Poor performance with Macbook Pro 16

[mlkplk (mliko)]

I received new Macbook Pro 16 with AMD Radeon Pro 5500M today. Overal Rhino performance on complex files is terrible compared to rMBP 2014 and Intel Iris card. Any ideas, please?

Rhino 6 SR21 2019-11-20 (Public Build, 6.21.19324.08022, Git hash:master @ 3565e17ca9274d7ab98d6b3a100e28814ed37bef)

Apple Intel 64-bit macOS Version 10.15.1 (Build 19B2093) (Physical RAM: 16Gb)
Mac Model Identifier: MacBookPro16,1
Language: en-GB (MacOS default)

AMD Radeon Pro 5500M OpenGL Engine (OpenGL ver:4.1 ATI-3.2.29)

OpenGL Settings
	Safe mode: Off
	Use accelerated hardware modes: On
	Redraw scene when viewports are exposed: On
	
	Anti-alias mode: None
	Mip Map Filtering: Linear
	Anisotropic Filtering Mode: Height
	
	Vendor Name: ATI Technologies Inc.
	Render version: 4.1
	Shading Language: 4.10
	Maximum Texture size: 16384 x 16384
	Z-Buffer depth: n/a
	Maximum Viewport size: 16384 x 16384
	Total Video Memory: 4 GB
	Graphics: AMD Radeon Pro 5500M
	Displays: Color LCD (264dpi 2x)

Graphics processors
	Intel UHD Graphics 630 (1536 MB)
	AMD Radeon Pro 5500M (4 GB)
		Color LCD (1792 x 1120 @ 59 Hz)

USB devices
	Apple: composite_device
	Apple Inc.: Touch Bar Backlight
	Apple Inc.: Touch Bar Display
	Apple Inc.: Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
	Apple: Headset
	Apple Inc.: Ambient Light Sensor
	Apple Inc.: FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
	Apple Inc.: Apple T2 Controller

Bluetooth devices
	None

Third party kernel extensions
	com.google.drivefs.filesystems.dfsfuse (34.0.18) 266C7891-1A1F-3BF8-83F3-52A9900005FF
	com.parallels.kext.vnic (15.1.1 47117) 6793DAB3-A0C3-385A-8702-89672BC1B023
	com.parallels.kext.hypervisor (15.1.1 47117) 2EC9E418-3F55-3888-B903-D41831CEBE2B
	com.parallels.kext.netbridge (15.1.1 47117) 65E8C5D4-560A-3418-B497-851C95E0EEC2

Third party plugins
	/usr/lib/log/liblog_network.dylib

Rhino plugins
	/Applications/Rhinoceros.app/Contents/PlugIns/PanelingTools.rhp	"PanelingTools"	6.21.19324.1002
	/Applications/Rhinoceros.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhCore.framework/Resources/ManagedPlugIns/GrasshopperPlugin.rhp	"Grasshopper"	6.21.19324.8022
	/Applications/Rhinoceros.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhCore.framework/Resources/ManagedPlugIns/RhinoDLR_Python.rhp	"IronPython"	6.21.19324.8022
	/Applications/Rhinoceros.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhCore.framework/Resources/ManagedPlugIns/Commands.rhp	"Commands"	6.21.19324.8022
	/Applications/Rhinoceros.app/Contents/PlugIns/NamedSnapshots.rhp	"Snapshots"	6.21.19324.1002
	/Applications/Rhinoceros.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhCore.framework/Resources/ManagedPlugIns/RDK_EtoUI.rhp	"RDK_EtoUI"	6.21.19324.8022
	/Applications/Rhinoceros.app/Contents/PlugIns/Displacement.rhp	"Displacement"	6.21.19324.1002
	/Applications/Rhinoceros.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhMaterialEditor.framework	"Renderer Development Kit"	6.21.19324.1002
	/Applications/Rhinoceros.app/Contents/PlugIns/RhinoRender.rhp	"Rhino Render"	6.21.19324.1002
	/Applications/Rhinoceros.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhCore.framework/Resources/ManagedPlugIns/RhinoCycles.rhp	"RhinoCycles"	6.21.19324.8022

[John_Brock]

There is a problem with the Macs that have both AMD and Intel display chips like yours:

Get rhino 6 running faster

We don’t “tune” Rhino’s display for any specific GPU. We do have a handful of workarounds for known driver bugs and there are several that we have to work around on Mac which has been personally pretty frustrating. One of the known bugs is with respect to AMD and Intel drivers going into what seems like an emulation mode when enabling tessellation shaders for wire drawing. This performance is so bad that we just disable tessellation shaders all together on these GPUs and switch to an alternativ…

[mlkplk (mliko)]

So is there any solution? Rhino is completely unusable for me now.

