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Helping on choosing a new graphic card

D

dmc79

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 25, 2009
16
0
Hi,

I have a mac pro 3.1 with 8gb ram, GT8800, SSD intel 330 120GB and a HD 7200rpm 500GB.

My job is architecture, and i usei it almost to autodesk architecture 2013 and autodesk 3d viz 2013 on windows 7 and adobe CS5 and aperture on mac OS ML.

I want to upgrade this machine to get a faster rendering time for my job. My first tough, was to upgrade the graphic card. If I'm correct, after read some threads here, I want some faster, that I can see the bootable gray screen (holding option) and don't need to change anything about power cables and etc...

What is my options?

Regards all!
 
dmc79 said:
Hi,

I have a mac pro 3.1 with 8gb ram, GT8800, SSD intel 330 120GB and a HD 7200rpm 500GB.

My job is architecture, and i usei it almost to autodesk architecture 2013 and autodesk 3d viz 2013 on windows 7 and adobe CS5 and aperture on mac OS ML.

I want to upgrade this machine to get a faster rendering time for my job. My first tough, was to upgrade the graphic card. If I'm correct, after read some threads here, I want some faster, that I can see the bootable gray screen (holding option) and don't need to change anything about power cables and etc...

What is my options?

Regards all!
Click to expand...

Same options as I had when I decided to upgrade and did not want extra cables or hassles, just go to the Apple site and buy a stock Apple card 5870. That is what I was going to do until I realised I could save about £250 buying a PC card,and no need for extra cables if you pick the right one :)

I went for this one but you will not get a bootscreen and you may need to instal the ATI_INIT kext file.

XFX Radeon HD 6870, HD-687A-ZDFC
 
Last edited:
Not even willing to change power cables? You are asking a lot.

AMD5770 from Apple or Nvidia GTX650 from MACVIDCARDS.

Both of those will have boot screens and only require the power cable that's already inside hooked up to your 8800.

If you don't mind adding a second power cable and/or flashing the card, your options open up quite a bit.
 
I didn't know that I am to hard on my needs.... The grey screen I think it is important once I change between OS a lot. About power cables, I just don't want to have to run a new cable from PSU or something so complicated.

I think the ATI radeon 5770 is expensive ($248) to be a standard card.

About the Nvidia GTX650, I saw a lot of models on amazon ($109 - $179), but I didn't realize what is the correct model...

I saw some options, but I don't have sure, if they will work as I expect.

- EVGA GeForce GTX670 FTW 2048MB GDDR5;
-EVGA GeForce GTX550 TI 2048MB GDDR5;
- sapphire AMD Radeon hd 6870 1gb GDDR5.
 
Lack of grey boot screen and power cables aren't really an issue for something like a GTX 570 or GTX 680, check the sticky FAQ thread at the top of this forum for details about NVIDIA cards.

I picked up an EVGA GeForce GTX 650 for $130 just for fun, and its been rock solid as well.
 
r00tb33r said:
That would require two power cables though...
Click to expand...

No it won't, the NVIDIA site lists the total board power at 122W which should mean a single power cable:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro-k5000.html#pdpContent=2

And even if it didn't, why is that a problem? I really can't believe folks have a problem with plugging in a second PCIe power cable to the connector on the motherboard, we're not talking about rigging up an external power supply or anything like that.
 
Asgorath said:
No it won't, the NVIDIA site lists the total board power at 122W which should mean a single power cable:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro-k5000.html#pdpContent=2

And even if it didn't, why is that a problem? I really can't believe folks have a problem with plugging in a second PCIe power cable to the connector on the motherboard, we're not talking about rigging up an external power supply or anything like that.
Click to expand...

That's a lot of speculation, but I can show you this:
NVDA_K5000Dell_689.jpg

From here:
http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2012/8/9/can-the-new-nvidia-quadro-k5000-become-the-most-profitable-graphics-card.aspx

Which clearly shows pads for two 6 pin power connectors on the underside of the board.
I also do own the "short" GTX 670 with 4GB mentioned here, which also uses two 6 pin power connectors. Nvidia keeps pushing back the launch date, but I want to see what it will do just as much as you.

