I tried to replicate your issue, the game is unplayable when catalyst is installed from AMD, and even if you remove it and reinstall bootcamp drivers, still no go..So based on that, you must not install any drivers and leave bootcamp as the default, I don't hear the fan working hard when playing with catalyst installed so it is not utilizing the dual D700 gpu's...
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So, Boot Camp AMD drivers for gaming
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I tried to replicate your issue, the game is unplayable when catalyst is installed from AMD, and even if you remove it and reinstall bootcamp drivers, still no go..So based on that, you must not install any drivers and leave bootcamp as the default, I don't hear the fan working hard when playing with catalyst installed so it is not utilizing the dual D700 gpu's...
So you're saying the only way to get it to work is to go back and reinstall Bootcamp and Windows, and then of course all applications? I can of course do that, but the download from Steam and Origin are too big, so I need to find a solution. I live in Greenland and we actually pay pr. Gigabyte downloaded, and it is slow. Between the two, it is more than 100GB, which is a month's allowance...
But it is a driver issue, and hence just a question of finding the solution.
But it is a driver issue, and hence just a question of finding the solution.
It is a driver issue that is for sure ..One thing though, After I update back to a fresh install, the game still choppy..so I went to windows update and update all, then it is back to normal, my nMP is again generating heat when playing, this means dual GPU is working..I also right click on the crysis 3 app and click compatibility mode and "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings"...I suggest to remove the catalyst cleanly, re run the bootcamp setup to refresh drivers, then update windows...this might help you..
I feel your pain about your internet provider..here in the US is very cheap, Verizon FIOS offer me to renew my contract and upgrade my internet speed to 150Mbps/60Mbps..hope you find a solution to your problem..
I feel your pain about your internet provider..here in the US is very cheap, Verizon FIOS offer me to renew my contract and upgrade my internet speed to 150Mbps/60Mbps..hope you find a solution to your problem..
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Any news on the mouse lag issue?
I've got mouse lag on Windows 8.1 under Bootcamp on the early 2014 Mac Pro with Dual AMD FirePro D300 graphics processors.
This installation is for gaming, and usually works pretty well. But occasionally, when on the Windows desktop, mouse lag occurs and I have to just stop making any mouse or keyboard input for 30 seconds or so. When the lag starts, it seems to be always the mouse, and then sometimes even the keyboard keys don't work.
The issue always goes away after anywhere from five to 30 seconds. It happens a few times per hour.
I don't see any driver updates from Apple for this Bootcamp (Mac Pro early 2014 AMD D300).
I don't recall having this issue when I first set the system up in August 2014. I wonder if the regular Windows updates have conflicted with the original Bootcamp drivers. I have installed the AMD driver detector from amd.com and it says I have the latest version of the correct driver. But perhaps their driver detector doesn't work with the Mac Pro configuration.
If I actually need to roll back to whatever driver Bootcamp put on this machine, how to fix?
What could be causing the mouse lag?
I've got mouse lag on Windows 8.1 under Bootcamp on the early 2014 Mac Pro with Dual AMD FirePro D300 graphics processors.
This installation is for gaming, and usually works pretty well. But occasionally, when on the Windows desktop, mouse lag occurs and I have to just stop making any mouse or keyboard input for 30 seconds or so. When the lag starts, it seems to be always the mouse, and then sometimes even the keyboard keys don't work.
The issue always goes away after anywhere from five to 30 seconds. It happens a few times per hour.
I don't see any driver updates from Apple for this Bootcamp (Mac Pro early 2014 AMD D300).
I don't recall having this issue when I first set the system up in August 2014. I wonder if the regular Windows updates have conflicted with the original Bootcamp drivers. I have installed the AMD driver detector from amd.com and it says I have the latest version of the correct driver. But perhaps their driver detector doesn't work with the Mac Pro configuration.
If I actually need to roll back to whatever driver Bootcamp put on this machine, how to fix?
What could be causing the mouse lag?
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So, boot camp amd drivers for gaming
Setting the power plan to high performance instead of balanced usually sorts out most of the little windows hangs and performance of the pcie ssd
Not seen any slow performance hits so far but all the 6,1 setups have been either d500/d700
Setting the power plan to high performance instead of balanced usually sorts out most of the little windows hangs and performance of the pcie ssd
Not seen any slow performance hits so far but all the 6,1 setups have been either d500/d700
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Go and manually download the latest AMD R9 14.9 drivers.
Use the installer to uninstall the previous drivers, then run Display Driver Uninstaller to remove any and all GPU driver remnants from the system.
Reboot, and then do a clean install of the new 14.9 Drivers.
http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html
Works extremely well on my system, and allows for ECC support, and 10-bit colour to be activated in the FirePro Control panel. It also has the latest Crossfire profiles for games.
