Questions about upgrading Mac pro tower with new GPU

[Ibycus]

I'm looking to update a 2012 mac pro tower with better rendering capabilities for octane but I'm not sure what is or is not possible. The current specs on the machine are

OS X yosemite
2 x 3.06 GHz 6-core Xeon
64GB 1333 DDR3
NVIDIA Quadro K5000

I don't have a lot of experience with Mac's so I'm hoping someone out there will have some insight for me. Would it be possible to put a Titan Z or a 980ti in this machine or as a second GPU next to the K5000? or would I have to get an external pcie to run another card, though the old mac tower doesn't have a thunderbolt :-/

What would my other options be?

Thanks

[glimpse]

hi there!

You should be able to run second GPU without any issues (I would recomend 980Ti or TitanX for that matter, scoring ~120 in OctaneBench). One thing to note, that You might need to get external PSU to feed those cards as internal power brick might be not enough (smaller SFXL unit might be enough).

Alternativelly You can build/order eGPU solution, plugged via PCIe to Your box.. - Latelly I've built one box for user who wanted 4 more cards on His Mac 5.1: Check those images & please let me know if You need any more info on that.

Feel free to drop a line to hi(eta)tomGlimps.com & I'll guide You through expenses based on Your needs..but overall equatation is pretty simple: price of GPUs, few hundreds for watercooling & then few hundrets bacplate + shipping to Your door.

[Ibycus]

Thanks for the heads up! Are you saying I should be able to just plugin a 980ti into this current setup and continue to use the drivers for the K5000 but have Octane use the 980ti to render?

Also I was reading on macvidcards.com about how they flash the BIOS on GPU cards so that they can use the full speed of the PCIe lanes, which they claim runs at half speed without being flashed. Do you know anything about that?

hi there!

You should be able to run second GPU without any issues (I would recomend 980Ti or TitanX for that matter, scoring ~120 in OctaneBench). One thing to note, that You might need to get external PSU to feed those cards as internal power brick might be not enough (smaller SFXL unit might be enough).

Alternativelly You can build/order eGPU solution, plugged via PCIe to Your box.. - Latelly I've built one box for user who wanted 4 more cards on His Mac 5.1: Check those images & please let me know if You need any more info on that.

Feel free to drop a line to hi(eta)tomGlimps.com & I'll guide You through expenses based on Your needs..but overall equatation is pretty simple: price of GPUs, few hundreds for watercooling & then few hundrets bacplate + shipping to Your door.

[glimpse]

I'm not too much into Mac honestly, so this driver issue is the question to figure out.. but there's always some sort of solution.

if You're running El capitan, You should be able to run up to 5 GPUs. As for eGPU box.. You can place 2x unmodified, 2x unmodified + 1x modified, or all 4x modified..GPUs (with more than two GPUS watercooling & GPU modification is a must in this configuration, as backplate has single slot spacing). Alternativelly You can get different backplates that are more roomy..as a bonus You would also have faster interface, but those do cost few times more (& does not influence render performance).

What You can expect in terms of performance? Single k5000 is going to give You 37 in terms of OctaneBench. Single 980Ti would give You 120-130, while 2,3 or 4 cards ..will scale linerally. So let's say 4x 980Ti would give You near 600 out of the box in terms of OcaneBench, slicing render times from one hour on k5000 to less than 4 minutes on 4x 980Tis =DDD

EDIT: 600 in terms of OctaneBench You can get if GPUs are overclocked, out of the box it gives 4x 125 ~> 500. By the way.. I would not recomend preOC GPUs on Macs - for stability reasons it'se better to leave those stock. On the other side, it's watercooled not for extra performance, but for shrinking GPUs.

[glimpse]

few shot to explain:

originally You can put only two GPUs into this (as most of GPUs are dual slot width & reference coolers are recomended - what You see here is non ref cooler equiped 780 6GB cards, but those were meant to be modified).

Modification is pretty simple: removing one of GPUs connectors, adding waterblcok - this allwos to shrink card to single slot units, here is a comparison from side to understand things better:

once that Single Slot mod done, the rest of watercooling is placed & tubes are routed the build comes to life (weighting ~17KG dry pluss a litre of distiled water should be filled inside before runing it).

once You put side panels, it's very bussines like. Fan speed is fixed so no variatoin in noise output & the only thing You're going to notice is that water temperature screen digits changing.

It plugs to any Mac or PC that would have extra slot for PCIe gen2 1x slot card & comunicates via two cables 3meters of cable is available, so You can place freely around.

Once You power up Your Mac this turns on too & You see GPUs as if they were seated inside =)

[smicha]

Pure art, Tom.

[gabrielefx]

Beautiful!

price with 4 Titan X water-cooled?

[glimpse]

Beautiful!

price with 4 Titan X water-cooled?

should do some calculations, but with 4x TitanXs close to 8kEU including shipping to Italy.
(GPUs alone are like nearly 5kEU, shipping few hundred EU.. then the rest: backplane, waterblocks, rads, pumps, fitings, tube, fans, case - all the best parts You could find & all nesecary modifications to be able to fit - case, GPUs & rads need to be modified..clearances are down to milimeters.. =)

[Ibycus]

Thats a very nice setup. Can you guarantee that an external like this would work with an older 2012 mac tower? and how much would you charge for a dual 980ti setup?

What I'm really trying to find out is if I slap a 980ti or a titan Z into the same case with the K5000 thats in an old mac tower with the specs above, if it will work with octane?

[glimpse]

Thats a very nice setup. Can you guarantee that an external like this would work with an older 2012 mac tower? and how much would you charge for a dual 980ti setup?

What I'm really trying to find out is if I slap a 980ti or a titan Z into the same case with the K5000 thats in an old mac tower with the specs above, if it will work with octane?

in a Mac sandbox..You could not guarantee anything..it's very sensitive to what operating system You're runing, what drivers You have, etc. but it works flawless with TitanX inside mac & 4x 780s outside on Mac 5.1

K5000 (running) should run, but I'm not sure if drivers would not freak out..- there are situationswhere this might happen & You might notice stability issues..but as mentioned..it's Mac sandbox & there's little to nothing to do about that.

I can try to ask a Guy who owns this solution to test things out with K5000 as that's the card He owns as well.

2x980Ti solution could be aircooled & that would give You the best value..but it might be a bit how as sometimes even under full load OS does not tweak fana speeds under full laod.. so You would be looking int o temps close to 90C under full load.

Price depends a bit on where You live if fully built piece should be shipped, but there are alternative solutions if You don't ming to do some work Yourself as two aircooled GPU build would not require modifications.