Dual R9 390x 8GB or Dual RX 480 8GB for FCPX?

[PowerMac84]

I‘m running two RX 470s in Slot 1 and 2. It‘s a Mac Pro 4,1 (flashed to 5,1) with 2* 6core 3,46 GHz and 48 GB RAM (only 40 GB recognised since Sierra). Along with the latest Sierra Beta (10.12.2 Beta 3).

The Mac Pro is crashing in Red Cine X and Final Cut Pro X all day. Suddenly the screens go black and it‘s restarting. Unusable. No Kernel Panic can be found. Power problems? Says it‘s consuming from 450 to 550 Watts.

 

[theitsage]

@PowerMac84 I have not experienced this on my Mac Pro but I know 10.12.2 Beta 3 has issues with OpenCL when I use an RX 470 through eGPU.

 

[h9826790]

I‘m running two RX 470s in Slot 1 and 2. It‘s a Mac Pro 4,1 (flashed to 5,1) with 2* 6core 3,46 GHz and 48 GB RAM (only 40 GB recognised since Sierra). Along with the latest Sierra Beta (10.12.2 Beta 3).

The Mac Pro is crashing in Red Cine X and Final Cut Pro X all day. Suddenly the screens go black and it‘s restarting. Unusable. No Kernel Panic can be found. Power problems? Says it‘s consuming from 450 to 550 Watts.

The "only 40GB RAM works" means something very wrong. My system can recognise all 48GB RAM without any issue (I am also using the latest Sierra Beta).

If RAM has issue. All sorts of strange failure, freeze, self reboot may happen.

Did you try clean the slot (blow the dust away), and reseat the RAM?

Also, are the CPU delidded? If not, it greatly increase the chance that the CPU installation cause the issue. And may be just a coincident that the failure shows up just after the beta 3 installed.

 

[chriz_r]

I‘m running two RX 470s in Slot 1 and 2. It‘s a Mac Pro 4,1 (flashed to 5,1) with 2* 6core 3,46 GHz and 48 GB RAM (only 40 GB recognised since Sierra). Along with the latest Sierra Beta (10.12.2 Beta 3).

The Mac Pro is crashing in Red Cine X and Final Cut Pro X all day. Suddenly the screens go black and it‘s restarting. Unusable. No Kernel Panic can be found. Power problems? Says it‘s consuming from 450 to 550 Watts.

I'm not sure if what particular 470s you're using. It power draw is ok, are they custom ones with 8pin or are hey 6pin only?

Your ram issue is probably what you'll need to address first, open the case and see if there's any red light lit up near the dimm slots? Those would indicate if any ram module is faulty. You can also check system profiler (about this Mac) on the memory section if one or more of the rams are not recognized and what slot that is. If so, 'make a note of it.

I had that issue on one of my machine (ram unrecognized) and it turns out that one of the ram modules were faulty, and it throws errors on two other slots so trial and error helped me find which one it is after adding one memory stick at a time and booting/rebooting after each installation.

 

[itdk92]

I second theitsage's comment! I don't have the 2015 rMBP but i'll see if I can borrow my buddy's laptop for a few hours and do some testing with benchmarks and real world performance using fcpx.



With the dual 480's on the mac pro, i can comfortably work on 3 4k streams with background render on but on "best performance view" so i'd still need to get some transcoding done to prores. It can definitely handle more than that when I transcode and use proxy media. Sometimes the events I edit have 4 or 5 4K cameras rolling at the same time, so multicam on those i'd have to use proxy.

With the dual 390X, ive been just working on multicam and grading directly on 3 4K streams, sometimes i'll have random stutter but still better than dual 480. I can transcode to prores and then edit more than 4 angles very easily at "best quality" view so I dont really have to use proxy. I can certainly edit directly on 4K streams natively when time is of the essence and i have to submit deliverables within a few hours. But when there's time, I let the computer transcode. I'm still testing these setups so I'll keep you guys updated.

Thanks for the reply and please let us know what you find out.

 

[itdk92]

A little status update.

So I received the screen (31MU97Z-B) and with my 2015 rMBP 15" it is only working at 4096x2160@50hz,instead of 60Hz
(I actually have to force this res in SwitchResX, otherwise I get a black screen on the 31MU97) Why Apple.. why..
I am keeping it hoping everything will be fine with the RX480.

I also received the RX480 8GB, but for some reason, the online shop didn't send me the MSI standard or "vanilla" 3xDP that I ordered, and has instead sent the MSI OC Gaming edition (which apparently is about 140$ more expensive? lol)

The T&T number on the Mac Pro I ordered from eBay says I am receiving it on monday, so I'll test the card asap, but I am afraid of compatibility with the already "thin" drivers out atm.

Anyone having non-standard RX480 in your Mac Pro? Do they work fine?

