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I assume it's because the drivers for Windows see a lot more updates.

I always noticed this when encoding HD video using the same software under Windows and OS X, both using CUDA. Under Windows it would always perform better.

Thanks, yeah I have heard how notoriously bad the drivers are compared to Windows. Here's hope one day they will come on par.
 
I'm still generally working this out as well but after more research and looking at lots of benchmarks, I'm thinking now I wouldn't go below a GTX 770 or an AMD R9 280X. They're fairly similar but from what I've read the 770 is better in games (and Nvidia cards generally do seem to be better for gaming), and has slightly lower power draw (230W vs 250W)

If you've got a bigger budget then a GTX 970 or GTX 780 would be my next step up. The GTX 970 being the sweet spot of low power draw (145W vs 250W) and high performance, however costs a bit more.

At the top end if you've got lots of cash to burn then a GTX 980 would be fantastic! Again low power draw (165W) and killer performance. A GTX 780ti would probably be cheaper with similar performance but higher power draw as well (250W).

I'm not sure if all of these cards work out of the box or not (still looking into that) and I've left out the AMD R9 290 as I've read some have had problems with it and its power draw seems a bit high (275W), but others may be able to comment on it.

Also if you're gaming you're probably going to see better results under Windows in Boot Camp.


For cards with a TDP above 225w (75W from the pcie slot and 75W from each 6 pin connector) you run the risk of damaging the board. Basically any card with any 8 pin power connectors likely has a TDP that is too high. 8 pin connectors are designed to deliver 150w which the Mac Pro has none.

Nvidia cards with a dual 6 pin would be a GTX 570/660ti/750ti/960/970/980. The 660ti is crippled in terms of CUDA performance compared to the GTX 570. The 960 would be a great option for low power and decent performance. I run a GTX 970 in my hackintosh and it is amazing for the price.
 
For cards with a TDP above 225w (75W from the pcie slot and 75W from each 6 pin connector) you run the risk of damaging the board. Basically any card with any 8 pin power connectors likely has a TDP that is too high. 8 pin connectors are designed to deliver 150w which the Mac Pro has none.

Nvidia cards with a dual 6 pin would be a GTX 570/660ti/750ti/960/970/980. The 660ti is crippled in terms of CUDA performance compared to the GTX 570. The 960 would be a great option for low power and decent performance. I run a GTX 970 in my hackintosh and it is amazing for the price.

I was thinking about that as well when I was testing and did monitor the power draw coming off the card. What I noticed was that even in the hardest stress tests it never got close to 100% TDP. The 5870 is rated as 228W and I was seeing less than 80% of that.

So it kind of seemed like maybe the system had capped the power not to go too high? Have you ever monitored the power to see with your cards?

I was basing possible cards off that, even though I don't know at all if it will apply to any other cards. Agree there is a bit of a risk but 250W isn't that much higher than 225W, and even if they pull 90% of the total that still sits within 225W.

Another thing I've seen is pulling some power from the Molex connectors if needed. I've got no dvd drives in mine and a HD slot free as well.

A GTX 970 is what I really want once they come down in price at least $100 or so.
 

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Any of you here considering a 750ti, 960, 970, or 980, from what I have read, you MUST use Yosemite to have those cards. MacVidCards has mentioned it several times on other threads.
 
I was thinking about that as well when I was testing and did monitor the power draw coming off the card. What I noticed was that even in the hardest stress tests it never got close to 100% TDP. The 5870 is rated as 228W and I was seeing less than 80% of that.



So it kind of seemed like maybe the system had capped the power not to go too high? Have you ever monitored the power to see with your cards?



I was basing possible cards off that, even though I don't know at all if it will apply to any other cards. Agree there is a bit of a risk but 250W isn't that much higher than 225W, and even if they pull 90% of the total that still sits within 225W.



Another thing I've seen is pulling some power from the Molex connectors if needed. I've got no dvd drives in mine and a HD slot free as well.



A GTX 970 is what I really want once they come down in price at least $100 or so.


If the system is calling the card and it is not getting the power it needs then you will damage the card. If the card is pulling more power than the system is rated for then you will either damage the board or the PSU. You could run a dual 8pin card using the two 6pin connectors into one 8pin and two molex into one 8pin. Molex connectors support up to 132W. The 8pin needs 150W.

