Well, no, not really. But you don't want it to.
First of all, let me say yet again, that "GeForce Boost", or running the 9400M and 9600M GT as an SLI pair is NOT supported in hardware. This is because the 9600M GT would have to scale down so much to match the 9400M, the resulting performance would be worse than the 9600M GT by itself.
Ok, first, the pure awesome news: OpenCL really and truly does support both cards at the same time.
More specifically, it sees them both as two entirely distinct devices, alongside the CPU. This is actually better than an SLI pair, as the software is free to decide which chip it wants to put to work for it's particular task. What follows is my own tests, from some tools posted over at the Mac Pro board. You can get them here:
(note that oclinfo requires registration at InsanelyMac for download. If someone has another link to it, or wants to start a torrent, post it here. That's ok to do, oclinfo is released under the GNU GPL)
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/32266/opencl-benchmark
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=170796&st=0&p=1177815&#entry1177815
To install, unzip them and copy the executable file to your /usr/bin folder. (Use Finder's "Go to Folder" to get there, it will not appear normally. You will be prompted for your admin password). To run, simply open Terminal, type the name of the program and hit Enter.
NOTE: When posting your results, PLEASE enclose it with the
First of all, let me say yet again, that "GeForce Boost", or running the 9400M and 9600M GT as an SLI pair is NOT supported in hardware. This is because the 9600M GT would have to scale down so much to match the 9400M, the resulting performance would be worse than the 9600M GT by itself.
Ok, first, the pure awesome news: OpenCL really and truly does support both cards at the same time.
More specifically, it sees them both as two entirely distinct devices, alongside the CPU. This is actually better than an SLI pair, as the software is free to decide which chip it wants to put to work for it's particular task. What follows is my own tests, from some tools posted over at the Mac Pro board. You can get them here:
(note that oclinfo requires registration at InsanelyMac for download. If someone has another link to it, or wants to start a torrent, post it here. That's ok to do, oclinfo is released under the GNU GPL)
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/32266/opencl-benchmark
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=170796&st=0&p=1177815&#entry1177815
To install, unzip them and copy the executable file to your /usr/bin folder. (Use Finder's "Go to Folder" to get there, it will not appear normally. You will be prompted for your admin password). To run, simply open Terminal, type the name of the program and hit Enter.
Code:
1 OpenCL platform found!
[Platform 0]
Name: Apple
Vendor: Apple
Version: OpenCL 1.0 (Jul 15 2009 23:07:32)
Profile: FULL_PROFILE
[OpenCL-only Context]
3 OpenCL devices found!
[Device 0]
Name: GeForce 9600M GT
Vendor: NVIDIA
Type: GPU
Device Version: OpenCL 1.0
Driver Version: CLH 1.0
Compute Units: 32
Work Group Size: 512
Clock: 1250 MHz
Global Memory: 256 MB
Local Memory: 16 KB
Cache Size: 0 KB
Cache Line Size: 0 Bytes
Available: Yes
Double-Precision: No
Extensions:
cl_khr_byte_addressable_store
cl_khr_global_int32_base_atomics
cl_khr_global_int32_extended_atomics
cl_APPLE_gl_sharing
cl_APPLE_SetMemObjectDestructor
cl_APPLE_ContextLoggingFunctions
[Device 1]
Name: GeForce 9400M
Vendor: NVIDIA
Type: GPU
Device Version: OpenCL 1.0
Driver Version: CLH 1.0
Compute Units: 16
Work Group Size: 512
Clock: 1100 MHz
Global Memory: 256 MB
Local Memory: 16 KB
Cache Size: 0 KB
Cache Line Size: 0 Bytes
Available: Yes
Double-Precision: No
Extensions:
cl_khr_byte_addressable_store
cl_khr_global_int32_base_atomics
cl_khr_global_int32_extended_atomics
cl_APPLE_gl_sharing
cl_APPLE_SetMemObjectDestructor
cl_APPLE_ContextLoggingFunctions
[Device 2]
Name: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8600 @ 2.40GHz
Vendor: Intel
Type: CPU
Device Version: OpenCL 1.0
Driver Version: 1.0
Compute Units: 2
Work Group Size: 1
Clock: 2400 MHz
Global Memory (Total): 4096 MB
Global Memory (Host): 3072 MB
Global Memory (PCIe): 1024 MB
Local Memory: 16 KB
Cache Size: 3072 KB
Cache Line Size: 64 Bytes
Available: Yes
Double-Precision: Yes
Extensions:
cl_khr_fp64
cl_khr_global_int32_base_atomics
cl_khr_global_int32_extended_atomics
cl_khr_local_int32_base_atomics
cl_khr_local_int32_extended_atomics
cl_khr_byte_addressable_store
cl_APPLE_gl_sharing
cl_APPLE_SetMemObjectDestructor
cl_APPLE_ContextLoggingFunctions
[shared OpenCL+OpenGL Context]
