Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Jordan1990

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 17, 2015
46
0
Hi, new to this forum but im hopping someone can help me.

I have a Mac pro 5,1 which ive just bought a r9 280x for, it has been flashed and works fine with boot screen, showing correctly as an r9 280x in OSX Yosemite.

However i ran the openGL test in cinebench and the graphics card name didnt show correctly, im assuming it wasnt correct as i expected it to show the name of the card, but anyway it only came out at 44fps?? Which cant be right.

Are there any other tests i can do to test the card?
 

Stageshoot

macrumors regular
Oct 2, 2013
125
49
Central UK
As Stated

Unigine Valley Lots of results to compare against,

Most use the HD EXTREME Settings, from there you should be able get some good comparisons

I found with Cinebench 15, My GTX970 was giving the same results as my GTX750ti, VAlley shows the true difference in performance
 

Jordan1990

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 17, 2015
46
0
Thanks, Should i expect different results in OSX and windows?

My results where a total score of 1800 and a FPS of 43, Max FPS 72.7 and Min FPS 7.5 Normal?
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,614
8,546
Hong Kong
Yes, the result will be a little bit difference due to the efficiency of the drivers is different.

Your result seems very normal to me.
 

Stageshoot

macrumors regular
Oct 2, 2013
125
49
Central UK
Thanks, Should i expect different results in OSX and windows?

My results where a total score of 1800 and a FPS of 43, Max FPS 72.7 and Min FPS 7.5 Normal?

In Valley With the HD EXtreme Profile the GTX970 is giving
Total Score 1934, FPS 52, Max FPS 89.7 Min FPS 23.8

As far as i know results are higher in windows as has been stated due to optimised drivers. (Have not got windows installed to compare at the moment

The 280x does not seem to be far off the GTX970 apart from the "Min" Frame Rate Section
 

Jordan1990

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 17, 2015
46
0
Thanks for the replys.

How do i set it to the HD extreme profile? I will also try in windows to see what the difference is.

I bought the card to prolong the life of the machine for a bit longer, and also to be able to play GTAV when it comes out in March, which im hoping it will be able to do.
 

lexR

macrumors regular
Dec 12, 2013
210
23
UK
just got 2 gigabyte R9 280x and i think i have issues:
picture.php

they are flashed for mac but i have been trying to get one of them to work properly with my samsung U28D590 screen and its not happening, its working of sorts with my older monitor via DVI but its also seems to be loading up the ram and not clearing which is having some graphic glitches, first 2 on the left are of the 280x at different times loading the memory out, the one on the right is the GTX 770 i was going to sell but it works perfectly with the monitor at 4K@60z via DP 1.2... such a shame!!
picture.php
 

Stageshoot

macrumors regular
Oct 2, 2013
125
49
Central UK
Thanks for the replys.

How do i set it to the HD extreme profile? I will also try in windows to see what the difference is.

I bought the card to prolong the life of the machine for a bit longer, and also to be able to play GTAV when it comes out in March, which im hoping it will be able to do.

In the main screen of Valley set the PRESET from Custom to HD EXTREME in the drop down menu that will set it to the correct profile
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,614
8,546
Hong Kong
its working of sorts with my older monitor via DVI but its also seems to be loading up the ram and not clearing which is having some graphic glitches, first 2 on the left are of the 280x at different times loading the memory out,

I just think that Yosemite is good on using VRAM. Didn't realise it may be a fault. Anyway, it constantly use all my 7950's VRAM, but no such graphic glitches observed so far.

Screen Shot 2015-01-18 at 06.23.32.png
 

lexR

macrumors regular
Dec 12, 2013
210
23
UK
I just think that Yosemite is good on using VRAM. Didn't realise it may be a fault. Anyway, it constantly use all my 7950's VRAM, but no such graphic glitches observed so far.

View attachment 525390
picture.php

yeah just seems strange that the nvidia GTX 770 has nearly zero memory used during normal operation...

just did the valley benchmark on the GTX 770
picture.php


no patchy glitches on that screen shot... something just does not seem right with the Radeon cards, really hacks me off that the R9 280X exports the 5k benchtest in FCPX in 55 seconds yet the GTX takes 118 seconds but for EVERYTHING else the GTX and the nvidia drivers are far far superior and stable... well, for me anyway.
 