Personally I would never risk pulling more than the Mac Pro's supported GPU TDP. But, you should be fine with your 5870 since it is only 3W higher than the limit, it probably rarely hits that and certainly isn't maintaining 228W unless maybe you are Bitcoin mining.
 
If the system is calling the card and it is not getting the power it needs then you will damage the card. If the card is pulling more power than the system is rated for then you will either damage the board or the PSU. You could run a dual 8pin card using the two 6pin connectors into one 8pin and two molex into one 8pin. Molex connectors support up to 132W. The 8pin needs 150W.

Personally I would never risk pulling more than the Mac Pro's supported GPU TDP. But, you should be fine with your 5870 since it is only 3W higher than the limit, it probably rarely hits that and certainly isn't maintaining 228W unless maybe you are Bitcoin mining.

Yes the 5870 is completely safe as you can see from my charts it never ever gets anywhere close to the 228W, the max it ever got under full stress load was 77% of that at 176W. I did a lot of testing and really pushed it with the stress tests and thats all the watts it was using.

This is why I am wondering do all cards perform this way? If so then it's highly probable that a 250W card would never use that much power, probably more like 200W at full stress. So it could be ok to use a card up to that power level in a Mac Pro.

I've been trying to find out more real life info but not many people have monitored the power draw of their cards in these mac pros.
 
Yes the 5870 is completely safe as you can see from my charts it never ever gets anywhere close to the 228W, the max it ever got under full stress load was 77% of that at 176W. I did a lot of testing and really pushed it with the stress tests and thats all the watts it was using.



This is why I am wondering do all cards perform this way? If so then it's highly probable that a 250W card would never use that much power, probably more like 200W at full stress. So it could be ok to use a card up to that power level in a Mac Pro.



I've been trying to find out more real life info but not many people have monitored the power draw of their cards in these mac pros.


I'm sure most cards never hit their max TDP but it is not something I would risk personally. It is a much safer route to stick with something that only had two 6pin connectors. You never know when the card might spike up and try to draw too much power and either damage the card our the board. If you really want power right now the best bang for the buck it's probably the GTX 970 with the 960 or a 750to as a budget card. The only down fall with those is the lack of native driver support for the Maxwell cards.
 
Yes the 5870 is completely safe as you can see from my charts it never ever gets anywhere close to the 228W, the max it ever got under full stress load was 77% of that at 176W. I did a lot of testing and really pushed it with the stress tests and thats all the watts it was using.
FYI, your HD5870 TDP is only rated at 188W, not 228W as you claimed, as indicated here and linked from this TDP Database. Also this link showed that the 5870 could draw 212W at maximum. I have no idea where you get the 228W number, but Apple would never put a card with a rated TDP of 228W in the MP when the limit is at 225W.
 
Good morning,


Today my Nvidia GTX 570 just died, I had restarted my computer and there was no video signal anymore, "I had tested with another video card and I get video signal", So, I asume the card is gone, can I use the GTX 770 with my mac pro 1.1?.


Thanks.
 
Mac Pro 1,1 10.9.2 (Tiamo) Graphic Card Suggestions

Good morning,





Today my Nvidia GTX 570 just died, I had restarted my computer and there was no video signal anymore, "I had tested with another video card and I get video signal", So, I asume the card is gone, can I use the GTX 770 with my mac pro 1.1?.





Thanks.


You can use it but to be safe you would have to pull power from some where besides just the two 6pin plugs in the board. That card has a TDP of 230W and the max TDP for the Mac Pro is 225W. Used the 770 seems to be going for around $200 on eBay. You could get a 960 for that price. Depending on your needs the 960 might be more than enough and it uses a lot less power. The zero spin fan when the card is under a certain temp is really nice too. Keeps the system really quiet. I have a 970 in my Hackintosh and it kills my 570. The 970 will run $350 and would be a fine option with a TDP well under 225W.
 
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As always Hennesie2000 thanks for your advise,


I just found out that my web drivers are no working anymore after the updates that I had done today, so my GTX 570 is not gone, the issue are the updates and an extra security update included, please take a look:


35kjzu9.jpg



I am on a Mac Pro 2,1 with OS X 10.10.2, which are the latest OS X drivers that I can use now?.

Thanks.

