Fastest Mac GPUs with full EFI boot screens, etc, GTX570 & GTX580

[MacVidCards]

PM sent to me re 1,1 Mac Pro & GTX570

"MacPro 1,1 and N570GTX
Hello

I was wondering what could be done to get this card working on my mac pro? If it is possible to get CUDA up and going I may not buy a new mac for another year, hence saving money.

Anyway, how much would it cost to get this card working appropriately on my mac pro 1,1?

Thanks again!"

PMs like this that apply to many people I would rather answer in the forum.

And the answer is....there isn't a single thing I can do for a 1,1 and a GTX570.

You will just need to follow the adventures of others here using the "magic" Nvidia drivers.

The 1,1 is EFI32 and the EFI I use is based on EFI64. So like a French person trying to understand Norwegian....

So, my nifty EFI mod falls on deaf ears in a 1,1 or a 2,1.

We DO offer a nice EFI32 GT120 which makes a nice companion card in that it is CUDA capable and will give you boot screens when needed.

 

[freeflywing]

What were you measuring exactly? The total system load on the power supply can easily be in the 300-350W range, but that doesn't mean it's all going to the GPU.

Given the fact that the TDP of 240-245W of the GTX 580 is more than the 225W that the Mac Pro can deliver by itself, then yes, the GTX 580 can and will draw too much power if you are just using the 6-pin connectors on the motherboard (with a 6-pin to 8-pin converter cable). This is why most people recommend getting the GTX 570, which has a TDP of ~220W and is pretty close to the performance of the GTX 580.

just the GTX580 itself, it draw 300-350w in average, could be more. what i have done is, i had the ocz xz850 PSU plug on a killawatt directly, and plug all 3 pci-e cable 2 x 8 pin, 6 pin to the PSU.

simple answer is 2 x 6 pins on the motherboard only delivery total of 150w.

what ppl are talking about is using the 2 x 6 pins on motherboard convert to a single 8 pins (which give 150w in total). AND THEY DRAW ANOTHER 75W/ 6 PIN FROM THE DVD BAY MOLEX. so you get 225w, not just the converted 8 pin on motherboard.

and 225W IS NOT GOING TO HAVE ENOUGH POWER FOR YOUR GTX580, IT IS A MUST USING THE EXTERNAL POWER SOURCE. DONT MIS-LEAD PPL, MR.

ppl recommend 570 because you dont need an external power supply, all you need is connect the 2 x 6 pin on motherboard to the card. thats it.

 

[MacVidCards]

don't forget that the spec also calls for 75W from the PCIE slot itself

I do not EVER advocate using 6 to 8 adapters or even using the power from DVD drive.

I just looked at a Pioneer DVR 105

It is listed as drawing .6 A from 12V rail.

That translates into 7 Watts. So even if you thought Apple was being extra generous and DOUBLED the available current....that would mean there was 28 Watts available. Lets say you were a total optimist and decided that Apple allowed TRIPLE the current draw, then the DVD drive power available would be 42 Watts.

So there is little reason to believe that you could count on a steady 75 Watts from there for hours of solid AFter Effects Ray Tracing or Crysis 2 Ceph stalking. If you want SOLID and STABLE, use an external PSU or live with a GTX570.

Have a look at those Barefeats results, the 570 renders ray trace test in 1/3 time of GTX285 or Quadro 4000. Which makes it the deal of the century, at least this week. (BTW, keep checking at Barefeats.com, I understand that there are more tests coming)

There is a distinct smell that burnt electronics make, often accompanied by a small whiff of smoke. Rarely do they work after that little show.

 

[Asgorath]

and 225W IS NOT GOING TO HAVE ENOUGH POWER FOR YOUR GTX580, IT IS A MUST USING THE EXTERNAL POWER SOURCE. DONT MIS-LEAD PPL, MR.

ppl recommend 570 because you dont need an external power supply, all you need is connect the 2 x 6 pin on motherboard to the card. thats it.

I think you must be misunderstanding what I'm saying. I never said 225W was enough for the GTX 580. In fact, I pretty clearly said that since the TDP of that card is in the 240-245W range that the Mac Pro cannot power that card by itself, and thus in most cases the GTX 570 with its 220W TDP is a much better/simpler choice. Same thing for the GTX 680 with its 190W TDP.

MacVidCards explained where the extra 75W comes from, it's 75W from the PCIe slot and then each 6-pin power connector. No need to reroute power from the DVD drive or anything like that.

 

[gegagome]

Parallels may have solved my problem...