Last edited:

sirio76

macrumors 6502a
Mar 28, 2013
571
405
it only came out at 44fps?? Which cant be right.

That number is absolutely right. Your CPU lags in single thread performance therefore your GPU will be bottlenecked inside demanding pro 3D applications. Gaming benchmarks are a different story, they will just tell you how good your GPU is at gaming.
 

Fangio

macrumors 6502
Jan 25, 2011
375
473
10717
Another 280x @ 10.10.1, no glitches at all. OpenGL performance is slightly better than it ever was in Mavericks.
 

Attachments

  • OpenGL Valley 1.0 @ 280X & X5675 14B25 #3.png
    OpenGL Valley 1.0 @ 280X & X5675 14B25 #3.png
    84.9 KB · Views: 138

Jordan1990

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 17, 2015
46
0
Thanks for all the replies, good to know everything is ok. Im not mad for games but i like to play the odd one now and then.
 

jesusf

macrumors newbie
Nov 6, 2014
1
0
Another 280x @ 10.10.1, no glitches at all. OpenGL performance is slightly better than it ever was in Mavericks.

Could you please list the model you are using. I'm in the market for a 280X. Just trying to find the most stable one. Thanks.
 

MacVidCards

Suspended
Nov 17, 2008
6,096
1,056
Hollywood, CA
Graphics glitches are bad sign. It is either running wrong rom (flashed with existing rom, not one made for the card) or the card is faulty.

I guarantee one of those statements is it, seeing faults means errors are occurring. Will not get better.
 

Fangio

macrumors 6502
Jan 25, 2011
375
473
10717
Could you please list the model you are using. I'm in the market for a 280X. Just trying to find the most stable one. Thanks.
Check out these threads for reports, worth reading entirely

http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,7515.0.html
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1808938/

I'm using a Gigabyte Windforce rev. 2.0 (GV-R928XOC-3GD), silent fans, quite popular for flashing. Another model I've read good things about is the MSI R9 280X Gaming 3GB variant, tried & tested as well.
 
Last edited:

lexR

macrumors regular
Dec 12, 2013
210
23
UK
Graphics glitches are bad sign. It is either running wrong rom (flashed with existing rom, not one made for the card) or the card is faulty.

I guarantee one of those statements is it, seeing faults means errors are occurring. Will not get better.

What about the tread on Apple support stating the exact same glitches I'm having with OSX?

https://discussions.apple.com/messa...his weekend and see if that changes anything.
 

MacVidCards

Suspended
Nov 17, 2008
6,096
1,056
Hollywood, CA
Tell you what, when you find someone who was more experience with Apple GPUs I'll listento them. I've handled a few thousand and that image you posted is one of two things:

1. Running wrong rom. (Lazy flasher using rom found elsewhere, not written from existing card)

2. Defective hardware that will not ever get better.

If it isn't one of the cheaper newer ones, you can find out pretty quick. Move the bios switch to other position. You'll lose boot screens but more than likely you will have original card rom. If artifacts still there it's time for RETURN.
 

lexR

macrumors regular
Dec 12, 2013
210
23
UK
Well you are the guru when it comes to mac video cards, although i would just like to comment that i have been running mavericks all day today and have not seen 1 glitch and i have tried many things, the memory resets back down to a small level after being under load, bench marks are in line with others and similar tests i did under Yosemite (when working) I'm now running my Samsung 4K screen at 2560X1440@50Hz HiDPI and again no glitches at all, the BruceX benchmarks with a single R9 280X in 28 seconds compared to 55 in Yosemite, the whole system is a lot smoother however I've lost the new features that were in OSX 10...

for a test i install a fresh version of 10.10.2 on my SSD's and it was behaving for a while, i then ran FCPX and small glitches started to appear, i was able to make them disappear with turning on 'reduce transparency' but if i had FCPX running and was trying to do something else graphic based it would case major glitches (like previous posts i have made with large green blocks)

so for now I'm running OSX 9, the issue may be drivers, osx, my samsung display ... i don't know but it all plays nicely in mavericks so thats where i will have to stay for now...
 
Last edited:
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.