NVIDIA Releases Alternate Graphics Drivers for macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 (387.10.10.10.25)

[ReddestDream]

Do you still have the lag with .158?

Yes. See here:

So, with 156/157, the lag on my KBL hack (7700K; 1080ti) was far worse and my 2012 rMBP (3820QM; GT 650M) was also affected by lag when using the Web driver, but not the stock driver. Those drivers also seemed to cause sleep issues on both my hack and rMBP.

With 158, the lag on my KBL hack has improved. Sometimes even, when there is no lag, it even feels better than 104. But there is still some lag present, again mostly affecting WindowServer and native Apple applications as well as sometimes video playback. But there is no lag on my 2012 rMBP. So, I'd call it an improvement . . . maybe? But there does still seem to be something specifically affecting SKL+ hacks with Nvidia. Wonder if real SKL+ macs with Nvidia over eGPU are still having issues with 158 . . .

Now if you do "strings" on the GeForceWeb kext, you'll see that there are special processes that are specifically named in the driver, like Finder, WindowServer, loginwindow, Safari, etc. So, the driver is doing something special for them, but I don't understand what yet . . . I wonder if this is actually what is broken on SKL+ . . .

 

[flmmkr]

This lag issue is not limited to Hackintoshes. I have a mid-2014 15" MacBook Pro with GT750M GPU. I have severe lag issues in High Sierra when using the Nvidia web drivers. The problem is you can't use CUDA on this computer without the Nvidia web drivers. In Sierra it's fine with the default drivers, but not High Sierra. As soon as you install the Nvidia web drivers, CUDA works but the computer experiences slowdowns, pauses, and even complete crashes. Go back to default MacOS drivers and the computer works fine, but you can't use CUDA and OpenCL is ~50% slower than CUDA processing when rendering video.

This is purely a High Sierra issue where Apple has changed something that is severely hindering the performance and usability of their older computers with Nvidia GPUs. I've never needed to install Nvidia web drivers to use CUDA on this or any previous MacBook Pro with Nvidia GPU until High Sierra. I can't go back to Sierra either. I use iCloud and have upgraded my Notes with tables, my iCloud Drive family sharing, and my Photos library. So I'm stuck at High Sierra. I am working with Apple so hopefully they can figure something out. The issue is affecting my work.

If you check out the MacRumors forums you'll see there are others with MacBook Pros with Nvidia GPUs that are experiencing the same issues. You're likely not going to fix the problem by only changing settings in your hacks.

Fortunately my desktop hack with 1080TI is not affected, but leaving at 10.3.2 to be safe. No reason to update right now.

 

[ReddestDream]

This lag issue is not limited to Hackintoshes. I have a mid-2014 15" MacBook Pro with GT750M GPU. I have severe lag issues in High Sierra when using the Nvidia web drivers. The problem is you can't use CUDA on this computer without the Nvidia web drivers. In Sierra it's fine with the default drivers, but not High Sierra. As soon as you install the Nvidia web drivers, CUDA works but the computer experiences slowdowns, pauses, and even complete crashes. Go back to default MacOS drivers and the computer works fine, but you can't use CUDA and OpenCL is ~50% slower than CUDA processing when rendering video.

This is purely a High Sierra issue where Apple has changed something that is severely hindering the performance and usability of their older computers with Nvidia GPUs. I've never needed to install Nvidia web drivers to use CUDA on this or any previous MacBook Pro with Nvidia GPU until High Sierra. I can't go back to Sierra either. I use iCloud and have upgraded my Notes with tables, my iCloud Drive family sharing, and my Photos library. So I'm stuck at High Sierra. I am working with Apple so hopefully they can figure something out. The issue is affecting my work.

Fortunately my desktop hack with 1080TI is not affected, but leaving at 10.3.2 to be safe. No reason to update right now.

So, you have a MacBookPro11,3? That's odd because that's Haswell and the current trend on 158 is that the lag only affects Skylake and newer with Nvidia. Have you tried 158 on that MacbookPro or only 156? I had issues with 156 on my 2012 rMBP (MacBookPro10,1), but on 158, the lag seems to be gone.

Also, it's not a High Sierra issue; 104 continues to be relatively lag free on all platforms. It's something Nvidia changed with their 150-series drivers . . . The Webdrivers are kinda like Nvidia's beta drivers, and then usually with a major macOS release or even some point releases they sync back up with the stock Nvidia driver, san support for cards not actually used in real macs.

