MP 6,1 Mac Pro 2013 CPU Intel XEON 12-Core upgrade = slower and laggy

[melanyville]

Hello guys,

I recently sold my Mac Pro 12 Core 64GB ram and kept my 6 Core Mac Pro with 16GB ram.

Now I miss the performance I had with the 12 core. So I bought a Intel XEON E5-2697 V2 12-Core 2.7GHz 30MB CPU from Ebay. The CPU was straight forward and I was able to boot in no time.

However, OSX Mojave is very laggy and the Geekbench 4 speaks.

Before the CPU swap:
Single Core Score: 4015
Multi-Core Score : 20006

After the CPU swap:
Single Core Score: 2480
Multi-Core Score : 8806

So I reset the NVRAM or PRAM with no luck.
and I'm not sure if a bad CPU will act like this.

Any thoughts?
Mel

 

[fhturner]

Quick thought: any chance the Before scores were GeekBench 4 and the After scores Geekbench 5? If there was a lengthy gap between now and when you ran the old CPU test, you might have inadvertently run a new version of GB. A given machine will score lower in GB5 than GB4, as the baseline has been "re-calibrated" to a newer processor/machine. Unlikely that's it, but it occurred to me...

 

[Zen_Arcade]

Yikes.

Mine went up to 32511 multicore (GB4).

Bad CPU?

 

[melanyville]

Quick thought: any chance the Before scores were GeekBench 4 and the After scores Geekbench 5? If there was a lengthy gap between now and when you ran the old CPU test, you might have inadvertently run a new version of GB. A given machine will score lower in GB5 than GB4, as the baseline has been "re-calibrated" to a newer processor/machine. Unlikely that's it, but it occurred to me...

The GB4 test was just before the upgrade and the same app was used after the boot.

Also, its so laggy. I'm loosing mouse and keyboard connections a couple of times after a reboot.

 

[fhturner]

Okay, gotcha. How about checking Activity Monitor and making sure it isn't pegging the CPU continuously for some reason?

 

[melanyville]

Well, the CPU idle 99.37%
?

 

[fhturner]

Dang. Well, I'm stumped. Maybe swap back to the old CPU if easy enough and and verify it's still getting higher #s, and if so, retry the 12-core once more? Also, doubt it would make a difference, but did you reset NVRAM after the upgrade?

 

[melanyville]

Dang. Well, I'm stumped. Maybe swap back to the old CPU if easy enough and and verify it's still getting higher #s, and if so, retry the 12-core once more? Also, doubt it would make a difference, but did you reset NVRAM after the upgrade?

Weird ha! I did reset NVRAM and unplug everything except Monitors, keyboard, mouse to run Apple Self Diagnostic by maintain D when booting. Nothing there.

 

[melanyville]

Perhaps THIS IS a bad CPU? I don't know how to be sure?

?

 

[tsialex]

Perhaps THIS IS a bad CPU? I don't know how to be sure?

?

Did you run ASD to check if you have any problems? Run at least Apple Diagnostics.

 

[fhturner]

Perhaps THIS IS a bad CPU? I don't know how to be sure?

?

Very well could be. That's why I'd be curious about what happens if you switch back to the original CPU to test, then again to the new one. If it returns to functioning well w/ the original, then again goes to pot w/ the new one, then I'd say you probably have a bad CPU.

Also, what Alex said: see what ASD tells you.

 

[melanyville]

Before switching back and reopen the lid, I will try to find the ASD for my machine. Seems to be not as easy to find online.

I did the Apple Self Diagnostic which I think is different than Apple Service Diagnostic.

 

[melanyville]

Did you run ASD to check if you have any problems? Run at least Apple Diagnostics.

I did a simple ASD at startup: Reference Code ADP000, No issues found

I think its time to switch back and see the results

 

[bwinter88]

Buying a CPU from ebay is asking for trouble. I've heard it's filled with Chinese knockoffs and bad batch surplus.

 

[melanyville]

Mystery solved! ... but still a mystery for me.

So I did open the lid and looking a little more about my bluetooth connection lost I told you about. I was not in the mood to swap back the CPU right now. 😉
What I did was simply unplug the antenna and the ribbon cable and replug them and make sure they are properly in place.

Put everything back, boot and...mystery... the Mac Pro felt snappy again.

Run a GB4 test and BOOM, it works!!!!

Single Core Score: 3771
Multi-Core Score : 29942

That make no sense to me but I'm glad it works as expect.

Thank you guys for your time and I really appreciate all suggestions.

Best
Mel

 

[fhturner]

I've seen odd hardware situations like that before where a swapped motherboard or perhaps the Ethernet or Bluetooth interfaces get "unhappy" and cause the CPU to run at full tilt w/ almost no other signs of what's going on (other than sluggish performance). Glad your "jiggling the handle" got it corrected. Enjoy the newfound cores and speed!

 

[Snow Tiger]

Buying a CPU from ebay is asking for trouble. I've heard it's filled with Chinese knockoffs and bad batch surplus.

I've bought a lot of silicon off of eBay . 99% success rate for the Xeons . Electrically , they're built like main battle tanks , surprisingly .

Now , the thing I'm worried about is someone sending an ES or QS chip instead of an expensive production version . That's cheating ... and unstable .

 

[pcsavers2k]

Buying a CPU from ebay is asking for trouble. I've heard it's filled with Chinese knockoffs and bad batch surplus.

I beg to differ. It's as simple as requesting an IPDT test result from the seller. I have been selling CPU's and memory on ebay since 2013 and the diagnostic tool is the key, verifies functionality and authenticity for free.