ATI in slot1 for OS X and nVidia in slot 2 for Win/Lin??

[Jmx]

Hi,

Would it be possible to have a new Mac Pro with this setup?

Slot 1 The default ATI card - to boot/run OS X only
Slot 2 A nVidia GTX 580 - to boot/run Windows 7 or Linux only

I can live with having to reboot into Windows (or Linux) to do 3D renders with nVidia/CUDA, i just don't wanna buy a PC just to be able to run a modern nVidia card.
The nVidia Quadro 4000 are twice the cost of a GTX580 but only half the performance so that doesn't feel right.

 

[Cindori]

Yes, but you will have to buy a 3.5" power supply for the SuperDrive slot in order to power the 580.

There is also a risk that the 580 will have very high fan noise in OSX since it can not communicate with the OS (a safety measure to not overheat)

 

[interslicer]

also, on the older mac pros only one pcie slot is a 16x, so you'd have to choose which card you want there if you dont have a newer model. and when you every time you switch booting you'd have to switch which card the cable is plugged in to, which is kind of a hassle.

couldnt you get like a 6xxx ati card that works natively with osx once the "hack" is installed, or is there a reason you need nvidia?

edit, just saw the word "new" in the first post, ignore the part about pcie slots. >.>

 

[ActionableMango]

when you every time you switch booting you'd have to switch which card the cable is plugged in to, which is kind of a hassle.

That's one option. Another option is to have one cable hooked up from each card to the monitor and simply switch inputs. In fact, some monitors automatically switch inputs if only one is active.

 

[Cindori]

That's one option. Another option is to have one cable hooked up from each card to the monitor and simply switch inputs. In fact, some monitors automatically switch inputs if only one is active.

no, he is talking about MP 1,1/2,1 which can have only 1 16x and second at 4x speed, so he would have to switch out the whole card on rebooting.

 

[Jmx]

couldnt you get like a 6xxx ati card that works natively with osx once the "hack" is installed, or is there a reason you need nvidia?

The problem is that all 3D renderers that use the GPU today use CUDA which means nVidia only.
They say OpenCL is over a year behind in this area and that's why almost no 3D renderer use that.
There are a few drawbacks with GPU rendering that CPU still is better at, but not important enough to not wanna rendering 10-20 times faster on the GPU.
Even Adobe use GPU/CUDA for rendering fast now days.

Here's an old video but it still shows the difference between CPU vs GPU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkcTNZBJYKI

It would have been nice if i could select OS X to only use the ATI and not even power the nVidia, and the other way around in Windows without having to switch slots.

This will be hard to decide when the new Pro's are out.
Mac Pro or go back to a custom build PC