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What's the best Nvidia card for mavericks?

P

pierre1610

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 3, 2009
185
19
As title suggests I don't want to upgrade to Yosemite yet so from what I've been reading that puts the GTX 9xx series out of the question.

I want to use it for Davinci, Nuke and Adobe apps, don't really care about gaming. I don't want to have external power either.

Does that leave to 680 and 780 as the only real contenders?
 
What's the difference with the ti and are they all 6 pin.

Can I just get any 780 or will only specific ones wor?
 
pierre1610 said:
What's the difference with the ti and are they all 6 pin.

Can I just get any 780 or will only specific ones wor?
Click to expand...

From Barefeats:

The GTX 780 with 6GB GDDR5 video memory is only slightly slower than the GTX 780 Ti and TITAN Black but costs much less.

The other factor in naming it the 'sweet spot' has to do with power.

The GTX 780 6GB runs fine on the dual PCIe internal power cables -- as does the GTX 680 and Radeon HD 7950.
The same can't be said of the GTX TITAN or GTX 780 Ti or Radeon R9 280X -- all of which require an auxiliary power feed to avoid a nasty power down of your tower at the worst moment when too much wattage is demanded of the Mac Pro's factory power supply.

Did I mention that the GTX 780 with 6GB of GDDR5 matches the 6GB of GDDR5 in the TITAN?

http://barefeats.com/gpuss.html
 
IowaLynn said:
From Barefeats:

The GTX 780 with 6GB GDDR5 video memory is only slightly slower than the GTX 780 Ti and TITAN Black but costs much less.

The other factor in naming it the 'sweet spot' has to do with power.

The GTX 780 6GB runs fine on the dual PCIe internal power cables -- as does the GTX 680 and Radeon HD 7950.
The same can't be said of the GTX TITAN or GTX 780 Ti or Radeon R9 280X -- all of which require an auxiliary power feed to avoid a nasty power down of your tower at the worst moment when too much wattage is demanded of the Mac Pro's factory power supply.

Did I mention that the GTX 780 with 6GB of GDDR5 matches the 6GB of GDDR5 in the TITAN?

http://barefeats.com/gpuss.html
Click to expand...

This may sound like a stupid question, but what is the purpose of 6GB of RAM on a video card and what does one gain from more memory on a given card?

I understand that higher resolutions require more RAM but what does 6GB of RAM buy you?
 
dmylrea said:
This may sound like a stupid question, but what is the purpose of 6GB of RAM on a video card and what does one gain from more memory on a given card?

I understand that higher resolutions require more RAM but what does 6GB of RAM buy you?
Click to expand...

6G of Vram buys you much better support for rendering 4k frames than does 3G of Vram, along with more textures and polygons and more stable frame rates (if the feature is fully supported, unlike the recent revelations involving the GTX 970 4G which is really a 3.5G for practical purposes). This benefits content creation and next-gen gaming. Another benefit of having more memory is that it improves user interactivity while developing content [ http://www.pny.com/nvidia_quadro_k5000_for_mac ].
 
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pierre1610 said:
... I don't want to upgrade to Yosemite yet ... the GTX 9xx series out of the question.

I want to use it for Davinci, Nuke and Adobe apps, don't really care about gaming. I don't want to have external power either.

Does that leave to 680 and 780 as the only real contenders?
Click to expand...

No - GTXs do not confine the scope of suitable cards for professional applications running under Mavericks (or any other Mac OS). You did not express a price range. Does that mean that you're willing to consider a professional GPU like one the Quadros? You've indicated that you're using professional applications such as Davinci, Nuke and Adobe(?).

Compeve's store at Ebay [ http://stores.ebay.com/COMPEVE/Vide...1508&_sop=2&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1581&_pgn=5 ] lists available in-stock GPUs from Nvidia's GTX line and Nvidia's Professional line. As I'm pinning this response, Compeve advertises that it has a new OEM HP NVIDIA Quadro K5000 4GB GDDR5 PCIe 2.0 x16 Dual DP DVI Video Card for ~$1,750. But even better yet, another Ebay seller is advertising a new PNY Nvidia Quadro K5000 for MAC 4GB GDDR5 PCIe x16 Video Card VCQK5000MAC-PB for $1,475 [ http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/251835128317?lpid=82&chn=ps ]. Originally, the retail price of one of those cards was about $2.5K [ http://www.pny.com/nvidia_quadro_k5000_for_mac ].


If you use the charts at Wikipedia's site [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units ] to get general card specs for Nvidia GPUs, you can usually determine a GPU's power pinout by its listed TDP. Those with TDPs of >250W are generally of (at a minimum) the 6-pin + 8-pin variety and will require an additional power source on a Mac. To get 250Ws, the GPU draws 75 watts from the PCIe slot, 75 watts from a 6-pin power connector and 2x75 watts (or 150 watts) from an 8-pin power connector. The Quadro K5000 4GB GDDR5 is shown on Wikipedia's page to have a TDP of 122W. So, a MacPro can certainly power it, without an auxiliary power source, by supplying 75W from the PCIe slot and an additional 75W from one of the MacPro's two onboard PCIe power connectors located on the motherboard, just to the back of and mainly underneath the front fan housing in the PCIe card placement space. 75W + 75W = 150W.
 
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pierre1610 said:
As title suggests I don't want to upgrade to Yosemite yet so from what I've been reading that puts the GTX 9xx series out of the question.

