GTX Titan in Mac Pro Late 2009 works fine!

[benjobe2513]

Update?

I am moving a mac pro to a gaming machine.
The computer is now working under windows 8. NO POWER HASSLE WHATSOEVER. No power setup. Just a standard 6 to 8 pin adaptor.
Flavio

Flavio, could you update us about the status of your system? Have you run into any power issues with the Titan in your 2009 Mac Pro? I'm considering doing something similar with my 2010 MP. Thanks for any help.

 

[TheHerdForever]

Flavio, could you update us about the status of your system? Have you run into any power issues with the Titan in your 2009 Mac Pro? I'm considering doing something similar with my 2010 MP. Thanks for any help.

Benj,

I have a Titan 1 in my MacPro 5,1 (2010) running off the internal power supply and haven't experienced any problems whatsoever. My OS is 10.9.4 and all still seems to be in working order. However, I have noticed that my CPU A, which is next to the Titan, is running a little hotter than CPU B. The temp for CPU A when running idle is about 103-110 degrees Fahrenheit. CPU B temp is around 90 degrees Fahrenheit when idle. I had CPU A jump up to 145 degrees F when I ran Cinebench R15 and Geekbench 3. CPU B jumped up to 103 degrees F. All this can be handled via iStat Menus, which allows you to independently control your internal fans to reduce the CPU heat (I believe the fan next to CPU A is called booster 1). Turning up the RPM's on booster 1 to 3650 seems drop the temps down in the mid to low 90's when running idle. Under heavy load, the highest I've seem CPU A temp was 115 degrees F, which is a lot better than 145 as I reported above.

Another "gotcha" is the latest nVidia web driver release (334.01.02f02) and the latest nVidia CUDA release (6.0.51). For whatever reason(s), the latest CUDA driver states that it needs another Update Required when you are running the latest nVidia web driver listed above. When you use the OS GPU drivers, the latest CUDA driver seems to work fine. Hopefully nVidia will fix this. Others have reported that lately that the OS GPU drivers are better performing that the current nVidia ones, but I am not the one to quote on that since I currently have very slow hard drives (which I'm replace ASAP).

Hope this helps in some way and please let me and the others know how it works out if you decide to get a Titan for your mid 2010 MP.

Cheers,
Frank

 

[benjobe2513]

Thank you for that information. With my current configuration when rendering/exporting HD video files from Adobe Premiere Pro/Encoder I'm getting about 155 degrees on CPU A and 128 degrees on CPU B which are operating at about 99% and 50% respectively. I wonder if upgrading my GTX 680 to a Titan Black would make any difference in those figures.

I'm leaning towards getting an external power supply for the Titan Black since my system is already power hungry. Actually, I'm now leaning towards getting an AMD 7970 since it supports UHD @ 60Hz for my Dell UP3214Q monitor and the Titan does not. And I've read that some people are running the 7970 without an external power supply.

I've also experienced the "update CUDA driver" phenomenon since moving to 10.9.4 I hope that nVidia releases a new driver soon.

 

[scottrichardson]

Thank you for that information. With my current configuration when rendering/exporting HD video files from Adobe Premiere Pro/Encoder I'm getting about 155 degrees on CPU A and 128 degrees on CPU B which are operating at about 99% and 50% respectively. I wonder if upgrading my GTX 680 to a Titan Black would make any difference in those figures.

I'm leaning towards getting an external power supply for the Titan Black since my system is already power hungry. Actually, I'm now leaning towards getting an AMD 7970 since it supports UHD @ 60Hz for my Dell UP3214Q monitor and the Titan does not. And I've read that some people are running the 7970 without an external power supply.

I've also experienced the "update CUDA driver" phenomenon since moving to 10.9.4 I hope that nVidia releases a new driver soon.

Save me from opening a new thread - but do PC 7970 cards work much like PC GeForce cards these days? No boot screen, but otherwise fine?

 

[sebseb]

The thing is that not many people get how the laws of OHM work! And well they think ok if they build an 8 to 6 pin connector, then it should be fine! NO!

