Tucom, did you try L4D2? It would be interesting to see if your results match BF or not. It probably won't resolve anything, but it might provide some insight.

 

[Fl0r!an]

Thanks for providing this benchmark, didn't find that. Would be interesting to know if his card performs equally in OS X.

Nevertheless, quite a lot people are reporting bad performance with this card in OS X games (see link to netkas forum) without a single one who has solved this.

 

[Tucom]

Thanks again guys for helping me get to the bottom of this

UPDATE - So apparently not ALL of the Source Engine games are performing poorly; I just ran Portal 1 *MAXED* out and it never dipped below 295 FPS -

Note yes I'm staring at a wall, but this FPS was indicative a large room with tons of reflections and real time lighting. Particle effects happening and all and it screams on this 680 -

 

[Tucom]

Thanks for providing this benchmark, didn't find that. Would be interesting to know if his card performs equally in OS X.

Nevertheless, quite a lot people are reporting bad performance with this card in OS X games (see link to netkas forum) without a single one who has solved this.

Oh wow, really? Do you have a link to the netkas thread about this? I may have ran across it, but I've done so much research and digging on this I feel like I've looked at everything.

Also check out my Portal 1 performance - 100% inline with a 680 - never dipped below 295 on max settings even when NOT staring at wall lol.

 

[Gav Mack]

You're wasting your time gaming in OS X. Drivers are rubbish, Open GL is rubbish (and so is apples implementation of it), the ports are lazy and slow. Once you get past those issues you'll run into a lot of mouse weirdness in games too.

Just install windows and enjoy your time, instead of trying to unravel why OS X is such a poor platform for 3D gaming.

I'm with you and roasting pig on this - I'm afraid that OS X is beaten hands down by far more than 20%, more like 40-50% with bootcamp Windows. Even on minecraft its at least 30%. I can hardly get a game to slow down maxed out at 1920x1200 with the 680 in 7, on the Mavericks it runs like a pig in comparison!

 

[ActionableMango]

I'm at a complete loss here. Tucom is having inconsistent results even on games using the same engine. I'm now leaning toward Florian's theory that the Nvidia drivers are mysteriously bad...at least for some applications but strangely not others.

The inconsistency on the same game engine is what's really wrapping up my noodle. It's almost like some of the games using the same engine aren't triggering GPU acceleration and some are. Or maybe some games are using a specific engine feature and some are not--and that specific engine feature slams the 680. I do remember reading something significant about using Tessellation on OS X, but I cannot find it now.

I would still like to see an exact game comparison with barefeats, like L4D2, or better yet, I'd like to see someone else with a 680 or 770 trying the exact games that Tucom is having a serious problem with.

I have an Nvidia card myself, but it's a 980, so completely wrong family.

 

[Tucom]

I'm with you and roasting pig on this - I'm afraid that OS X is beaten hands down by far more than 20%, more like 40-50% with bootcamp Windows. Even on minecraft its at least 30%. I can hardly get a game to slow down maxed out at 1920x1200 with the 680 in 7, on the Mavericks it runs like a pig in comparison!

It's irrelevant as to which runs slower, as the 5770 provided almost plenty thus the 680 should be faster and AMPLE; sure Windows may have higher FPS in a few games, but the games I play run beautifully on OS X, and the performance Barefeats posts as the 680 getting past 100 in almost all games is plenty for me, and far worth not having to install Windows.

Plus Apple's Metal is right around the corner. It's two fold my friend; Not having to bother with Windows and supporting OS X gaming.

So for now, I'm only focusing on OS X.

 

[Tucom]

I'm at a complete loss here. Tucom is having inconsistent results even on games using the same engine. I'm now leaning toward Florian's theory that the Nvidia drivers are mysteriously bad...at least for some applications but strangely not others.

The inconsistency on the same game engine is what's really wrapping up my noodle. It's almost like some of the games using the same engine aren't triggering GPU acceleration and some are. Or maybe some games are using a specific engine feature and some are not--and that specific engine feature slams the 680. I do remember reading something significant about using Tessellation on OS X, but I cannot find it now.

I would still like to see an exact game comparison with barefeats, like L4D2, or better yet, I'd like to see someone else with a 680 or 770 trying the exact games that Tucom is having a serious problem with.

I have an Nvidia card myself, but it's a 980, so completely wrong family.

I'll try to load up a game that Barefeats has benched. They benched Valley which is why I benched that myself, and as you can see I posted it having an almost identical score to Barefeats.

Yeah it's a trip - never experienced anything like this before.