Btw, the recommended PSU for this one card is rated at 500W, and from a quick google search I could find this gaming OC card can draw up to 300W alone (hence my concerns, especially since I planned a dual setup)

 

[chriz_r]

I had a pair of non-standard one and they worked fine

 

[rhys216]

A single RX480 (Red Devil) with 6700k (4.7ghz) on MacOS 10.12.2 beta 2
It's a little faster without screen recording at 2560*1440 60p, and usually does it well within 14 seconds. And it's been like that since 10.12.1
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOTE8mzX4eeIrxLwE1J14kw

 

[itdk92]

Kind of off topic at this point, but I am considering dropping the dual RX480 and go for a dual GTX980 Ti

I am super undecided atm!

I guess that might be the most powerful AND reliable option for Final Cut + Davinci + occiasional Adobe products

 

[rhys216]

Kind of off topic at this point, but I am considering dropping the dual RX480 and go for a dual GTX980 Ti

I am super undecided atm!

I guess that might be the most powerful AND reliable option for Final Cut + Davinci + occiasional Adobe products

Seems strange considering a 480 a lot faster than a 980ti in fcpx, and apparently a bit faster in Davinci. (I don't use Davinci persoanlly as I prefer colorfinale)
https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=49713

Some have had trouble with the MSI 480 (non reference) but it may work ok. The red devil version works flawlessly, it's quiet with fast clocks.

 

[chriz_r]

If I'm not mistaken, davinci 12.5 also uses OpenCL (like fcpx) so 480 would have the edge (performance to power usage ratio wise)

 

[h9826790]

Kind of off topic at this point, but I am considering dropping the dual RX480 and go for a dual GTX980 Ti

I am super undecided atm!

I guess that might be the most powerful AND reliable option for Final Cut + Davinci + occiasional Adobe products

The 980Ti is powerful, but unable to perform as good as the AMD card.

Harder to power 2x 980Ti in cMP.

480 has better cost to performance ratio in OpenCL.

There are some reports here occationally about Nvidia web driver is buggy in Adobe products. Since Maxwell only has beta support, it won't be more reliable than the 480.

 

[itdk92]

I had a pair of non-standard one and they worked fine

6pin or 8pin?

Hence, did you power them internally?

How are they performing in e.g. final cut?

 

[rhys216]

I got an 8 pin version for better performance. Imo AMD messed up when the only put 6 pin on the reference version. FCPX works great.

 

[koyoot]

Guys, I don't think that RX 480 could've improved anything in compute side of the GPU, for it to be faster than GTX 980 Ti. I know that scheduler was redesigned, caches, and geometry performance.

Both GPUs have similar level of performance, but RX 480 being faster? That is something unexpected...

 

[chriz_r]

6pin or 8pin?

Hence, did you power them internally?

How are they performing in e.g. final cut?

I have 8-Pin PowerColor Red Devil RX 480s, and they're powered internally. Unfortunately you cant just use a 6-to-8 pin adapter, because the 8pin over draws the 75W limit. I'm currently running PSU mod (modified pixlas style using only 4 wires.) They perform great, Im still on testing phase between them and the 390X so I dont want to draw a conclusion yet but the 390Xs are stupid loud that Im close to trading off a tiny bit performance hit on FCPX for RX480 quietness (and way less power draw)

Guys, I don't think that RX 480 could've improved anything in compute side of the GPU, for it to be faster than GTX 980 Ti. I know that scheduler was redesigned, caches, and geometry performance.

Both GPUs have similar level of performance, but RX 480 being faster? That is something unexpected...

It's technically not faster, but comparing openCL performance to Cuda performance on both (dual 980ti vs dual 480) head to head, 480 has a bit extra support. Cuda can always top it off after every driver update/iteration so that's always changing.
[doublepost=1479917407][/doublepost]

Kind of off topic at this point, but I am considering dropping the dual RX480 and go for a dual GTX980 Ti

I am super undecided atm!

I guess that might be the most powerful AND reliable option for Final Cut + Davinci + occiasional Adobe products

Here's a list of apps that cuda/openCL supports, and choose the framework that has the most weight of use to your needs

http://create.pro/blog/open-cl-vs-c...upport-gpgpugpu-acceleration-real-world-face/

 

[AndreeOnline]

I'm curious about some BruceX times I see. You guys are posting times around 20s for single card setups right?

My 280X time was 40s and 480X around 33-35s. My 5.1 is pretty maxed out and performs normally in other benchmarks. It's a bit of a head scratcher.

 

[rhys216]

I'm curious about some BruceX times I see. You guys are posting times around 20s for single card setups right?

My 280X time was 40s and 480X around 33-35s. My 5.1 is pretty maxed out and performs normally in other benchmarks. It's a bit of a head scratcher.

Tbh I thought 20 seconds was quite slow for a 480 but I just assumed perhaps their times were being held back by CPU/Ram. 33-35 seems like something isn't working right.

