Graphic Cards For the mac pro ( in the future ).

[cgxev]

Hi people.

I'm considering buying a new mac pro the last six months, but i can't, since of the outdated hardware and the ridiculous price.

I almost went back using Windows, but there are some things that i'd like to ask!?


Me myself am a 3D artist, and i really need the raw power.
Especially with nowadays rendering can be done on the GPU.

So will there be a powerful Nvidia Graphic card in the next MP's?

Like the awesome GTX 580, you can render like a beast.
Also GPU rendering usually requires CUDA cores so that's why you need to have a Nvidia card.

Like octane render http://www.octanerender.com/index.php

It would literaly be awesome if the next mac pro's would have the next gen Nvidia graphic cards, ( i'm not against ATI (AMD) but those guys are just less when it comes to the real GPU rendering).

Although you can buy the Quadro 4000 for the mac pro or anything like that http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-quadro-4000-us.html
but that's really expensive!

I'm asking if anyone could assist me with finding the right mac and with this thread helping other people who doubt aswel.

Regards Beau.

 

[goMac]

It would literaly be awesome if the next mac pro's would have the next gen Nvidia graphic cards, ( i'm not against ATI (AMD) but those guys are just less when it comes to the real GPU rendering).

Nobody knows the answer to this except for NVidia.

Recent NVidia hardware and software has been having major issues, with even some GPU lines being recalled across Mac and Windows. This likely has a lot to do with why they were dropped.

NVidia is free to make Mac cards on their own but with the defect rate I can't blame Apple for dropping them. I used to do CUDA programming but I finally had enough and went ATI.

The Quadro is not a bad option, and can be found cheaper in some other places. If you want to do CUDA work, I wouldn't skimp on the GPU anyway.

 

[CountlovE]

Yeah, ATI is a total joke for any OPEN CL. I have been waiting to use GPU rendering for Vray 2.0, and wanting to use Mari at home. Can't do either with the ATI. I just bought two 580's with 3 gigs of ram, and I will have to say good bye to OSX for the duration of my machine use. Such a shame..

 

[goMac]

Yeah, ATI is a total joke for any OPEN CL. I have been waiting to use GPU rendering for Vray 2.0, and wanting to use Mari at home. Can't do either with the ATI. I just bought two 580's with 3 gigs of ram, and I will have to say good bye to OSX for the duration of my machine use. Such a shame..

Does your software support distributed rendering? I know it's kind of a PITA, but if it does your could set up a second box just dedicated for GPU rendering.

 

[cluthz]

Hi people.

I'm considering buying a new mac pro the last six months, but i can't, since of the outdated hardware and the ridiculous price.

I almost went back using Windows, but there are some things that i'd like to ask!?


Me myself am a 3D artist, and i really need the raw power.
Especially with nowadays rendering can be done on the GPU.

So will there be a powerful Nvidia Graphic card in the next MP's?

Like the awesome GTX 580, you can render like a beast.
Also GPU rendering usually requires CUDA cores so that's why you need to have a Nvidia card.

Like octane render http://www.octanerender.com/index.php

It would literaly be awesome if the next mac pro's would have the next gen Nvidia graphic cards, ( i'm not against ATI (AMD) but those guys are just less when it comes to the real GPU rendering).

Although you can buy the Quadro 4000 for the mac pro or anything like that http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-quadro-4000-us.html
but that's really expensive!

I'm asking if anyone could assist me with finding the right mac and with this thread helping other people who doubt aswel.

Regards Beau.

Sandy Bridge won't be out for almost a year for Xeon, so Apple is using the newest tech you'll get there, when it comes to graphics cards they are far behind as you say.

Only Apple and nvidia knows when new cards will be available for Macs.
With the growing market share I would suspect that more aftermarket GPUs will be available, but only time will show.

 

[goMac]

Only Apple and nvidia knows when new cards will be available for Macs.

Apple or NVidia. Apple doesn't control Mac graphics card distribution.

 

[CountlovE]

Does your software support distributed rendering? I know it's kind of a PITA, but if it does your could set up a second box just dedicated for GPU rendering.

V-Ray does distributed across multiple machines for both GPU and CPU. I am fine when I am at a studio working with a farm, but at home I can't afford to have a bunch of machines. I am curious to see what two 280's in my 2010 mac pro can do.

 

[cgxev]

Does your software support distributed rendering? I know it's kind of a PITA, but if it does your could set up a second box just dedicated for GPU rendering.

Well it does, I use Blender 2.57b, I know this is another option to consider, but i prefer not to .

 

[cgxev]

Thanks for everyone for sharing thoughts here!