Mac Pro 3.1 : Fighting the Bottleneck. Help Please

[fifthmanstandin]

Hi all,

Specs: I'm running bootcamp on a Mac Pro 3.1 in Windows 7. The system is the dual core 3.1 model @2.8 ghz, 16 gb ram and a newly installed Nvidia GTX 970 graphics card. I was previously running a GTX 760 Ti "factory overclocked edition".

Problem: 760 card was good to me but seemed to hover around 30-35 fps on any game I played for over a year. This week I installed the GTX 970 thinking the framerate issue would be solved. Obviously I'm an idiot. The GTX 970 is locked at the same 30 fps on just about anything graphically intensive. This is after verifying the graphics drivers are good and so far as I can tell, operating normally.

The Question: After doing as much research as google will allow me or my feeble conceptualization of query words, I cannot find anything about running the GTX 970 in bootcamp to get around what I have come to know as "the bottleneck". While I have a rudimentary understanding of "the bottleneck" it seems like every context this is mentioned in threads where mac pro's and graphics cards collide is in OS X and not bootcamp and almost immediately thereafter is a commenter telling the OP to install bootcamp. I want to believe that installing boot camp offers options around this, software or otherwise.

So. Is there a work around for this bottle neck without having to build a new computer? I've had this old thing for eight years nearly and I'm pretty fond of it.
Please help!

 

[h9826790]

Hi all,

Specs: I'm running bootcamp on a Mac Pro 3.1 in Windows 7. The system is the dual core 3.1 model @2.8 ghz, 16 gb ram and a newly installed Nvidia GTX 970 graphics card. I was previously running a GTX 760 Ti "factory overclocked edition".

Problem: 760 card was good to me but seemed to hover around 30-35 fps on any game I played for over a year. This week I installed the GTX 970 thinking the framerate issue would be solved. Obviously I'm an idiot. The GTX 970 is locked at the same 30 fps on just about anything graphically intensive. This is after verifying the graphics drivers are good and so far as I can tell, operating normally.

The Question: After doing as much research as google will allow me or my feeble conceptualization of query words, I cannot find anything about running the GTX 970 in bootcamp to get around what I have come to know as "the bottleneck". While I have a rudimentary understanding of "the bottleneck" it seems like every context this is mentioned in threads where mac pro's and graphics cards collide is in OS X and not bootcamp and almost immediately thereafter is a commenter telling the OP to install bootcamp. I want to believe that installing boot camp offers options around this, software or otherwise.

So. Is there a work around for this bottle neck without having to build a new computer? I've had this old thing for eight years nearly and I'm pretty fond of it.
Please help!

Is it possible that the bottleneck is actually at the CPU but not GPU? Especially if your FPS was locked to a specific number regardless which setting you use.

 

[fifthmanstandin]

That was my thought also. Which led me to the question of whether there was a way around that as dual quad cores @ 2.8 ghz should, theoretically, be capable of handling anything I throw at it. Through google I found the suggestion that it was the front side bus slowing down instructions to the GPU and bottlenecking (cpu side), but I don't know enough about it to properly assess the issue or make a plan to solve it.

 

[netkas]

For me, on 2008 mp with 2xquad @ 2.8 it's cpu limited as well

For example, in gtaV I can't get more than 54-55 fps with any in game settings on gtx980

But I don't complain beacuse I use 4k display and in most situations i'm gpu limited.

 

[fifthmanstandin]

How do you even get that many FPS? I'm lucky to tap 35 in something single player like fallout 4 on medium settings or witcher 3 on medium. I ran fraps last night just to test things and I never saw above 35.

Man....I really don't want to build a new box.

 

[netkas]

we are talking about different games, I didn't play these you named.

>Man....I really don't want to build a new box.

it's time, skylake is about 50% faster than our yorkfields at same clock.

 

[h9826790]

dual quad cores @ 2.8 ghz should, theoretically, be capable of handling anything I throw at it.

This is only true if the game is optimised to use all cores. However, from memory, I don't know any popular game that can actually use more than 6 cores. And most of game won't use more than 4 cores, that's why a normal gaming PC usually use a single i5, because that's most cost effective.

For gaming, clock speed is much much more important than core count.

 

[Fl0r!an]

There have been some threads on that subject here, most focusing on OS X gaming though (problem remains the same).

The bottom line was that some games (e.g. CS:GO) will be heavily CPU limited even on old GPUs like HD 5870, so no matter how much GPU power you throw at it, you won't gain a single FPS.
On the other hand, there are some games which need far less CPU power, thus scaling a lot better when increasing GPU performance (e.g. Metro: Redux).

I think there are Windows tools for overclocking your CPU (never tried that on any real Mac though). CPU performance will increase proportionally with clock speed, so you shouldn't expect any miracles, but maybe it's enough to improve the overall experience in some of your games.

 

[h9826790]

Also, in your case, try to avoid use standard setting, but manually lower all CPU intensive setting, but only push the GPU demanding setting. This will able to utilise more your hardware, and have better gaming experience overall.

e.g. For Witcher 3, reduce the object to display (more grasses will require more CPU cycle to calculate their motion, so lower it), but push the resolution as high as possible (because this will mainly push your GPU but not CPU).

 

[goMac]

Same thing everyone else said: It's the CPUs. You'll see some benefit to a better card, but you'll only get limited returns.

 

[MIKX]

On my 2,1 Dual Quad 3Ghz Mac Pro I bypassed Bootcamp completely. I installed Win 7 64 bit on a dedicated hard drive ( removed all other drives at install time - booted from teh Win 7 install disk ). Works well using a EFI flashed Vapor-X HD 5970 1 Gb ( factory overclocked ). This works very well on the rare occasions I need to use Win apps but I have not tested GPU grame rates yet.