I had some classes on electrical engineering and PCB (circuit board) designs!

The 8 pin has 2 more ground cables, that's it! you can even make the connector yourself and the 6 and 8 uses the same volts, which I think is 12 and 5? The only problem is that 8 pin offers double the currents! 150W compared to 75W on the 6 pin! That means more current is going to flow. Now the Power Supply won't be damaged if the graphics card is the only thing connected, because it's a 980W if I'm correct (that's plenty to power a titan).

However in circuit design classes they teach you to how to draw the lines and how thick they should be. If it's going to have small currents, we draw thin lines, if it's gonna handle a lot, they should be thick, and there's equations with safety factor.
So let's say we know a trace is going to conduct 1A of current, we calculate and we find that the trace has to be 2mm and we add a safety factor and make it 3mm. That way it might reach 1.5A and trace won't be damaged!

But the guys at apple didn't design the trace to the 6 pin to handle double the current! And a trace doesn't burn in a moment, it burns by time. So you may connect your Titan and think hey it works, yes it works cause the motherboard has a safety factor and therefore it covers the high current a little. If you let your titan run on idle all the time then yes maybe you won't have any issues, but in most cases you're gonna to use the Titan at full power and that's where you are gonna send high current to trace that can't handle the current, kinda of running a 2A through a cable that can handle 1.5A max, It won't burn right there but it will burn eventually.

Your best bet is to just use a GTX680 which is really powerful and it only uses 195W and 2x 6pins! or get another power supply! Otherwise soon you will end up paying a lot of money to fix that mother boards!

 

[h9826790]

Save me from opening a new thread - but do PC 7970 cards work much like PC GeForce cards these days? No boot screen, but otherwise fine?

No 100% sure about the 7970. I am running the 7950 Mac card. However, I am now actually using the Flashed PC ROM due to I want to OC my card and keep the native Mac ROM untouched as a backup.

It seems that the VBE7 tools can easily flash the 7970 as well in order to get the boot screen.

Update: the VBE7 CANNOT fix the boot screen issue.

 

[MacVidCards]

No 100% sure about the 7970. I am running the 7950 Mac card. However, I am now actually using the Flashed PC ROM due to I want to OC my card and keep the native Mac ROM untouched as a backup.

It seems that the VBE7 tools can easily flash the 7970 as well in order to get the boot screen.

Last time I used VBE it actually popped up a dialog saying it was disabling UEFI and turned off Mac EFIby resetting last rom indicator. If they have updated, great. It also wouldn't flash before IIRC, has it been updated?

 

[h9826790]

Last time I used VBE it actually popped up a dialog saying it was disabling UEFI and turned off Mac EFIby resetting last rom indicator. If they have updated, great. It also wouldn't flash before IIRC, has it been updated?

Sorry, it's my fault. VBE7 ONLY good for modify the ROM, but it WILL disable the EFI part. I actually want to say the "fixrom" script, but obviously I had a brain failure when I was typing my last reply. Thanks for pointing that out!

 

[closefan]

Thanks to all the Mac Rumors members that made this possible. Using Tutor, Macvidcards and Stealth's information I was able to get the GTX Titan running flawlessly on my 2010 Mac Pro. Did a very minor modification to the case to allow routing for extra power from the DVD bay. Rock solid for 24 hours Constant benchmarking. Extremely happy. I am just hoping that eventually we can get EFI boot screens.

Hey Executor...

Sorry to all I do not know how to PM yet. Sorry to re-birth this thread.

Executor... I have Asus GTX780 3GB. Was wondering what route you eventually took to get your Titan running?

Obviously avoided the Extra Power Supply. Did you end up dragging both SATA ports from the Optical Area and make it an 8-pin and 1 6-pin from the MOBO... ?

Thank you!

 

[Executor]

Hey Executor...

Sorry to all I do not know how to PM yet. Sorry to re-birth this thread.

Executor... I have Asus GTX780 3GB. Was wondering what route you eventually took to get your Titan running?

Obviously avoided the Extra Power Supply. Did you end up dragging both SATA ports from the Optical Area and make it an 8-pin and 1 6-pin from the MOBO... ?

