10.4.8 Performance Dissapointmnet

[Bart86]

Ok I'm really bummed about this. I snagged a good deal on a 7600GTS PCI-e and was really excited about finally being able to play some decent games on my hacky. I installed it, upgraded to 10.4.8 then installed titan 1.0. Everything works great. QE/CI etc, etc. The only problem is that peformance SUCKS. 2D is roughly 80% of what my onboard GMA950 gave me, but 3D just plain sucks. X-Plane looks like 5fps. It's just not snappy like it should be.

 

Here is system A:

 

Dell gx620 1gb DDR2 Intel 945 chipset

Pentium D 805 2.66

PowerColor 7600GTS 256mb DDR3 PCI-e

10.4.7 JaS upgraded to 10.4.8 with Apples update with mods

Tried both mifki and semthex kernels

Titan 1.0

 

System B:

 

Homebrew Intel 865 chipset

P4 HT 3.2

1gb DDR400

Nvidia 6600GT AGP 256

10.4.8 JaS CD

Titan 1.0

 

System C:

Homebrew Intel 915 chipset (Abit AG8)

P4 HT 3.2

1gb DDR400

Nvida 7600GTS PCI-e 256

Same HD and Install as System A

 

 

XBench Scores for all 3 system are 120'ish total for the 3 graphics tests.

 

 

This pretty much mirrors my previous attempt with an AGP based P4 system and a 6600GT card. Everything worked, just performance sucked.

 

Any thoughts?

Edited December 28, 2006 by Bart86

[pcampisi14]

Make sure both cores are being seen by the OS. There is a bunch of dual core guides out there...and don't be afraid to do a little overclock as well...

[sg]

no idea why your performance sucks so much, mine is amazing with pretty much the same card. make sure your opengl framework is from 10.4.8 i guess. i remember reading some things about how systems with onboard GMA have issues if its enabled in bios or what not.

[tomtefar]

What's your Xbench score if you only select the three options that has to do with graphics? My 7300GT gives me about 255 on a C2D 1.86/266@2.8/400.

[Bart86]

I'm getting 118 total.

 

99 Quartz

97 OpenGL

153 User Interface

[Bart86]

Took my hard disk and 7600GTS video card to yet another system and booted it and I get 128 total for xbench. Still way too slugish for the hardware it's on. Test system was a 915 chipset 1gb DDR and a single 3.4 P4. I don't get it.

[PaulusUK]

Quartz Graphics Test 169.48

Line 118.92 7.92 Klines/sec [50% alpha]

Rectangle 184.92 55.21 Krects/sec [50% alpha]

Circle 174.82 14.25 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]

Bezier 160.76 4.05 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]

Text 267.05 16.71 Kchars/sec

OpenGL Graphics Test 158.21

Spinning Squares 158.21 200.70 frames/sec

User Interface Test 336.15

Elements 336.15 1.54 Krefresh/sec

 

 

On a 7300GT (DDR3) and A64@ 3ghz.

 

Your quartz and opengl should be about the same as me :s but thery're not too far off. Its the user interface score that concerns me...

 

how does it perform in winblows? (dare I ask!)

[Bart86]

Runs really nice in WindowsXP. Best card I've ever owned. I usually use MS Flight Sim 2004 and I play Warbirds 2006 quite a bit which is an OpenGL Flight Sim.

[Bart86]

My OpenGL Framework is 1.4.12

Kernel is semthex 8.8.1 latest

 

SysInfo for Hardware is:

 

Hardware Overview:

 

Machine Name: Mac

Machine Model: ACPI

Processor Speed: 3.27 GHz

Number Of Processors: 1

Total Number Of Cores: 1

Memory: 1 GB

Bus Speed: 933 MHz

L2 Cache: 1 MB

 

NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS:

 

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS

Type: Display

Bus: PCIe

VRAM (Total): 256 MB

Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)

Device ID: 0x0392

Revision ID: 0x00a1

Displays:

IBM L170p:

Resolution: 1280 x 1024 @ 60 Hz

Depth: 32-bit Color

Core Image: Supported

Main Display: Yes

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Quartz Extreme: Supported

[Bart86]

Here are my full XBench Scores. Paulus as you can see I'm less than half your scores for graphics.

