Mac 4,1 GPU for Adobe Premiere CC

[123CHC]

Hi All
Sorry about creating another GPU post but I am getting dizzy reading all of the discussions and I am sure someone can help me narrow this down.

I own 3 mac pro 4,1's (8 core, 2009). I will probably update the firmware to 5,1 soon.
All 3 computers run Adobe CC, mostly Premiere.
All are on El Cap but I will upgrade them to High Sierra if possible
I need to replace one that has a failing graphics card (Radeon HD 5770 1G)
One is working well with a Radeon HD 7950 3gb

I was about to pull the trigger on another Radeon HD 7950 but decided to shop a little to see if I can upgrade a little to help us with 4k editing and now I am super confused so I hope someone can help. Here is our criteria.
1) budget is 500.00
2) Reliability is very important and having flashed cards may be a problem if we lose work days due to glitches.
3) We don't game, only edit and we are starting to work with 4k and running into lags on playback that we would like to solve.
4) We run 2 screens on each computer.

Can anyone strongly recomend a graphics card for us?
Heath

 

[bsbeamer]

Do you NEED boot screens? Do you NEED FileVault?

Just for reference, a brand new GTX 1080 FE from NVIDIA runs $550. They had some available this morning but sold out (again) in a few minutes. There is a waiting list notification you can sign up for to be alerted when they're available:

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/10series/geforce-gtx-1080

Adobe CC 2018 works well with NVIDIA and CUDA, for the most part. 4K does depend on the speed of your drives. Running SSD media drives helps a lot. NVIDIA web drivers are easy to install and update.

 

[joot]

I have a gtx980ti on my Mac pro 4,1 flashed to 5,1 for Premiere and it' been excellent.

 

[123CHC]

Do you NEED boot screens? Do you NEED FileVault?



Just for reference, a brand new GTX 1080 FE from NVIDIA runs $550. They had some available this morning but sold out (again) in a few minutes. There is a waiting list notification you can sign up for to be alerted when they're available:

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/10series/geforce-gtx-1080

Adobe CC 2018 works well with NVIDIA and CUDA, for the most part. 4K does depend on the speed of your drives. Running SSD media drives helps a lot. NVIDIA web drivers are easy to install and update.

I don't use File vault and I don't see why I would need a boot screen. As long as it is stable for 40 hours a week of editing then I am in, thanks.

Great we use SSD's except for the project drive which is internal Raid 1 7200 rpm HD's, we could fix that easily.

 

[tele-fragd]

I don't use File vault and I don't see why I would need a boot screen. As long as it is stable for 40 hours a week of editing then I am in, thanks.

Great we use SSD's except for the project drive which is internal Raid 1 7200 rpm HD's, we could fix that easily.

Are you running a flashed Mac Pro 4,1 (to convert it to 5,1)?

I wouldn't advise upgrading them to the latest version of High Sierra at the moment.

There are horrible bugs with NVIDIA drivers at the moment on High Sierra that cause everything in macOS to lag. Even doing simple things like dragging windows around will have stuttering and there's a lot of annoying delays.

Honestly it is bloody annoying. NVIDIA doesn't seem to give a crap about the quality of their drivers on macOS.

Your editors will be tearing their hair out if they deal with this lagginess.

 

[Dr. Stealth]

There are horrible bugs with NVIDIA drivers at the moment on High Sierra that cause everything in macOS to lag. Even doing simple things like dragging windows around will have stuttering and there's a lot of annoying delays.

I have to say this is ABSOLUTE B.S. I'm running (2) GTX 1080 TI's in High Sierra on my 5,1 and the performance is nothing short of Awesome. Nvidia has been kicking out driver updates at a wonderful pace in support of the few people who use their cards in the obsolete cMP. I couldn't begin to ask them for any more.....

 

[123CHC]

I have a gtx980ti on my Mac pro 4,1 flashed to 5,1 for Premiere and it' been excellent.

How do you power it? I am finding differing opinions external PS vs internal.

 

[Surrat]

I have to agree about the nvidia driver problems in High Sierra.

In my 2009 MP, flashed to 5,1, I have tested dual K5000 mac edition cards, and 680 mac edition in the case, with breakout card, and two K5000 in an nvidia quadro plex. They work correctly in el capitan, but not in sierra, or high sierra.