I would also suggest getting MSI Afterburner and in it's settings disabling ULPS, which is what down clocks and disables the GPUs when they're Idle. This can result in micro stutter, especially in games.
Super advice, thank you all! I did the uninstall with the amd tool, and re-installed from the drivers from here: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop/bootcamp Then I used the auto-config for the video settings on the game ("Shadow of Mordor"), and performance is much better - even with the HD upgrade to the game. I have the dual FirePro 300 graphics cards (2gb ram), so I wasn't sure the "Shadow" HD mode would work, since that mode requires 6gb of video ram.
I have performance power mode enabled for this Windows system, so would it still be necessary to disable ULPS to get the best performance?
That's one thing I don't get with those drivers. How can you tell if there's a profile for a specific game, since after installation it comes with empty of profiles (if I'm not looking to the wrong place) ?
For instance, I've used the "always enable Xfire" option, and I've found that - although XFire was indeed enabled, judging from the fan noise and temps - a specific game (darksouls 2) was not using it (e.g. when I disabled it, I was getting the exact same FPS using the single card).
Or is there some other site where I have to download those pre-made profiles ?
ULPS usually gives more micro-stutter due to it trying to down clock the second GPU when it's not used much. Sometimes that can happen for split seconds in the game, cause lag spikes, and stutter.
So I personally always turn it off.
When you open the Driver Control Centre There's a TAB under Performance called 3D Applications.
This is where the profiles are, to see if your game has one Click the " + Add " button and navigate to the game .exe file.
If you then select the game .exe it'll either give you a pop up saying this game already has a profile, or it won't do anything.
If it does nothing it means the game doesn't have a Crossfire Profile.
Since you've then added the game, you can choose to force a specific form of Crossfire to run.
You do this by selecting an AMD CrossfireX Mode. AFR is usually the best bet for getting crossfire working in non Xfire support games, but it can cause a lot of flickering on screen, especially on water if the game doesn't support Alternate Frame Rendering.
There's also "Use AMD Pre-desired profile" where you can type in the name of a game, and if they have a profile for it, use that profile for your current game.
An Example of that is using the Borderlands 2 Crossfire Profile for Borderlands The Pre-Sequel. As both games use the same engines, and there's a very good chance it'll work for it.
If by then the game still doesn't use Crossfire, which you can check by using MSI Afterburner's On Screen Display to monitor GPU usage, VRAM, temps and such, it would be best to use your user created profile for the game to Disable Crossfire.
The MSI Afterburner OSD looks like this in game in the top left corner.
Sometimes if a game doesn't support Crossfire and you force it on you get Negative scaling, where you actually get worse performance with two or more GPUs than a single one.
So disabling crossfire in that game can help.
A very big "Thank you" for taking the time to make this super-detailed explanation.
/hats off
/bow
I'll try immediately the above.
I hope it all helps, and best of luck. AMD have been a bit lacks in their Crossfire Profile updates lately.
Turning off ULPS elimated last bit of stutter
I tried the method to turn off ULPS recommended here, and it worked like a charm to eliminate the minor bit of stutter left in the game. Next up, I'll try the Crossfire settings! Thank you!
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In order to keep the Bootcamp drivers from being overwritten by updates, I went to Control Panel -> Change device installation settings -> (check) Never install device driver software from Windows Update.
This seems to work, but I'm not sure it's the best approach since it covers all drivers, and since it would seem that Bootcamp should provide some way to get at least security updates automatically for Bootcamp drivers. I didn't see any info about that in the Bootcamp documentation.
Is there a better way to manage the Bootcamp dirvers other than turning off all Windows Updates for all drivers?
I tried the method to turn off ULPS recommended here, and it worked like a charm to eliminate the minor bit of stutter left in the game. Next up, I'll try the Crossfire settings! Thank you!
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In order to keep the Bootcamp drivers from being overwritten by updates, I went to Control Panel -> Change device installation settings -> (check) Never install device driver software from Windows Update.
This seems to work, but I'm not sure it's the best approach since it covers all drivers, and since it would seem that Bootcamp should provide some way to get at least security updates automatically for Bootcamp drivers. I didn't see any info about that in the Bootcamp documentation.
Is there a better way to manage the Bootcamp dirvers other than turning off all Windows Updates for all drivers?
You did the right thing, Windows Update doesn't provide anything relevant driver wise for Bootcamp and can just mess things up Horribly.
For Bootcamp drivers you can get them directly off the Apple website.
https://www.apple.com/ie/support/bootcamp/
Even so, you can to update you GPU drivers manually from AMD themselves, which is recommended if you want the latest Crossfire profiles for games.
