15" rMBP Mid-2012 : GPU performance under Bootcamp

[Metalsnake]

Hi,

I have an issue with my GT650M under Bootcamp (Win 7 64Bits, Pro Edition). Basically, the card can't perform well, even at factory settings (core clock speed of 900Mhz/memory clock of 2508Mhz).

During gaming, the GPU downclocks itself to 797MHz, then 725Mhz with spikes to 200Mhz, causing poor fps and massive stuttering.



What I've done so far :
- countless SMC/PRAM resets (with SMC update 1.1 installed)
- Throttlestop to prevent Turbo Boost for the CPU
- Lubbos Fan Control, with fans running at 5500 rpm
- fixed power state/clock settings with Nvidia Inspector
- High performance setting in Nvidia Control Panel and Windows Power Management
- Clean install of the latest Nvidia Drivers (driver cleaner under safe mode)

The only thing that seems to work, is to downclock the card with Core Clock Speed around 700Mhz and memory around 1000Mhz with Nvidia Inspector : lower FPS but no stuttering. Not optimal... and really far from default performance.

On the OS X side, I don't use graphic intensive applications but overall, the computer performs well, even under heavy load (several Win Server 2012 VM in VMWare for example).

Thanks for your help.
PS : Sorry for any bad grammar or spelling, I'm from France

 

[onerovico]

I have the same issue with a 2012 cMBP 2.6 GHz version.

I mean that this is a powersupply-Problem. Can you please try to verify if this problem also appears in OS X, for me it does.

Therefore you can download and run the GPU-Benchmarktool from geeks3d http://www.geeks3d.com/20121113/gputest-0-2-0-cross-platform-opengl-benchmark-furmark-lands-on-linux-and-os-x/#download and at the same time start a CPU intense task like video converting than the Intel Power Gadget should show you that your CPU does not clock to regular high turbo speeds.

In windows you would not see a throttling in GPU-Clocks if you would not set a constant/fixed CPU freq.

In my case when i do gaming in bootcamp and let the system decide about the CPU frequency the CPU clocks down to 1.2Ghz (game slowdowns)
and when i force a fixed CPU clock (for example with the tool ThrottleStop) than the GPU starts to clock down.


AND There where no issues before that one update!!

 

[Metalsnake]

I think I've read something about the Macbook / Power Supply not being able to provide enough power for both the CPU and the GPU running with default settings (Turbo for CPU and stock clocks for GPU) on the Anandtech forums.

Something really possible here, given the huge drop in voltage on the Nvidia Inspector monitoring graph. Like the GPU just can't have enough power to run at full speed.

Not sure about the timing, but I think that my rMBP was running better before the SMC update 1.1 : I was able to play Guild Wars 2 and Diablo 3 with pretty decent performance (On bootcamp, Win 7 64Bits too).

I'll run the benchmarking tool for OS X tomorrow, thanks for the link.

 

[onerovico]

The link to the AnandtechForum:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=35325843

 

[Metalsnake]

The link to the AnandtechForum:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=35325843

Yes, that's the one I found the other day. And that's not a great thing, in my opinion, since the only way to make it work is to reduce speeds to not get over the 85W limit...

I'll probably bring it to the Apple Store this week, see if they can test the GPU or the power supply.

 

[bioyuki]

I'm seeing the exact same issue as you:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1626310/

Metalsnake, what was your resolution?

 

[onerovico]

The only solution for me is to use ThrottleStop and set a "Low" multiplier for the CPU so that the CPU performance is enough for the game but the power usage enables the GPU to operate by full speed.

(In Bootcamp)

 

[Metalsnake]

I'm seeing the exact same issue as you:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1626310/

Metalsnake, what was your resolution?

I was playing 1680x1050 and then I created a custom resolution in Nvidia Control Panel : 1440x900 (like my old 15" non-retina MBP).

I did a bit of testing on bootcamp, with Aida64, the throttling seems to occur when the computer's power consumption reaches 80W. And I can't understand why, the power block is supposed to deliver 85W...

