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Comparison GTX-770 in OSX vs Win >50% difference

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Jan 12, 2010
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Motherboard
GA-X58A-UD5
CPU
980x
Graphics
r9 290x + 6850
Mac
  1. MacBook
  2. Mac Pro
Mobile Phone
  1. Android
So just for s***s and giggles I thought I'd see if there was any significant difference between OSX vs Win for my GTX-770. Turns out there is a sizable performance difference. I'd love it if some serious techy could explain why. I know the 2 systems handle graphics differently and Win is Using DirectX11 and OSX is using OpenGL. But when it comes to what's happening inside the card I have little to no knowledge and would love to gain it. Both tests are on the same system, both booting from SSD. 4K screen running over DP.

Stats:
windows 1440p
score 891
min fps 15.9
max fps 79.3

OSX 1440p
score 641
min fps 6.7
max fps 64.8

windows 1080p
score 1579
min fps 17.7
max fps 133.9

OSX 1080p
score 1020
min fps 6.7
max fps 103.2

1440p difference 250 = 39%

1080p difference 559 = 55%

OSX GTX-770 bench 1080p Unique heaven 4.jpgOSX GTX-770 bench 1440p Unique heaven.jpgWin10 GTX-770 bench 1080p.jpgWin10 GTX-770 bench 1440p.jpg
 
Interesting stuff rabbit74.

But I would offer a word of caution. These Unigine benchmarks are kind of odd and misleading, especially on the the Mac.

I got caught up in the whole M290X vs M295X back in November when I got my 5k iMac and where there's a pretty typical 20% or so difference between the two in FPS across a range of games, the Unigine Valley benchmark rated them as just about the same. So, on the Mac it's a strange and unconvincing benchmark IMHO.
 
I agree with you. I never put much stock in benchmark numbers. But in this instance I was just really surprised to see such a wide spread.
For me real world feel is much more important than bench numbers. Which is a big part of why i use OSX, it's way nicer to use. The reason I ran the tests was because I spent a lot on that gtx-770 and was expecting more for my money I guess. It was always very clunky, slow, and glitchy in OSX. I ended up trading up to an R9-290x. Now the system is smooth, tight and lovely to use all the way up to 4k.
My experience has been that the nVidia cards are nice because they are plug and play... usually, but performance seems much better with ATi cards on OSX. Unfortunately they are not always plug and play, but if you're willing to put in the work you are rewarded with a better user experience.
 
There is quite a difference between OS X and Windows as far as how gaming cards perform.

OS X's graphics performance is reliant solely on OpenGL, whereas Windows utilizes OpenGL AND DirectX/Direct3D. On top of that, OS X uses older, stable OpenGL frameworks that are tried and true. This is why you see certain games that require 10.6.8 or above or 10.7.4 or above, because that is when they update the frameworks for OSX. Apple chooses to update the frameworks after they have been vetted and tested stable.

Truth be told - gaming graphics cards are made for Windows. They perform EXTREMELY well in DirectX/Direct3D and do very well with their own drivers in Windows with OpenGL as well. In OS X, however, they not only are using the operating systems built in drivers, which may not be fully optimized for the card like the Windows drivers are, but they are having to use older Open GL frameworks as well, which may not have the efficiencies of the newer frame works present in Windows, so the card has to, essentially, run less than efficiently or emulate links back to old Open GL code to produce the same thing that newer Open GL frameworks or DirectX code can do in Windows faster and better.

The trade off though, is that on cards natively supported by OS X, you rarely, if ever, see any graphics issues that aren't hardware related because the software and drivers that they are built on are rock solid.

The ONLY time OS X gaming comes close to Windows are in games that are written natively in OS X Open GL frameworks by the publisher. Blizzard and Valve are two who are very good about this. This allows the games on OS X to fully utilize (rather than emulate) the power of the graphics card to the extent that the Open GL frameworks present in OS X allow. Am I saying that World of Warcraft runs as well in OS X as it does Windows? No, because it is still using the older frameworks, but it is definitely a TON better than most OS X games and is way way way closer than a 50% difference in power (more like within 10% from what I have found).

This is also the reason most ATI cards actually perform BETTER in OS X, because they have better OpenGL performance than Nvidia cards traditionally. However, lately, Nvidia has been more "plug and play" for hackintoshers, so that is why you have seen that more lately.

Sorry for rambling, hope this was informative.
 
@Gordo74
Thanks!. Very informative. I'll explore and enjoy learning more about these differences.
Thanks again.
 
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