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applCore

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 3, 2011
193
78
Has anyone looked closely at performance of Sierra vs El Capitan and / or put together some benchmarks? I think many of us are very curious about how they compare and to see if Apple has continued to slim down the footprint.
 

Ritsuka

Cancelled
Sep 3, 2006
1,464
969
NVIDIA web drivers are almost the same as the one shipped with OS X, it's not like they are an entirely different beast.

Sierra looks almost the same to me, maybe a bit slower.
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,587
Hong Kong
I keep testing the performance since Beta 1, more or less the same as 10.11.6. So, no gain and no lost. However, that result only applicable to my HD7950. Other GPU may have different story.
 

applCore

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 3, 2011
193
78
Interesting. So has anything perceptually changed? Ie, have the optimized apps and OS binaries in some fashion that make the system overall "seem" faster to the user?
 

leman

macrumors Core
Oct 14, 2008
19,530
19,709
They have improved a bunch of things (e.g. layout algorithms) etc., so yes, the system might feel faster to you if you were using (usually poorly coded) apps where this was a factor. But its not something that you will see in a standard micro benchmark.
 

nontroppo

macrumors 6502
Mar 11, 2009
430
22
They have improved a bunch of things (e.g. layout algorithms) etc., so yes, the system might feel faster to you if you were using (usually poorly coded) apps where this was a factor. But its not something that you will see in a standard micro benchmark.

As you seem knowledgeable about these things, is Metal rendering of the UI enabled on dual-GPU machines now?
 

leman

macrumors Core
Oct 14, 2008
19,530
19,709
As you seem knowledgeable about these things, is Metal rendering of the UI enabled on dual-GPU machines now?

No idea :) I don't have a new Mac Pro running Sierra. My knowledge is limited to what was said in the WWDC and the rare occasion when I read the Apple dev mailing lists. I certainly have no insider information.
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,587
Hong Kong
As you seem knowledgeable about these things, is Metal rendering of the UI enabled on dual-GPU machines now?

I am running 2x HD7950 in my Mac Pro. From my observation, the answer is NO. if there is any test I can do for you, please let me know the details on how to carry out the test.
 

jeanlain

macrumors 68020
Mar 14, 2009
2,465
959
I think Apple said that Metal now powers the UI for all GPUs that support Metal. Why wouldn't it be the case for you?
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,587
Hong Kong
I think Apple said that Metal now powers the UI for all GPUs that support Metal. Why wouldn't it be the case for you?

Oh, my bad, I miss interpret that he was asking "will BOTH GPU use for GUI?"

His question make more sense now, I was thinking why Apple need to do that, because the GUI is not that demanding, and don't need that much GPU power.
 

jeanlain

macrumors 68020
Mar 14, 2009
2,465
959
I may be wrong also. I'm sure I've read that in sierra, Metal would power the UI for all supported Macs, but I can't find that piece of information anymore.
 

leman

macrumors Core
Oct 14, 2008
19,530
19,709
His question make more sense now, I was thinking why Apple need to do that, because the GUI is not that demanding, and don't need that much GPU power.

Yeah, multi-GPU desktop composition would be horribly inefficient, both from the performance and the power standpoint. Unless we are talking about very large desktops :)
 

nontroppo

macrumors 6502
Mar 11, 2009
430
22
I may be wrong also. I'm sure I've read that in sierra, Metal would power the UI for all supported Macs, but I can't find that piece of information anymore.

Yes, I've read that somewhere but can't find the source, I'd assumed it was in a post by leman :) I imagine it is in a WWDC video somewhere...

If it is I have no idea how we test it. IIRC in El Capitan, only some machines accelerated the UI with Metal, even if other machines (like dual_GPU laptops) that supported Metal didn't used Metal for the 10.11 UI. I don't think there are good benchmarks for the UI, and does Quartz Debug still work when using Metal for the UI?
 

leman

macrumors Core
Oct 14, 2008
19,530
19,709
Yes, I've read that somewhere but can't find the source, I'd assumed it was in a post by leman :) I imagine it is in a WWDC video somewhere...

Ahaha, this is how unhealthy rumours are being spread :D I don't think I ever claimed something like this. But I do have some recollection of reading/hearing about this. WWDC seems not unlikely.

If it is I have no idea how we test it. IIRC in El Capitan, only some machines accelerated the UI with Metal, even if other machines (like dual_GPU laptops) that supported Metal didn't used Metal for the 10.11 UI. I don't think there are good benchmarks for the UI, and does Quartz Debug still work when using Metal for the UI?

I am fairly sure that you won't see much in a benchmark. There is no way to control the confounding factors as you can usually do in a microbenchmark and Metal is more about efficiency than anything else (e.g. it probably won't improve the performance of your UI drawing operations, but it will likely to result in less energy impact/resource utilisation overall).

As to testing it, it is possible to see whether Metal APIs are accessed when an app is running. I believe this is how netkas did his original investigation on Metal usage in OS X UI operations.
 
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