2 x GTX580 or 2 x GTX680 in Mac Pro 2010?

[hackerwayne]

How is it performing?

Do you use an external PSU???

Yep. 600 watt PSU

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Did you have to flash that card in order to get it working on a Mac Pro?

Nope, i have a GT120 helper card on the top slot; slot #4

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I'm a veteran CADD guy and play no games at all. I use Catia, Siemens NX, Autocad and others but primarily Solidworks for CADD. Plus I do a lot of rendering, primarily with Bunkspeed Pro which utilizes all the CUDA cores you can throw at it.

I recently upgraded my 2010 8-core to a 4GB 680 and I'm extremely happy with it's performance. This card flat out screams.

I will add. Before I bought the 680 I went the recommended route and bought a Quadro 4000. I was very disappointed with it's performance. It really sux to pay $800.00 for a graphic card and be disappointed with it's performance. I returned the Quadro and bought the 680 and couldn't be happier. I've been using it for a few months now.

Quadro 4000: 2GB ram, 256 CUDA cores = $800.00

GTX 680: 4GB ram, 1532 CUDA cores = $600.00

Go figure….. =)

grabcad-dot-com/dave.goetsch-1/projects

Mac Pro 8-core 2010, 32GB Ram, Dual 240GB SSD, 7TB HDs, EVGA GeForce GTX 680 4GB 1536 CUDA Cores, 27" Apple LED Cinema Display, 3Dconnexion SpacePilot Pro.

Because of cheap price, i ended up buying 2 pieces of GTX 680 , extremely happy with the performance

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Wrong... =)

Many software products utilize CUDA. Adobe, Autodesk, Bunkspeed & many others.

I see, i only use Adobe and some other products lol..

- Adobe CS6 Production Premium (Upgrading since CS4)
* After Effects (most of the time)
* Premier Pro
* Photoshop

- Sony Vegas Pro 12 (via Parallel Desktop 7; like that "Import to Premier Pro" feature a lot)
- Final Cut Pro X (Testing it out, don't really like it, generally, it sucked lol)

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So I would like to tag a question onto this. I am running Autocad and Solidworks. Would I be happier with a GTX570 than a GTX6xx. Mind you I don't want to run an external monitor, and would plan on running my second monitor with my existing 5770. 2010 8-core btw.

Well.. you will definitely need an external PSU. GTX 570 requires 1 x 6 pin and 1 x 8 pin. Where as 5770 requires 1 x 6 pin. DON'T i repeat DON'T ever use a splitter for the 6 pin as it will burn out the rails. I would recommend you to go with a single GTX 680 as you don't need a external power supply plus you don't need that 5770 cuz GTX 680 can run 4 display without problems

 

[nick85]

Hi,

bought a evga gtx 680 for my mac pro 2.1.
Need it for cuda rendering with bunkspeed and rtf deltagen.

guess i need two 6 pin to 8 pin adapters.

How did you solve this.
I am not sure if the 2010 mac pro has 8 pin connectivity ?

Thanks in advance

nik

 

[Asgorath]

Hi,

bought a evga gtx 680 for my mac pro 2.1.
Need it for cuda rendering with bunkspeed and rtf deltagen.

guess i need two 6 pin to 8 pin adapters.

How did you solve this.
I am not sure if the 2010 mac pro has 8 pin connectivity ?

Thanks in advance

nik

Check this thread. Are you running Mountain Lion on your MacPro2,1? If not, this card basically won't work. And, you shouldn't get a card that requires 8-pin power connectors unless you plan on using an external power supply. There are plenty of EVGA models that only need the standard 2 6-pin power connectors, so you should probably return your card and get one of those (or get a 570 since that's supported in Lion, which does run on a MacPro2,1).

 

[hackerwayne]

Hi,

bought a evga gtx 680 for my mac pro 2.1.
Need it for cuda rendering with bunkspeed and rtf deltagen.

guess i need two 6 pin to 8 pin adapters.

