Possible bug using poly_mode on macbook pro?

Tarik's icon

Hi List!

Weird problem here: with jit.gl 3d shapes, poly_mode set to non-zero values seems to be horribly inefficient on my new macbook pro retina.

See example patch below.

It runs at 14 fps on my new macbook pro retina (15-inch, Early 2013. 2.7 Ghz Intel Core i7. NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB. OS X 10.8.3)
...and it runs at 60(!) fps on my old macbook pro (15-inch, Late 2011. 2.3 Ghz Intel Core i7. AMD Radeon HD 6670M 1024 MB. OS X 10.7.5)

what could possibly be the cause? Graphics card? OS? Max not liking retina? Something else?

Max Patch
Copy patch and select New From Clipboard in Max.

thanks to anybody who can shine any light on the issue

Tarik's icon

Hi List!

Since nobody posted a simple answer/sollution, I would really appreciate it if some of you could:
post your specs and the fps at which this patch runs on your system.

That might help get to the core of whats going on here. Thanks in advance!

-t

Tarik's icon

Hi List!

Since nobody posted a simple answer/sollution, I would really appreciate it if some of you could post your specs and the fps at which this patch runs on your system.

That might help get to the core of whats going on here. Thanks in advance!

-t

dtr's icon

Sorry man, no retina here...

nnneuromodulator's icon

I'm getting 60 fps on a 2012 imac. Sorry I can't be more help.

Joshua Kit Clayton's icon

For optimal graphics performance on retina devices at the cost of resolution, I would suggest that you disable retina support on the Max application. Get Info on the application in the finder and check the box for "Open in Low Resolution".

Tarik's icon

Thanks nnneuromodulator and hi Joshua!

Thanks, but unfortunately the low resolution trick doesnt change a bit. I also tested the patch in max 5, which gives the same results.
On my older macbook the framerate actually increases a bit when I set poly_mode to 1 1. On the newer one it dramatically decreases. My fear is that this might be inherent to some suckiness in the way that NVIDEA Geforce handles the drawing of lines (as opposed to the AMD Radeon in my older laptop).

Rob Ramirez's icon

hi tarik, i can confirm this slowdown on a windows machine with an nvidia GPU.

so it's not related to mac OS or retina machines, but nvidia gpus, as you've mentioned above.

in this case, i don't have much to suggest anything other than using gl.mesh @draw_mode lines or lineloop, rather than gl.gridshape.

dtr's icon

Indeed. On my hackintosh osx 10.8.3, i7, nvidia GTX670 it drops down to 19fps. Things do improve drastically with lower dim settings. With dim 100 100 I get 190fps (qmetro 1 and sync 0).

dtr's icon

Btw, your older macbook has AMD gfx. I've been reading that AMD is better at openGL than nvidia.

Tarik's icon

So, no solution but some very good (though disappointing) answers. Thanks! Its simply the nvidia card that sucks -completely- at doing this. Using gl.mesh with @drawmode lines/lineloop gives quite different (for meless desirable) results but its definitely the closest approximation while keeping up my framerate. I'll be using that for now.

Thanks guys!

Tarik's icon

So, no solution but some very good (though disappointing) answers.

Its simply the nvidia card that sucks -completely- at doing this. Using gl.mesh with @drawmode lines/lineloop gives quite different (for me less desirable) results but its definitely the closest approximation while keeping up my framerate. I'll be using that for now.

Thanks guys!

dtr's icon

I opted for a desktop system because of cases like this, being stuck with whatever components are in a laptop. I prefer being able to switch things around. Portability becomes an issue though...

rbedgar@stanford.edu's icon

I'll confirm: it runs at 14 fps on my macbook pro retina (15-inch, Early 2013. 2.8 Ghz Intel Core i7. NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB. OS X 10.8.4)

Sigh.
-Robert

rbedgar@stanford.edu's icon

And 29.9 fps on macbook pro 17-inch, Mid 209,2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT 512 MB, OS X 10.8.4.