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Break through the gloom! Kepler comes to Mac Pro...GTX680!
- Thread starter MacVidCards
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Hello guys, I hope someone can help me here. I just started using Blender 3D and have noticed it`s new render engine uses the graphics card instead of the cpu. It is way faster but my Macpro 1,1 can not support this because I have a 4870 1Gig flashed card. Also my 2011 macbook pro is not supported either. So if the latest way of rendering is done through the GPU what are mac guys doing and is there a card for my macpro that can work. Thanks
I am trying to figure out a best value MacPro at the moment - and I am in australia, so the choice is limited. There is also a refurb option too. But, which mac pros will handle a GTX 570? Our games machhine at home - has two Gigabyte GTX 570 OC s in it. I could borrow one to check if its worth going ahead? Or do I need to configure things?
re: GTX 680 & Mac Pro early 2009 (4,1)
Hi all - hopefully someone can answer this question:
I have a Mac Pro Early 2009 (4,1); currently I'm running the ATI 5870.
Would it be possible to upgrade my card to the GTX 680 without having to use an external power supply, or a y-adaptor?
Thanks in advance!
Hi all - hopefully someone can answer this question:
I have a Mac Pro Early 2009 (4,1); currently I'm running the ATI 5870.
Would it be possible to upgrade my card to the GTX 680 without having to use an external power supply, or a y-adaptor?
Thanks in advance!
Noticeably Faster than the 5870?
Hey Tuncer - do you find the 680 to be noticeably faster than your previous ATI 5870? (it's in your sig)
In Windows? In OS X?
Cheers
Hey Tuncer - do you find the 680 to be noticeably faster than your previous ATI 5870? (it's in your sig)
In Windows? In OS X?
Cheers
Considerably though I haven't had a chance to test anything yet. So far so good!
Awesome to hear. You need an external power source with the 680 though, don't you?
Also, you don't get a full boot screen, do you? Or is there full "native" support in the GM (boot screen + plug and play with nothing extra required).
No it takes 2 6 pin power. I think its pretty low power consumption.
This is amazing news. I'm thinking about getting the 680 now. How is the fan speed on the 680? does it run quiet like the 5870 or the 5770 on the mac side?
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No extra power supply needed, the 680 has 2 6-pin power connectors:
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/03/geforce-gtx-680-specs/nvidia-gtx-680/
The boot screen is a feature of the EFI, so a stock PC card with VBIOS only will not have the boot screen. However, the OS does support it out-of-the-box.
GTX680 & EFI, a work in Progress
Wanted to let you all know that a team of Pros is working on EFI rom for GTX670 and GTX680.
We have successfully extracted both EFI and PC BIOS from a 650m in new MacBook.
This is going to be a very tricky thing, and may or may not happen soon. (It took us more than a year to "break" the GTX5xx EFI). There are many hurdles and Nvidia has altered rom structure.
Do not wait if you want one of these cards. Buy it and live without boot screen. Unless a GTX6xx PCIE card comes out we may never get the solid functionality that we have achieved with GTX5xx cards. Either way, thanks to our friends at Nvidia for including these cards in their Mac drivers.
And thank you to our customers, through your support this research is funded and has allowed us to continue bringing you newer, better choices. Nvidia wrote you the drivers and made the cards. MacVidCards team are the ones who have brought EFI boot support to these cards and we thank you for helping us bring better cards to everybody.
So, EFI on GTX6xx is being worked on, but is NOT going to be easy. Trust me that the best and brightest are working on this.
Wanted to let you all know that a team of Pros is working on EFI rom for GTX670 and GTX680.
We have successfully extracted both EFI and PC BIOS from a 650m in new MacBook.
This is going to be a very tricky thing, and may or may not happen soon. (It took us more than a year to "break" the GTX5xx EFI). There are many hurdles and Nvidia has altered rom structure.
Do not wait if you want one of these cards. Buy it and live without boot screen. Unless a GTX6xx PCIE card comes out we may never get the solid functionality that we have achieved with GTX5xx cards. Either way, thanks to our friends at Nvidia for including these cards in their Mac drivers.
And thank you to our customers, through your support this research is funded and has allowed us to continue bringing you newer, better choices. Nvidia wrote you the drivers and made the cards. MacVidCards team are the ones who have brought EFI boot support to these cards and we thank you for helping us bring better cards to everybody.
So, EFI on GTX6xx is being worked on, but is NOT going to be easy. Trust me that the best and brightest are working on this.
Are the 670/680's able to run at full speeds now and the only thing holding back total awesome is the EFI boot? Is this correct?
I would expect driver optimizations to be coming down the pipeline soon, hopefully there'll be a web driver from NVIDIA once 10.7.5 and/or 10.8 is released.