How did you solve this.
I am not sure if the 2010 mac pro has 8 pin connectivity ?

Thanks in advance

nik

NEVER EVER!!! use 6 pin to 8 pin adapters, it will burn out the rails on the power supply!!! Use an external power supply or buy GTX 680 that uses 2 x 6 pin

 

[nick85]

special Thanks to Asgorath

until now I had a evga gtx 570 (1280 VRAM) in my mac pro 2.1.

Bootloader is Chameleon for 64 bit.
I am using mountain lion and bootcamp (win 7, 64). (http://goo.gl/3mQd1)

Because the mac pro 1.1 -> 2.1 has only one 16-lane PCIe 1.1 slot for graphic cards I can only use one high performance graphic card for rendering tasks.

Because I would like to render larger scenes I am in need of a card
with more Vram.
So next I will try the EVGA GeForce GTX 680 2048MB
with 2 x 6 pin connexions.

Bootcamp works fine on a Samsung SSD 830. Only Problem was that AHCI
wasn't supported out of the box on Bootcamp side to get Sata II speed here.

Perhaps i will change to a relatively cheap mac pro 3.1.

Main Reason

- two 16-lane PCIe 2.0 slots for 2 cuda graphic cards.
- no need of chameleon boot loader


Which graphic card would you suggest in my situation

sorry for my bad english

nick

 

[hackerwayne]

until now I had a evga gtx 570 (1280 VRAM) in my mac pro 2.1.

Bootloader is Chameleon for 64 bit.
I am using mountain lion and bootcamp (win 7, 64). (http://goo.gl/3mQd1)

Because the mac pro 1.1 -> 2.1 has only one 16-lane PCIe 1.1 slot for graphic cards I can only use one high performance graphic card for rendering tasks.

Because I would like to render larger scenes I am in need of a card
with more Vram.
So next I will try the EVGA GeForce GTX 680 2048MB
with 2 x 6 pin connexions.

Bootcamp works fine on a Samsung SSD 830. Only Problem was that AHCI
wasn't supported out of the box on Bootcamp side to get Sata II speed here.

Perhaps i will change to a relatively cheap mac pro 3.1.

Main Reason

- two 16-lane PCIe 2.0 slots for 2 cuda graphic cards.
- no need of chameleon boot loader


Which graphic card would you suggest in my situation

sorry for my bad english

nick

upgrade to a GTX 680 2GB on a 3,1

 

[nick85]

evga gtx 680 SC 2GB in mac pro 2.1

trying at the moment evga gtx 680 SC 2GB in mac pro 2.1.

Result: Black Screen

- have the latest nvidia driver installed

- do I have to add the card ID "1180" somewhere.

- In OSX Lion there was "IOPCIPromaryMatch" where you could
add the card ID

- looked like this "0x118010de&0xffc0ffff"

Whats wrong ?

 

[Asgorath]

Check my FAQ thread, Kepler cards appear to not be supported on Lion in general.

 

[nick85]

Kepler Cards are not supported in Mountain Lion ?

Check my FAQ thread, Kepler cards appear to not be supported on Lion in general.

Do you mean Kepler Cards are not supported in Mountain Lion ?

So the only solution for me is a EVGA GTX 570 2,5 GB

Thanks

 

[Asgorath]

Do you mean Kepler Cards are not supported in Mountain Lion ?

So the only solution for me is a EVGA GTX 570 2,5 GB

Thanks

Discussed at length in my FAQ thread. As far as we can tell, most/all Kepler cards are not supported in Lion. There are a few Fermi-based 6xx cards like the GT 630 that will work, otherwise all of the Fermi-based 4xx and 5xx cards should work.

 

[nick85]

final setup

Discussed at length in my FAQ thread. As far as we can tell, most/all Kepler cards are not supported in Lion. There are a few Fermi-based 6xx cards like the GT 630 that will work, otherwise all of the Fermi-based 4xx and 5xx cards should work.

ended up with a evga gtx 580 3 GB.
But you have to use a second psu fired up via a "special adapter" which
you can produce on your own.

