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Audio Decoding KILLS MacPro (2009) green factor

Ok im back at my Mac Pro so shall test my test results together along with this fan control software!

On a brighter side i've just managed to hit 100Mb/sec sustained between two 1TB HDs :p
 
Concorde Rules said:
Application 1: VMware Fusion 3.0.1 and Windows 7 x64
Test 1: Booting from Bootcamp partition, timing starts when I hit enter after entering password to unmount the HD. When Windows Live Messenger opens, restart from the Start menu. Once Windows Live Messenger starts again then Quit VMWare fusion, timing stops when VMWare Fusion disappears from the dock.

Results
1. 4 Minutes 55 Seconds
2. 5 Minutes 30 Seconds (+12.2%)
3. 5 Minutes 38 Seconds (+14.6%)
4. 4 Minutes 56 Seconds (0.3%)

Application 2: Lightroom 2.6
Test: Export 1535 40D JPEG images to 1080p, 100%, sharpened JPEGs. Timing starts when you click "export" Finishes when lightroom says its done :p

Results
1. 16 Minutes 36 Seconds
2. 20 Minutes 10 Seconds (+21.5%)
3. (Can't be bothered! Takes too long!)
4. (Can't be bothered! Takes too long!)

Application 3: Quicktime 7
Test: Using 1525 1080p JPEGs, time to encode from hitting "Save" from the export menu into a 1080p, 10Mbit H264 mov file. Timing stops when it finishes.

Results
1. 7 Minutes 24 Seconds
2. 8 Minutes 33 Seconds (+11.9%)
3. 8 Minutes 39 Seconds (+16.9%)
4. 7 Minutes 22 Seconds (-0.5%)

Application 4: Cinebench in OS X
Test: Cinebench scores

Results - 1 Thread
1. 3575
2. 2727 (-23.7%)
3. 2716 (-24.0%)
4. 3563 (-0.3%)

Results - 8 Threads
1. 14,468
2. 13,535 (-6.4%)
3. 13,826 (-4.4%)
4. 14,446 (-0.2%)

Results - Open GL
1. 6395
2. 5161 (-19.3%)
3. 5025 (-21.4%)
4. 6230 (-2.6%)


So as we can see, major, major issues...
Click to expand...
OUCH! :(
 
Concorde Rules said:
Right, here we go:

Application 1: VMware Fusion 3.0.1 and Windows 7 x64
Test 1: Booting from Bootcamp partition, timing starts when I hit enter after entering password to unmount the HD. When Windows Live Messenger opens, restart from the Start menu. Once Windows Live Messenger starts again then Quit VMWare fusion, timing stops when VMWare Fusion disappears from the dock.

Run 1: No Audio or FW800 Hard disk
Run 2: Audio + No FW800 Hard disk
Run 3: No Audio + FW800 Hard disk plugged in and copying 172Gb of videos to an internal HD 4.
Run 4: No Audio or FW800 Hard disk (Repeat of Run 1)

Results
1. 4 Minutes 55 Seconds
2. 5 Minutes 30 Seconds (+12.2%)
3. 5 Minutes 38 Seconds (+14.6%)
4. 4 Minutes 56 Seconds (0.3%)



Application 2: Lightroom 2.6
Test: Export 1535 40D JPEG images to 1080p, 100%, sharpened JPEGs. Timing starts when you click "export" Finishes when lightroom says its done :p

Run 1: No Audio or FW800 Hard disk
Run 2: Audio + No FW800 Hard disk
Run 3: No Audio + FW800 Hard disk plugged in and copying 172Gb of videos to an internal HD 4.
Run 4: No Audio or FW800 Hard disk (Repeat of Run 1)

Results
1. 16 Minutes 36 Seconds
2. 20 Minutes 10 Seconds (+21.5%)
3. (Can't be bothered! Takes too long!)
4. (Can't be bothered! Takes too long!)



Application 3: Quicktime 7
Test: Using 1525 1080p JPEGs, time to encode from hitting "Save" from the export menu into a 1080p, 10Mbit H264 mov file. Timing stops when it finishes.