 

[bioyuki]

I was playing 1680x1050 and then I created a custom resolution in Nvidia Control Panel : 1440x900 (like my old 15" non-retina MBP).

I did a bit of testing on bootcamp, with Aida64, the throttling seems to occur when the computer's power consumption reaches 80W. And I can't understand why, the power block is supposed to deliver 85W...

Interesting, good to know, I'd love to see your data. My hypothesis is that it's thermal related?

I noticed that in OS X, when stressed, my GPU will hit up to 96C, and maintain a steady state at 95C. However, in Win8, the GPU will only hit 91 or 92C and maintain a steady state of 90C, so it seems like the throttling happens much earlier.

 

[Metalsnake]

Interesting, good to know, I'd love to see your data. My hypothesis is that it's thermal related?

I noticed that in OS X, when stressed, my GPU will hit up to 96C, and maintain a steady state at 95C. However, in Win8, the GPU will only hit 91 or 92C and maintain a steady state of 90C, so it seems like the throttling happens much earlier.

Here's the setup I'm running with : GPU Clock Speed : 675Mhz - Memory : 1000Mhz (Basically a GT540M). Throttlestop with CPU Multiplier at 22 (CPU clocks at 2,2GHz). And Lubbos with fans at full speed. And I'm playing the Steam Version of Payday 2 (Resolution : 1440 x 900 and High Details). If I put a higher clock speed on my GPU, throttling occurs. Playing like this, the temperature barely ever goes above 80C.

And with default settings, I notice throttling around 85C (GPU) and 90C (CPU).

But yesterday, I was playing Football Manager 2013 on OS X and I noticed stuttering during gameplay, for the first time with this game. (Which is really not a GPU intensive game). Running Intel Power Gadget alongside, I saw the CPU throttles down from above 3Ghz to a stable 1,1Ghz, while playing on sector. On battery, the CPU is running around 1,6Ghz.

This leads me to believe that the issue is not Bootcamp exclusive but on the hardware side (or SMC/EFI). Not a good news, with my warranty expired... I've seen the price asked by Apple for a motherboard replacement on your thread... Ugh.

PS : I'll update anytime soon with temps while playing under OS X and any useful screenshot

 

[DarkSel]

Curious.

You would think that if there wasn't enough power coming from the charger, the computer would start using the battery.

I really hope Apple can fix this with a software update.

 

[bill-p]

It's not the charger. It's actually a hard-imposed thermal limit that went haywire with one of the recent EFI updates.

I know because I've overclocked my GPU to 1GHz core clock... and I'm not using ThrottleStop or anything to prevent the CPU from going Turbo, and I'm not seeing any throttling either on battery or with charger connected.

In case you're wondering, I'm playing Diablo 3 at 2560 x 1600 with everything except shadows maxed out and Skyrim at 2560 x 1600 with mixed medium and high settings. Those aren't light workload by any standard.

 

[shadowyani]

Apple isn't doing anything for me about this issue since the problem can only be shown in Bootcamp. There doesn't seem to be any GPU frequency monitoring tools for OSX.

Anyone have any luck with Apple support? How'd you do it?

 

[Astirian]

Man... I am having the exact same issue, same symptoms verbatim, I've also seen a number of other posts with the same problem.

It seemed to occur around SMC update 1.1 alright. I thought 1.2 would be the fix but no. I'm about to check for dust as a last resort at this point.

Anyway to do an SMC rollback?

Bet you it's painful...

 

[iPhonePunker]

Its called thermal throttling the more stress its under the hotter it gets and the hotter it gets the GPU will starts clocking its self down so it can stay cooler and not damage its self. check how high your fans are running and buy a desktop I Laptops are not good for gaming even the gaming optimised laptops are terrible at gaming. they are are mostly built for convince on the go use not for high end usage so thats why I use my 2009 Mac Pro for 4K gaming (x2 quad Core Xeon 8 cores, 44GB 1066Mhz DDR3 Ram, EVGA GTX 980 SC, 900W PSU 200GB intel SSD for OSX and 2TB for windows) and my 2011 13" macbook air for internet videos and very light gaming.