Mavericks 10.9.2 Graphics Drivers Improvements?

[s-hatland]

Hey everyone!
Been reading this site and forums for a while and thought I'd try some internet based social interaction. Anyways, I like a few others, saw MacVidCards announcement of new Nvidia web drivers and the imminent 10.9.2 drivers. I didn't want to hi-jack his thread, but after downloading the "betas" noticed little to no improvement on my 650 Ti 2GB. I realize that those drivers had little to do with my particular card but maybe was hoping for a little more polish on the non-bleeding edges.

Anyways, I was just curious to hear reports from anyone else regarding their non-EFI cards, flashed or stock cards. I'm also curious to see/hear if the official 10.9.2 drivers offer any substantial speedups or, heaven forsake, ...issues.

A little left wondering whether the 650 was worth it or if I shoulda sprung for something a little bit bigger...

Thanks all! Great Forum!

 

[RoastingPig]

so do the gtx780 b cards work nativley in 10.9.2 now?

 

[Asgorath]

but after downloading the "betas" noticed little to no improvement on my 650 Ti 2GB. I realize that those drivers had little to do with my particular card but maybe was hoping for a little more polish on the non-bleeding edges.

What needs polish, exactly? Do you have specific examples where it's running slowly? Are you seeing regressions with Mavericks in general or something?

 

[s-hatland]

What needs polish, exactly? Do you have specific examples where it's running slowly? Are you seeing regressions with Mavericks in general or something?

to be frank, i just upgraded to a 650 ti from the stock GT 120 thanks to all the wonderful information here. the 650 is maybe twice as fast as the 120 in games and unigine, however, the 120 was pretty solid in mavericks as far as OS functions like switching spaces, MC and dashboard type stuff. the 650 is a little stuttery, noticeably so from the 120. and also i guess i was hoping for better than lowest possible settings in games like arkam city. was hoping those [nvidia] drivers would help with the stuttery parts and maybe boost my game a little.

just curious if anyone else with lower end cards noticed any improvements with either the nvidia web drivers or 10.9.2 beta drivers. i am still on 10.9.1 so can i hope for improvement or did i just buy a really low end card?

 

[flowrider]

so do the gtx780 b cards work nativley in 10.9.2 now?

You may want to explore this thread for your answer:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1703274/

Lou

 

[echoout]

I've read elsewhere that the drivers will slow down some cards slightly. Don't use them if you don't them, apparently.

 

[casperes1996]

Nvidia

From what I've been able to gather, the major driver differences aren't with Nvidia, but with AMD and Intel cards. You're looking at quite a minor driver upgrade, offering barely any improvements for most cards. Maybe you'll see better results in the future, but maybe not. To be honest, the 650 should run quite fine, and don't understand how it could stutter at system animations. Hell, a lot of Apple's lower end products use way worse GPU's, and they don't stutter. Have you enabled CUDA on your card? It might improve your experience slightly on applications that can use the GPU for calculations, but of course won't really help you with the system. I suggest asking others with the same card, if they experience similar stuttering, if not try a fresh Mavericks install (not the beta) and see if it's better. You can expect the GPU to get about 17% better when Apple gets their drivers up to date with Nvidia's own releases (that's what Nvidia claims to have achieved with newer drivers), but I can make no claims as to when you can expect that to happen. (My guess would be a short while after Apple's first Nvidia 800 series machine)

 

[s-hatland]

To be honest, the 650 should run quite fine, and don't understand how it could stutter at system animations. Hell, a lot of Apple's lower end products use way worse GPU's, and they don't stutter. Have you enabled CUDA on your card?

that's kinda what i thought when i bought the card, and like i said the gt120 runs system animations just fine. i do have CUDA installed and updated so i guess i'll just have to wait and see if 10.9.2 fixes anything. i am still curious as to how other cards are working with mavericks and/or 10.9.2 betas.

 

[macgeof]

I've just done the self-same upgrade in my Mac Pro running 10.9.1 - going from GT120 to GTX650Ti. No stuttering here at all in system and other operations

 

[casperes1996]

Sounds like a fresh

macgeof I've just done the self-same upgrade in my Mac Pro running 10.9.1 - going from GT120 to GTX650Ti. No stuttering here at all in system and other operations

Sounds like you should consider backing important files and doing a fresh OS install, S-Hatland

 

[NOTNlCE]

I can report slight improvements in some areas. It's not a world of a difference like it was in Mountain Lion, but in Bioshock I've noticed about a 15FPS improvement from the Stock Mavericks drivers. (Keep in mind, that's Bioshock 1, and runs well on like GMA 950).

 

[s-hatland]

I've just done the self-same upgrade in my Mac Pro running 10.9.1 - going from GT120 to GTX650Ti. No stuttering here at all in system and other operations

interesting. you think maybe my card is bad? could i ask you to maybe post some unigine scores to compare with mine and see if there's a noticable difference? i'd more than appreciate that.
on ultra/max settings i'm averaging 16fps with a score of 403
on lowest possible settings i'm averaging 66fps and a score of 1672
(@ 1600x900) are these acceptable ranges?

then on the other hand, you guys may be right, might just have to buckle up and try a fresh install. yuck. i just did one of those with snow leopard, then upgraded to mavericks... it's such a process. ah well, i'll get this ol' girl purrin' again.

thanks for all the replies!

 

[macgeof]

could i ask you to maybe post some unigine scores to compare with mine and see if there's a noticable difference?

Sure, no problem.

Basically similar figures to you are reporting- note this is windowed rather than fullscreen, whatever effect that has!

FYI card is a Gigabyte GTX650Ti 2GB - box says it is over clock version but I have done nothing other than throw it in the Mac and used as is (no boot screen)

 

[s-hatland]

Sure, no problem.

Basically similar figures to you are reporting- note this is windowed rather than fullscreen, whatever effect that has!

FYI card is a Gigabyte GTX650Ti 2GB - box says it is over clock version but I have done nothing other than throw it in the Mac and used as is (no boot screen)

thank you very much for that. looks like i can assume my card is okay, just need a fresh install of mavericks to tidy up a bit. thanks again!

 

[s-hatland]

just a follow up here- did a fresh install of mavericks and the system animations are up to snuff now. must've had some lingering corrosion from the upgrade from snow leopard. now the task of reinstalling apps, prefs and symlinks. yay! anyways, thanks to you all for your help in resolving this.