 

Results 68.40

System Info

Xbench Version 1.3

System Version 10.4.8 (8L2127)

Physical RAM 1024 MB

Model ACPI

Drive Type ST380013AS

CPU Test 73.60

GCD Loop 98.72 5.20 Mops/sec

Floating Point Basic 80.17 1.90 Gflop/sec

vecLib FFT 55.59 1.83 Gflop/sec

Floating Point Library 72.71 12.66 Mops/sec

Thread Test 106.67

Computation 85.70 1.74 Mops/sec, 4 threads

Lock Contention 141.21 6.07 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads

Memory Test 123.93

System 101.93

Allocate 72.62 266.69 Kalloc/sec

Fill 132.13 6424.49 MB/sec

Copy 123.55 2551.86 MB/sec

Stream 158.05

Copy 151.46 3128.33 MB/sec

Scale 151.19 3123.52 MB/sec

Add 165.84 3532.79 MB/sec

Triad 164.97 3529.14 MB/sec

Quartz Graphics Test 112.65

Line 110.92 7.38 Klines/sec [50% alpha]

Rectangle 114.41 34.16 Krects/sec [50% alpha]

Circle 115.97 9.45 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]

Bezier 110.08 2.78 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]

Text 112.09 7.01 Kchars/sec

OpenGL Graphics Test 116.85

Spinning Squares 116.85 148.23 frames/sec

User Interface Test 151.80

Elements 151.80 696.69 refresh/sec

Disk Test 21.15

Sequential 53.18

Uncached Write 49.99 30.69 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Write 54.03 30.57 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Uncached Read 49.18 14.39 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Read 61.09 30.70 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Random 13.20

Uncached Write 3.99 0.42 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Write 36.26 11.61 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Uncached Read 83.61 0.59 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Edited December 29, 2006 by Bart86

[AppleIIGuy]

Have you turned on Quartz Extreme 2d?

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=11550

[Bart86]

Yeah, but just to benchmark and then turned it off. Its generally considered to be unstable. Regardless it had no impact on my xbench scores. I do leave beamsync turned off btw. thx

Edited December 29, 2006 by Bart86

[tomtefar]

Here are my Xbench scores:

 

Results 161.00

System Info

Xbench Version 1.3

System Version 10.4.8 (8L2127)

Physical RAM 2048 MB

Model ACPI

Drive Type WDC WD360GD-00FNA0

CPU Test 144.81

GCD Loop 328.05 17.29 Mops/sec

Floating Point Basic 157.47 3.74 Gflop/sec

vecLib FFT 117.00 3.86 Gflop/sec

Floating Point Library 103.34 17.99 Mops/sec

Thread Test 277.51

Computation 255.57 5.18 Mops/sec, 4 threads

Lock Contention 303.58 13.06 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads

Memory Test 209.77

System 199.43

Allocate 159.07 584.14 Kalloc/sec

Fill 226.15 10996.05 MB/sec

Copy 230.73 4765.57 MB/sec

Stream 221.24

Copy 226.11 4670.23 MB/sec

Scale 225.37 4655.97 MB/sec

Add 220.40 4694.90 MB/sec

Triad 213.55 4568.44 MB/sec

Quartz Graphics Test 211.00

Line 171.61 11.43 Klines/sec [50% alpha]

Rectangle 218.78 65.32 Krects/sec [50% alpha]

Circle 209.37 17.07 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]

Bezier 190.72 4.81 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]

Text 304.93 19.07 Kchars/sec

OpenGL Graphics Test 204.34

Spinning Squares 204.34 259.21 frames/sec

User Interface Test 518.86

Elements 518.86 2.38 Krefresh/sec

Disk Test 60.09

Sequential 95.31

Uncached Write 109.35 67.14 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Write 99.64 56.38 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Uncached Read 127.20 37.23 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Read 66.99 33.67 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Random 43.88

Uncached Write 15.63 1.65 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Write 92.98 29.77 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Uncached Read 105.42 0.75 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Read 143.94 26.71 MB/sec [256K blocks]

 

using 7300GT silent on C2D 1.86/266@2.8/400 (using Natit_edited or Natit_dual_0.02, can't remember anymore sorry). Hope this helps.

[sg]

here's mine on a 7600gt with core 2 duo system:

 

Results 264.59

System Info

Xbench Version 1.3

System Version 10.4.8 (8L2127)

Physical RAM 1024 MB

Model ACPI

Drive Type ST3160811AS

Quartz Graphics Test 202.72

Line 182.45 12.15 Klines/sec [50% alpha]

Rectangle 238.68 71.26 Krects/sec [50% alpha]

Circle 227.68 18.56 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]

Bezier 204.23 5.15 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]

Text 175.25 10.96 Kchars/sec

OpenGL Graphics Test 218.46

Spinning Squares 218.46 277.12 frames/sec

User Interface Test 547.11

Elements 547.11 2.51 Krefresh/sec

Edited December 29, 2006 by sg

[sg]

what kernel are you using? you should be using the latest semthex kernel (not the one from 10.4.8-jas release).