Unless you have a Bootcamp driver issue, there's no need to ever really install new Bootcamp drivers. Unless of course you install a newer Version of windows, like 10. In that case though a clean Bootcamp install in the best solution.
Remember, Windows Update has nothing do do with Mac Pro specific drivers, and it'll just install what ever driver it's database matches to some hardware. Often horribly messing things up.
Even for custom build Windows PCs it's recommended to have Windows Update for drivers turned off specifically for the same reason. Even there you get the latest Hardware drivers directly from the hardware manufacturer.
Windows Update should only update Windows itself for you, and that is Security updates. They have no affect or affiliation with hardware drivers.
AMD FirePro Control Center was working, and not it will not start.
Trying to verify crossfire, at first I could not get the FirePro center to open. Then I re-ran the AMD driver (bootcamp) installer, and did a custom install. Then the FirePro center worked. It did have crossfire enabled. To be sure my game has it, I added the game in the 3d settings, and verified that it has crossfire.
I also used the Raptr app (installed by the AMD driver set-up) to optimize my game, since it has a huge button that prompts the user to do that.
Each time I finished changing the drivers, I ensured that ULPS was disabled, as per the above posts.
Game performance was disappointing.
I uninstalled per the instructions above (including the full uninstall utility: http://www.wagnardmobile.com/DDU/downloads.html ; that's the url that it directs the user to if there's a newer version available). Then I re-installed, and optimized the game as per above. I optimized again with Raptr. I disabled ULPS (I always do this). Game performance was disappointing.
Next, I uninstalled and re-installed, this time using only the AMD drivers. I did not optimize with Raptr. I could not get the FirePro control center to open, so I did a custom install of the AMD drivers. I still could not get the FirePro control center to open. I disabled ULPS.
Game performance is great again. It's Shadow of Mordor, running at unlimited fps and auto-config settings.
It would be cool to have the FirePro control center working (for example, set 10 bit color, if possible), but the message I get when I try to open it is that there are no configurable settings. When I did have it working, I noticed that the game misidentified my driver as a Radeon one, not the FirePro d300 driver. So perhaps it's not meant to work on my set-up (as before, Mac Pro mid-2014 with dual d300s, 32gb ram). Should FirePro control center work on this set-up, and if so, how to get it to work?
Also, it seems that Raptr's game optimization might need to be avoided. Perhaps it does not know about a dual d300 set up in the present configuration. Thoughts on why?
Trying to verify crossfire, at first I could not get the FirePro center to open. Then I re-ran the AMD driver (bootcamp) installer, and did a custom install. Then the FirePro center worked. It did have crossfire enabled. To be sure my game has it, I added the game in the 3d settings, and verified that it has crossfire.
I also used the Raptr app (installed by the AMD driver set-up) to optimize my game, since it has a huge button that prompts the user to do that.
Each time I finished changing the drivers, I ensured that ULPS was disabled, as per the above posts.
Game performance was disappointing.
I uninstalled per the instructions above (including the full uninstall utility: http://www.wagnardmobile.com/DDU/downloads.html ; that's the url that it directs the user to if there's a newer version available). Then I re-installed, and optimized the game as per above. I optimized again with Raptr. I disabled ULPS (I always do this). Game performance was disappointing.
Next, I uninstalled and re-installed, this time using only the AMD drivers. I did not optimize with Raptr. I could not get the FirePro control center to open, so I did a custom install of the AMD drivers. I still could not get the FirePro control center to open. I disabled ULPS.
Game performance is great again. It's Shadow of Mordor, running at unlimited fps and auto-config settings.
It would be cool to have the FirePro control center working (for example, set 10 bit color, if possible), but the message I get when I try to open it is that there are no configurable settings. When I did have it working, I noticed that the game misidentified my driver as a Radeon one, not the FirePro d300 driver. So perhaps it's not meant to work on my set-up (as before, Mac Pro mid-2014 with dual d300s, 32gb ram). Should FirePro control center work on this set-up, and if so, how to get it to work?
Also, it seems that Raptr's game optimization might need to be avoided. Perhaps it does not know about a dual d300 set up in the present configuration. Thoughts on why?
Avoid the Raptr app like the plague, it's horribly buggy and actually messes up game performance.
Also which AMD Driver did you install? The latest verified AMD 14.9 one works great on my Mac Pro with D700's, and I get a fully working FirePro Control centre.
When it comes to game performance it's best to play with the settings in game yourself, instead of using an app.
Also the games should see the driver As Radeon, and that's fine.
The Dxx series FirePros are odd ducks since they have FirePro features, but can use Radeon Crossfire.
I also had some issues at first getting the FirePro control centre working, but this was after upgrading or installing after the AMD Bootcamp drivers were on.
I solved that by uninstalling them using 14.9, then running DDU to remove the remaining drivers. Rebooting, then custom installing 14.9 without the Raptr app.
