Radeon 5770 unusually slow, no GL 3.2 support

[SkewMatrix]

Hi all -- My recent upgrade to dual ATI Radeon HD 5770 cards has resulted in slow rendering, and allows only OpenGL 2.1 context creation. Details follow.

I have a Mac Pro 3.1 (early 2008) used for 3D graphics and scientific visualization. Up until recently, it was running OS X 10.6.8, with two GeForce 8800 cards driving four displays.

Earlier this week, I upgraded to OS X 10.7.3 and ran some benchmarks with the GeForce 8800. All was well and performance was what I would expect from those cards. Then I removed the two NVIDIA cards and installed two 5770 *for mac" cards in their place. After rebooting the system, I was surprised to discover that my 3D benchmarks were now running about five times slower than with the NVIDIA cards.

As I currently lack any MDP monitors or adaptors, I have each Radeon connected to one monitor using the DVI connector, so only two monitors total instead of the four monitors I had with the GeForce cards, but I don't think this should make a difference in 3D rendering performance, as my benchmarks were all performed in a single window on a single display.

I downloaded the latest version of the OpenGL Extension Viewer app (from the app store) and it displays the following information:

OpenGL version 2.1 ATI-7.18.11​

This strikes me as odd, because I'm aware that both the 5770 and OS X Lion support OpenGL 3.2. Not to mention the fact that even Catalyst 9.1 was release in January 2009, so the driver (v7) seems woefully out of date.

While I'm aware that the Radeon 5770 is not "officially" supported on the Mac Pro 3.1, I have also read in multiple online forums that it works fine and even outperforms the GeForce 8800. So I suspect I have either done something wrong during the installation, or there is some hidden configuration option I need to tweak, or there is a driver update I need to download (though it's not readily apparent how I would do that; a simple software update does not resolve the issue).

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[SkewMatrix]

Let me ask for help in a slightly different way:

* What is the current OS X ATI driver version? (If someone with a Radeon HD 5770 could post what their system is currently using, that would be very useful info.)

* Suppose my driver is out of date -- How would I update it? The only way I know of is through the Software Update feature (in the About This Mac dialog, or System Preferences).

 

[chscag]

* Suppose my driver is out of date -- How would I update it? The only way I know of is through the Software Update feature (in the About This Mac dialog, or System Preferences).

I really don't know how you would update the drivers for that card since it's not officially supported for your Mac Pro. Software update is not going to be any help in that regard. My uncertain guess here is to try going direct to the ATI site and see if they have anything to offer.

Hang on for more replies. We have several Mac Pro owners who are members that post here who should be able to lead you on to something.

 

[harryb2448]

Looking at different forums it appears the drivers were included in the OS X.6.6 Combo Updater and the card would have needed to be in the machine then.


ATI RADEON HD 5770 drivers? - Forums - StarCraft II

 

[SkewMatrix]

Thanks for the replies. I must admit its pretty frustrating to know that there's an updated driver available for this card, but Apple won't give me access to it. I don't care whether it's "supported" or not, giving it a try would be better than just accepting the cruddy performance I currently have.

Can anyone point me to a kext for this card that I might try?

Thanks!

 

[ottobyte]

Hi Skew, did you find the kexts. I've got the same machine as you. My 8800 just died so I have just put in a 5770. Works good most of time, but I notice slowdown on occasion. There must be a way of doing this!

 

[SkewMatrix]

I didn't find any solution for this under OS X.

I did add a bootcamp partition and installed Win7 with the latest Catalyst drivers, and the Radeons work great as long as I boot Win7. Why Apple seems to be unable to provide this same functionality with OS X is completely beyond my comprehension and is very disappointing. I guess I'll be booting my Mac with Windows most of the time from now on.
-Paul

 

[SkewMatrix]

Oh, I did want to mention, though: Above, Harry points out that the correct drivers for the Radeons were included in 10.6.6. I still have my old 10.6 install DVD. So, one solution that might work would be to do a clean install of 10.6, then let the software update do its thing. But I'm not sure when I'll get around to trying this.

 

[ottobyte]

Interesting Skew,

Well I tried using my Macbook Pro kexts from 10.6.8. It crashed on boot. The cursor froze on a grey screen and then beachballed without spinning. I took the precaution of using my backup drive beforehand. I guess that didn't work!

 

[harryb2448]

And guys the 5770 is a slow, low end card ~ much slower than the 1GB HD 4870. Reportedly 5870 exceeds the 5770 by a wide margin.

 

[SkewMatrix]

I tried installing 10.6.3 on a new partition, then upgrading to 10.6.8, and eventually to Lion. OpenGL Extension Viewer is showing "7.18.18" in the OpenGL version string, and OpenGL 2.1 support, which makes me think I'm still not getting what I want.

Migrating from 10.6.3 to 10.6.8 did improve the drivers -- they were pretty flaky when I was running 10.6.3. But from the driver version number it doesn't look like they are any where close to current, and consequently I imagine I am still going to be getting poor performance.

I have not yet been able to run my benchmarks, as OSX failed to fully migrate all the software from my old install. I'll need to put some basic software tools in place and rebuild the benchmark software before I'll be able to do an apples-apples performance comparison.