Run 1: No Audio or FW800 Hard disk
Run 2: Audio + No FW800 Hard disk
Run 3: No Audio + FW800 Hard disk plugged in and copying 172Gb of videos to an internal HD 4.
Run 4: No Audio or FW800 Hard disk (Repeat of Run 1)

Results
1. 7 Minutes 24 Seconds
2. 8 Minutes 33 Seconds (+11.9%)
3. 8 Minutes 39 Seconds (+16.9%)
4. 7 Minutes 22 Seconds (-0.5%)



Application 4: Cinebench in OS X
Test: Cinebench scores

Run 1: No Audio or FW800 Hard disk
Run 2: Audio + No FW800 Hard disk
Run 3: No Audio + FW800 Hard disk plugged in and copying 172Gb of videos to an internal HD 4.
Run 4: No Audio or FW800 Hard disk (Repeat of Run 1)


Results - 1 Thread
1. 3575
2. 2727 (-23.7%)
3. 2716 (-24.0%)
4. 3563 (-0.3%)

Results - 8 Threads
1. 14,468
2. 13,535 (-6.4%)
3. 13,826 (-4.4%)
4. 14,446 (-0.2%)

Results - Open GL
1. 6395
2. 5161 (-19.3%)
3. 5025 (-21.4%)
4. 6230 (-2.6%)


So as we can see, major, major issues...

Image 1:
Here I am copying 172Gb of video files to one of the internal HDs...
http://www.thunder-keep.co.uk/site/macproissue/fw800hd_test.jpg

Image 2:
Here is the temperatures from tests 1&2.
http://www.thunder-keep.co.uk/site/macproissue/VMWare3_tests_1&2.jpg

Image 3:
Temperatures at idle 100% and 800% load, with iTunes playing at the end.
http://www.thunder-keep.co.uk/site/macproissue/cputemperatures.jpg
Click to expand...

NICE WORK!! Hopefully this will silence the "everything is fine" crowd...
 
i was bored so i sent an email to Sjobs@apple.com, it most probably wont work but worth a shot.

Dear Steve

I'm emailing you on behalf of myself & the Mac Pro 2009 owners. The Reason for emailing you is to make you aware of a Major bug on the 2009 Mac Pros which was noticed around October 08. The bug that a large majority of Mac Pro 09 users are reporting is regarding audio playback & Audio Devices with there Mac Pro 2009. Users are reporting ambient temperatures between 25c-30c however after 2-15 minutes of just playing back a song from Itunes temperatures increase to 50-90c which is very alarming for very light usage. A number of Hardware Monitoring tools are reporting all cores are 1% usage or less whilst these temperatures are hitting 90 degrees. Unfortunately this is a side affect of the most worrying problem. whilst playing any Audio power consumption increases to 50w for playing a simple Audio file, which does not fit your strive to be a great leader in being Green.There are also other ways of reproducing this problem. which include: plugging in any external Audio Device, Copying Data over firewire & opening professional applications like Logic. Some People have took there Mac Pro 09 to the store due to the high temperatures & Kernel Panics & to be told "there within there limits" or they could not reproduce the problem.

I'm unsure if you was aware of this major problem but a large number of Mac Pro 09 users are very unhappy that has took so long for apple to confirm there is a problem or if there is a fix in the works.

Please Refer to the following Forum Threads that have collected large amounts of Data including temp readings (software & hardware), Power consumption readings.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/795966/ - Mac Rumors

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2228019&start=0&tstart=0 - Your very own Forum.

Regards
Samuel G
Click to expand...
 
Smogsy,

Good work.. I have done the same, and I know at least a few others emailed as well. I highly doubt you will receive a response, but if enough of these get to them, they will notice.
 
Concorde Rules said:
Will work on your fan control software soon! Getting late here atm!
Click to expand...

I'm looking for it too ;)


BTW, did you try the FW transfer on another Mac with the same kind of file ? Maybe the two problems are not related and a performance hit copying such an huge file is "normal".
I can't do it (don't have files bigger than 5-8 Gb), but I would like to try on a MBP or a MP '08.
 
Max(IT) said:
I'm looking for it too ;)


BTW, did you try the FW transfer on another Mac with the same kind of file ? Maybe the two problems are not related and a performance hit copying such an huge file is "normal".
I can't do it (don't have files bigger than 5-8 Gb), but I would like to try on a MBP or a MP '08.
Click to expand...

Macbook Pro doesn't do it and it was a range of 1-7Gb Video files :)

Also, my Mac Pro has Kernel Panic'd twice now :/

This doesn't boad well at all!
 
Concorde Rules said:
Macbook Pro doesn't do it and it was a range of 1-7Gb Video files :)

Also, my Mac Pro has Kernel Panic'd twice now :/

This doesn't boad well at all!
Click to expand...

Oh no! Welcome to my nightmare. Apple will tell you that unless it is kernel panicking due to an Apple program, they're not responsible.

At the moment, the only way I can maintain stability, is to use smcFanControl and set the BOOSTA fan speed to idle at 1500.

I hate this machine..
 
smacman said:
Oh no! Welcome to my nightmare. Apple will tell you that unless it is kernel panicking due to an Apple program, they're not responsible.

At the moment, the only way I can maintain stability, is to use smcFanControl and set the BOOSTA fan speed to idle at 1500.

