Mac Pro (Late 2013) GPU (Driver) Issues

[jrpe002]

Well this did not work for me, systems are still crashing.

Is it possible to try the fix on some of them and try just updating to Mojave on the others? You may have the best opportunity of anyone here to try different fixes and compare them.

This did not work for me. Systems are still crashing.
[doublepost=1539015231][/doublepost]I think my problem is memory related. Cache ram keeps getting really big like over 6 to 8 gigs so I am running the pruge command on login and logout events. Just another attempt to fix my issues.

 

[R3k]

My system hasn't exhibited the behavior over the the last few months, running Mojave beta's and now the release. Stoked.

 

[Idolum]

Just a quick follow up. I haven't had a crash in the last two weeks and Mojave is solid enough to permanently replace Sierra for me. I still use Mavericks when I want the extra security but Mojave beats all the other releases post Mavericks. I am set.

 

[filmak]

Just a quick follow up. I haven't had a crash in the last two weeks and Mojave is solid enough to permanently replace Sierra for me. I still use Mavericks when I want the extra security but Mojave beats all the other releases post Mavericks. I am set.

Congratulations! I hope it will stay like this.

 

[grunty]

I'm back to crashing 4 / 5 times a day now on Mojave. Not sure what's changed as it had stopped

 

[MackyMcMac17]

My garbage has been up for 12 days now on the official Mojave release...

 

[uller6]

I haven't had a single crash since upgrading to Mojave 10.14.0. This. Is. Amazing.

 

[filmak]

I'm back to crashing 4 / 5 times a day now on Mojave. Not sure what's changed as it had stopped

Have you noticed any software updates or any new software installed at the same time the crashes started ?
If you revert to a Time Machine backup, before the crashes started, do you see any difference?

 

[eepyikes]

This is slightly unrelated to our usual GPU freeze issue (I think), but has anyone noticed that with Mojave there are occasional little mini hangs when opening a large app? It's similar to what you'd experience on a much older computer, when you open an app that's a little too big for the computer to handle, you get a little mini freeze where you can't do anything else while the app loads (like, even drag a small window around or switch chrome tabs). Except in this case, this is an app that two weeks ago never had this problem, before Mojave.

 

[Ghafoor]

Hi,

more than a month Mojave (no beta) and so far not a single crash

 

[netkas]

its definitely caused by temperature of macpro
I have used macs fan control to set fan rpm to 1000 and its fine now
another trick is to set fan speed based on PCIe switch diode (hottest part of nmp) temperature, with min 68 c and max 78 c

 

[nglevin]

I had problems with HS and a boosted fan speed of 1500 rpm, so I don't think it's entirely the fault of bad thermals. Mojave still extremely stable, knock on wood that doesn't change for my 6,1 needs.

Nonetheless, I don't think boosting fan speed to 1000 rpm is a bad suggestion at all. It's what I'm doing now. fwiw the way smcFanControl does it is safer than Macs Fan Control and it's free, though Macs Fan Control's clever tricks will work with more recent Intel Macs now that SMC settings are handled differently in the newer machines.

As with all things anecdotal, YMMV.

 

[FilthyMcNasty]

its definitely caused by temperature of macpro

I first encountered a freeze on a brand new nMP, whilst installing, within 20 minutes of plugging it in. This was actually whilst I paused making decisions on a form screen, so no activity. IMO the machine would have been cold.

Also, most of my freezes have been whilst the machine is at idle, doing nothing, or doing very little indeed (eg playing an mp3 playlist). If anything I've had fewer issues when pushing the machine, like running a DAW with a bunch of plugins.

 

[netkas]

on 10.14 the behaviour is different, after some time ( like 15 mins of youtube) screen is starting to go black somtimes for fraction of second. speeding up fan resolves these issues

 

[Xde]

The PCIe switch temperature is not directly related to heavy load of the machine.
But it is to the room temp or the ambient temp inside the nMP housing.

If the room temperature climbs to about 24-25 degrees celsius, the PCIe switch heats up over 70 deg C.
While idling !!!

For example to 73 or 75 deg C after 30 minutes of idling after a daily first cold start.
And the Avago/Broadcom datasheet gives 70 degrees C max.
I observed this some times ago while playing with MacFanControl.

Finally I decided to set up a small heatsink on top of the PCIe switch and in a free moment did the modification
for testing. I will post results and picture later today or tomorrow into an already existing thread related to PCIe switch.

