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Faulty NVIDIA Drivers - Lets Get This Clear

T

thirtytwopaths

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 18, 2008
67
0
So..

It appears that 10.5.6 has messed up a lot of peoples performance under the 9600GT. I just took notice this afternoon when playing back the 1080p trailer of the "Journal" found here http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/watchmen/ . What is more interesting is playback is FINE when using the lower performance 9400m.

For those of you who would like to test this, watch this clip under "high performance" in energy saver preferences, and again under "battery saver". Post if the playback is choppy under either of the two.
Click on "Journal" then 1080p here http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/watchmen/

If this is true for all MBP owners, then there is either a driver issue here or a hardware issue. Lets use this thread to try and narrow this problem down and get a solution.
 
I have no lag in either cards. I used 1080p, running off the adapter.

Here's a screenshot while playing in the 9600GT card. See how Quicktime states I'm running at the specified FPS in the corner. Don't have a screenshot in 9400M yet. In fact, I'm late for class.

CPU is also at a low 25% both cores.
 

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Runs perfect on both M and GT off battery/power save mode. Zero issues.

I had 4 differnt HD 1080p video's running for 10m straight the day after I purchased this 17 UMBP last week after reading about the GT issues. I watch a fair amount of online video and HD everyday and zero issues with mine.
 
Thus far it sounds like the 17inch unibodys arent having any issues. Anybody with a 15 inch want to test this out?
 
I don't have that issue either. 15" MBP unibody, 10.5.6, NVIDIA Graphics Update 2009.
 
yup, it happens to me. 15" unibody MBP bought in Jan running the driver that was pulled by Apple.

playback is choppy using higher spec graphics chip and better using 9400 :confused:
 
have to say though I've just watched some other HD trailers on the same website at 1080p resolution and there is no choppyness.
 
What I can point out is that the issue only occurs when the 1080p file has a true 1080 resolution (1920 x 1080). The trailers that are "narrower" seem to not have any issues and are only a resolution of 1920 x 800 while the ones that almost take up the entire screen seem to suffer. Why they suffer only on the HIGHER performing card is what is baffling alot of users.

Here are some others that are true 1080p = poor playback on 9600GT.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/theinternational/ (1080p version)

http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/up/hd/ (1080p version)
 
thirtytwopaths said:
What I can point out is that the issue only occurs when the 1080p file has a true 1080 resolution (1920 x 1080). The trailers that are "narrower" seem to not have any issues and are only a resolution of 1920 x 800 while the ones that almost take up the entire screen seem to suffer. Why they suffer only on the HIGHER performing card is what is baffling alot of users.

Here are some others that are true 1080p = poor playback on 9600GT.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/theinternational/ (1080p version)

http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/up/hd/ (1080p version)
Click to expand...

Played both of these full screen on power, on battery, M and GT with it on the laptop screen and then again on my 24" ACD. Both video's play back perfectly, no stuttering, zero artifacts etc...

Ran them both at the same time every which way I could think of to try to get any ill effects. Zero, nada, none. Runs perfect on my 17 UMBP purchased last week. Not sure how to find the production date but picked this one up at a local Apple store.
 
I have no issues here either. I will say however, I got a Unibody MBP in October as soon as they were released and I did have like shuttering etc poor performance but I had to return if for different issues altogether. The one I have no is good to go (except 1 dead pixel) :mad:
 
perplexed as to whether or not this is a hardware or software issue. can anyone offer any insight?
 
I think it's driver-related and I'm going to use Expose as an example. If you do a search, there is a thread that explains users with the sluggish animations when using Expose or minimizing or maximizing their windows and there is a total difference between the smoothness (which it should be like) and then the one where it's no so smooth. I'm going to say everybody has it but don't really see it as "sluggish". I also tried this with all the Mac's they had in store and they all did the same thing. Using a Mac Mini at work, the way the Intel GMA handles Expose/CI/QE is way better - you don't get that sluggish transitions. Playing games in Windows is no problem so I don't think we can blame bad cards/chips. I'm pretty confident that if nVidia or Apple releases optimized drivers, the problem will go away. (Intel GMA is not a better card than the 9400M/9600M GT) Clearly it's a driver problem that I hope Apple fixes sooner rather than later.
 
What is interesting is if you download one of these trailers and play them through VLC, they playback is fine. Which is +1 for faulty software. Whats interesting is that there are some users out there who are not experiencing the issue..what updates or software changes do they have that we dont?

Are all the people experiencing slight choppyness using any 3rd party codecs (Perian)? Are the ones who are not having issues using the updated Nvidia driver that Apple released in January and then revoked?
 
15" UMBP here. Problem is present with 9600. Also seemed present on the 9400 but it was significantly better.
 
so far it looks like its only a problem affecting the 15" unibody mbp's. i am almost certain it is software related seeing as VLC can play back the files with no issues. On the other hand, could there be a problem with the hardware accelerated decoding on our cards??

Still searching for answers. If anyone with the issue has apple care and phone support, can they give apple a call and see if they can offer up an explanation?
 
thirtytwopaths said:
so far it looks like its only a problem affecting the 15" unibody mbp's. i am almost certain it is software related seeing as VLC can play back the files with no issues. On the other hand, could there be a problem with the hardware accelerated decoding on our cards??

Still searching for answers. If anyone with the issue has apple care and phone support, can they give apple a call and see if they can offer up an explanation?
Click to expand...

I suggest waiting for 10.5.7 to come out. In that build, it is very likely both the 15 and 17" models would have the same graphics drivers. Currently, there is a slight difference between the two models.
 
My MBP was built in February (CTO)...I don't know much about the specifics of what you are talking about but I just ran both of these videos using the dedicated card (9600) on my 24" ACD and they were perfect....
 
thirtytwopaths said:
so far it looks like its only a problem affecting the 15" unibody mbp's. i am almost certain it is software related seeing as VLC can play back the files with no issues. On the other hand, could there be a problem with the hardware accelerated decoding on our cards??

Still searching for answers. If anyone with the issue has apple care and phone support, can they give apple a call and see if they can offer up an explanation?
Click to expand...

I agree it has effected several people as per your link I've followed a couple different threads with the issue. People clearly have some graphic problems with their machines. Wish it was an easy problem to isolate as Apple doesn't seem to be taking the lead on this one with any announcements. Not that they ever would but.. :cool:

I hope they (Apple) come up with a fix for you and everyone with the issue, I know I would not be happy with this happening to my machine. Will update this thread if any solutions are posted elsewhere. Good Luck.
 
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