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UI Stuttering with 4K Monitor

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Joined
May 5, 2012
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Motherboard
Asus Maximus X Code
CPU
Intel i7-8700k
Graphics
Gigabyte Aorus Radeon RX580
Mac
  1. MacBook
  2. MacBook Pro
  3. Mac Pro
Mobile Phone
  1. iOS
Hi,

So I recently purchased a LG 4k monitor to add to my setup. My previous monitor configuration was with 1x LG monitor operating at 1920 x 1080, 1x Apple Cinema Display operating at 1680 x 1050, and a Asus Display operating at 2560 x 1440. All of this is being driven by a single Gigabyte GTX 960. In this configuration my old setup ran great and I had no issues what so ever.

When I received my new 4k monitor I decided to replace my Apple display leaving my with the new configuration of 1x LG monitor operating at 1920 x 1080, 1x LG 4k monitor running at 3840 x 2160 (scaled to 2560 x 1440), and a Asus Display operating at 2560 x 1440. All of this still being driven by a single Gigabyte GTX 960. In this configuration my system had noticeable lag and slow UI functionality, and even when watching videos or movies my system would output about 25fps, leaving for dropped frames and a very unsatisfied user.

So being a hardware guy I natural thought that my single GTX 960 was just no match so I went ahed and ordered another to run in SLI to improve performance. For the most part the addition of the second card fixed my issues with playing back movies or watching youtube videos but I still am having a ungodly amount of UI lag and stuttering, mostly when moving windows around, switching desktops, or launching mission control. It has left me with spending a extra $200 for a system that still refuses to work.

So is there something I am missing here? Has anyone else had the same issue? I could really use some expert advise on this one. Thanks!

P.s. I run Mac OS 10.10.5 on my x99 build with a Intel Core i7- 5620K on a Asus Rampage V with 16 GB of DDR4 Ram and the OS is on a Samsung SSD.

Thanks!
 
OS X doesn't support SLI. Attaching your displays to two graphics card might lower the load, but I guess you won't gain a lot.

Personally I'm not using any HiDPI displays, but I know that OS X' HiDPI scaling is quite inefficient, because it leads to very high internal resolutions (in your case: 2560x1440 (HiDPI) equals 5120x2880, which gets scaled down to 3840x2160 afterwards). This can cause quite heavy stuttering/lags when the system has to render animations.

I think that has been improved in El Capitan and should improve further in macOS Sierra, when Apple finally leverages Metal for UI rendering.
 
Ok that is good to know. So I guess my best plan of action is to update my OS to El Cap ( which admittedly I have been neglecting to do, I am really comfortable with Chimera and how to set up a X99 system using Chimera, and Clover is still very new to me. And I am unsure about my systems ability to operate on El Cap, I know that x99 systems where having problems on 10.11.0 and .1, but I haven't heard if those issues have been resolved.)

I guess if SLI is not supported it is probably best I return the card and save me $200.

Do you know of anyone having similar issues with HiDPI display lag?
 
Ok that is good to know. So I guess my best plan of action is to update my OS to El Cap ( which admittedly I have been neglecting to do, I am really comfortable with Chimera and how to set up a X99 system using Chimera, and Clover is still very new to me. And I am unsure about my systems ability to operate on El Cap, I know that x99 systems where having problems on 10.11.0 and .1, but I haven't heard if those issues have been resolved.)

I guess if SLI is not supported it is probably best I return the card and save me $200.

Do you know of anyone having similar issues with HiDPI display lag?

Do you have any display lag when logging in?
 
Do you have any display lag when logging in?

My system is set to auto login on start up so I have not tested this. The lag is mostly when switching full screen apps/desktops and using mission control.

[Update]: I just logged out and logged back in and the system seamed to do fine with that task.
 
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