"MacPro 1,1 and N570GTX
Hello

I was wondering what could be done to get this card working on my mac pro? If it is possible to get CUDA up and going I may not buy a new mac for another year, hence saving money.

Anyway, how much would it cost to get this card working appropriately on my mac pro 1,1?

Thanks again!"

PMs like this that apply to many people I would rather answer in the forum.

And the answer is....there isn't a single thing I can do for a 1,1 and a GTX570.

You will just need to follow the adventures of others here using the "magic" Nvidia drivers.

The 1,1 is EFI32 and the EFI I use is based on EFI64. So like a French person trying to understand Norwegian....

So, my nifty EFI mod falls on deaf ears in a 1,1 or a 2,1.

We DO offer a nice EFI32 GT120 which makes a nice companion card in that it is CUDA capable and will give you boot screens when needed.

Am I crazy to think that installing Parallels fixed my problem?

Probably, but all this week Blender wouldn't render using CUDA, in fact all it rendered was black. I know something was up because when choosing the CPU to compute (in the render settings window) it would render the scene but at obscene times.

Then I had the crazy idea to test the GTX 570 using Ubuntu as a virtual machine—after installing parallels—and suddenly everything changed, for good. After downloading the Linux drivers for this card, and getting compatibility errors, I realized I had just wasted a ton of time and that I'd send this card back to Amazon.

Until I opened Blender to render a scene that had rendered black and voila. Now Blender is rendering complex scenes using CUDA in 1-2 minutes that would take 15-20+ minutes using CPU.

While Blender is now able to render scenes fast using CUDA, which is what I wanted, it doesn't like it when the viewport shading is set to rendered because it crashes and quits on its own.

Anyway, I know I am probably pushing the limits of my 2006 Mac Pro, but this would buy me some time until Apple releases the next MacPro.

If anyone has any suggestions or what not please contact me at gegagome at g m a i l

Thank you MacVidCards!

 

[Jmx]

@gegagome

Do you mean you actually have your GTX 570 running with CUDA in OS X 10.7.4 and in Blender/Cycles now?

As many others i'm waiting for the 2013 Mac Pro but meanwhile i need some extra performance boost so i got an SSD and an EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD 2560MB PhysX.
But i just can't get it to work right.

* No bootscreen (was expected)
* No CUDA, Blender can only render clay in Cycles in OpenCL

Has anyone an old MP 1.1 with a GTX 570 working with CUDA? od does anyone know what is needed to get it going?
Last way out is to install Ubuntu or Windows just to be able to use the card, but i really don't want that.

Thanks

 

[MacVidCards]

More Barefeats tests of MacVidCards GTX570 & GTX580

Barefeats just posted more benchmarks with some of our cards.

http://www.barefeats.com/gam12.html

Some notes that may not be clear from his tests:

GTX570 was the 2.5 GB one that runs an Apple Display and a DVI Dual Link.

GTX580 was the Classified 3 GB model that requires a small nuclear reactor to run. (2 @ 8 pin and 1 @ 6 pin) This card also makes it difficult to close the MacPro case.

The 6870 he tested was the 2 GB one with noisy fan.

ALl tested cards had full boot screens and ran at 5.0 GT/s (i.e., full PCIE 2.0)

 

[gegagome]

Yes

@gegagome

Do you mean you actually have your GTX 570 running with CUDA in OS X 10.7.4 and in Blender/Cycles now?

As many others i'm waiting for the 2013 Mac Pro but meanwhile i need some extra performance boost so i got an SSD and an EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD 2560MB PhysX.
But i just can't get it to work right.

* No bootscreen (was expected)
* No CUDA, Blender can only render clay in Cycles in OpenCL

Has anyone an old MP 1.1 with a GTX 570 working with CUDA? od does anyone know what is needed to get it going?
Last way out is to install Ubuntu or Windows just to be able to use the card, but i really don't want that.

Thanks

Yes, my GTX 570, which is actually N570GTX Twin Frozr II (same thing I guess), works using Cycles in Blender. One thing though is that live rendering in the viewport doesn't quite work, in fact it crashes Blender, so I use CPU instead. But when rendering using F12 (with GPU compute device and GPU in the render scene window) it works lighting fast.

So CUDA works, albeit with some limitations due to my old Mac Pro 1,1 or who knows, but for sure OpenCL doesn't work, in fact it hasn't been implemented yet, so don't even measure it in Blender.

