"It just boils down to the fact that Apple doesn't prioritize high-end GPUs," he explained. "You can buy a $6,000 Mac Pro with the top of the line AMD FirePro D700, and it still doesn't match our recommended specs. So if they prioritize higher-end GPUs like they used to for a while back in the day, we'd love to support Mac. But right now, there's just not a single machine out there that supports it."
I'm not really interested in Oculus or VR, but I do use a Mac to make a living in the graphics business. I'm certainly ready for the Mac to offer up a better GPU option in the MacPro. For the time being, I'm happily using a 2015 MacBook Pro with the discreet AMD video card upgrade. Even though this is the top-spec MBP Apple offers, it's BARELY capable of running my Eizo DCI 4k display (4096x2160 pixels). And the MBP won't run the display in 10 bit/channel mode, a discovery I made late last year when Apple finally addressed another graphical software issue by enabling 10 bit/channel video output capability in Mac OS.
Adobe has been using GPU processing for many of the new features in Creative Cloud, so the better GPU, the better performance I'll get.
Once Apple offers up an upgraded MacPro, I'm ready to open up my wallet!
Wow, you have the Eizo CG318 ? Cool ! Do you like it ? Would you recommend it ? I totally agree about the Mac Pro. It's a disgrace, waiting over 800 days for an upgrade !
It most certainly does. It addresses the implication re: "If they ever release a good computer, we will do it,"
It also dispels the notion that "good" = high-end video card, when Apple is already, plainly and by every objective standard established as the maker of the best computers in the business in terms of overall value and user experience.
It was plainly obvious that by good the oculus meant the requisite hp was present.
Which is a misleading association made by that individual, which I don't for a second doubt was at least partly intended as a shot at Apple. The qualification that followed was totally half-hearted in light of the leading statement.
Windows users benefit from DirectX, which completely destroys OpenGL.
I feel like this is a critical point that a lot of people seem to forget. Even if you have the exact same hardware in a Mac running OS X, you'll most likely still be behind the same system running Windows.
To me it seems that OSX has been so far removed from this gaming culture and the software teams that make action games probably know nothing about Macs, let alone writing software for them. Offering a super-high-end video card would be quite an expensive operational endeavor - with consequences that would likely be very marginal.
However, if Oculus turns out to be a success (which I expect it probably will), this would be a good opportunity for OSX to start getting a foothold in the game world while also stepping it up for architecture and continuing to support film well.
How long ago did you buy it? Have you checked temps? What's your mobo set to do on overheating? (What is your motherboard?)
Honestly, sounds like an RMA issue. Because there's so little info on the matter I'm thinking it's an individualized fault rather than a widespread concern.
Early September, I’ll do that the next time I boot to Windows, and I haven’t changed any settings to my EFI/BIOS/whatever.
It’s an Early 2009 Mac Pro, so Gainestown. Stock motherboard (of course), standard everything.
I’d feel a lot better about it being the fault of just my card, but then I have to deal with the fact that I can’t get a replacement for it.
The Mac Pro motherboards do not support 128k vBIOS, and MacOSX doesn't store vBIOS in the AHCI controller which is why OSX can sleep, but windows cannot on that particular machine. As for the turnoff/dismount, check your temps. One possibility is that the card is overheating, hitting a threshold (max is 98c according to nVidia documentation, for it to get that high something is pretty wrong) and turning itself off without triggering the computer to do the same.
Could you provide some documentation that says that "most" PS4 games run at 720p and 960 (also which one, as there is a difference between 720 and 960)
Out of the 968 games released for PS4, we have 52 that run at a native 1080p and 60fps, and the rest of the 1080 games are either upscales using the PS4's dedicated hardware upscaler, or sacrifice framerate to make it 1080. The PS4 outputs a few resolutions, same games have multiple resolutions for different parts, we see games all over the spectrum - 720, 768, 900, and 1080 vertical resolution.
As for the turnoff/dismount, check your temps. One possibility is that the card is overheating, hitting a threshold (max is 98c according to nVidia documentation, for it to get that high something is pretty wrong) and turning itself off without triggering the computer to do the same.
Well, I managed to get it to crash again, and I was livelogging data out using GPU-X. Now I’m trying to clean up the formatting and make sense of it. Like I said, I think it’s OpenGL that is crashing on me (one modal popup that I saw just once gives me this idea), but for the life of me I can’t imagine why it would be doing that.
