Bought a new MacBook Pro 16” Chief still doesn’t perform.

[Electromen]

On 11/26/2019 at 5:04 PM, Michael_Gia said:

Thank you Dermot that made a world of difference. 
 

I forgot that framing was on. 
I also noticed I had every label under the sun turned on. So, I turned off all labels except window labels and this improved 80%. 
 

 

I'm glad you're getting the 16" to work better.  The 16" MacBook Pro is probably my next purchase in the Spring.  

I've been using CA since 1997 and Macs since 2006.  I've always had a Mac Pro, not a Mac Book Pro, but the Tower.

The plan is to keep my Tower and use the Notebook on job sites.

I've never had a problem with the Mac OS and CA.

 

[Steve-C]

I abandoned Mac earlier this year. I was running a very souped up MacBook Pro 15", the last updated version before the 16" came out. It was my 3rd MacBook laptop and I saw little to no performance gain from my 2016 rig. Honestly every year the Mac OS seemed to get slower in every way. I resurrected my 4 year old desktop and it easily outperformed the Mac. I also purchased a Surface Book 2 15" and the performance of that machine in 3D was shockingly better than the Mac (which had significantly better specs).

 

I used Mac for nearly 4 years and I honestly did not realize how bad the performance had gotten until I got so frustrated with my ($4200) MacBook Pro that I broke out the old desktop. The performance gain of that rig (now my current rig) over the Mac was staggering. I'm sure that iMac Pro and Mac Pro will perform better but I couldn't see myself spending that kind of money when I can get equal or better performance from a Windows rig that costs half or less.

[johnny]

So I just bought a 16" MacBook and I have to report the same slowness in the video on the 3D model.  What I feels like to me is that Chief isn't using the dedicated graphics chip but the integrated Intel UHD.

 

Why I think this:  I had a 2015 MSI laptop with both an integrated Intel and a 1060 GTX - and when I was using the integrated graphics the visual was exactly the same as what I am getting from the MacBook Pro....very "stuttery" graphics in 3D view.  Since in Windows you can manually switch between those graphics sources I could dictate.  In Mac OS you don't really have that control.

 

 

[rgardner]

7 minutes ago, johnny said:

So I just bought a 16" MacBook and I have to report the same slowness in the video on the 3D model.  What I feels like to me is that Chief isn't using the dedicated graphics chip but the integrated Intel UHD.

 

Why I think this:  I had a 2015 MSI laptop with both an integrated Intel and a 1060 GTX - and when I was using the integrated graphics the visual was exactly the same as what I am getting from the MacBook Pro....very "stuttery" graphics in 3D view.  Since in Windows you can manually switch between those graphics sources I could dictate.  In Mac OS you don't really have that control.

 

 

So not sure if it is this way with the dual video onboard but I use an external gpu with my MacBook (2017 13”) and when you select the Chief app icon and right click get info you need to select the e-gpu to use it when available.  This made the difference for me.  
 

Maybe it could it be that is the issue with your guys’ MBpro 16?

[TheKitchenAbode]

Could be, not familiar with Mac OS but in Windows you can open up the task manger and see right away which graphics is being used. The integrated graphics will be identified as GPU(0) and the dedicated one as GPU(1). In most laptops that contain both chips which gets used is usually determined by the graphics cards settings program and the laptops power settings program, both need to be correct. What laptop producers have done in order to maximize battery time is to set the power plan so as to only use the dedicated GPU when absolutely needed, otherwise it uses the integrated chip. From what I can determine, Chief does not like this back and forth switching and I also think that when Chief starts up it looks and only sees the active GPU and uses it by default.

[johnny]

9 minutes ago, rgardner said:

So not sure if it is this way with the dual video onboard but I use an external gpu with my MacBook (2017 13”) and when you select the Chief app icon and right click get info you need to select the e-gpu to use it when available.  This made the difference for me.  
 

Maybe it could it be that is the issue with your guys’ MBpro 16?

 

I've not used Mac for yeas - so im having to relearn.  When I right click on the app I don't see where that is located:

 

 

[johnny]

17 minutes ago, TheKitchenAbode said:

Could be, not familiar with Mac OS but in Windows you can open up the task manger and see right away which graphics is being used. The integrated graphics will be identified as GPU(0) and the dedicated one as GPU(1). In most laptops that contain both chips which gets used is usually determined by the graphics cards settings program and the laptops power settings program, both need to be correct. What laptop producers have done in order to maximize battery time is to set the power plan so as to only use the dedicated GPU when absolutely needed, otherwise it uses the integrated chip. From what I can determine, Chief does not like this back and forth switching and I also think that when Chief starts up it looks and only sees the active GPU and uses it by default.

 

Yeah it shows both in the "About this Mac".... but I can just say the AMD 5500M should run Chief like butter.  

 

[TheKitchenAbode]

Just now, johnny said:

 

Yeah it shows both in the "About this Mac".... but I can just say the AMD 5500M should run Chief like butter.  

 

 

That unfortunately is only showing the systems configuration. Somewhere in the OS system there must be something that tells you and allows you to define what is to be used. 

[rgardner]

19 minutes ago, johnny said:

 

I've not used Mac for yeas - so im having to relearn.  When I right click on the app I don't see where that is located:

 

 

In that menu there is an option that says “get info”. It’s on the pop up that brings up.

[TheKitchenAbode]

Johnny - This may help.

 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202043

 

[Kbird1]

13 minutes ago, TheKitchenAbode said:

Johnny - This may help.

