I Need a SuperMac!

[austinpike]

2 x 3.06 Ghz 6-Core Intel Xeon

So are you currently doing CPU or GPU rendering? (Given the 5870 I assume CPU.)

...my current one in on its last legs I think. I got no sound anymore and no ports are working on the back end. I wish I could explain it better with official jargon, but an artist I am, a techie I am not, lol.

So you have no rear USB/ethernet? I'd say the first thing you need to do is figure out if your issues are hardware or software related. Do a fresh OS install on a clean HD or SSD and see if the ports work. If not, I think you can replace the motherboard for ~$500 which would be more than worth it for that machine. (If you don't want to go to the hassle, I'd be happy to buy it off you...)

Last time I looked VRay had no GPU support on the Mac and Octane is nVidia only. These posts seems relevant to your situation.
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=1279522.
https://render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=45056
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-pro-advice-for-3d-rendering.1830543/
Granted things change quickly and I haven't been paying that much attention. But I'd guess you'll have better luck with an nVidia card in a classic Mac Pro. The AMD cards in the new Mac Pro are essentially useless.

If you are stuck on CPU rendering then you'd have to get the 12-core nMP to see any improvement over your current box, and the difference would be marginal. You can upgrade what you have to dual 3.46 Xeons for a modest improvement. You should probably look into network rendering options and offloading the workload to some cheaper Windows render nodes.

You say you aren't a techie, but if you want to push this kind of stuff you really need to become one (at least a little bit.) Otherwise I think you are going to dump a ton of $ into a new setup that won't really improve your render times one bit.

 

[Rattlers1887]

As mentioned above, the D700 GPU and 6-core CPU will be plenty. There's a reason you (and many others) remain with Apple. I've been with the MacPro since 2006. They have NEVER let me down. For me, peace of mind has no price. Good luck with whatever decision you make.

How do the Dual D700's stack up against the Titans? Are they CUDA enabled for use with Octane? Anyone did an OctaneBench score with any of this stuff?

 

[Rattlers1887]

So are you currently doing CPU or GPU rendering? (Given the 5870 I assume CPU.)

You say you aren't a techie, but if you want to push this kind of stuff you really need to become one (at least a little bit.) Otherwise I think you are going to dump a ton of $ into a new setup that won't really improve your render times one bit.

Well I'm definitely trying....its just a slow process, lol!

 

[Rattlers1887]

So based on the feedback, I'm thinking, maybe keep my old box and upgrade to the titan card (along with maybe a new motherboard), and then maybe a pci-expander box and stuff as many Titan cards in there that I can and I should have a pretty awesome octane render? What do you think?

 

[Zwhaler]

2 x 3.06 Ghz 6-Core Intel Xeon
32 GB Ram
ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB

Get a better GPU and you'll notice a big difference. When it comes to raw processing capability (not single core performance) the only Mac Pro that is slightly faster than yours (and mine incedentally) is the nMP 12 core. I upgraded to the R9 280X and it makes a big difference. It runs off of an external PSU tho, which was an interesting upgrade. Also the 980 requires Yosemite at the minimum, which I am not willing to run at this point but I am very happy! I'd recommend upgrading that 5870 (it is really slow, I had one for a few years) to the 980 if you're running 10.10 or later and save yourself a bunch of money!!!! You really don't need a whole new Mac Pro. A GPU upgrade will be more than enough, and put an SSD in there if you haven't already or better yet an SSD in the PCIe slot.

 

[Zwhaler]

So based on the feedback, I'm thinking, maybe keep my old box and upgrade to the titan card (along with maybe a new motherboard), and then maybe a pci-expander box and stuff as many Titan cards in there that I can and I should have a pretty awesome octane render? What do you think?

I'm not sure you need a new motherboard. In fact, I'm sure you don't need a new motherboard unless your current one is broken. Also, which Titan card? Save yourself the hassle and buy from http://www.macvidcards.com/ (I think the store is down at the moment of this posting). I got my card from him and it really helped my setup. There is a difference between a GTX Titan (older) and a Titan X (newer).

 

[flat five]

Get a better GPU and you'll notice a big difference. When it comes to raw processing capability (not single core performance) the only Mac Pro that is slightly faster than yours (and mine incedentally) is the nMP 12 core. I upgraded to the R9 280X and it makes a big difference. It runs off of an external PSU tho, which was an interesting upgrade. Also the 980 requires Yosemite at the minimum, which I am not willing to run at this point but I am very happy! I'd recommend upgrading that 5870 (it is really slow, I had one for a few years) to the 980 if you're running 10.10 or later and save yourself a bunch of money!!!! You really don't need a whole new Mac Pro. A GPU upgrade will be more than enough, and put an SSD in there if you haven't already or better yet an SSD in the PCIe slot.

@op is interested in running octane (rendering application).. currently, it's built on cuda (like- you need an nvidia card inside your computer or it will not work.. it won't run slower without nvidia-- it won't run)

they're working on a version that will support amd gpu and it should be here shortly..

if i were buying this week to run octane, i wouldn't get amd.. i'd at least wait a few months for v3 to release in order to get an idea about how well the openCL port works..
or get nvidia now and probably not regret it.. i doubt the openCL version will be equal to cuda upon initial release.
(unless they did what some others are doing.. dropping cuda altogether and making the openCL version as the version. then i imagine it will run more optimized.. but i think octane will still be a cuda app with openCL support (?) )

 

[Zwhaler]

@op is interested in running octane (rendering application).. currently, it's built on cuda (like- you need an nvidia card inside your computer or it will not work.. it won't run slower without nvidia-- it won't run)

they're working on a version that will support amd gpu and it should be here shortly..

if i were buying this week to run octane, i wouldn't get amd.. i'd at least wait a few months for v3 to release in order to get an idea about how well the openCL port works..
or get nvidia now and probably not regret it.. i doubt the openCL version will be equal to cuda upon initial release.
(unless they did what some others are doing.. dropping cuda altogether and making the openCL version as the version. then i imagine it will run more optimized.. but i think octane will still be a cuda app with openCL support (?) )

I'm not recommending he get a 280X, I'm just saying that's what I got for my purposes.

 

[flat five]

oh. i see now.
my bad