I’m seeing no abnormal temperatures here either under load or during idle, no abnormal fan behavior, no abnormal clock speed glitches... I see a TDP discontinuity that I can’t explain, but none of the other log items are affected and I don’t see a drop-off in anything else, so I’ll attribute it to a program error. NOTHING out of the ordinary. I can probably upload it somewhere or just give screenshots of things that look odd.
I noticed another oddity in Windows while setting all this up. Apparently Windows 10 thinks that my PCIe cards are ejectable. That, of course, explains the “hardware disconnected” sound that it plays every time my GPU cuts out. This image was taken through my GT 120 (which is just a rebranded 9500 GT) that I’ve had to leave installed to get back and forth between Windows and OS X.
And Device Manager gives me the always helpful Error 43 in regard to my 980 and recognizes its existence despite refusing to output to it.
Oh, and to top it all off, Windows has NEVER seen only one display connected to my 980, despite me only ever using one display (my Cinema Display, using a DisplayPort-Mini DisplayPort adapter). It’s considered Display 2, and no amount of detecting, adding other displays and then removing them, or trying to switch priorities will change it. I can only disable Display 1, because if I don’t my cursor and windows can fall out of sight, never to return.
macmichiel said:
Because the vast majority of people using Macs don't want to rip open their computer to fiddle with it. That's the point. If you want to fiddle, don't buy a Mac.This philosophy is used across the entire Mac product line and started a long time ago, in an Apple universe far far away.
I did not say i like fidling like Windows users have to do every day to keep their junk going. Using up to date compnents makes a good Mac fiddle free !
Except you have to buy a new Mac every time you need a little more memory, bigger or faster hard drive/solid state drive. There is no such thing as "up to date components in the computer world. To have to buy a new one because you need a bit more memory or storage is just stupid.
It takes a while, but Apple usually comes around. Maybe this will be a spur for them to build a high end machine for gaming and graphics. Just put a real graphics board in a Pro. Problem solved.
Comments
Wow, you have the Eizo CG318 ? Cool ! Do you like it ? Would you recommend it ?
I totally agree about the Mac Pro. It's a disgrace, waiting over 800 days for an upgrade !
Which is a misleading association made by that individual, which I don't for a second doubt was at least partly intended as a shot at Apple. The qualification that followed was totally half-hearted in light of the leading statement.
It's perfect for click-bait headlines.
However, if Oculus turns out to be a success (which I expect it probably will), this would be a good opportunity for OSX to start getting a foothold in the game world while also stepping it up for architecture and continuing to support film well.
The Mac Pro motherboards do not support 128k vBIOS, and MacOSX doesn't store vBIOS in the AHCI controller which is why OSX can sleep, but windows cannot on that particular machine. As for the turnoff/dismount, check your temps. One possibility is that the card is overheating, hitting a threshold (max is 98c according to nVidia documentation, for it to get that high something is pretty wrong) and turning itself off without triggering the computer to do the same.
Out of the 968 games released for PS4, we have 52 that run at a native 1080p and 60fps, and the rest of the 1080 games are either upscales using the PS4's dedicated hardware upscaler, or sacrifice framerate to make it 1080. The PS4 outputs a few resolutions, same games have multiple resolutions for different parts, we see games all over the spectrum - 720, 768, 900, and 1080 vertical resolution.
I’m seeing no abnormal temperatures here either under load or during idle, no abnormal fan behavior, no abnormal clock speed glitches... I see a TDP discontinuity that I can’t explain, but none of the other log items are affected and I don’t see a drop-off in anything else, so I’ll attribute it to a program error. NOTHING out of the ordinary. I can probably upload it somewhere or just give screenshots of things that look odd.
I noticed another oddity in Windows while setting all this up. Apparently Windows 10 thinks that my PCIe cards are ejectable. That, of course, explains the “hardware disconnected” sound that it plays every time my GPU cuts out. This image was taken through my GT 120 (which is just a rebranded 9500 GT) that I’ve had to leave installed to get back and forth between Windows and OS X.
And Device Manager gives me the always helpful Error 43 in regard to my 980 and recognizes its existence despite refusing to output to it.
Oh, and to top it all off, Windows has NEVER seen only one display connected to my 980, despite me only ever using one display (my Cinema Display, using a DisplayPort-Mini DisplayPort adapter). It’s considered Display 2, and no amount of detecting, adding other displays and then removing them, or trying to switch priorities will change it. I can only disable Display 1, because if I don’t my cursor and windows can fall out of sight, never to return.
And people wonder why we use Macs.
Except you have to buy a new Mac every time you need a little more memory, bigger or faster hard drive/solid state drive. There is no such thing as "up to date components in the computer world. To have to buy a new one because you need a bit more memory or storage is just stupid.