 

[itdk92]

I have 8-Pin PowerColor Red Devil RX 480s, and they're powered internally. Unfortunately you cant just use a 6-to-8 pin adapter, because the 8pin over draws the 75W limit. I'm currently running PSU mod (modified pixlas style using only 4 wires.) They perform great, Im still on testing phase between them and the 390X so I dont want to draw a conclusion yet but the 390Xs are stupid loud that Im close to trading off a tiny bit performance hit on FCPX for RX480 quietness (and way less power draw)



It's technically not faster, but comparing openCL performance to Cuda performance on both (dual 980ti vs dual 480) head to head, 480 has a bit extra support. Cuda can always top it off after every driver update/iteration so that's always changing.
[doublepost=1479917407][/doublepost]

Here's a list of apps that cuda/openCL supports, and choose the framework that has the most weight of use to your needs

http://create.pro/blog/open-cl-vs-c...upport-gpgpugpu-acceleration-real-world-face/

Thanks for the reply!

So, since I have a 8-pin RX480 (I just found out), I should use a 2x6pin -> 8pin, right?

I could maybe take one 6pin from one of the HDD bays?
And the other just from the pcie 6pin?

I know about the whole CUDA/OpenCL thing

The only CUDA apps I might be using are After Effects and DaVinci Resolve, while the OpenCL the list is longer.

My thought is that the OpenCL performance of the GTX980Ti is not bad at all, at a point in which its overall web-driver performance might be better than the RX480's driver hack. Even in OpenCL

 

[rhys216]

My thought is that the OpenCL performance of the GTX980Ti is not bad at all, at a point in which its overall web-driver performance might be better than the RX480's driver hack. Even in OpenCL

Haven't tested everything but in FCPX it's not the case. The driver hack appears to work flawlessly.

 

[chriz_r]

Thanks for the reply!

So, since I have a 8-pin RX480 (I just found out), I should use a 2x6pin -> 8pin, right?

I could maybe take one 6pin from one of the HDD bays?
And the other just from the pcie 6pin?

yes you need 2x6pin to 8pin

you'll need two sata connector to make one 6pin

 

[thephased]

yes you need 2x6pin to 8pin

you'll need two sata connector to make one 6pin

I have a 2012 Mac Pro on the way and a Powercolor Red Devil RX 480 (as you do) right now. I would assume that the PCI-E power headers on the motherboard are male so how would a 2x6 pin - 8 pin adapter like this (https://www.amazon.com/PCI-Express-.../B00VWEGKD4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480025401) work?

Isn't the idea to use both 6 pin headers on the motherboard to one 8 pin for 8 pin cards because of 75w limit on power draw for a 1x6 pin connector?

I've looked everywhere for a cable that would be reversed and I can't find one.
Am I not understanding how this works? Probably hah.

Could you please help clarify? I'd really appreciate it since I'm so confused...

Thanks!

And happy thanksgiving (if you live in the states)

 

[chriz_r]

I have a 2012 Mac Pro on the way and a Powercolor Red Devil RX 480 (as you do) right now. I would assume that the PCI-E power headers on the motherboard are male so how would a 2x6 pin - 8 pin adapter like this (https://www.amazon.com/PCI-Express-.../B00VWEGKD4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480025401) work?

Isn't the idea to use both 6 pin headers on the motherboard to one 8 pin for 8 pin cards because of 75w limit on power draw for a 1x6 pin connector?

I've looked everywhere for a cable that would be reversed and I can't find one.
Am I not understanding how this works? Probably hah.

Could you please help clarify? I'd really appreciate it since I'm so confused...

Thanks!

And happy thanksgiving (if you live in the states)

thats the wrong adapter. The search term should be "dual 6 pin to 8 pin PCIe" here's what you'll need

http://a.co/iSmjSQY

the one you linked on your post is a single 6 pin to dual 8 pin. Thanks for the greetings, happy holidays and I hope this helps!

 

[AndreeOnline]

Tbh I thought 20 seconds was quite slow for a 480 but I just assumed perhaps their times were being held back by CPU/Ram. 33-35 seems like something isn't working right.

Regarding 20s being slow, make sure you're not comparing to Windows results. There are quite a few out there, and they will be significantly faster.

The problem with my BruceX score is that other benchmarks are in the normal range. It would be easier to draw conclusions if I had a consistent performance drop of nn-%.

Have you posted other benchmark scores like Luxmark, Geekbench and Valley/Heaven that I can compare against?

Anyway, after a few 'patched on' OS X/MacOS upgrades it might be a good idea to do a clean install here.

EDIT: I went up the thread and saw rhys216 is on a Hackintosh with a modern CPU. All my question marks are gone. People! This is a Mac Pro forum. Interesting benchmarks and results (cross platform) are welcome for comparison, but please be explicit in stating that you're on Hackintosh or Windows.

 

[itdk92]

Regarding 20s being slow, make sure you're not comparing to Windows results. There are quite a few out there, and they will be significantly faster.

The problem with my BruceX score is that other benchmarks are in the normal range. It would be easier to draw conclusions if I had a consistent performance drop of nn-%.

Have you posted other benchmark scores like Luxmark, Geekbench and Valley/Heaven that I can compare against?

Anyway, after a few 'patched on' OS X/MacOS upgrades it might be a good idea to do a clean install here.

Could be great to have a comparison!

Could you both also share details about which drive you use, including its speed?