In all honesty, I sure hope it's just drivers or something that can be fixed via software so I don't have to lug this GPU back to EVGA (figuratively speaking )

 

[ActionableMango]

From the Netkas thread:

"I have the same performance issue with gtx 770 on yosemite. A test with mavericks and opencl patch works with good performance"

OpenCL patch?

 

[Gav Mack]

It's irrelevant as to which runs slower, as the 5770 provided almost plenty thus the 680 should be faster and AMPLE; sure Windows may have higher FPS in a few games, but the games I play run beautifully on OS X, and the performance Barefeats posts as the 680 getting past 100 in almost all games is plenty for me, and far worth not having to install Windows.

Plus Apple's Metal is right around the corner. It's two fold my friend; Not having to bother with Windows and supporting OS X gaming.

So for now, I'm only focusing on OS X.

I've been setting PC gaming rigs since the voodoo ii cards and have never left either camp. Both OS are good for different things and Windows has always ruled the games domain. The issues are not only the way the Mac plays game titles underneath the OS pre 10.11 but the inadequate unoptimised driver support from AMD/nvidia. You only have to look at the change logs for either amd or nvidia driver through newer revisions to see just how much effort has gone into optimise titles on the windows platform and the serious lack of it on the Mac in comparison. They probably have far more staff than the 85% market share working on making Windows games faster, and currently as nvidia are cut out of the new mac market it's not something they are going to invest in heavily.

So until metal matures and I hope it does - they have an awful lot of catching up with Redmond to do to even compete. Until then I'm happy to support gaming on the Mac - on the better OS for gaming as the 4-5,1 upgraded is even today one hell of a windows gaming rig!

 

[Tucom]

Welp, Batman Arkham Asylum seems to also suffer from the GPU bug. It's funny though, even though the GTX 680 is being pushed maybe 20 30 percent MAX - that's still, at times, as fast as the 5770 was when it goes full bore.

I was on the phone with EVGA about this, no resolution yet but I'll try them tomorrow. Hopefully, just hopefully the Nvidia Web Drivers have some magic fix.

If anything I'll deal with it until El Cap comes out, and hopefully then things will be as they should.

If anyone else has any insight, please do share. I'll try and bench some other games soon, too.

 

[Tucom]

I don't have any of your games. But can you start Unigine Valley (Preset Extreme) for comparison?

See bellow my GTX 770 (which has the same GK 104 chip as GTX 680)View attachment 565578View attachment 565579

I could, but I already ran it at the same settings Barefeats did to test their 680, and I got nearly identical results. It was super impressive, and my 680 appears to function normally there.

 

[Tucom]

WOOOO! Another game running at FULL PROPER SPEED!

Portal 2 runs beautifully - all settings maxed (with AA turned off, hate AA), but everything else 100% cranked

 

[Fl0r!an]

Oh wow, really? Do you have a link to the netkas thread about this? I may have ran across it, but I've done so much research and digging on this I feel like I've looked at everything.

I was referrering to the link you posted at the beginning of this thread. If I recall correctly, there were 3 or 4 people with similar performance problems.

 

[Demigod Mac]

Source engine games are capped at 300 FPS by default so you'll want to use the fps_max command to set it much higher.

Also check out Half-Life 2 Lost Coast; it has a benchmark / stress test.

 

[Tucom]

I was referrering to the link you posted at the beginning of this thread. If I recall correctly, there were 3 or 4 people with similar performance problems.

Derp, of course - totally forgot I linked that lol..

 

[Tucom]

Another update -

Turns out CS GO runs WAY better on the 680 now that I've figured out why I was having issues with it - I'm getting I think at least twice the performance of the 5770 - EXCEPT on the Operation Bloodhound maps - and it's super odd as the FPS dips IN DOORS, but outside? It's higher.

I haven't tried Season which is one of my favorite maps.


The GPU still isn't being pushed or stressed under CS GO - the fan doesn't ramp up or anything, but hey, it runs great on all the good maps that matter.

So now it's just a matter of figuring out the mystery of the Aspyr Media and Feral's ports.


Attached screen caps of great CS GO frame rates

-

 

[Tucom]

Looks like I'm not the only one with bad Operation Bloodhound performance - https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Counter-Strike-Global-Offensive/issues/362

There's other hits on this via Google, as well.

 

[Tucom]

Psychonauts - a game that run wonderfully on the 5770 - is having the same performance issues as BL2 etc.

What's odd though is that during the menu the FPS goes to 700+

 

[Tucom]

Well, if anyone's still curious, the 680's going back. Here's a screenshot showing twice the FPS in Psychonauts on the 5770

vs the 680 -

 

[ActionableMango]

What a mess.

So what's next, are they sending you a different GTX 680 or are you going to move on to the 7950?