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Need GPU help from the best Mac Pro posters in the world!

TheHerdForever

TheHerdForever

macrumors member
Original poster
May 11, 2012
83
1
Here is my machine: Mac Pro 5,1 (Mid 2010) Dual 2.4 GHz Westmere CPUs, 6 GB RAM, 1 TB SATA Storage

Here is what I want to do with it: Scoring to Video, Advanced Photography Editing, Music Creation and Programming

Here is the VENDOR I want to go with: NVidia

Here is my question:

What is the best (which means performance, quality and reliability) nvidia GPU I can buy for my machine (listed above)? Please keep in mind that PRICE IS NOT AN ISSUE!

Thanks,
Frank
 
Best supported Nvidia card is eVGA GTX680 Mac Edition.

Best non supported card with "money no object" is probably Titan, but then you have to deal with power issues and/or firmware mods.
 
ActionableMango said:
Best supported Nvidia card is eVGA GTX680 Mac Edition.

Best non supported card with "money no object" is probably Titan, but then you have to deal with power issues and/or firmware mods.
Click to expand...

Mango,

From what I understand, these are the top 3 cards from Nvidia for the Mac Pro:

Nvidia Quadro K5000
EVGA GeForce GTX Titan with 6GB GDDR5
EVGA GeForce GTX 780 with 3GB GDDR5

Also, I was wondering if you or anyone else has installed any of these cards in a Mid 2010 Mac Pro or equivalent? Rumor has it that you DO NOT NEED a external power supply for the Titan. Is this true? BTW, thanks for the help by responding!

Frank
 
barefeats said in their tests with the titan is that they did not use external power and they said they had no issues .. im not sure I would risk running it without external power though.

780gtx 3gb is currently the most powerful and you dont need to use external power.

man I really want a titan but dont have the space in the case for another psu
 
I will try....

to contact users/posters MacVidCards, Tesselator and Deconstruct. Also I suggest you do a thread search. The users I am pointing you know a great deal about Mac Pros and had provided useful insight in the past....

:):apple:
 
Again, IMHO, right now the best Graphics Card for a 5,1 Mac Pro is an Nvidia GTX Titan, GTX780, or GTX770 (depending on your budget) that has been flashed by MacVidCards, if you want an Apple Boot Screen. The Titan will require a separate power supply, the other's will be modified by MacVidCards to work with the Mac Pros PS.

Lou
 
Last edited by a moderator:
TheHerdForever said:
Rumor has it that you DO NOT NEED a external power supply for the Titan.
Click to expand...

Titan needs external power. The only way around that I am aware of is MacVidCard's version where he modifies the firmware. IIRC he underclocks it a bit, thereby reducing the power requirements while still being close to the same real world performance.

You can't contact him here right now though. Let's just say he's "on a break" from the forums for a while, along with his nemesis Tesselator. You'll need to contact him on Netkas forums or Ebay.

There are more detailed discussions about it in this forum, just do a search for "titan". Or heck, just look at the first page of the Mac Pro forums, the threads are right there.
 
i was on the fence between getting a 780gtx from macvidcards .. titan was out of my price range but ended up settling on a 4gb 680gtx from macvidcards .. should be here tomorrow

macvidcards titan is modded but still requires external power even though barefeats used it without
 
flowrider said:
IMHO, stay far away from user Tesselator. You will not get any useful information from him.

Again, IMHO, right now the best Graphics Card for a 5,1 Mac Pro is an Nvidia GTX Titan, GTX780, or GTX770 (depending on your budget) that has been flashed by MacVidCards, if you want an Apple Boot Screen. The Titan will require a separate power supply, the other's will be modified by MacVidCards to work with the Mac Pros PS.

Lou
Click to expand...

Flow (and others that want to chime in), I've read somewhere that a Titan (the card I really want) doesn't need an external power supply and I believe it came from MacVidCards. For the life of me, I can't remember where I've read that, but I do remember it. And what about the Quadro K5000? Is that a good GPU? On Ebay (via MacVidCards), that card sells more than the Titan does!

Thanks,
Frank
 
phoenixsan said:
to contact users/posters MacVidCards, Tesselator and Deconstruct. Also I suggest you do a thread search. The users I am pointing you know a great deal about Mac Pros and had provided useful insight in the past....

:):apple:
Click to expand...

Thanks Phoenix! I would like to contact MacVidCards somehow before I spend a lot of money. I want the Titan, but if I need an external power supply, a GTX 780 will have to do....sigh!!

Frank

----------
ActionableMango said:
Titan needs external power. The only way around that I am aware of is MacVidCard's version where he modifies the firmware. IIRC he underclocks it a bit, thereby reducing the power requirements while still being close to the same real world performance.

You can't contact him here right now though. Let's just say he's "on a break" from the forums for a while, along with his nemesis Tesselator. You'll need to contact him on Netkas forums or Ebay.

There are more detailed discussions about it in this forum, just do a search for "titan". Or heck, just look at the first page of the Mac Pro forums, the threads are right there.
Click to expand...

Mango, thanks man. I was hoping to talk to MacVidCards directly and get the scoop about the Titan. Wondering how much performance he lost reducing the clock speed on this card.