2 OpenCL devices found!
[Device 0]
Name: GeForce 9600M GT
Vendor: NVIDIA
Type: GPU
Device Version: OpenCL 1.0
Driver Version: CLH 1.0
Compute Units: 32
Work Group Size: 512
Clock: 1250 MHz
Global Memory: 256 MB
Local Memory: 16 KB
Cache Size: 0 KB
Cache Line Size: 0 Bytes
Available: Yes
Double-Precision: No
Extensions:
cl_khr_byte_addressable_store
cl_khr_global_int32_base_atomics
cl_khr_global_int32_extended_atomics
cl_APPLE_gl_sharing
cl_APPLE_SetMemObjectDestructor
cl_APPLE_ContextLoggingFunctions
[Device 1]
Name: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8600 @ 2.40GHz
Vendor: Intel
Type: CPU
Device Version: OpenCL 1.0
Driver Version: 1.0
Compute Units: 2
Work Group Size: 1
Clock: 2400 MHz
Global Memory (Total): 4096 MB
Global Memory (Host): 3072 MB
Global Memory (PCIe): 1024 MB
Local Memory: 16 KB
Cache Size: 3072 KB
Cache Line Size: 64 Bytes
Available: Yes
Double-Precision: Yes
Extensions:
cl_khr_fp64
cl_khr_global_int32_base_atomics
cl_khr_global_int32_extended_atomics
cl_khr_local_int32_base_atomics
cl_khr_local_int32_extended_atomics
cl_khr_byte_addressable_store
cl_APPLE_gl_sharing
cl_APPLE_SetMemObjectDestructor
cl_APPLE_ContextLoggingFunctions
Code:
...........................................................
.................. OpenCL Bench V 0.25 by mitch ...........
...... C2D 3GHz = 12 sec vs Nvidia 9600GT = 0,93 sec ......
... time results are not comparable to older version! .....
...........................................................
Number of OpenCL devices found: 3
OpenCL Device # 0 = GeForce 9600M GT
Device 0 is an: GPU with max. 1250 MHz and 32 units/cores
Now computing - please be patient....
time used: 2.805 seconds
OpenCL Device # 1 = GeForce 9400M
Device 1 is an: GPU with max. 1100 MHz and 16 units/cores
Now computing - please be patient....
time used: 3.081 seconds
OpenCL Device # 2 = Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8600 @ 2.40GHz
Device 2 is an: CPU with max. 2400 MHz and 2 units/cores
Now computing - please be patient....
time used: 15.459 seconds
Now checking if results are valid - please be patient....
:) Validate test passed - GPU results=CPU results :)NOTE: When posting your results, PLEASE enclose it with the
Code:
tags, to make it easier to read!
As you can see here, the CPU, 9600M, and 9400M are ALL listed as devices! The two GPUs are available simultaneously, and the benchmark uses them one after the other. You will also notice, however, that when the device check is performed looking for combined OpenGL/OpenCL devices, the 9400 does not appear. As per usual, it is not available as an OpenGL device when the 9600 is running, and one more time...NEVER WILL BE. (I get sick of seeing Hybrid SLI threads here, if you couldn't tell.)
OK! Without further ado, let's get to benchmarking! Please post results from older (non-unibody) MacBook Pro's as well, and even other Apple laptops!
Also, sidenote: See how the 9600M GT is listed as 1.25Ghz? Meaning it isn't underclocked like some claim, at least not in it's max power state. It likely only underclocks at idle, or when running on battery.
