some help with SMBIOS performance values GT240 and AMD

[DrunkMechanicnHacker]

I have been trying many different SMBIOS files for my AMD, and so far the best one ive found is for a MacPro3,1.

I still have laggy QE/CI, (the ripples are there but laggy when i add a widget), dock animation is quite sluggish and laggy when i have a couple applications open, and openGL SUCKS. Cinebench score is 13.80fps, which is quite unacceptable (to me) for a GT240 1Gb DDR5. (its sad when my iBook G3 with its blazing 8MB ATi Rage Mobility runs unreal tournament 99 better than my hackintosh). oh, and streaming video from youtube and other sites is horrible, as well.

 

I have spent all morning experimenting with different injectors and SMBIOS files, and what I have discovered is that the dock is SLOW when QE/CI is enabled. without it, in VESA mode, the dock doesnt slow or lag one bit, so i have narrowed it down to a graphics problem.

 

I was doing some reading on the tonymac forums and this forum about smbios values, and how they work with GPU powermanagement.

 

Here is my configuration:

HARDWARE:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.8GHz

Abit NF-M2SV motherboard

nForce 6100 chipset

XFX Geforce GT240 1GB DDR5 (HDMI works!!!)

750GB Western Digital SATA 7200RPM hard drive (GREEN) (windows 7 64bit lives here)

500GB Western Digital SATA 7200rpm hard drive (Mac OS X 10.6.5 installed from retail 10.6.3 lives here)

120GB Maxtor IDE (forgot speed) (Mac OS X 10.5.8 iDeneb lives here.. for backup and repair purposes)

4GB 800MHz Patriot Gamer memory DDR2

SBLive! Audigy using KXAudio drivers

 

SOFTWARE:

Mac OS X 10.6.5

10.5.0 Legacy Kernel

Chameleon RC4 r687

Latest nVidia drivers (modified by Tony)

SuperNForceATA

SMBIOS for MacPro3,1

deleted intelpowermanagement kexts

deleted applegraphicscontrol kexts

NVEnabler_64 (using until I go back in and delete it and reenable graphicsenabler.. slower than graphicsenabler)

 

I have tried putting the applegraphicscontrol kexts from 10.6.0 into S/L/E/, have tried using these kexts from 10.6.5 and editing them with my GPUID under macpro3,1, have tried leaving them alone, nothing makes a difference.

im ripping my hair out over this issue. I was using my old 7900GS 256MB, and i had NO problems, it ran OSX 100 times better than this GT240, was getting a constant 60fps with medium settings in world of warcraft, compared to a measley 40fps with LOW settings with the GT240, plus not to mention QE/CI was liquid smooth.

 

all i can tihink of is the card is sitting at idle, and refuses to speed up under load. i cant figure out how to force it to.

if anyone has any ideas, im ALL ears. im really about to sell this GT240 and put the 7900GS back in.

[DrunkMechanicnHacker]

changed my smbios to an imac11,2, and noticed a bit better performance, however, still much laggier than it should be. heres my smbios

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <? xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>SMbiosvendor</key>

<string>Apple Computer, Inc.</string>

<key>SMbiosversion</key>

<string>IM91.88Z.008D.B08.0904271717</string>

<key>SMmanufacter</key>

<string>Apple Computer, Inc.</string>

<key>SMproductname</key>

<string>iMac11,2</string>

<key>SMsystemversion</key>

<string>1.0</string>

<key>SMserial</key>

<string>UIRL81625491</string>

<key>SMfamily</key>

<string>mac</string>

<key>SMboardmanufacter</key>

<string>Apple Computer, Inc.</string>

<key>SMboardproduct</key>

<string>Mac-F2238AC8</string>

<key>SMexternalclock</key>

<string>600</string>

<key>SMmaximalclock</key>

<string>2810</string>

<key>SMmemtype</key>

<string>19</string>

<key>SMmemspeed</key>

<string>800</string>

<key>SMmemmanufacter_0</key>

<string>Kingston Technology Company Inc.</string>

<key>SMmemmanufacter_1</key>

<string>Kingston Technology Company Inc.</string>

<key> SMmempart_0 </key>

<string>KVR667D2N5-2G</string>

<key>SMmempart_1</key>

<string>KVR667D2N5-2G</string>

<key>SMmemserial_0</key>

<string>3653294-0341583</string>

<key>SMmemserial_1</key>

<string>3751575-1011165</string>

</dict>

</plist>

 

and i hardcoded the about this mac window myself, to say '2.8Ghz PowerPC G5 Dual'. would that have ANY impact oncesoever on performance? as far as i know, thats strictly cosmetic.