I want to use it for Davinci, Nuke and Adobe apps, don't really care about gaming. I don't want to have external power either.

Does that leave to 680 and 780 as the only real contenders?
Click to expand...

Without the need for additional external power supply, you can also check out Nvidia 660gtx, 670, 770gtx so you have more choices. The 770 gtx has an 8 pin to 6 pin and a 6 pin to 6 pin power cables. Here is a Barefeats test on various Nvidia cards. Note that the 780 Titan used in the test needs additional power so that is not the GPU for your requirements. http://barefeats.com/gputitan.html

There is also the Nvidia 580 gtx though I am not sure if this card can run without additional power supply. I think the 580 gtx may need to be flashed or modified so it can run without any need for external power supply. I could not find a link or write up on this.

Here are more videos on users installing a Nvidia 660 gtx and 670 gtx on their Mac Pros.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRpaZPYLxPA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TImpXtGYhGE

The 660 gtx 3gb card only needs one 6 pin cable.
 
IowaLynn said:
From Barefeats:

The GTX 780 with 6GB GDDR5 video memory is only slightly slower than the GTX 780 Ti and TITAN Black but costs much less.

The other factor in naming it the 'sweet spot' has to do with power.

The GTX 780 6GB runs fine on the dual PCIe internal power cables -- as does the GTX 680 and Radeon HD 7950.
The same can't be said of the GTX TITAN or GTX 780 Ti or Radeon R9 280X -- all of which require an auxiliary power feed to avoid a nasty power down of your tower at the worst moment when too much wattage is demanded of the Mac Pro's factory power supply.

Did I mention that the GTX 780 with 6GB of GDDR5 matches the 6GB of GDDR5 in the TITAN?

http://barefeats.com/gpuss.html
Click to expand...

The 780 page on MacVidCard's site says the 780 can only do 4K support from HDMI and DisplayPort (30 HZ in OSX 10.9.1 or later)

Not sure if that is a deal breaker for 4K owners? I was looking at the GTX 780 as an option at one point too.
 
ShawnF said:
The 780 page on MacVidCard's site says the 780 can only do 4K support from HDMI and DisplayPort (30 HZ in OSX 10.9.1 or later)

Not sure if that is a deal breaker for 4K owners? I was looking at the GTX 780 as an option at one point too.
Click to expand...

Until Nvidia fixes drivers to work with 4K 60 Hz they are SST 4K 60 Hz only.

Or, oddly enough, 5K @60 Hz for Maxwell.

I am still hopeful that they will include more MST displays in 60 Hz support for 4K. Apparently the Dell UP24 has 4K MST 60HZ but many other MST displays lost support in 10.10.2 and the associated Web Driver.

Probably never coming to 10.9, so that might mean 4K 60 Hz in OS X 10.9 will always be AMD only.
 
Tutor said:
Phillip,

I totally agree that the GTX 780 Ti is the fastest of the GTX 7xx cards if one's lucky enough to find a 780 Ti in excellent condition. But Op said, " I don't want to have external power either." So I looked at other alternatives.
Click to expand...

I run mine on internal power.

mPCIE to 6pin
mPCIE & 2 Sata to 8pin
 
I'm don't want to spend quadro money, I was leaning toward the 680 4GB but the 6pin and 8pin worries me slightly.
 
pierre1610 said:
I was leaning toward the 680 4GB but the 6pin and 8pin worries me slightly.
Click to expand...
Zotac GTX680 4GB is the only model that I'm aware of using two six-pin connectors, but good luck finding them especially at a reasonable price. Amazon warehousedeals currently list "Used-Very Good" for $388.50. Not cheap but reasonable given that you could hardly find them new these days.
 
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pierre1610 said:
I'm don't want to spend quadro money, I was leaning toward the 680 4GB but the 6pin and 8pin worries me slightly.
Click to expand...
There is a flashed for Mac 4GB Nvidia 680gtx for sale HERE. Probably safer if the GPU was modified and there is some kind of warranty.
 
Starting to think a 780 might be the better idea, 680 4GB means I have to use external power or the 2x sata splitter. If I have to do that anyway then for the same money I may as well get a 780 and draw power from sata ports
 
Most 680 4GB don't require the last 2 pins.

The linked 680 4gb is perfect example. Be aware that if they are using the public Ron it loses upper DVI port in recent OS versions.

If they have "borrowed" our fixed rom it might work.

I have never seen a GK104 that could actually pull more than cMP can provide. This includes OC 770 4GB cards.
 
pierre1610 said:
Starting to think a 780 might be the better idea, 680 4GB means I have to use external power or the 2x sata splitter. If I have to do that anyway then for the same money I may as well get a 780 and draw power from sata ports
Click to expand...

Hi Pierre1610. Another member, Flowrider here is using a Nvidia 780gtx and works fine as mentioned below. I am using a 770gtx 4Gb also with a 6 pin to 8 pin connection and working fine. Runs cooler than the Mac Edition 5870HD and quiet too.

flowrider said:
I'm running a MVC Modified GTX780 (Gigabyte 3 fan overlocked model). MVC modified the 8 pin connectors by shorting out a couple of the pins. The power draw has not been changed. The card's about a year old now and works fine in my 5,1 Mac Pro.

Lou
Click to expand...
 
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