 

here are my cpu/thread/memory results, yours seem low, however i'm not sure if the difference is just from the fact that you have a pentium d and i have core 2 duo.

 

CPU Test 155.62

Thread Test 299.61

Memory Test 188.44

[tomtefar]

I'm on beta8.

[adriandkicks]

If you have an LCD then disable beamsync.

 

Reinstall the OPenGL.framework file from the OS X DISK. I remember somewhere that if you have the GMA installed and the GMA openGL.Framwork it can bork up titan/natit. Also delete all the GMA Kexts.

[tomtefar]

Just swapped out my 7300GT for a Gainward 7600GT and I still get 255 points if I select the three graphics options in Xbench. So same score in 7300GT and 7600GT?? Weird huh?! I guess it has to do with Xbench not using pixel shaders because then the 7600GT must be faster.

 

Anyone know of a better graphics bench program?

Edited December 29, 2006 by tomtefar

[sg]

Just swapped out my 7300GT for a Gainward 7600GT and I still get 255 points if I select the three graphics options in Xbench. So same score in 7300GT and 7600GT?? Weird huh?! I guess it has to do with Xbench not using pixel shaders because then the 7600GT must be faster.

 

Anyone know of a better graphics bench program?

 

xbench is actually {censored} for almost everything except Disk tests, especially for the 3d graphics part.

 

best benchmark will always be a game, however i think openmark will give a better idea on what your card can do (not using shaders). the benchmark will last a long time if your system performs better (it keeps adding polygons/triangles until your system reaches a certain FPS).

 

http://www.giofx.net/osx/openmark.htm

[japhex]

I agree, xbench is not a very good graphical benchmark. 7600GS on an overclocked c2d cpu (sig)

 

Quartz Graphics Test 276.53

OpenGL Graphics Test 268.16

User Interface Test 725.09

[Bart86]

It seems that everyone who has replied with higher benchmarks is either running an AMD64 or E6xxx class CPU. I wonder if this isn't bumping the results. Does anyone have a Pentium D or P4 based PCI-e system that can post xbench scores for graphics?

Edited December 29, 2006 by Bart86

[Bart86]

I didn't do xbench on my GMA950 so I yanked the card and got the numbers. Here is an eye opener:

 

 

Dell gx620; Pentium-D 805; 1gb DDR2; JaS 10.4.8 Semthex Beta 8 kernel (nov 27)

 

GMA950:

Quartz Graphics Test 98.62

OpenGL Graphics Test 182.51

User Interface Test 149.93

 

 

7600GTS:

Quartz Graphics Test 98.98

OpenGL Graphics Test 94.98

User Interface Test 153.07

 

 

You know, what I think all of this is really showing is that OSX is really just CPU bound for 2D interface stuff. I've heard this before, but this really just drives it home with a hammer. I would toss out the OpenGL test above becuase apparently xbench is clearly lacking in this area. You can drop this card in pretty much any POS machine and the desktop on most operating systems would still be snappy. It's just not the case with OSX.....it's "different". What the heck though...with all of the new machines being C2D or better most people won't even know since most of the CPU power would go to waste anyway.

Edited December 29, 2006 by Bart86

[sg]

i would try and benchmark this in quake3 or something, even glmark and give the results. xbench is so bad, no idea why it ever took off.

[Bart86]

Ok, I just want to follow up here with some final observations. I have 2 OpenGL games I play, x-plane and warbirds (now that its' UB). After some tweaking with x-plane and switching to full screen mode, I'm getting pretty decent performance out of it with the 7600GTS card. I would say I'm getting 85% of what windows xp would give which all things considered isn't bad at all. Warbirds 2006 was pre-released as UB last week and it's running at about the same pace as well. Warbirds is an OpenGL online combat flightsim.

 

The 2D/Dekstop "snappiness" is apparently tied directly to CPU speed, unlike other OS's. So those of you with 250+ on the xbench interface tests are probably running Core 2 Duo's or very fast Athlon 64 systems. Perhaps Leapord will bring a more effective Quartz Extreem to the table.

 

Thanks for everyone's input.

 

Bart