You gotta be realistic though, the OP has a 3,1 machine, valued around $900 in the configuration, and the new K5000 costs $2200, or so it was announced. Even the PC card costs $1800 at launch:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133468
 
The GTX 670 has a TDP of ~170W, per this article:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5818/nvidia-geforce-gtx-670-review-feat-evga

Since this is more than 150W, two 6-pin power cables are required (75W from the PCIe slot, 75W for each power cable). Given that the TDP of the K5000 is significantly less than 150W, I'd really be surprised if it required two cables. Of course, having said that, I still don't see why that would be a non-starter. The Mac Pro can easily drive this card, in fact it can probably drive two of them. And, it's officially supported. I'm also only seeing 1 power cable plugged into the end of that card, but maybe I'm missing something.

Regarding price, the K5000 would be a solid upgrade for the 2009 Mac Pro if you're one of the intended customers (and from what the OP said, he is). If you're doing stuff that is fully utilizing the GPU like 3D modeling or image processing/video stuff in the Adobe apps, then it won't matter if the card is in a base model 2009 Mac Pro or a fully souped-up 2012 Mac Pro -- if the CPU isn't the bottleneck, it doesn't matter, the GPU will be just as powerful in both systems. So, the OP could spend $3k or more on a new Mac Pro with a GPU from 3 generations ago, or he could upgrade to a new powerful GPU like this. I don't know about you, but I would definitely be in the "get a new GPU" end of the spectrum.

And, on top of that, the list price of the Quadro card means you get official support, which is more than all of us using stock PC cards can say :)
 
dmc79 said:
I didn't know that I am to hard on my needs.... The grey screen I think it is important once I change between OS a lot. About power cables, I just don't want to have to run a new cable from PSU or something so complicated.
Click to expand...

I did not think I was being hard on my needs either, but was now I look at it.

I also bootup with different systems on startup so was wanting to keep the grey screen. Then realised it is not that important really as you can just boot into the main one you use then choose the startup device from prefs and restart.

Windows under Bootcamp if you use it can be booted via a little app called Bootchamp

The power cables are really easy to do, just look up fitting a video card in a Mac Pro on Youtube.
 
don't buy it from that clown.

He didn't have a single solitary thing to do with writing the ROM for it.

Was done by YoYoMarv.

He did the work with some help from us.

If you want new and unique cards to keep coming up for Mac, you need to support the developers, not the copy& pasters.

BTW, MVC will be releasing new Quadro cards in next week.

We will be offering REAL Quadro 4800 & 5800 cards, not reflashed GTX260s like the linked one. And ours will have support for DisplayPort and Stereo Viewport, also missing from the clown's card.
 
MacVidCards said:
We will be offering REAL Quadro 4800 & 5800 cards, not reflashed GTX260s like the linked one. And ours will have support for DisplayPort and Stereo Viewport, also missing from the clown's card.
Click to expand...

Good point, I didn't look at the image properly, the Quadro unit casing is indeed different. Should have realised the price was too good to be true.
Even a rebranded GTX260 would be considerably faster than a 8800GT, but only worth about $150 before conversion.
 
Last edited:
dmc79 and Washac - remember that you can use the FREE app BootChamp from http://www.kainjow.com which sits in your OS X Tittle bar and lets you Restart Into Windows with a single click... well, two clicks if you count clicking on the toolbar itself.

If you have a single OS X installation and a single Windows installation, BootChamp is THE tool to use to swap between the two. It doesn't do anything dirty and best of all it is FREE.

If you like what it does, throw a couple of bucks at the author via PayPal - he won't complain!

That way you are freed up to use whatever graphics card your machine can support that meets your performance or monitor requirements. See the sticky thread in this forum for the choices.
 
DanielCoffey said:
dmc79 and Washac - remember that you can use the FREE app BootChamp from http://www.kainjow.com which sits in your OS X Tittle bar and lets you Restart Into Windows with a single click... well, two clicks if you count clicking on the toolbar itself.

If you have a single OS X installation and a single Windows installation, BootChamp is THE tool to use to swap between the two. It doesn't do anything dirty and best of all it is FREE.

If you like what it does, throw a couple of bucks at the author via PayPal - he won't complain!

That way you are freed up to use whatever graphics card your machine can support that meets your performance or monitor requirements. See the sticky thread in this forum for the choices.
Click to expand...

I mention and have a link to Bootchamp in one of my above posts.
 
Thanks all, alot of info! :)

But this come to be a little confusing for me.