Frank
 
If brand matters to you, I highly recommend EVGA. Customer service is excellent on top of their excellent quality cards. I'm currently using an EVGA GTX 660 FTW Signature 2 2GB in my early 2009 Mac Pro. Its VERY quiet and other than not having the EFI boot screen, it was completely plug n' play.

Good luck!
 
Stephen Dowling said:
If brand matters to you, I highly recommend EVGA. Customer service is excellent on top of their excellent quality cards. I'm currently using an EVGA GTX 660 FTW Signature 2 2GB in my early 2009 Mac Pro. Its VERY quiet and other than not having the EFI boot screen, it was completely plug n' play.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Can you please provide a link to this site? I am seriously struggling to find and purchase a GPU for my Mid 2010 MP. :( I want a Titan, but I do not want an external power supply. And no one can tell me why that (not needing a external power supply) is not needed. :(

Frank
 
I settled on a Gigabyte Windforce3 GTX780. It will be here on Monday, then off to MacVidCards for flashing. Then my Gigabyte Wiindforce3 GTX570 will be up for sale.

Lou
 
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TheHerdForever said:
Can you please provide a link to this site? I am seriously struggling to find and purchase a GPU for my Mid 2010 MP. :( I want a Titan, but I do not want an external power supply. And no one can tell me why that (not needing a external power supply) is not needed. :(

Frank
Click to expand...

Hey there OP,

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you! Anyways, here's a link to the exact card I purchased.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130833

Hope it helps!

Steve :apple:
 
TheHerdForever said:
Can you please provide a link to this site? I am seriously struggling to find and purchase a GPU for my Mid 2010 MP. :( I want a Titan, but I do not want an external power supply. And no one can tell me why that (not needing a external power supply) is not needed. :(

Frank
Click to expand...

If you don't want an external PS, and I certainly didn't, I recommend this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125471

The Titan requires external power because the required power for that card could damages the traces on the MOBO. I know that Bear Feats ran their test Titan card using internal power, but since MacVidCards recommends external power, I went with his recommendation and bought a GTX780.

My last three Cards were Gigabyte with the Windforce3 fan design. All ran cool and were very quiet. IMHO, Gigabyte makes a great cooler.

I would have bought from Amazon, but they would charged Sales Tax, Newegg doesn't in Arizona.

My Card is coming today, then off to MacVidCards.

Lou
 
^^^^As we all know the GTX780 has either one six and one eight pin connector or two eight pin connectors.:eek:

I received my Gigabyte GTX780 yesterday, and rushed it off to MacVidCards. But before I sent it off, I noticed that only six pins on each of the eight pin connector are live. The PC connectors that come with the card, again only have six cables coming out of each connector, and only 3 pins are in each of the four molex connectors. I don't know what this means, but I have asked MacVidCards for an answer. I'm intrigued:confused:

Lou
 
Judging by the image I included, the pins we should be concerned with are 1, 2, and 3.

According to the findings of ActionableMango and Varmann, there didn't seem to be any scientific way to determine where the video cards would draw power from and how much of it they will draw. Therefore, even if the video card is underclocked to pull a maximum of 220W, there's no guarantee that it won't attempt to pull 150W of the 220W through the 8-pin connector.

Of course, the video cards should only pull their max TDP when stressed to the limit. I also do not know how much tolerance the traces on the Mac Pro logic boards provides. I just know that they were intended to provide 75W per 6-pin connector. That being said, after having lived a lifetime of ill fated luck, I try my best not to test fate whenever possible.
 

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^^^^The connectors that came with my card are configured like the attached image.

Lou
 

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I think the important thing to keep in mind is that the 8-pin connectors are specced to provide up to 150W, twice what the 6-pin connectors are specced to provide and is what we have in our Mac Pros.

There are apparently a fair number of people who use video cards with one 6-pin and one 8-pin connector and we haven't seen any reports of blown logic boards, so we could just be scaring ourselves. But, personally, I would definitely install one of those auxiliary power supplies that fit in optical bays if I were to move to a video card with an 8-pin connector. I can't justify risking my Mac Pro for a few extra frames per second in a game.
 
Last edited:
TheHerdForever said:
Can you please provide a link to this site? I am seriously struggling to find and purchase a GPU for my Mid 2010 MP. :( I want a Titan, but I do not want an external power supply. And no one can tell me why that (not needing a external power supply) is not needed. :(

Frank
Click to expand...

I'm by no means an expert but from what I've read about the Titan in mac's is that, no you can technically (temporarily) run it without an external power source, BUT you will likely do damage with long term use. If you plan to use the card for (probably more than a few weeks) years you want an external PSU.

I'd go with a 680 or 780 myself. I personally think a 680 is enough for what your workload is and you get a boot screen - if you get the apple sanctioned one and likely continued driver support through OS updates.
 
spaz8 said:
I'm by no means an expert but from what I've read about the Titan in mac's is that, no you can technically (temporarily) run it without an external power source, BUT you will likely do damage with long term use. If you plan to use the card for (probably more than a few weeks) years you want an external PSU.

I'd go with a 680 or 780 myself. I personally think a 680 is enough for what your workload is and you get a boot screen - if you get the apple sanctioned one and likely continued driver support through OS updates.
Click to expand...

Spaz,

Agreed about the Titan without an external PS .... sigh. :( Does the 780 present a boot screen too? And thanks for the advice. I got 3 27" Samsung monitors to drive and I want them all at the highest resolution.

Frank
 
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