Since then I have everything working.
Today I played the Evolve Alpha in Windows and had no issues. The Game doesn't support AMD Crossfire yet, and it has negative scaling. MSI Afterburner showed only 15-45fps.
I ran the game in Borderless Windowed mode, which disabled Crossfire and then 1080p constant 60fps, even when recording the gameplay as well.
Once the video is done, I'll post it here as it goes through the 3D game settings and issues with Crossfire in it.
Evolve uses the CryEngine, which does support Crossfire, but so far the Alpha does not.
I really recommend using MSI AfterBurner to check performance, and only disable ULPS after you get the FirePro Control Centre working, as well.
NOTE: To get the latest AMD Crossfire profiles you do have to install their Beta Drivers: 14.9.2. It also have Mantle support for Civ: Beyond Earth.
Is this working on every game to your experience ? I've tried it on Dark Souls II and it wouldn't show up the in-game overlay info (the one showing the GPU utilization, fps etc). However, the Fraps fps overlay is working with the same game.
I've never had an issue with MSI AfterBurner showing in a game. Could be an issue just with Dark Souls possibly.
Latest drivers, ulps off, working great
I got the 14.9.x latest drivers as instructed above, and following the procedure given above, things are working better than ever. The graphics are noticeably smoother with the Crossfire on ("Crossfire X"). Thanks for the incredible advice here. I hope to make a how-to blog post out of this (with attribution to this thread, of course).
I have the dual amd d300's - Any tips on further improvements, such as if and where to set 10-bit color?
I got the 14.9.x latest drivers as instructed above, and following the procedure given above, things are working better than ever. The graphics are noticeably smoother with the Crossfire on ("Crossfire X"). Thanks for the incredible advice here. I hope to make a how-to blog post out of this (with attribution to this thread, of course).
I have the dual amd d300's - Any tips on further improvements, such as if and where to set 10-bit color?
If you could make a HOWTO about this I would totally have your babies. I confuse easily
Please link here when you do it. Maybe it can be stickied or something - I'm sure this is a widely-discussed question.
Hey mate, here's where in the FirePro Control Panel to enable 10-bit colour, and ECC. Note you monitor also needs to support it.
I'm very glad my instructions were able to help. Just remember to test run games with MSI Afterburner to see the performance, some games that don't support Crossfire can have Negative scaling, which dramatically lowers FPS. So in those you want to disable it via a custom profile. Also explained above.
Blog Post Done!
As mentioned above, I've finally made a blog post on how to set up a Mac Pro for gaming. I've linked to this thread as my main source of inspiration in the blog post: http://chrismbalz.typepad.com/compu...mac-pro-2014-into-a-roaring-game-machine.html
As mentioned above, I've finally made a blog post on how to set up a Mac Pro for gaming. I've linked to this thread as my main source of inspiration in the blog post: http://chrismbalz.typepad.com/compu...mac-pro-2014-into-a-roaring-game-machine.html
MSI Afterburner only showing one graphics card fully utilized
Crossfire is definitely turned on, but the GPU Usage graph on MSI Afterburner only shows one graphics card fully utilized (flatlined at top), with the other card being flatlined at the bottom of the chart. This is while playing "Shadow of Mordor", which definitely can soak up all the GPU available.
MSI Af. gets my graphics card type wrong as do some other programs mentioned above, so I am not too concerned about that.
But what else can I try to make sure that both my graphics cards are being fully utilized?
Crossfire is definitely turned on, but the GPU Usage graph on MSI Afterburner only shows one graphics card fully utilized (flatlined at top), with the other card being flatlined at the bottom of the chart. This is while playing "Shadow of Mordor", which definitely can soak up all the GPU available.
MSI Af. gets my graphics card type wrong as do some other programs mentioned above, so I am not too concerned about that.
But what else can I try to make sure that both my graphics cards are being fully utilized?
I followed the blog post and installed the latest bootcamp drivers provided by AMD. But I didn't see this Raptr program that people have said to avoid. Does that only come with the non-bootcamp version of the drivers? Is it recommended to try the non-bootcamp version to get the latest profiles? I just installed the drivers in the blog post that linked to the AMD bootcamp page. They are newer than what I had but still quite old.
I noticed that the latest AMD bootcamp drivers do not come with Raptr. As for non-bootcamp drivers, I cannot get them to install (I tried the AMD auto-detector and its installation of drivers from AMD).
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New question:Windows 10: I cannot get the AMD bootcamp drivers to install. I have tried the full uninstall procedure recommended above (uninstall with the amd installer, then use the special DD graphics driver uninstaller program (including rebooting in safe mode). And I've tried extra reboots/installs also. No luck. Any ideas out there?