But I must say, I dont know at all, if the PCIe switch temp has to do with the problem, because my nMP dont has them.
I dont know, if 10% over factory limits could be a technical problem, probably no.
Neither dont know, how exact the temp readings are, and how Broadcom measures them.

 

[JayBayAye8]

I've only had 1 freeze in the month or so of being on Mojave, which is down from 2-3 times a day.

Another thing I realized was launching Photoshop was a guaranteed freeze. Now I just keep it open and never quit the app.

 

[tsialex]

10.14.2DP1 has the same 127.0.0.0.0 BootROM for MP6,1:

$IBIOSI$ MP61.88Z.0125.B00.1809171517
Copyright (c) 2005-2018 Apple Inc.  All rights reserved.
Apple ROM Version
  Model:        MP61
  EFI Version:  127.0.0.0.0
  Built by:     root@saumon
  Date:         Mon Sep 17 15:11:58 PDT 2018
  Revision:     127 (B&I)
  ROM Version:  F000_D00
  Build Type:   Official Build, Release
  Compiler:     Apple clang version 3.0 (tags/Apple/clang-211.10.1) (based on LLVM 3.0svn)

 

[Kris Kelvin]

Not a single panic yet on 10.14.0 for me, despite running the GPU at full tilt for hours (HW video decoding and GL stuff) and using default settings for the fan. Didn't see any blackouts, but might have missed them.

It's too early to say if it's fixed for me, but it's looking good so far.

Also, I still think there might be different causes for the panics/freezes reported here.

 

[114651728]

I am running an eGPU (Akitio Thunder2, RX 460) which I hoped would resolve the issues, but I just had the same kernel panic again on High Sierra. Doesn’t this kind of confirm it is an software issue? Or if it is hardware, it’s not the GPUs but something else? I am gonna try my luck with an Geforce card in the next couple of days.

 

[netkas]

pcie switch has probably nothing to do with the freeze, however it's a good indicator of overall mac temp and could be used to control fan speed.

 

[Xde]

I think, the PCIe switch cannot get loose the own heat that it is producing. (5 Watts).
And for this reason its very dependend to the ambient temp, not to the machine load.
Apple could have made it better in spending a heatsink.

In contrast GPU/CPU temp is only dependent to the machine load.

I am also using MacsFanControl for regulating heat.
But I did it to secure the PCIe switch, not other components.
Because CPU/GPU can have only 35 degrees, while the PCIe switch can have 75 at the same time.

Long ago in this thread I was wondering, that people reporting GPU freezes while having little load.
This took my attention to the PCIe switch. Still nobody knows the real reason.

Final word...
Whatever it is,
I would share the opinion with Netkas, if anyone still has freezes, to use MacsFanControl to force cooling a little,
and see if anything will happen. And please share, if you have results.
---

BTW:
-If you dont have AirCon, the season may have influence on PCIe switch temp.
If freezes have to do with that, maybe season could also be an indicator.

-MacFanControl should be set to autolaunch, if you disconnect your nMP overnight from mains power.
Because SMC will get an reset when disconnected.

 

[114651728]

I gave Mojave another go and installed 10.14.1. I had crashes with 10.14.0 pretty much daily, the beta ran fine. So far, not a single crash in a couple of days (knocking on wood nervously). I am also boosting the fan temperature based on the PCIe Switch Diode just in case.

@grunty Have you tried 10.14.1? You seemed to have the same issues with 10.14.0, while the beta ran fine.

Any other experiences so far?

 

[axantas]

Final word...
Whatever it is,
I would share the opinion with Netkas, if anyone still has freezes, to use MacsFanControl to force cooling a little,
and see if anything will happen. And please share, if you have results.

I do have crashes in a cold room, right after bootup. I can run heavyest encoding jobs, taking half an hour without problems. I can leave the MacPro alone (ok maybe a Safari Window is "on") getting a coffee, seeing a crashed MacPro returning with my coffee.

So: It is possible, the MacPro crashes, because it is ON. It does not crash, beeing in OFF-state...

 

[Riwam]

I do have crashes in a cold room, right after bootup. I can run heavyest encoding jobs, taking half an hour without problems. I can leave the MacPro alone (ok maybe a Safari Window is "on") getting a coffee, seeing a crashed MacPro returning with my coffee.

So: It is possible, the MacPro crashes, because it is ON. It does not crash, beeing in OFF-state...

Sorry to ask.
How could any OFF computer "crash"?
Even if "something" wrong could happen in it only while it is OFF, you would not notice it, isn't it so?
Ed

 

[SamPotts]

I presume he's being sarcastic