Editing AGPM to prevent GTX4XX Freeze

[Suixo]

Just a quick question, which I asked in other similar tread aswell,
does this fix means the card will significantly have more power usage? how this effects heating/power consumption?

Thanks

From what I conclude, yes. Instead of having 4 power states on your GPU (State 0 , 1 , 2 and 3), we have only States 0 to 2 where 0 is the highest and 3 the lowest power consumption state. The Freeze issue starts when state 3 comes up (when GPU idles).

Although I can see only states 2 and 1 in console log. Never state 0! And state 3 only shows up right after boot.

That might be why my GPU Fans are ramdomly speeding and slowing in normal computer usage.

Perhaps it only appens with me. But is strange why can't I get better scores on Cinebench than before the fix! Do I need to install Cuda drivers?

PS: My System is stable, fast and smooth like never before. I think theres a good change of beating my last attempt of Freeze/KP Fix. Going to 3 hours

If it operates at maximum speed all the time, can't it break at some point? or cause an over-heat in the case to other computer components over time? I mean, how viable is a card that operates at maximum power ALL the time??

It doesn't operate at maximum speed all the time. Like I said before, it changes between state 1 and 2 (the maximum is state 0) and never change to state 3 or 0.

I can't say what is the GPU temperature because no support for GPU temp sensor is available on OSX.

We got two problems: A little higher power consumption and lack of top speed. In the other hand we got no Freezes or KP. I believe that this is a temporary solution and a way to get to the final and ideal fix.

 

[el_charlie]

The power consumption is almost the same because the card is switching between states when needed.

Even if there were no switches, the card wouldn't fry because these cards never go above 60 or 70 degrees Celsius on full load.

My old 8800GT didn't have any power saving features and stayed all the times at the highest power state (on both windows and OS X) and it never reached 80 degrees.

What are we doing here is to avoid going into the lowest power state. It doesn't mean we're avoiding the switches. In fact, most of our cards doesn't even have 4 power states, only 3 and maybe that's what causes the freezes.

I had 2 freezes yesterday 20 minutes after playing Bioshock at higher settings and then using the browser (chrome) and a screensaver that uses my webcam to draw fire and water effects. I'm using my own edited kext but I'll try scorcho's one when I get home.

Cheers!

 

[Dnerve]

Greetings to all!

I'm running the build on the sig but I haven't modified AGPM's plist beyond the device ID both under Mac Pro 4,1 and 5,1 sectioms.

Before doing so I would like to know how come my Cinebench is so low compared to other scores posted here and there for similar builds and sometimes even slightly inferior.


I'm getting 18.97 fps. Either with 3,1 or 4,1 or 5,1 profiles.

Now I know that cinebench scales very well with higher CPU frequencies but it still does not justify some 25+ results i've seen around even with some 460's compared to my build.

To note I never experienced "Fermi Freezes" and AppleTyMCEDriver.kext is loading fine with no KP's whatsoever.

Any ideas regarding the Cinebench score and what are the values to edit properly AGPM to get the results listed here?

 

[scorcho]

It doesn't operate at maximum speed all the time. Like I said before, it changes between state 1 and 2 (the maximum is state 0) and never change to state 3 or 0.

I can't say what is the GPU temperature because no support for GPU temp sensor is available on OSX.

We got two problems: A little higher power consumption and lack of top speed. In the other hand we got no Freezes or KP. I believe that this is a temporary solution and a way to get to the final and ideal fix.

Hey - would you want to try out this AGPM.kext and let me know how it works for you? This should keep you more solidly in state 2, and trigger state 1 when you're watching a youtube movie or running an itunes visualizer. let me know how it works!

i'm using more aggressive numbers that keeps me locked at state 1, and enters state 0 whenever the GPU is being used for video decoding and 3D use. on my system, the constant switching between 2 and 1 when watching flash videos seemed to make my mouse lag as the card switched its timings. i found that performance was best when i kept the card at state 1, with occasional forays into state 0 as needed.

regarding my Cinebench scores - i have no clue how i'm still able to attain that. i did mod the chip/memory/voltage in the BIOS and reflash the card some months back, but only for the lowest two power states. not sure if that makes a difference with the speeds, though.

i'm also not hearing my video card's fan speeds change at all, though i have no way to verify this anyhow through osx. the rear exhaust of the card does blow out cool air, though.

 

[Suixo]

It doesn't operate at maximum speed all the time. Like I said before, it changes between state 1 and 2 (the maximum is state 0) and never change to state 3 or 0.

I can't say what is the GPU temperature because no support for GPU temp sensor is available on OSX.