You can use it but to be safe you would have to pull power from some where besides just the two 6pin plugs in the board. That card has a TDP of 230W and the max TDP for the Mac Pro is 225W. Used the 770 seems to be going for around $200 on eBay. You could get a 960 for that price. Depending on your needs the 960 might be more than enough and it uses a lot less power. The zero spin fan when the card is under a certain temp is really nice too. Keeps the system really quiet. I have a 970 in my Hackintosh and it kills my 570. The 970 will run $350 and would be a fine option with a TDP well under 225W.
 
As always Hennesie2000 thanks for your advise,





I just found out that my web drivers are no working anymore after the updates that I had done today, so my GTX 570 is not gone, the issue are the updates and an extra security update included, please take a look:





Image





I am on a Mac Pro 2,1 with OS X 10.10.2, which are the latest OS X drivers that I can use now?.



Thanks.


This is the updated driver from Yesterday

http://us.download.nvidia.com/Mac/Quadro_Certified/343.02.02f03/WebDriver-343.02.02f03.pkg

The security update changed the build number for OS X which is why the driver reports as incompatible.
 
I've been reading this thread, along with others on similar topics for a while now. Sometimes I think I understand it all, other times I'm lost, usually because of [what I see as] conflicting information. I have a MP1,1 and I'm going to upgrade to X5365's and Yosemite, and at the moment I'm stuck with an X1900, which to confuse matters has just failed yesterday, [or so I think, I can't seem to be able to check definitively that the card and not something else has gone - any ideas?], and obviously I will be upgrading the GPU. I think I've narrowed it down to either the GTX570, probably 1280Mb, or the 660Ti, due to budget restrictions. I want it mainly for modeling, with hardware acceleration, and rendering, 3DSMax and VRay. Which card would suit me best for this purpose- some seem to say the 660, others that
Originally posted by Hennesie2000.
The 660ti is crippled in terms of CUDA performance compared to the GTX 570.
Hennesie2000 I'm mainly looking at you, you seem pretty clued up.
Any help would be much appreciated.
 
Mac Pro 1,1 10.9.2 (Tiamo) Graphic Card Suggestions

I've been reading this thread, along with others on similar topics for a while now. Sometimes I think I understand it all, other times I'm lost, usually because of [what I see as] conflicting information. I have a MP1,1 and I'm going to upgrade to X5365's and Yosemite, and at the moment I'm stuck with an X1900, which to confuse matters has just failed yesterday, [or so I think, I can't seem to be able to check definitively that the card and not something else has gone - any ideas?], and obviously I will be upgrading the GPU. I think I've narrowed it down to either the GTX570, probably 1280Mb, or the 660Ti, due to budget restrictions. I want it mainly for modeling, with hardware acceleration, and rendering, 3DSMax and VRay. Which card would suit me best for this purpose- some seem to say the 660, others that

Hennesie2000 I'm mainly looking at you, you seem pretty clued up.

Any help would be much appreciated.


For CUDA processing the GTX 570 is more powerful even though the 660ti has more CUDA cores. I don't use either of those two programs so I can't tell you real world results but you will see lots of people on other forums saying the 570 was better than the 600 series.
 
Wow That was quick, did the batphone go off?
Thanks for the clarification, I thought the 570 was the way to go. Do you think that is the best card for CUDA for the price?
Also any ideas on how to categorically test that the X1900 I have has gone? I don't have access to another monitor I can link up, or another card. I've tried isolating other bits of hardware, so I'm pretty sure its the card that has gone. It displays a checkerboard pattern almost entirely over the screen at every resolution, and leaves many ghost over the screen, many other artifacts too. I can't attach a screenshot right now, as it is stuck in PCI slot 2 and I can't get it out!
 
Will the Radeon 5770 cause Adobe Photoshop to hang/freeze?

I am surprised that there is only one mention of using the Adobe CS/CC in the entire thread. I'm hoping that's a good thing. The 5770 seems as though it may still be a good choice for an all around reliable card for a Mac Pro 1,1 running Yosemite. I was told however, that the 5770 causes Adobe PS/IL to hang while loading (and never recovers). I was pointed toward the Quadro 5600, but would prefer to stick with the 5770 if it is compatible.

My basic needs:
• Operate on Mac Pro 1,1 running Yosemite
• Run Adobe PS, IL, Muse, (NOT Premiere)
• Run a monitor at 2560x1080 (34um65)
• Would prefer to have boot screens

Thanks!
 