Thank you!

I took the SATA power connectors from the Optical bay to make a 6 Pin Connector using the following adapter:

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-...8&qid=1427676010&sr=8-1&keywords=SATA+to+PCIe

I then took 2 built in 6 Pin Connectors from the motherboard and used an adapter that came with the titan to combine them into an 8 pin. Not much to it and worked very well.

 

[elliots11]

I took the SATA power connectors from the Optical bay to make a 6 Pin Connector using the following adapter:

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-...8&qid=1427676010&sr=8-1&keywords=SATA+to+PCIe

I then took 2 built in 6 Pin Connectors from the motherboard and used an adapter that came with the titan to combine them into an 8 pin. Not much to it and worked very well.

Did that Sata to 6 pin adapter just plug and play for you or did you have to modify it to plug into the optical bay connectors? I have one that's similar if not the same, but the "tooth" on one side prevents it from plugging in fully to the optical bay cable or any of the hard drive ports since it's designed for a different type of SATA plug. Pic attached.

This is the one I got and it's not working. I could modify it (don't have a dremel, but I'll find something), but if there's something that'll plug and play I'd rather do that.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DP98P0A?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

 

[MacVidCards]

Don't need a Drexel, use your thumb and snap it off

Titan-X doesn't need 8 pin anyway

 

[elliots11]

Don't need a Drexel, use your thumb and snap it off

Titan-X doesn't need 8 pin anyway

Thanks MacVidCards, it totally worked. I've actually met you before IRL, I brought you a card to be flashed for a production company I worked for, and I think it's great what you do. I'm making a YouTube video about this install, I'll give you a hat tip on the Sata tweak.

I'm also using the GTX 980 Ti because a Titan X is beyond my needs presently, though I'll probably need a 12 gig card eventually for Resolve. I just dug enough to know they were both 250w and have similarities.

I am curious: How do you tell which ones need the 8 pin and which ones don't?

 

[MacVidCards]

elliots11

glad it worked, just have to snap off one side, Apple made the the SATA plugs into one, but PC parts don't come that way

not sure why "Dremel" gets auto corrected to "Drexel"

Sadly, unless you wrote me a bad check (3 guys now...grrr) or were wearing a fright wig (actually never happened) I have trouble remembering the folks who stop by. Oh wait, there was a guy with purple pants, but then he was one of the 3 who wrote a bad check so would have remembered anyway.

Titan-X will start and run with just the Dual 6 pins. Most 680s are like this, some 770s. However, all 780s and 980Tis have required that 8th pin be connected to something. If you dig down on Nvidia's page on Titan-X it confusingly gives 2 references to power, one says "Dual 6 pins" or something like that.

And I run the old-fashioned kind of test, I run apps that use lots of power and see if I can "kill" the cMP. The cards that can take it down I only sell as "external Power Required" (780Ti, Titan, Titan Black)

Next time you come by, wear a fright wig.

 

[elliots11]

elliots11

glad it worked, just have to snap off one side, Apple made the the SATA plugs into one, but PC parts don't come that way

not sure why "Dremel" gets auto corrected to "Drexel"

Sadly, unless you wrote me a bad check (3 guys now...grrr) or were wearing a fright wig (actually never happened) I have trouble remembering the folks who stop by. Oh wait, there was a guy with purple pants, but then he was one of the 3 who wrote a bad check so would have remembered anyway.

Titan-X will start and run with just the Dual 6 pins. Most 680s are like this, some 770s. However, all 780s and 980Tis have required that 8th pin be connected to something. If you dig down on Nvidia's page on Titan-X it confusingly gives 2 references to power, one says "Dual 6 pins" or something like that.

And I run the old-fashioned kind of test, I run apps that use lots of power and see if I can "kill" the cMP. The cards that can take it down I only sell as "external Power Required" (780Ti, Titan, Titan Black)

Next time you come by, wear a fright wig.

Will do. Fright wig, purple pants, polka dot bow tie. Just like I wore to my wedding.