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Nvidia Graphics Card For Workstation [Need Advice]

JippaLippa

JippaLippa

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 14, 2013
1,772
2,193
Hello :)
I'm really happy to be part of this forum and i hope i'll find help.
Anyway i own a Mid 2010 Mac Pro with 2 Intel Xeons 2.4 GHz, 28 Gb 1066 MHz, 2 Ati HD 5770s and several SSDs.

The 2 HD 5770 are not enough for my computer (I mainly work with the 2D and 3D motion graphics) and when i use After Effects or 3D Applications, such as Cinema 4D, i have some speed issues.

I'd like so replace those 2 graphics cards with a more powerfull Nvidia that makes good use of Cuda tecnology.

I was oriented on a GTX 570 model (Or a GTX 560), but i don't know which one to choose.
Could you suggest me a couple of models which fullfill these standards, pelase? (Thank you very much):

- Compatible with mac pro and Mac OSX Lion 10.7
- Has To Work Fine (Even if not officially supported by apple)
- Make a decent use of cuda tecnology
- It doesn't have to overload the Mac Pro's (Mid 2012 8 cores) power supply (They told me the 570/560 don't weight too much on the power supply and i wouldn't have enough money to buy a separate power supply for the VGA only)
- It's drivers for mac should be easy to find/install

Thank you a lot for your assistance and i'm sure you'll be able to help me :)
Have a nice day/evening (Depending on which part of the world you live in)
 
Last edited:
For CUDA there is no question but that the GTX570 is the best performance card. It's actually the last generation model so not so easy to find a new one but there are plenty of used ones at good prices. I upgraded from a GTX285 to a GTX570 & it has made editing in Premier Pro so much smoother. CUDA performance is 2X that of the GTX285 while OpenCL is 3X better. I bought mine from eBay for £120 (about $200).
 
nigelbb said:
For CUDA there is no question but that the GTX570 is the best performance card. It's actually the last generation model so not so easy to find a new one but there are plenty of used ones at good prices. I upgraded from a GTX285 to a GTX570 & it has made editing in Premier Pro so much smoother. CUDA performance is 2X that of the GTX285 while OpenCL is 3X better. I bought mine from eBay for £120 (about $200).
Click to expand...

Hi, if you are serious about your work then you need to look at the nvidia quadro line of card's. So either the quadro 2000 in sli or quadro 4000. It puts gaming cards to shame with their efficient drivers and rock solid stability there is no other choice for the professional. For me one quadro 2000 was overkill. They also have specific additional drivers for your apps!
 
SLI is a Windows thing so not applicable to OS X. For CUDA the Quadra 4000 is slower than the GTX570 (& many times the price) while the Quadra 2000 is much slower. The GTX570 uses the same driver as the Quadra cards.

I just re-read the OP where it specifies OS X 10.7 (Lion). If you want to install a regular PC card like the GTX570 then you really want to upgrade to OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) & use the Nvidia drivers
 
There are some current issues with VM's crashing, and a bug with Chrome and video in my NV 680 w/NV driver. I'm not sure if this carries over to their officially supported cards or not.

There were some complaining about the VM software crashing when 3d acceleration was on and I was finally able to replicate this when I was doing totally-non 3D work in a VM. I was running a Java script that I use when ripping Blu-ray disks and I crashed. Turning 3D acceleration off in the VM works fine now.
 
Tri-stan said:
Hi, if you are serious about your work then you need to look at the nvidia quadro line of card's. So either the quadro 2000 in sli or quadro 4000. It puts gaming cards to shame with their efficient drivers and rock solid stability there is no other choice for the professional. For me one quadro 2000 was overkill. They also have specific additional drivers for your apps!
Click to expand...

A single 570 will put the Quadro 4000 to shame in most tasks. The drivers are a misleading sales pitch that still can't overcome the underwhelming power. Look at the tests. Usually you see it up against the 5770 or something. Sorry people need to pay so much though. A Quadro 5000/6000 is another story entirely as it is actually relatively current. 90% of the time go with the 570 unless you have VERY specific needs for acceleration.
 
derbothaus said:
A single 570 will put the Quadro 4000 to shame in most tasks. The drivers are a misleading sales pitch that still can't overcome the underwhelming power. Look at the tests. Usually you see it up against the 5770 or something. Sorry people need to pay so much though. A Quadro 5000/6000 is another story entirely as it is actually relatively current. 90% of the time go with the 570 unless you have VERY specific needs for acceleration.
Click to expand...

I like the quadro cards but they cost so much, althought the performance in 3Dsmax and AutoCAD is good 3D performance in google earth is poor. I could put it in max settings and 2000 would struggle to render the earth and judder. One of the main reason to go for them is mission critical apps and long sustained work sessions. A gaming card in these situations is good but unreliable. So it is going to be down to budget.
 
nigelbb said:
If you want to install a regular PC card like the GTX570 then you really want to upgrade to OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) & use the Nvidia drivers
Click to expand...

On a side not, if anyone is on Lion they should upgrade to 10.8. No reason to stay on 10.7 except for 3rd party SW that may not have tweaked for Orwellian App Control. 10.6 and 10.8 for me at this point. 10.7 is a dookie half child with all the unfixed leftovers.
 
derbothaus said:
On a side not, if anyone is on Lion they should upgrade to 10.8. No reason to stay on 10.7 except for 3rd party SW that may not have tweaked for Orwellian App Control. 10.6 and 10.8 for me at this point. 10.7 is a dookie half child with all the unfixed leftovers.
Click to expand...

I completely agree. I skipped Lion. It is indeed dookie.
 
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