Wow That was quick, did the batphone go off?

Thanks for the clarification, I thought the 570 was the way to go. Do you think that is the best card for CUDA for the price?

Also any ideas on how to categorically test that the X1900 I have has gone? I don't have access to another monitor I can link up, or another card. I've tried isolating other bits of hardware, so I'm pretty sure its the card that has gone. It displays a checkerboard pattern almost entirely over the screen at every resolution, and leaves many ghost over the screen, many other artifacts too. I can't attach a screenshot right now, as it is stuck in PCI slot 2 and I can't get it out!


Haha, I use Tapatalk so I get alerts on my phone when something is posted in a thread I have subscribed to.

If you are considering replacing the X1900 then I would just do it. I had so many problems with that card when I first bought my Mac Pro. Apple replaced the card 2 or 3 times under warranty and eventually upgraded me to the 8800GT. On eBay it looks like the 570 is a buy it now around $100.

To remove it from the slot there is a small tab the must be pressed. The tab is at the front of the slot.
 
Originally posted by Hennesie2000.
To remove it from the slot there is a small tab the must be pressed.
The tab info saved the day. I see now how I missed it, I was just trying the card in slot 2 to see if anything changed, after removing it from slot 1, and the tab on slot 1 has broken off. I wonder if that contributed to the card failure? Doubt it. Card is now out though, thanks.
I'm definitely going to replace the card, but because the budget is so tight, I'd like to only replace it with the 570. Because the screen is so unusable with the X1900, at what stage of the process of upgrading to Yosemite can I use the 570? Will I be able to do so many complicated steps with a severely corrupted display? What do you think my best course of action is? I have multiple HDD's and USB, but no 2nd Mac, except this iMac G5 I've resurrected and am using now. The MP 1,1, upgraded to 2,1 currently has 10.6 and 10.7 and Windows 7 installed.
 
The tab info saved the day. I see now how I missed it, I was just trying the card in slot 2 to see if anything changed, after removing it from slot 1, and the tab on slot 1 has broken off. I wonder if that contributed to the card failure? Doubt it. Card is now out though, thanks.

I'm definitely going to replace the card, but because the budget is so tight, I'd like to only replace it with the 570. Because the screen is so unusable with the X1900, at what stage of the process of upgrading to Yosemite can I use the 570? Will I be able to do so many complicated steps with a severely corrupted display? What do you think my best course of action is? I have multiple HDD's and USB, but no 2nd Mac, except this iMac G5 I've resurrected and am using now. The MP 1,1, upgraded to 2,1 currently has 10.6 and 10.7 and Windows 7 installed.


You can use the GTX 570 out of box from 10.7 on up.
 
Originally posted by Hennesie2000
You can use the GTX 570 out of box from 10.7 on up.

Oh.

So many cards, so much information, I must've known that at some point and forgotten. All my woe's are over, just order the GTX570 and the X5365's and batten down the hatches.

Thank you for helping me make a decision I was struggling with.
 
I managed to install Yosemite boy it's bitter sweet. I don't have dual video card support anymore. I been looking for help on figuring out why I could only boot now with only one video card! I have two GTX 650 video cards both PNY!
 
Has anyone had any success with the PNY 8800gt XLR8? Just wondering what the difference is between that and the regular Nvidia 8800gt.

I pretty sure it needs to be flashed just wondering how hard it is as I can get one.

Cheers
 
Running one in my Mac Pro 1,1. It Works with both my 10.9 and 10.10 drives without boot screens of course since it isn't flashed. The fans ramp up like mad when it's powered on but after that smooth sailing.


Has anyone had any success with the PNY 8800gt XLR8? Just wondering what the difference is between that and the regular Nvidia 8800gt.

I pretty sure it needs to be flashed just wondering how hard it is as I can get one.

Cheers
 
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Running one in my Mac Pro 1,1. It Works with both my 10.9 and 10.10 drives without boot screens of course since it isn't flashed. The fans ramp up like mad when it's powered on but after that smooth sailing.

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm trying one in my mac now the fans are loud my mac turns on-no funny sounds but the screen doesn't turn on. it's just a black screen. Thats past the boot sequence?
Any idea? I'm still running ML to test
 
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