Search Unity

  1. Megacity Metro Demo now available. Download now.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Unity support for visionOS is now available. Learn more in our blog post.
    Dismiss Notice

Unity and AMD Radeon cards?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by 3dDude, Aug 23, 2011.

  1. 3dDude

    3dDude

    Joined:
    Jul 4, 2010
    Posts:
    1,067
    Hello,

    As some of you may know, I bought a mbp about 4 weeks ago. returned it because the AMD card that came with the computer, didn't seem to like the two main apps I use, unity, and minecraft ;)

    I got some strange errors. I first posted these errors thinking that it was just the computer and maybe if anyone else had seen it.
    here:
    http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/100273-macbook-pro-graphics-glitches

    But after talking to apple, they said it was more the software then the hardware.

    So my question is, have other people noticed strange errors in these games/apps with this card? Does the unity team know anything know about this?

    Sorry I don't have any pictures, but I can't take anymore. Because I don't have the computer any longer.


    But I seemed to notice strange artifacts around lights with demos with image FX. I noticed some in the unity shader demo.

    Cheers

    BTW, computer specs and other info can be found in the link above ^
     
  2. 3dDude

    3dDude

    Joined:
    Jul 4, 2010
    Posts:
    1,067
  3. ivanzu

    ivanzu

    Joined:
    Nov 25, 2010
    Posts:
    2,065
    Buy better graphic card (they are cheap now) 256mb of vram is bad for todays requirements
     
  4. 3dDude

    3dDude

    Joined:
    Jul 4, 2010
    Posts:
    1,067
    Can you get better cards in a macbook pro?
     
  5. BloodGreen Studio

    BloodGreen Studio

    Joined:
    Dec 16, 2010
    Posts:
    48
    I have 256mb NVIDIA GeForce somethin on my MacBook Pro. Its intel core 2 duo 4gb ram and its from 2+ years ago when I got it.

    It works great I can use unity and play the killing floor or portal at the same time. Some games I have do recommend NVIDIA over AMD/Intel.

    Not a problem with 256mb but maybe some apps prefer a different card I guess.
     
  6. Dreamora

    Dreamora

    Joined:
    Apr 5, 2008
    Posts:
    26,601
    if you invest more when buying it yes.
    afterwards no
     
  7. 3dDude

    3dDude

    Joined:
    Jul 4, 2010
    Posts:
    1,067
    Hmmmmm,

    Can you get cards that are not made by AMD?
     
  8. Jaimi

    Jaimi

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2009
    Posts:
    6,204
    I've seen the same errors that you have on my macbook pro (I have the version with the AMD 6750). It only happens for me in the web player. Everything else seems fine in the editor.
     
  9. 3dDude

    3dDude

    Joined:
    Jul 4, 2010
    Posts:
    1,067
    Yeah, same here. I guess I will wait until 2012 model comes out. I have my fingers crossed it will have a different card in it :/
     
  10. Dreamora

    Dreamora

    Joined:
    Apr 5, 2008
    Posts:
    26,601
    yes on the mac mini and mac pro

    Otherwise no and I doubt you will anytime soonish cause Apples experience with NVIDIA (the troublesome 8000 mobile chips where the repairs etc cost several hundred millions world wide - covered by nvidia in the end but still a major rep hit for all) was not that good. To change that NVIDIA needs to come up with a GPU that draws little enough energy, produce less heat and offer equal to more power to AMDs offering at the same costs which while under way will take some time


    as for the model and problems: Interestingly I've the same 2011 MBP model and have no probs here on 10.6.8 Update1 (or generally: all updated)
     
  11. 3dDude

    3dDude

    Joined:
    Jul 4, 2010
    Posts:
    1,067
  12. hippocoder

    hippocoder

    Digital Ape

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2010
    Posts:
    29,723
    The 13" mbp on sale today, does not have nvidia or any such thing. It has intel and amd/ati. They legally can't use nvidia cards for the forseeable future due to a patent issue with intel and amd.
     
  13. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5

    Volunteer Moderator Moderator

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2006
    Posts:
    32,401
    Neither--I have a 5870 and it's fine (aside from the driver bug that massively slows down when you have ~25K verts in a single object, but Unity 3.4 fixed static batching to work around that).

    No, they can use nVidia cards if they want. What they can't use is integrated chips, or rather, they can, but they're limited to Core2Duo chipsets, which are too old at this point.

    --Eric
     
  14. 3dDude

    3dDude

    Joined:
    Jul 4, 2010
    Posts:
    1,067
    Then what is the problem? if unity is not the problem or the card... I can't see what would be. But I don't know much about this stuff.
     