When using the built in high sierra driver, with for example two K5000 inside the tower, if I connect one cinema to either card, things are fine.
If I connect two cinema to either card, things are fine.
If however, I connect one display to each video card, when I plug in the second display, (dvi or dp), high sierra suddenly logs me out, and goes back to the login screen. If I try to login, it will load the desktop for a moment, then log out again.
If I unplug one of the displays, things are fine and I can login.

If I load the newest nvidia driver, including the one that just came out, things are different:
Only one card will have desktop acceleration, and its never the card in slot 1, its the 'last' card in the chain.
Example:
Two K5000 inside the tower - only card in slot 2 has acceleration, this includes 2 displays on it. Any display plugged into the slot 1 card has no acceleration and stutters/bad color/graphic errors. This happens even if I switch the cards around, only slot 2 works correctly.
One 680 mac edition in slot 1, pcie breakout card in slot 2, two K5000 in quadro plex expansion unit:
Testing with multiple display shows that only one card has acceleration, and its the second card in the expansion unit.
The 680 has none, and first slot in expansion has none.

In Sierra problems were a little different, but the computer was still unusable, as it would completely crash and reset about every 15 minutes when multiple displays were connected to separate cards.

In El Capitan, things seemed ok, and I thought I had the problem beat, but no.
Under heavy stress testing, meaning one display on each of 3 cards, and Heaven 3d benchmark running on each card with its own display, it ran for about 15 minutes, then the computer black screen crashed and reset.

I havent tested this yet, but I think if I put the pcie breakout card in slot 1, a 680 mac edition in slot 2, and two K5000 mac edition in the quadro plex external, then I can connect displays to the 680 with acceleration, and the two K5000 will be available for cuda, but no acceleration for any displays on them.

This has been EXTREMELY irritating, as I have spent literally hours trying different setups drivers, and three different versions of mac os.

Going to post this to its own thread, maybe somebody will see it that understands whats going on.

 

[bsbeamer]

As long as it is stable for 40 hours a week of editing then I am in, thanks.

The biggest issue in stability lies with Adobe’s software, not NVIDIA GPU. Generally speaking works great, but if you’ve ever run into a bug or crash with Adobe you know what I mean... crash reports are useless.

 

[orph]

for 4K 4gb VRAM is recommended, depending on the complexity of your work and use of GPU accelerated effects the gains from newer cards is mixed.

native osx drivers
for simplicity a GTX680 4GB can be flashed to with a mac bios
i use a GTX770 4GB and it works fine on native drivers (so no problems with updates etc)

nvidia drivers only
the GTX970/980 have had good reports of compatibility but you have to use nvidias drivers so updates can be problems
(ie dont update until nvidia has a driver out & there's reports of no problems)
i think the GTX1070/1080 have good reports (think problems with the 1060 have been mentioned)

id be tempted to say dont update anything on the computer during projects so nothing gets broken and keep a clean backup of each computer's OS drive encase something is broken so you can restore with little downtime if you do hit a problem.

for lag in time line check that it's not just a CPU or drive speed problem.

 

[123CHC]

1080 vs 980ti
Ok, I appreciate the help. I am on the fence but leaning toward the 980ti after watching this

The price difference is negligible to me but the 980ti can run on El Cap and I think the 1080 needs Sierra. Both seem very powerful and the 980Ti seems to need more power so once I figure that out I will probably go 980Ti.
Also, my next camera will probably be a Canon C200 so Canon Raw light will be the next step up in file size for us.
Thoughts?
Heath
[doublepost=1520610641][/doublepost]If I were to go with an external power supply for this card what kind do I need? Can anyone recomend one?
Heath

 

[joot]

For powering my 980ti, I bought an external PSU to power it. Sits on top of my MacPro. I didn't want to take chance of too much power draw with all my setup as I've got lots of hard drive, etc already attached plus I also have a gtx120 for booting purpose. If you don' like having a PSU sitting there, you can power the gpu using the two internal pci-e connection. Lots of people go this route with no issues...

Any brand name PSU with 80+ will do.