[stevebaer]

Could you send us the model that you are having problems with? I would like to try and figure out what is in that model that is causing performance issues

[benallen76]

I am planning to get a new Macbook Pro 16 inch AMD Radeon Pro 5500M imminently and am planning to run Rhino 6 for Mac on it (I currently use Rhino 5 windows version with Parallels). I am keen to know if this is something that McNeel will look into resolving any time soon.

[mlkplk (mliko)]

@stevebaer Link to sample file sent via PM.
Steps to reproduce:

1. Start brand new Macbook Pro 16
2. Install latest version of Rhino 6
3. Open the file sent to PM.

Results: beach ball for more than 10sec. for every single viewport/model interaction. Rhino is COMPLETELY UNUSABLE ON THE Macbook Pro 16.

Upgrade to the lastest SR candidate does not change anything.

[Philip]

I wonder if this could be related to the problems I have with my iMac Pro (Rendering frustration)?

Philip

[milezee]

think I’ll be following this thread as I was possibly looking at a new 16" MBP , if Rhino is unusable I’ll have to rethink ?

[Gijs (Gijs de Zwart)]

hmm, that’s sad to hear. The latest 6.21 on my 2016 macbook (radeon 450 2GB) is better than it ever was in V6. Hope this gets sorted.

[mlkplk (mliko)]

Temporary solution is to disable tesselation shaders in advanced settings. Performace is degraded, but much better than factory defaults (higher CPU usage=reduced battery life)

[stevebaer]

@mlkplk

Temporary solution is to disable tesselation shaders in advanced settings. Performace is degraded, but much better than factory defaults (higher CPU usage=reduced battery life)

Weird; that doesn’t make much sense to me at all. I’ve disabled the tessellation shaders on all AMDs no matter what what the checkbox says. I’m still getting around to testing this model out.

[stevebaer]

The model in question is a DWG file import that has quite a few blocks and annotation.

@mlkplk are you testing Rhino 6 on the 2014 MBP as well?

eidt: the reason I’m asking is because it seems like this particular model is just plain slow and not specifically tied to a certain MBP model. I’m researching what is causing this model to be slow right now.

[mlkplk (mliko)]

Maybe this issue should be about GFX and imported hatches. Try to hide all hatches (sellhatch) and performance is drastically improved. I tested another model with identical complexity created in Rhino with hatches and it works much better.

[mlkplk (mliko)]

@stevebaer

[stevebaer]

For users reading this post, the issue is with the model that is being tested and is not specific to the latest MBP. The model has many very dense hatches and Rhino in general is having problems with it.

[thans5]

Thanks Steve. FWIW all seems great on my 16"
MBP.

[mlkplk (mliko)]

Steve, see my first post, please. I worked with the same model on my old Macbook Pro with Iris card and never had 10sec beachballs before.

@stevebaer PMd another example

[milezee]

@thans5 @mlkplk interested what spec you configured on your new 16" MBP’s ?

[Brenda]

Sadly, when everything is said and done, the Macbook Pro has only 96 watt total power envelope to do a workstation job. It’s not to state that there is a direct relationship between wall power and computing power, but the “MaxQ” hampered GPU in the P53 takes up 90 watts, alone.

When everything is sorted out, there won’t be enough heatsink and fan in an ultra-slim (albeit 2mm thicker for the thankfully improved keyboard) to take continuous non-bursty GPU+CPU workloads.

A Lenovo P53 offers 230 watts.
A Dell Precision 7540 has 180 watts.
A HP ZBook 15 G6 has 150 watts.
An Alienware M15 has 240W.

[stevebaer]

@mlkplk

I worked with the same model on my old Macbook Pro with Iris card and never had 10sec beachballs before.

Were you running Rhino 5 or Rhino 6 on your old Macbook Pro when testing with this model?