Have you seen the screenshots I posted two pages back? In them I detailed the steps to get this card working but don't use the "Steps 2 and 3..." as they are not needed anymore.


German

 

[anim8or]

Has anybody upgraded to 10.8 Mountain Lion yet?

Just wondering what the consensus is about doing so with a MacVidCards GPU?

I am currently running the GTX470 and it shaw been great... not really in a rush to upgrade to Mountain Lion, I only really installed Lion about 3 months back...!

Any thoughts or updates from those in the know?

 

[anim8or]

Anyone?

 

[xav8tor]

Anyone?

Just search for other threads in this forum with his replies. Bottom line answer is, yes, others have 570 cards with and without his mod running just fine under ML. 670/80 works out of the box. You may have to tweak a bit for CUDA and/or OpenCl, depending on the model, but basic Nvidia support is baked into 10.8.

 

[Topper]

Barefeats just posted more benchmarks with some of our cards.

http://www.barefeats.com/gam12.html

Some notes that may not be clear from his tests:

GTX570 was the 2.5 GB one that runs an Apple Display and a DVI Dual Link.

GTX580 was the Classified 3 GB model that requires a small nuclear reactor to run. (2 @ 8 pin and 1 @ 6 pin) This card also makes it difficult to close the MacPro case.

The 6870 he tested was the 2 GB one with noisy fan.

ALl tested cards had full boot screens and ran at 5.0 GT/s (i.e., full PCIE 2.0)

Congratulations.

 

[anim8or]

Thanks for the replies guys, I had searched around on macrumors and creativecow forums for a specific answer, unfortunately I can't risk losing compatibility based on the fact that newer cards are supported.

 

[MacVidCards]

570 and 580 work great in ML GM.

Nvidia being chosen for rMBP was a major coup for Nvidia and CUDA.

This is why GTX cards are working better while 6970 & later ATI/AMD are still issue plagued or not working at all.

Expect ever improving Nvidia support from this point on.

 

[anim8or]

570 and 580 work great in ML GM.

Nvidia being chosen for rMBP was a major coup for Nvidia and CUDA.

This is why GTX cards are working better while 6970 & later ATI/AMD are still issue plagued or not working at all.

Expect ever improving Nvidia support from this point on.

Hi macvidcards, have you had the chance to test the GTX470 in ML as well?

Also are you using the drivers that come with ML to run the 570/580 or the latest drivers from the Nvidia site?

Cheers

 

[ashurao]

Hello,

I've installed ML last night. And my GTX 570 always works. And the best is OpenCl is activated with no patch. Yeah.

And for CUDA, I installed the last driver 5.0 from Nvidia. CUDA appears in blender but It doesn't still work. I'll try with Octane render.

 

[jugalrico]

@gegagome

that's a new hope for our MP1,1 & MP2,1, we need the GPU feature in those machine.

My question is: I got a 2,1 and i would love to run Cuda in After Effects, have you ever try it ? Does it work ? Can you use Ray Tracer function and Mercury Playback Engine ? Anyone have try ?

Thx
jugalrico

 

[mr.garon]

GTX 670 4GB Question

I would like to buy GTX 670 4GB card for my Mac Pro 4,1 but I'm a video card n00b and have a couple of questions;

1. Can someone explain the issue with 4GB video cards on a Mac? Does the Mac only recognize the first 2GB or does it not work at all? Is this a limitation that might be fixed in the future or is it some kind of fundamental limitation?

2. If I understand correctly GTX cards on a Mac only run at PCIE 1 (half speed?) instead of PCIE 2 or 3 speed, unless you get the EFI flashed by MacVidcards. Does this limitation still exist with Mountain Lion?

3. MacVidcards and netkas are working on an EFI solution for 600 series cards but it could be a month, a year, or possibly never, how risky is this gamble?

My reason for wanting a 600 series over a MacVidcards flashed 500 series is the 600 series use less power, has quieter fans and will probably be faster. My primary use is CUDA for After Effects/Premier and Element by Video CoPilot. The 4GB seems like it might come in handy for 3D and I can live without the boot screen for now.

Thank you.

