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Nvidia choppy Launchpad under heavy Safari usage on HiDPI above 1080p

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Feb 25, 2012
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Motherboard
GA-Z370N-WIFI
CPU
i5-8600K
Graphics
RX 460
Mac
  1. MacBook Pro
  2. Mac mini
Mobile Phone
  1. Android
  2. iOS
I'm running GT 1030 video card with Nvidia Web Drivers (the only option for this card), and launchpad is sometimes choppy at high resolutions, which can usually be solved by going to lower resolution, and back.

It doesn't happen often on 1080p@60Hz HiDPI and when it does, I can be sure that going to 1080p@60Hz and getting back to 1080p@60Hz HiDPI will fix it.

But it happens very often at 1440p@60Hz HiDPI (which is my primary resolution) and when going to 1440p@60Hz and back, usually it doesn't remove lag entirely and quite often it doesn't fix it at all.

1440p@30Hz HiDPI is better, but lag is still there.

I can expect this has something to do with video card power management, although I have applied "GFX0 to IGPU" / "PEGP to GFX0" / "PEG0 to GFX0" dsdt fixes. My PSU is only 200W, but my system should not consume more than that, based on what I get from online calculators. When issue happens, GPU temperature is about 40°C (104°F)

I did some googling and I can see a lot of similar issue mentions (including people running AMD video cards and different OSX versions and even real Macs), but not much solutions except useless suggestions like to repair permissions or to play with inject clover options, which didn't help anyone.

I wonder if anyone is at least familiar with the issue, and if there is specific OSX version / hardware combination that doesn't have this problem.

Update: Just noticed that issue is not there when all apps are closed, and I get heavy launchpad lags after opening Safari with few dozen tabs. And when I close Safari, lags are gone without changing resolution
 
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OP get a cheap RX560 if you're using something like a 1030. They should be somewhat equivalent in terms of performance.

Save the headaches. I had to move down from 980Ti SLI to RX560 due to High Sierra stuttering. I can't even game or use CUDA like I used to with nVidia, but I don't mind for now.

Now on this RX560 it's probably the smoothest I've ever seen macOS in the last 2 years.
 
OP get a cheap RX560 if you're using something like a 1030. They should be somewhat equivalent in terms of performance.
Are you saying AMD cards have no such problem? Or this card specifically? Are you running 1440p HiDPI?

Btw, changing video card is a big problem for me, I need something consuming only 30W power, and preferably 19mm thin, so that I can stick it into my iMac build.

I can live with larger thickness (I can just keep video card handing outside of the case, like I do right now), but using more powerful PSU would require changing the case entirely (even 200W PSU I am running is pretty much impossible to get of same size), and I don't think there is any other case I could stick with the monitor, even if I change monitor as well.
 
No problems with AMD card. I got angry at High Sierra issues like many others and just went out and bought an RX560 4GB. Literally runs like butter. I can fly around the OS like I used to in El Capitan and Snow Leopard. I always have a Wacom tablet connected and it's so smooth it makes me super happy.

However, I don't have a 4k monitor to test here for you, but I am running dual monitors:

1: 2560x1440@60
2: 1920x1200@60

I'm not sure if it's running HiDPI. They are both Apple displays.

I am holding off until Apple (and nVidia) fixes this issue, High Sierra is unusable for me with nVidia.

You can get a RX570 or RX580, they work OOB with WhateverGreen.kext, Lilu.kext, nVidiaGraphicFixup.kext (to get rid of black screen on second display on 17,1 SMBIOS).

I got an XFX RX560, but XFX in general has issues so I flashed it with a Sapphire VBIOS with ATIFlash under Windows (very easy).

For other brands you don't have to do this.

You probably need something like this to fit in your very cool little build:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072J422CZ/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

Your other option is using the iGPU which works very smoothly (much smoother than nVidia, but less smooth than my RX560 from my tests). You have to remove disconnect your nVidia card though. And there are issues with 2nd monitors if you are going to use iGPU. The iGPU option costs you nothing so worth a shot.

There is also the Radeon 550, but I haven't seen anyone use that on a Hackintosh (I didn't do much research). But it's still single slot and not 100% sure it works OOB.

BTW Sierra had no such lag issues with nVidia. Some minor glitches but nothing this big like we have in High Sierra. It's been confirmed by many users.
 
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Well, I do get a lag there even when using low resolutions, which allow launchpad work fine unless viewing water demo same time. It doesn't look like water demo lag (very short and happens with same interval) is related to the issue.
My GTX 970 works fine with High Sierra + web drivers. No lag or any other issues. I could make a video of the web GL water demo. Edit: attached.
 

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However, I don't have a 4k monitor to test here for you, but I am running dual monitors:

1: 2560x1440@60
2: 1920x1200@60

I'm not sure if it's running HiDPI. They are both Apple displays.

You can't have HiDPI without 4K monitor. HiDPI doubles resolution you choose on hardware level.
When running two monitors with these resolutions (not HiDPI) I don't get any lag.

Your other option is using the iGPU which works very smoothly
iGPU can't do 1440p HiDPI
 
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