We got two problems: A little higher power consumption and lack of top speed. In the other hand we got no Freezes or KP. I believe that this is a temporary solution and a way to get to the final and ideal fix.

Hey - would you want to try out this AGPM.kext and let me know how it works for you? This should keep you more solidly in state 2, and trigger state 1 when you're watching a youtube movie or running an itunes visualizer. let me know how it works!

i'm using more aggressive numbers that keeps me locked at state 1, and enters state 0 whenever the GPU is being used for video decoding and 3D use. on my system, the constant switching between 2 and 1 when watching flash videos seemed to make my mouse lag as the card switched its timings. i found that performance was best when i kept the card at state 1, with occasional forays into state 0 as needed.

regarding my Cinebench scores - i have no clue how i'm still able to attain that. i did mod the chip/memory/voltage in the BIOS and reflash the card some months back, but only for the lowest two power states. not sure if that makes a difference with the speeds, though.

i'm also not hearing my video card's fan speeds change at all, though i have no way to verify this anyhow through osx. the rear exhaust of the card does blow out cool air, though.

Thanks for the kext. I'm installing it now.

My Graphics Card is the Talon Attack of the 2 in this link.

I notice the speeding and softening of the Fans but no hot wind so it is probably fine.

Well after 5 hours, no Freezes of KP

Rebooting to try the new AGPM.kext

Thanks

 

[Dnerve]

[....]

i'm using more aggressive numbers that keeps me locked at state 1, and enters state 0 whenever the GPU is being used for video decoding and 3D use. [...]

Could you please provide those settings in code form like in the OP?

I'm trying to identify the changes I got to do under the mac pro keys that reflects the device ID of my GTX 470...

<key>Vendor10deDevice06cd</key>
				<dict>
					<key>Heuristic</key>
					<dict>
						<key>ID</key>
						<integer>0</integer>
						<key>IdleInterval</key>
						<integer>250</integer>
						<key>SensorOption</key>
						<integer>1</integer>
						<key>SensorSampleRate</key>
						<integer>4</integer>
						<key>TargetCount</key>
						<integer>5</integer>
						<key>Threshold_High</key>
						<array>
							<integer>93</integer>
							<integer>93</integer>
							<integer>93</integer>
							<integer>100</integer>
						</array>
						<key>Threshold_Low</key>
						<array>
							<integer>0</integer>
							<integer>97</integer>
							<integer>97</integer>
							<integer>97</integer>
						</array>
					</dict>

 

[scorcho]

sure. here you go.

				<key>Vendor10deDevice06cd</key>
				<dict>
				<key>Heuristic</key>
					<dict>
						<key>ID</key>
						<integer>0</integer>
						<key>IdleInterval</key>
						<integer>2000</integer>
						<key>SensorOption</key>
						<integer>1</integer>
						<key>TargetCount</key>
						<integer>5</integer>
						<key>Threshold_High</key>
						<array>
							<integer>85</integer>
							<integer>100</integer>
							<integer>198</integer>
							<integer>199</integer>
						</array>
						<key>Threshold_Low</key>
						<array>
							<integer>0</integer>
							<integer>70</integer>
							<integer>198</integer>
							<integer>199</integer>
						</array>
					</dict>
					<key>control-id</key>
					<integer>17</integer>
					<key>LogControl</key>
					<integer>1</integer>
				</dict>

 

[scorcho]

DoubleV - how long have you been able to run your system in the past without it freezing? Is 5 hours longer than it was before you installed the AGPM kext?

 

[Suixo]

DoubleV - how long have you been able to run your system in the past without it freezing? Is 5 hours longer than it was before you installed the AGPM kext?

5 hours since the install of the previous AGPM.kext and about 1h45m with the last AGPM kext that you provided.

The previous attempts to fix this I get about 1 to 2 hours max. I notice that with this fix there's no lag in dock and errors in "fullscreening" youtube videos.

I must say that the last kext is keeping my GPU fans lower than before and the system keeps very stable and smooth.

Thanks again scorcho

 

[scorcho]

The previous attempts to fix this I get about 1 to 2 hours max. I notice that with this fix there's no lag in dock

nice! that means that the kext is working to keep your card away from its lowest state, which clocks the chip and memory to 50mhz and 100mhz respectively. that explains the lag we see in these cards when idle.

could you provide a screenshot of your console that is filtered with AGPM? i'd like to see how your card states look with the latest kext. thanks! my only concern is that, with enough time idling at state 2, you may notice that the card will ever so occasionally dip into the state 3 for a brief while.