 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202043

 

 

 

Interesting.........

 

When your computer is connected to an external display, high-performance graphics remain on until you disconnect the display. 

 

If you want to use the higher-performance discrete graphics processor at all times, choose Apple menu > System Preferences and click Energy Saver. Then deselect the automatic graphics switching checkbox.

If you don't see the automatic graphics switching option, your computer has one graphics system. To confirm, choose Apple menu > About this Mac, press the System Report button, and select Graphics/Displays on the left. The graphics system or systems are listed under Video Card.

 

M.

[rgardner]

3 minutes ago, Kbird1 said:

 

 

Interesting.........

 

When your computer is connected to an external display, high-performance graphics remain on until you disconnect the display. 

 

If you want to use the higher-performance discrete graphics processor at all times, choose Apple menu > System Preferences and click Energy Saver. Then deselect the automatic graphics switching checkbox.

If you don't see the automatic graphics switching option, your computer has one graphics system. To confirm, choose Apple menu > About this Mac, press the System Report button, and select Graphics/Displays on the left. The graphics system or systems are listed under Video Card.

 

M.

This can also be done as I mentioned by application so it doesn’t burn up your battery for programs that don’t need it.

[TheKitchenAbode]

8 minutes ago, rgardner said:

This can also be done as I mentioned by application so it doesn’t burn up your battery for programs that don’t need it.

 

The thing with this is I'm not certain it is 100% reliable. Had a similar issue with my PC, even though everything other than the power plan was set to recognize Chief I would encounter times when Chief for some reason was using the integrated chip. Was only able to resolve this fully by changing the power plan to high performance which forced the system to only use the discrete graphics all the time for everything. Maybe the MAC controls this better.

[rgardner]

39 minutes ago, TheKitchenAbode said:

 

The thing with this is I'm not certain it is 100% reliable. Had a similar issue with my PC, even though everything other than the power plan was set to recognize Chief I would encounter times when Chief for some reason was using the integrated chip. Was only able to resolve this fully by changing the power plan to high performance which forced the system to only use the discrete graphics all the time for everything. Maybe the MAC controls this better.

I read about that with PC when I was figuring it out when I first got my E-GPU but I used it for six months as main computer (obviously with external monitor) and still use it while traveling with no problem whatsoever. It’s pretty obvious when you start doing more than 1 elevation or 3d view with the regular GPU but the egpu set for chief to use only it has been great.

 

I just recently updated my main machine and am loving the capabilities of it!

[johnny]

20 hours ago, TheKitchenAbode said:

Johnny - This may help.

 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202043

 

Yeah that was on and I turned it off - thanks.  Though I did have the Macbook plugged into power when having these slow issues so technically it should have only been a problem.  HOWEVER, i just did a test where opened Chief with the MacBook unplugged and with this option on (so it should be using the integrated graphics when unplugged) and tested the video inside Chief and it was as smooth as butter.  This means for some reason when I have the Macbook plugged in ...the model view gets all jankie.  That is REALLY odd and makes me think this is an Apple driver problem for this new video card.

 

I'd love for someone at Chief to go get a 16" Macbook pro and let us know how it performs for them.  I remember seeing this thread thinking the OP had a problem related to the size of their model file, but now I understand what they're talking about.

[TheKitchenAbode]

51 minutes ago, johnny said:

Yeah that was on and I turned it off - thanks.  Though I did have the Macbook plugged into power when having these slow issues so technically it should have only been a problem.  HOWEVER, i just did a test where opened Chief with the MacBook unplugged and with this option on (so it should be using the integrated graphics when unplugged) and tested the video inside Chief and it was as smooth as butter.  This means for some reason when I have the Macbook plugged in ...the model view gets all jankie.  That is REALLY odd and makes me think this is an Apple driver problem for this new video card.

 

I'd love for someone at Chief to go get a 16" Macbook pro and let us know how it performs for them.  I remember seeing this thread thinking the OP had a problem related to the size of their model file, but now I understand what they're talking about.

 

That's strange, now when unplugged running on the battery things run smooth but when plugged in the video performance is degraded?

 

Would first suggest checking to make sure that Chief is seeing the discrete card under both situations.

- Close Chief, boot mac pro while plugged in, open Chief. Check "Preferences" "Render" "Video Card Status". Note the card it sees, driver, driver version & date.

- Close Chief, boot mac pro while unplugged, repeat above.

 

Does Chief report the same card and driver details or is something different?

[johnny]

9 minutes ago, TheKitchenAbode said:

 

That's strange, now when unplugged running on the battery things run smooth but when plugged in the video performance is degraded?

 

Would first suggest checking to make sure that Chief is seeing the discrete card under both situations.

- Close Chief, boot mac pro while plugged in, open Chief. Check "Preferences" "Render" "Video Card Status". Not the card it sees, driver, driver version & date.

- Close Chief, boot mac pro while unplugged, repeat above.

 

Does Chief report the same card and driver details or is something different?

 

Yep, that is exactly what i'm experiencing.  It seems completely opposite to what I should experience.

 

Chief does report the correct card, and I even use a monitoring tool to verify that the discrete graphics card is being used by the OS.  This is why i am starting to think this is a Apple driver issue.

[Electromen]

The New Mac Book Pro has two video cards.

AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 4GB of GDDR6 memory and the Intel UHD Graphics 630

 

The Mac Book Pro will automatically switch between them when it is plugged-in vs running on battery. 

I know you turn off "Automatic switching"

In System Preferences > Energy Saver > 

Do you see an option for high performance ?