 

[flmmkr]

So, you have a MacBookPro11,3? That's odd because that's Haswell and the current trend on 158 is that the lag only affects Skylake and newer with Nvidia. Have you tried 158 on that MacbookPro or only 156? I had issues with 156 on my 2012 rMBP (MacBookPro10,1), but on 158, the lag seems to be gone.

Also, it's not a High Sierra issue; 104 continues to be relatively lag free on all platforms. It's something Nvidia changed with their 150-series drivers . . .

Yes it's a MacBookPro11,3. And I know it's not a hardware issue because I just went through the process of installing Sierra 10.12.6 on an external drive to test it and everything worked fine. CUDA processing using the default MacOS graphics drivers (and installing the CUDA driver) worked great with no issues at all. I don't think it's an issue with the hardware.

I had issues with lag on my MacBookPro since I think 156, but maybe the one before that too. Not sure. I have 158 installed now and it's terrible. It's been a problem for me since I needed to use CUDA on this computer in mid-late January. Before that the last time I needed to use it on this computer was last year. But I need it now and it's a problem. We shouldn't have to use a workaround to hack the driver installer to be able to install an older version of the driver that will work better. That's totally against Apple's philosophy and not every user knows how to do that.

I think it is a High Sierra software issue that Apple needs to fix. Why would we be able to install CUDA drivers in Sierra using the default MacOS drivers and have CUDA work fine, but then all of a sudden with High Sierra you can't use CUDA unless you install the web drivers? Not every user is going to know how to get those drivers either. It's not like they're easy to find on Nvidia's website. An average user can't go there or anywhere and specify that they have a mid-2014 MacBook Pro and just download the driver. You have to put in an obscure Mac graphics card in the selector and then get the driver, and nowhere does it say it's for that model of GPU. Or do a google search to find it. You can't even get the drivers from Apple's website and it's for their computers.

 

[ReddestDream]

Yes it's a MacBookPro11,3. [ . . .]

I had issues with lag on my MacBookPro since I think 156, but maybe the one before that too. Not sure. I have 158 installed now and it's terrible.

Interesting. I've been using the Webdriver on High Sierra with my 2012 rMBP and not had any issue except with 156 . . .

It's been a problem for me since I needed to use CUDA on this computer in mid-late January. Before that the last time I needed to use it on this computer was last year. But I need it now and it's a problem. We shouldn't have to use a workaround to hack the driver installer to be able to install an older version of the driver that will work better. That's totally against Apple's philosophy and not every user knows how to do that.

Yeah. I've also noticed that you need the Web drivers now to use CUDA. Maybe an older version of CUDA would work? Those don't check the macOS build version like the Webdrivers do . . .

 

[x130844]

So, you have a MacBookPro11,3? That's odd because that's Haswell and the current trend on 158 is that the lag only affects Skylake and newer with Nvidia. Have you tried 158 on that MacbookPro or only 156? I had issues with 156 on my 2012 rMBP (MacBookPro10,1), but on 158, the lag seems to be gone.

Also, it's not a High Sierra issue; 104 continues to be relatively lag free on all platforms. It's something Nvidia changed with their 150-series drivers . . . The Webdrivers are kinda like Nvidia's beta drivers, and then usually with a major macOS release or even some point releases they sync back up with the stock Nvidia driver, san support for cards not actually used in real macs.

the lag is VERY real on 8700k, 32gb = 1080ti. super slow UI. games and benchmarks are awesome, so I know the hardware is working well. just the UI and CUDA (Sketchup 3d etc) are super laggy. safari is super slow, takes over 1 sec to close the windows. scrolling is slow etc.

 

[nunziantimo]

Did anyone tried an older SMBIOS 14,2 with Skylarke/Kaby/Coffee?

As the lag is absent on the older Haswell platform, maybe using an older SMBIOS without NvidiaGraphicsFixup (so AGDP is untouched) will result in no lag.

 

[x130844]

Did anyone tried an older SMBIOS 14,2 with Skylarke/Kaby/Coffee?

As the lag is absent on the older Haswell platform, maybe using an older SMBIOS without NvidiaGraphicsFixup (so AGDP is untouched) will result in no lag.

i am using 18,3 and the lag is def. there. want me to test 14,2? would I lose anything with my hardware? (see my main beast build).

 

[x130844]

just tested it with 14,2 still crap. so I don't think that's the issue. At least for my machine.

 

[x130844]

This is with driver 104. macOS 10.13.3 (17D102) - latest cuda - Mac 14,2 definition