 

[123CHC]

1080 vs 980ti

I am finding that prices for the 980ti are higher than the 1080 so I want to double check on last detail. I think I discovered that the 1080 needed Sierra and the 980ti could run on El Cap but I am not 100% sure this is correct. Can someone confirm or explain how to confirm this? Also if anyone knows of a great deal on the 980ti please let me know. I am reluctant to buy a used one and actually am a little confused by all of the different types of 980ti's like acx, hybrid, ect

 

[123CHC]

ok, I think I have confirmed that the 1080 must have Siera or HS but I can run up to HS if I upgrade my firmware from 4,1 to 5,1. So I am back to the 1080 and probably an external power supply just to be safe.

 

[h9826790]

ok, I think I have confirmed that the 1080 must have Siera or HS but I can run up to HS if I upgrade my firmware from 4,1 to 5,1. So I am back to the 1080 and probably an external power supply just to be safe.

There is no need to use any extra PSU for GTX1080. Doing that will just increase complexity, increasing chance of having trouble, with virtually no benefit. The PSU on cMP Rated up to 980W. Even you are running dual 130W CPU with the GTX1080, you can still barely draw 50% or its capacity.

For 1080Ti / 980Ti, using extra PSU may be a practical way to avoid triggering the shutdown protection. But for 1080, I really can’t see why going extra PSU is safer.

If you click the link in my signature “1080Ti”, you can see that I am powering my 1080Ti with just the onboard mini 6pins. By considering the 1080 draw way less than 1080Ti. It’s actually very safe to use just the mini 6pins.

 

[bsbeamer]

Can confirm that the GTX 1080 Founders Edition (FE) works perfectly fine in 5,1 without extra PSU as long as you have the dual mini 6-pin to single 8-pin cable. Currently running macOS 10.13.3 (17D102).

 

[123CHC]

Can confirm that the GTX 1080 Founders Edition (FE) works perfectly fine in 5,1 without extra PSU as long as you have the dual mini 6-pin to single 8-pin cable. Currently running macOS 10.13.3 (17D102).

Thanks, 1080 it is, I appreciate the help.
Heath
[doublepost=1520710829][/doublepost]

There is no need to use any extra PSU for GTX1080. Doing that will just increase complexity, increasing chance of having trouble, with virtually no benefit. The PSU on cMP Rated up to 980W. Even you are running dual 130W CPU with the GTX1080, you can still barely draw 50% or its capacity.

For 1080Ti / 980Ti, using extra PSU may be a practical way to avoid triggering the shutdown protection. But for 1080, I really can’t see why going extra PSU is safer.

If you click the link in my signature “1080Ti”, you can see that I am powering my 1080Ti with just the onboard mini 6pins. By considering the 1080 draw way less than 1080Ti. It’s actually very safe to use just the mini 6pins.

Thanks, I am pulling the trigger on the 1080, I am sure I will have a few more questions until I get it dialed in so thanks again. Heath

 

[bsbeamer]

Be aware that there are differences between the 1080FE, 1080TI and other 1080 models. Be sure you're buying the right one.

 

[123CHC]

Be aware that there are differences between the 1080FE, 1080TI and other 1080 models. Be sure you're buying the right one.

Thanks I am looking for the FE only, 750.00 seems like the best price I can find. I put my email in at Nvidia to get the 550.00 deal but have not heard back. Did you get that deal? How long did it take for them to get back?

 

[bsbeamer]

It's not an NVIDIA deal, that's the MSRP for the 1080FE. All other prices are inflated. They are currently out of stock nearly everywhere and sell out quickly. NVIDIA will not "get back" to you until they have stock. You may need to sign up a few times if you do not purchase quickly when they alert you.

 

[123CHC]

It's not an NVIDIA deal, that's the MSRP for the 1080FE. All other prices are inflated. They are currently out of stock nearly everywhere and sell out quickly. NVIDIA will not "get back" to you until they have stock. You may need to sign up a few times if you do not purchase quickly when they alert you.

thanks, I may have to buy an inflated one or used so my editors can get back to work, we have a failing card on one of our machines.

 

[orph]

>.> im waiting out the GPU price hike >.< it's like a cold war waiting