Do all ports on the card work 100%? I'm looking to replace my 5870 with this and it'll be used with 3 x 27" cinema displays. I've already got some dual link DVI > MDP adapters that I've been using.
Also, what's the best "version" of this card to get?
Also, what's the best "version" of this card to get?
As per 4 posts above, the 670/680 work out-of-the-box with Mountain Lion. Perf appears to not be final, but I think it's a safe bet that it'll improve.
Just my opinion on which card will be future in macs...
My best interpretation is that apple picked 650m over an amd card was the low power consumption of Kepler. But I'm most certain apple will not put a 680 in a Mac pro since it's opencl performance is about half as good as a 580! And a 7970 shines with opencl enormously. Just uses a tad more power.
So gt650m due to better battery life
And amd 7xxx due to better performance in openCl for desktops.
Apple won't care much about cuda since FCPX and Motion use opencl
My best interpretation is that apple picked 650m over an amd card was the low power consumption of Kepler. But I'm most certain apple will not put a 680 in a Mac pro since it's opencl performance is about half as good as a 580! And a 7970 shines with opencl enormously. Just uses a tad more power.
So gt650m due to better battery life
And amd 7xxx due to better performance in openCl for desktops.
Apple won't care much about cuda since FCPX and Motion use opencl
Even the GTX 680 works out of the box. No modification necessary at all with Mountain Lion 10.8 (see attachment).
I use maya 2012 and the funny thing is that I first installed Mountain Lion to actually start using the drivers (I did not want to experiment with hacked drivers in Lion) and my AMD 5870 was FASTER with maya. The viewport handled faster and it was just not an impression. The Frames per Second (FPS) marker was increased while I used maya normally (which uses OpenGL drivers).
After I put in the 680, the Mac was faster still. Now, when I use it with boot camp it is just faster than a 7870 I had lying around and used only now and then. This is for both maya and playing Starcraft. Meaning performance in Mac OS X OpenGL is still behind Windows 7 Direct X AND OpenGL, if that comparison seems appropriate at all to you. (To me it is a little unfair, but it gives an idea where things stand).
As mentioned in multiple messages, we can actually look forward to drivers getting better!
My only complaint: The Mac Pro CAN'T use a Card that draws more juice than a reference 680. You need to start hacking another power supply for it. Oh well, can't have it all!
EDIT: One thing I forgot to mention and it is a little annoying but expected. The hackers of videocards in other forums had advised that the new drivers would only support 2 screens in any configuration you can use. I sadly confirmed this as in Windows I could use three ports: (DVI, DVI and DisplayPort) and when I switched back to Mountain Lion, only one DVI and DisplayPort were active. I disconnected the DisplayPort and the second DVI came back to life. As I said, this, I believe is to be expected, as it is my understanding the driver only supports 2 screens at any one time. Which is annoying since the card can support them
Attachments
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Even the GTX 680 works out of the box. No modification necessary at all with Mountain Lion 10.8 (see attachment).
I use maya 2012 and the funny thing is that I first installed Mountain Lion to actually start using the drivers (I did not want to experiment with hacked drivers in Lion) and my AMD 5870 was FASTER with maya. The viewport handled faster and it was just not an impression. The Frames per Second (FPS) marker was increased while I used maya normally (which uses OpenGL drivers).
After I put in the 680, the Mac was faster still. Now, when I use it with boot camp it is just faster than a 7870 I had lying around and used only now and then. This is for both maya and playing Starcraft. Meaning performance in Mac OS X OpenGL is still behind Windows 7 Direct X AND OpenGL, if that comparison seems appropriate at all to you. (To me it is a little unfair, but it gives an idea where things stand).
As mentioned in multiple messages, we can actually look forward to drivers getting better!
My only complaint: The Mac Pro CAN'T use a Card that draws more juice than a reference 680. You need to start hacking another power supply for it. Oh well, can't have it all!
EDIT: One thing I forgot to mention and it is a little annoying but expected. The hackers of videocards in other forums had advised that the new drivers would only support 2 screens in any configuration you can use. I sadly confirmed this as in Windows I could use three ports: (DVI, DVI and DisplayPort) and when I switched back to Mountain Lion, only one DVI and DisplayPort were active. I disconnected the DisplayPort and the second DVI came back to life. As I said, this, I believe is to be expected, as it is my understanding the driver only supports 2 screens at any one time. Which is annoying since the card can support them
Guess I won't be getting it then
I already use 3 cinema displays with my 5870, so I'd need to have it support 3 monitors in OS X. That's too bad that it can't; I was really looking forward to getting this card!Is the 2 monitors in OS X a hardware limitation, or can it be fixed through newer Nvidia drivers?
Guess I won't be getting it then
Is the 2 monitors in OS X a hardware limitation, or can it be fixed through newer Nvidia drivers?
It's a software thing, I'd expect it to be fixed soon.