I hate this machine..
Click to expand...


Mine crashed twice, at idle. So its not any non apple app!

Edit:

App: http://www.thunder-keep.co.uk/site/macproissue/MP2009CPUFancontol.zip
Image showing the effect: http://www.thunder-keep.co.uk/site/macproissue/fancontrol.jpg

You can see full load, then the app started, fan increase to 1500RPM, then idle again :)
 
I really feel bad for all the people that wasted money on buying this machines.
I'm glad i do my homework before buying anything and i was able to stay away from Apple untill this machines are fixed.
IMHO i think that the vast majority of people that buy OEM pc's ( like mac's) don't actually bother to run tests on their machine to verify if they are running has they should, in other words if only 2 out of 100 people noticed this problem Apple will not do anything about it.
Maybe they will need to have a mass worldwide recall on all this machines lol?
You know how much that will cost them?
They are better off just ignoring you guys and maybe change a cpu here and there wile under warranty.
If i had bought a Mac 3 weeks ago and then saw this i would of went back to the store smashed in theyr face and returned it for a full refund.
I saw on another thread that someone got a response from Apple saying " unless you download music from Itunes we don't support it."
Rofl you should of told him off , i believe it's important to stay calm and remain civil but something like that would just piss me off.

Anyways i saw this on Apple.ca

"When you buy a PC, you’re buying hardware from one company and an operating system and software from other companies. Not so with a Mac. Because Apple builds both the computer and the software that comes with it, they’re literally made for each other. This means that a Mac rarely freezes or crashes. Occasionally an application might quit, but it won’t affect the rest of your system. And Mac OS X resists most viruses, so you can do anything — without worrying about losing everything."

Nice try Apple and thanks to MacRumors i saved 4000$ canadian dollars.
I suggest that anyone that bought a mac pro 2009 recently to return it and to spam this infos on has many mac forums that you can find.
The only way you will get the attention of Apple is by dropping theyr sales.

Good luck.

PS I would also make a few YouTube videos illustrating this problem to try and catch people attention, just posting on forum will not do much unfortunately and if Apple will fix this problems ( and that is a big IF) it will probably be done on the 2010 Mac Pro's and you guys will be stuck with a defective machine with no warranty.
You have to look at the extent of this problem has a whole and not individually ( sorry for my bad englsih but it's a second language for me=)) , the individual customer wasted what? 3000$ on this machines?
But all the people that bought a 2009 Mac Pro world wide will ammount to millions of dollars and that is unacceptable and they should not get away with it so easily.
N1 rule in any business " The customer is always right".
 
this thread is huge

so these Q might have been answerd somewhere.. still..

as a would-buy-macpro2010-guy:

is that an audio problem or an itunes problem? what happends when you use an alternative mp3 player?!?
 
parakiet said:
this thread is huge

so these Q might have been answerd somewhere.. still..

as a would-buy-macpro2010-guy:

is that an audio problem or an itunes problem? what happends when you use an alternative mp3 player?!?
Click to expand...

*ANY* Audio source/sounds ANYTHING causes this problem in ANY app.

I've disabled system sounds and use my Macbook Pro to play audio because that uses <10W with the screen off.

So basically. They are seriously buggered.
 
Concorde Rules said:
Please keep me updated.

84C was the highest my MP went with the room at about 14C.

In the summer I remember it being 95+C!
Click to expand...

It's early, but I think you have successfully modified this software to work nicely with our Mac Pros. I have noticed a couple of minor issues so far as follows:

1) System Preference Pane is 32bit, so launching it within my 64bit kernel requires System Preferences Quit and Relaunch. (Not really an issue)

2) After install and initial testing, I decided to reboot and test. After reboot, I got a message that the Library/StartupItems/FanControlDaemon could not start. I changed the FanControlDaemon folders ownership to root and all was well again.

I am now tweaking with the settings to find a reasonable fan logic that will keep my CPU cool enough to prevent kernel panics under load, but not be overly aggressive at the same time.

Thanks again CR! And many thanks as well for taking the time to conduct the tests above. I look forward to hearing what Apple says, although I am prepared for another disappointing and nonsensical response.
 
smacman said:
It's early, but I think you have successfully modified this software to work nicely with our Mac Pros. I have noticed a couple of minor issues so far as follows:

1) System Preference Pane is 32bit, so launching it within my 64bit kernel requires System Preferences Quit and Relaunch. (Not really an issue)
Click to expand...

I think that will be the same using a 32bit kernel (it's the same with FanControl), because the System Preference Panel is a 64bit application.

BTW, why do you use a 64bit kernel ? Did you perform the same test with the 32bit kernel, just to check if temperatures are different and if your MP is more stable ?
 
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