2nd video card on mac pro

[desedu]

I have a Mac Pro with a Nvidia GeForce 8800GT and was thinking to install a second video card to burst the UI redraw.
Would the 2nd video card Nvidia GeForce 7300GT be sufficient for the UI redraw?

Thanks

[radiance]

the 7000 series will be ok for display but it won't work with octane.
i can't make any guarantees that this will work though.

i'd suggest you buy a GTX200 series card for Mac and use the 8000 series as your display card.

Radiance

[desedu]

Thanks for the response,
I checked the specs for the GTX200 and looks like is not compatible with the first generation of Mac Pro 1,1.
Perhaps two 8000 series should do?

Thanks

[radiance]

Thanks for the response,
I checked the specs for the GTX200 and looks like is not compatible with the first generation of Mac Pro 1,1.
Perhaps two 8000 series should do?

Thanks

those are really old cards and they don't support all of octane's features,
and won't support MLT.

I'd recommend you get a cheap PC with a GTX480 if you're serious about using octane.

Radiance

[ekalmantis]

"I'd recommend you get a cheap PC with a GTX480 if you're serious about using octane."

I'm thinking of repurposing my PC as a dedicated Octane Renderer and have looked into the cost of both the GTX 260 and GTX 480. I found that there's a card priced halfway between the two; the GTX 470. Would the performance gain of using two GTX 470s be close to double when compared to only one? The sample videos I've been viewing on your site show significant speed in view manipulation and redraw/refinement. Will one GTX 470 provide this kind of performance with average to large size models or do I need multiple cards? If one card can do a decent job, I can start with one and expand based on my needs. Of course, the power source is another issue. I'm told that each card draws 220 Watts.

By the way, I'm running Octane Render on my MacBook Pro and, although view manipulation of the benchmark file is very sluggish, I have no problems with using turntable or daylight simulation and get decent image results. I just want the speed that I see advertised.