GTX 780 in Mac Pro 3.1 works, but minor editing benefits

[Idsz]

Hi,

I recently bought an eVGA GTX 780 3GB PC version for editing in Resolve with my good ol' Mac Pro 3.1.

I got it to work by using the optical drive power (molex) and one 6 pin that used to power my 8800 GT. I've ordered another mini 6pin to 6pin just to be safe.

I installed the latest OSX (10.9.4), CUDA and Web drivers, but unfortunately the increase in playback speed and render speed is only minimal.

Final Cut X seems to benefit the most. It can playback GH4 4K footage pretty smooth. Resolve works a little bit better than before, but has problems playing back 4K footage (lots of stuttering)

FCP7 doesn't show an increase in render speed at all.

I tested Unigine Engine just to check (although I won't be playing games that much) and it works great. Smooth at max settings at full res.

So I was wondering what could cause this:

- Power: Two 6 pins in a 6 and 8 pin GPU might not be enough
- HDD: I don't have an SSD (yet), but I do have two HDD's in Raid 0.
- CPU: 8 core 2.8 Ghz
- RAM: 14GB 800mhz DDR2(!)
- CUDA: Maybe it doesn't work somehow?
- PCIE: Placed it in the first slot (closest to the CPU), 16x PCI 2.0
- Something I'm not aware of

Cheers,

 

[Korican100]

I have a GTX 780 6gb flashed for efi coming at the end of the week.

Right now I have the GTX 680 mac edition. I was told to expect 20-40% overall faster speed.

I will run benchmarking to see what the real increase is. Can anyone recommend a good gpu benchmarking tool?

 

[flowrider]

You may want to read this thread:

http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,8206.0.html

Lou

 

[flowrider]

Can anyone recommend a good gpu benchmarking tool?

Both Unigine Valley and Heaven.

Lou

 

[Korican100]

Both Unigine Valley and Heaven.

Lou

sweet thanks bro

 

[666sheep]

I will run benchmarking to see what the real increase is. Can anyone recommend a good gpu benchmarking tool?

Benchmarks ≠ real increase measurement, just synthetics. Do real world comparison (everyday tasks in software you're using the most).

You may want to read this thread:

http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,8206.0.html

Lou

Especially post #192

 

[MacVidCards]

Somewhere in a "should I upgrade my 4,1?" thread I noted that on "extreme hd" preset the Mac score on a 3,1 is 35 fps.

Gtx780 to Titan Black all get 35fps.

On my 4,1 the 780 get 40-45 and the Titan Black breaks 50.

So there are other things holding the 3,1 back.

BMD has always said that a 3,1 is not up to snuff for Resolve and has strongly suggested a 4,1 or newer.

 

[fuchsdh]

So, interesting point to throw in here:

I just got my 7950 to replace the 5770 + Quadro combo I had. Running 10.9.4, no additional drivers, the 5770 did 728 running the Valley benchmarks at 1080p High/2xAA (Having the Quadro made no difference.) The 7950 did 1520 (36.3 fps average.)

Running the "Extreme" benchmark as specified in the Barefeats test, I actually slightly bested the score they got--34.7 fps/1450.

Haven't done any of the kext stuff as mentioned in other threads.

If that's the essential performance ceiling of the 3,1's though, I'm not complaining--still getting good performance for all of $220 off eBay.

 

[666sheep]

Unigine benchmarks aren't good tools for GPU performance comparison, unless your'e comparing two identical machines. CPU impact is too much to get trustworthy results. If you want a good hardware OpenGL benchmark use GPUTest from geeks3d.

 

[fuchsdh]

Unigine benchmarks aren't good tools for GPU performance comparison, unless your'e comparing two identical machines. CPU impact is too much to get trustworthy results. If you want a good hardware OpenGL benchmark use GPUTest from geeks3d.

And I am testing the exact same machine, with different cards swapped in

 

[Idsz]

Thanks for the responses guys, I deleted the kexts but sadly it made no difference.

Somewhere in a "should I upgrade my 4,1?" thread I noted that on "extreme hd" preset the Mac score on a 3,1 is 35 fps.

Gtx780 to Titan Black all get 35fps.

On my 4,1 the 780 get 40-45 and the Titan Black breaks 50.

So there are other things holding the 3,1 back.

BMD has always said that a 3,1 is not up to snuff for Resolve and has strongly suggested a 4,1 or newer.

That's really a shame, a mac upgrade wasn't really planned. I am wondering though: If i'd upgrade to 4.1 or 5.1, would it playback 4K (h.264) in Resolve smoothly (with one or two cc nodes) with the GTX 870 3GB? That's my main goal.