[DrunkMechanicnHacker]

okay, just ran cinebench in windows 7. same test. here are the results windows7 64bit vs snow leopard 10.6.5

 

Windows: OpenGL: 27.23

OSX: OpenGL: 13.80

 

i know openGL isnt as powerful in OSX, but still, that much of a slowdown between operating systems? i dont get it.... something isnt right.

[DrunkMechanicnHacker]

okay, finally asked my apple buddy about my issue. he said he doesnt know a lot about the hackintosh world, but maybe, JUST MAYBE, the nForce chipset kext may be interfering with the nVidia Geforce kexts, causing a slowdown. this sounds plausible.... any thoughts?

[cozycactus]

i have the same slow 13.7 fps in cinebench on gt 240

[akiNikki]

I got 24++ using Macpro 4,1. Rig as in my sig

[Gringo Vermelho]

Retail 10.6.5, latest nvidia drivers

MacPro3,1 model identifier, native CPU power management

P45/ICH10R, Geforce 9800GTX+, C2D E8500 @ 3.16GHz

26.92 fps

[DrunkMechanicnHacker]

ok i managed to up the cinebench score by like 4 points... used the lizard app to make my smbios as a MacPro5,1, with a core 2 duo processor, 2.8GHz, and took the bootrom version directly from a real macpro5,1 (googled and some mac forums came up) went from 13.80 to 13.84. incredible, i know. .

 

well at least i discovered lizard, which is BAD @$$. still tryin different things with this... im really about to give up on this GT240.. only thing keeping me going is that in windows its mucho mucho powerful. (well compared to the 7900).

 

and i edited my aboutthismac window using aboutthismac.strings to first show up as a powerPC... then i thought maybe that would conflict with something... though i doubted it.. changed it to AMD Athlon 64 X2.. no difference. the about this mac window information is purely cosmetic, right?

[akiNikki]

I guess so.

 

Perhaps editing the AGPM.kexts with your hardware ID could solve it? When I use MP3,1 I don't have any issues but when i use MP4,1 my bench is {censored}. and then nawcom help me by giving his AGPM.kexts that already set to mp4,1 and i just put my graphicscard id to it, and dang. I goes up to 20++

[vgrish]

[DrunkMechanicnHacker]

seem to have fixed the issue. i reinstalled OSX, and updated to 10.6.6. no more interface lag, and cinebench gives a score of around 15. installing windows 7 on another hard drive, will update with WoW FPS info once i get everything reloaded. (if you havent updated to 10.6.6, i would.. seems to have fixed some stuff)

[DrunkMechanicnHacker]

you know, i tried looking for the AGPM kexts, and i couldnt find em.

 

however i did notice my reported bus speed was wrong. so i did some research and found out that that relates to your multiplier. so i added 'busratio=14' to my boot.plist and rebooted. immediate increase in performance. (14 because my multiplier is 14x) the fps is the same, maybe a bit better, but the performance is WAAAY better.

 

though the dock still lags when i add a widget... oh well.

[cozycactus]

i bought ati 5770 and my gt 240 sitting in the box

[DrunkMechanicnHacker]

update to this

 

i figured out the problem! my buddy was about to throw his old dinosaur CRT 19" monitor in the trash, so i said give it to me and keep it out of a landfill, so i hooked it up, so im running dual monitors, LCD on HDMI and the CRT on VGA, and OSX is SMOOTH. in WoW, I get around 45-60fps on medium settings... not THAT far behind windows... 60fps (with v-sync on) at high settings. The entire UI is smooth and everything. so anyone else having an issue with GT240 lag... try hooking up another monitor to it