  15. fallingbrickwork

    fallingbrickwork

    Joined:
    Mar 16, 2009
    Posts:
    1,072
    I have a 5xxx AMD card in my 2010 iMac and it is fine. Maybe it is the Apple OpenGL drivers as they do appear to be mediocre at best. I use modo on the mac and it it having a hard time at the moment, that said, I've seen no issues with Unity.
     
  16. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5

    Volunteer Moderator Moderator

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2006
    Posts:
    32,401
    It's not "AMD cards". It might be your specific card, possibly a driver issue.

    --Eric
     
  17. 3dDude

    3dDude

    Joined:
    Jul 4, 2010
    Posts:
    1,067
    Hmmmmm,


    I downloaded unity webplayer on a MBP in the apple store(with there permission). And the same problem happened. Also I left my computer there and they did loads of system tests as well as a complete system reinstall. When I got it back it was the same.
    I also tested it on my friends Imac 2011, and it did not have any problems in unity but it did have problems in some games. That computer had a ATI radeon.

    Cheers!
     
  18. Jaimi

    Jaimi

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2009
    Posts:
    6,204
    Well, it's not just you, so we can rule that out. And it doesn't happen on the 3..3 webplayer, just the 3.4 webplayer. I've not seen it happen all the time, just on certain sites - so perhaps it's some driver incompatability with some specific shader.
     
  19. 3dDude

    3dDude

    Joined:
    Jul 4, 2010
    Posts:
    1,067
    Yeah, I wonder if the unity team knows about this...
     
  20. HolBol

    HolBol

    Joined:
    Feb 9, 2010
    Posts:
    2,887
    I've got a Radeon HD 5770, I'm not having any problems with that.
     
  21. I am da bawss

    I am da bawss

    Joined:
    Jun 2, 2011
    Posts:
    2,574
    ATI (AMD) has been historically terrible in driver release, both in stability/compatibility and speed of release to fix problems. I have experienced many many such issues in the past from their extremely high end FireGL cards on expensive workstations down to desktop gaming cards and also laptop mobile GPU. All had various issues that would cause headaches in various 3D programs. ATI is fine if you just play games as they seems to specifically tune their hardware for DirectX performance on gaming cards, but for 3D programs that use OpenGL my experience with ATI cards has been horrible time and time again. When I use NVIDIA cards with 3D programs I never had any of such problem once. NVIDIA's support for OpenGL (and DirectX) has been rock solid and hasn't fail me once. (Probably due to the fact large number of NVIDIA engineers were from SGI)

    I now have MacBook 13" mid-2010 with NVIDIA 320 integrated GPU and it runs Unity flawlessly - I put it through many stress tests and ran various games on it and never once had any problem with it. So yeh, my suggestion is, stick with NVIDIA if you can, or pray that problem goes away with driver release from ATI/APPLE which could take a while (or never).

    But yeh, on MAC it really is too bad that Apple seems to be parting ways with NVIDIA as well. I don't think they will be back on MacBook line, not unless ATI/AMD screw up BIG TIME....(even bigger than NVIDIA's overheating issue on Macbook back in 2008)
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2011
  22. HeadClot

    HeadClot

    Joined:
    Jan 23, 2010
    Posts:
    212
    Reason why I am going to upgrade to an NVIDIA Card. I hate AMD Drivers.
     
  23. 3dDude

    3dDude

    Joined:
    Jul 4, 2010
    Posts:
    1,067
    I would totally love to stick with the card I have now. But sadly it is not nearly powerful enough to run some of the software I use. Even with a ram upgrade.

    Thats why I got a new laptop. I guess its not possible to change cards in laptops.

    Anyhow. I am fairly sure I can deal with it.

    What really bugs me though, is that the apple support sites. Completely denied having anything to do with the errors. And it seems people on these forums are saying the opposite.

    Anyway. Thanks for commenting.

    Cheers
     
  24. jeffro11

    jeffro11

    Joined:
    Jan 7, 2010
    Posts:
    185
    You are on a closed system with an ATi card. This IS to be expected. Hell just a few years after the older (but amazing) mobility x1600 pro's came out, ATi dropped all support (on Windows, Apple drivers were ancient as always). You had to "hack" the desktop drivers to work with the mobile chipsets. This holds true for most of the mobility line sadly... But Apple's got you by the balls on this one.

    On the flipside I am running a 5770 in a hackintosh setup and have had no issues at all!