 

[MacVidCards]

I would like to buy GTX 670 4GB card for my Mac Pro 4,1 but I'm a video card n00b and have a couple of questions;

1. Can someone explain the issue with 4GB video cards on a Mac? Does the Mac only recognize the first 2GB or does it not work at all? Is this a limitation that might be fixed in the future or is it some kind of fundamental limitation?

google is your friend here

2. If I understand correctly GTX cards on a Mac only run at PCIE 1 (half speed?) instead of PCIE 2 or 3 speed, unless you get the EFI flashed by MacVidcards. Does this limitation still exist with Mountain Lion?

limitation has nothing whatsoever to do with OS so will always be present, that being said you need to be a pretty hard core user to bump up against this wall. GTX670 capable of 11/GTs signaling, will be running at 2.5 GT/s in your Mac

3. MacVidcards and netkas are working on an EFI solution for 600 series cards but it could be a month, a year, or possibly never, how risky is this gamble?

Don't wait for us, reality is we may NEVER get this or it may require an actual Mac Kepler GPU to be released by Nvidia for us to find working EFI parts.

My reason for wanting a 600 series over a MacVidcards flashed 500 series is the 600 series use less power, has quieter fans and will probably be faster. My primary use is CUDA for After Effects/Premier and Element by Video CoPilot. The 4GB seems like it might come in handy for 3D and I can live without the boot screen for now.

Thank you.

Nvidia got tired of their consumer cards being competitive with their professional cards. They took a knife to the Kepler GPGPU pieces for a little friendly castration. Keeps the consumer level cards good at games, not so good at math. (Kind of like the target audience) Do not count on Kepler cards being much faster than Fermi at GPGPU.

 

[mr.garon]

Thanks for the advice. Sounds like I should go with the EVGA 2GB 570. I live near Hollywood, can you PM me (I'm too new to PM)? I would like to get a flashed card.

I googled 4GB vs 2GB issue before I posted but all of the info seemed to be for PC and there is confusion over the issue even these forums. I work with 5K Red Epic files and thought the extra vram might help Premier. I swear I tried to find the info my own

 

[florianuhlemann]

@macvidcards

Was wondering if you could also efi mod a lightning xe by msi or if you just do evga's.
Had a lightning xe running in a mp5,1 3.33 with slowed down pcie but worked good. When increasing vcore (windows msi afterburner) from a rather low 1.006v stock to 1.200v the Mac Pro just turned off - immediately it would still run at 1.100v if I remember correctly!

Edit: ht4u (lightning 1.5gb non-XE but same clock speeds) reported a power consumption of 294W under fur mark load! At stock voltages. With OC at 1.100v it only went up to 304W. They test with modified pcie extensions and a current meter for the power cables.

So assuming a 3GB lightning XE is only under extremely heat generating loads at the bare maximum of apples recommended 300W for all pcie devices!
Normal load is under 240W (gaming etc)

 

[gegagome]

How?

@gegagome

that's a new hope for our MP1,1 & MP2,1, we need the GPU feature in those machine.

My question is: I got a 2,1 and i would love to run Cuda in After Effects, have you ever try it ? Does it work ? Can you use Ray Tracer function and Mercury Playback Engine ? Anyone have try ?

Thx
jugalrico

I agree. I know it is probably time to get a new Mac Pro, but it is inevitable the a new generation Mac Pro is coming this year or next. In the meantime my Mac Pro 1,1 was given new life with a 128 SSD, which makes everything load just super fast.

As far as GPU processing using after effects, I wouldn't know how to test it. I'll check the Ray Tracer soon and will report back.

Anyone know a simple procedure to upgrade to Mountain Lion? I tried two of the methods (except the chameleon one) and they all fail.

 

[MacVidCards]

@macvidcards

Was wondering if you could also efi mod a lightning xe by msi or if you just do evga's.(gaming etc)

I can write an EFI for any Fermi card.

But 300W is why the thing is shutting off. Slot is good for 75W and 2 @ 6 Pin PCIE connector is good for 150 Watt. You are over 75 Watts past spec, lucky you didn't burn a trace somewhere.

 

[florianuhlemann]

I doubt the Mac Pro will burn anything that easily, next thing is that it does not use 300w at stock lightning settings, so we are really close to the target watts. And 6 pin or 8 pin won't do much for a change. Both only use 3 +12V leads. Sure it's a design difference.

As I said - stock works perfectly fine lightning xe settings that is.
And yes it's been discussed many times just wanted it to mention as a great alternative with 3gigs and a slight performance boost without really going up in watts compared to a reference design.

 

[MacVidCards]

And 6 pin or 8 pin won't do much for a change. Both only use 3 +12V leads. Sure it's a design difference.

6 pin = 75 W
8 pin = 150 W

If you remove the 200hp engine from your car and put a 400 hp engine would you really expect everything else (transmission, clutch, driveline) to be A-OK?

It is literally DOUBLE the load.