 

[Twelvizm]

570/580 are better for Pro/CUDA apps than 670/680

well established fact

some time with Google will help you out

Oh the classic "Google it" answer.

I should say that I only found this post from Googling, just to find it says to Google it. I'm stuck in a Google-loop. Help!

 

[biker4mac]

Yep. 600 watt PSU Because of cheap price, i ended up buying 2 pieces of GTX 680 , extremely happy with the performance

I’m trying to set something similar up myself. Got a deal on two GTX 680s. I see some recommendations to use a power supply such as this (LINK), but every one I can find is out of stock. Any suggestions?

 

[biker4mac]

Well, working my way towards setting things up.

 

[biker4mac]

I picked up a Sewell Multi Power Supply Adapter for the second power supply: LINK

Unfortunately, I’m now trying to figure out how best to get a 4-pin Molex to supply it. Probably the cleanest would be a Mini 6-pin to 4-pin Molex to supply the power from one of the (now unused) graphics card power supplies on the Mac Pro motherboard - except that I haven’t been able to find that such a thing exists.

Next thought would be to tap into the SATA cables for the optical drives - except, again, I’m not sure that a SATA to 4-pin Molex exists… They have 4-pin Molex to SATA, though.

It’s looking like picking up the connectors and wiring something up myself is going to be my only option.

The specs:

• 3.46 12-core Westmere Mac Pro
• 64Gb RAM - 8 x 8Gb 1333Mhz ECC Memory
• 480Gb SSD SATA 6Gb/s, 3Gb/s & 1.5Gb/s supported, SATA 3.0 Compliant
• (2) 2Tb 3.5-Inch SATA 6.0Gb/s 7200RPM 64MB Cache Hard Drives
• EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2 80+ GOLD Externally Mounted Power Supply (for graphics cards)
• Sewell Multi Power Supply Adapter
• (2) EVGA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition 2GB
• Sonnet FW8USB3A-E Tango 3.0 USB 3.0/FireWire 800 Combo PCI Express Card

 

[Tommy Lowe]

I picked up a Sewell Multi Power Supply Adapter for the second power supply: LINK

Unfortunately, I’m now trying to figure out how best to get a 4-pin Molex to supply it. Probably the cleanest would be a Mini 6-pin to 4-pin Molex to supply the power from one of the (now unused) graphics card power supplies on the Mac Pro motherboard - except that I haven’t been able to find that such a thing exists.

Next thought would be to tap into the SATA cables for the optical drives - except, again, I’m not sure that a SATA to 4-pin Molex exists… They have 4-pin Molex to SATA, though.

It’s looking like picking up the connectors and wiring something up myself is going to be my only option.

The specs:

• 3.46 12-core Westmere Mac Pro
• 64Gb RAM - 8 x 8Gb 1333Mhz ECC Memory
• 480Gb SSD SATA 6Gb/s, 3Gb/s & 1.5Gb/s supported, SATA 3.0 Compliant
• (2) 2Tb 3.5-Inch SATA 6.0Gb/s 7200RPM 64MB Cache Hard Drives
• EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2 80+ GOLD Externally Mounted Power Supply (for graphics cards)
• Sewell Multi Power Supply Adapter
• (2) EVGA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition 2GB
• Sonnet FW8USB3A-E Tango 3.0 USB 3.0/FireWire 800 Combo PCI Express Card

Hi did you get sli to work

 

[ActionableMango]

Hi did you get sli to work

The information in this thread is pretty old. I think the preferred method now would be the Pixlas mod.

 

[biker4mac]

This is how I ended up working things out. Put the PSU in a secondary case - much more space than was really needed, but perhaps other things will go into it in the future.

[doublepost=1520969223][/doublepost]

Hi did you get sli to work

I haven’t messed with SLI, but will try to find some time to play around with it and report back.