First of all, when you saying about using 2 power cables on logic board, is it the 2 conectors that already connected the video card? So, I have to connect 2 cables (just buy 1 more of the cable that I already have) on logic board to the video card. If it is correct, don't have any problem....

About bootcamp, I'm already using it. I installed the windows partition using it. I know that I can restart using bootcamp to change the OS, but sometimes, when the machine is off, I use the option key to choose the Os that I want to start. Bu this is not a big deal...

Aobut the video card options, my budge is $350. If could be less, will be a lot better for me. Because, probably, I will buy the 2013 when it came out.

another info, I'm using 2 monitors from AOC, i2353Ph.

I liked the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 that was suggested.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121000379843 (BTW, is that the clown's card?)

And about these 3 models:

- EVGA GeForce GTX670 FTW 2048MB GDDR5;
-EVGA GeForce GTX550 TI 2048MB GDDR5;
- sapphire AMD Radeon hd 6870 1gb GDDR5.

Are they wil work for my needs?

I saw these 2 options from macvidcards too:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nvidia-GTX-...493?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item4d06444a0d

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nvidia-GTX-...566?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item4d06444286
 
r00tb33r said:
That's a 3,1 (2008) machine that the OP has... It will work (EFI64) but it's way old.
Click to expand...

You're missing my point. If the OP is doing stuff that is completely dependent on the GPU, such as 3D modeling work, then it doesn't matter if the K5000 is in a 2008 Mac Pro or a 2012 Mac Pro. The K5000 is going to run just as fast in both cases, because the bottleneck is the on the GPU side. Therefore, buying a faster GPU for his old, slow system will give him a bigger boost to his productivity than buying a newer system that *still* has a slow (by today's standards) GPU from 3 generations ago.

dmc79 said:
First of all, when you saying about using 2 power cables on logic board, is it the 2 conectors that already connected the video card? So, I have to connect 2 cables (just buy 1 more of the cable that I already have) on logic board to the video card. If it is correct, don't have any problem....
Click to expand...

This is correct. The most any official card will require is 2 6-pin power cables, which can be connected to the motherboard directly. This allows for a maximum of 225W, as discussed in my FAQ thread.

dmc79 said:
Aobut the video card options, my budge is $350. If could be less, will be a lot better for me. Because, probably, I will buy the 2013 when it came out.
Click to expand...

If your budget is in the $350 range, then the GTX 570 or a Quadro card is probably your best bet. Since you're doing 3D work under Windows, you'll see more benefit from using a Quadro card, so that's definitely a good option to consider. I'd check with MVC to see how much he'll be selling those for.
 
dmc79 said:
About bootcamp, I'm already using it. I installed the windows partition using it. I know that I can restart using bootcamp to change the OS, but sometimes, when the machine is off, I use the option key to choose the Os that I want to start. Bu this is not a big deal...
Click to expand...

I was referring to BootChamp, not Bootcamp itself. BootChamp is a mini-app to swap easily between OSX and Windows.
 
DanielCoffey said:
I was referring to BootChamp, not Bootcamp itself. BootChamp is a mini-app to swap easily between OSX and Windows.
Click to expand...

nice tip!:)

----------
Asgorath said:
If your budget is in the $350 range, then the GTX 570 or a Quadro card is probably your best bet. Since you're doing 3D work under Windows, you'll see more benefit from using a Quadro card, so that's definitely a good option to consider. I'd check with MVC to see how much he'll be selling those for.
Click to expand...

Ok, So I saw some options of GTX 570 on amazon. What is the correct model for me:

http://www.amazon.com/performance-E...e=UTF8&qid=1351805713&sr=8-8&keywords=gtx+570

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-...=UTF8&qid=1351805713&sr=8-11&keywords=gtx+570

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Superclo...e=UTF8&qid=1351805713&sr=8-2&keywords=gtx+570

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Superclo...e=UTF8&qid=1351805713&sr=8-1&keywords=gtx+570

and about this one? worth to invest? will work?

http://www.amazon.com/PNY-DisplayPo...ie=UTF8&qid=1351806229&sr=1-1&keywords=quadro
 
Last edited:
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dmc79 said:
and about this one? worth to invest? will work?
Click to expand...

As I said, ask MacVidCards how much he's going to be selling the Quadro 5800 for. Given the fact you're doing a lot of 3D modeling type work under Windows, the Quadro cards make a lot of sense for you.
 
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