OTOY Forums

bepeg4d wrote:hi,
please, use OctaneBench for evaluation of different GPUs, as you can see the titan X has an average score of 128 against 98 of a GTX 980 and you have 3x VRAM
ciao beppe

Oh, I didn't realise that. Bonus!

OP, I'd listen to these guys, I'm only a little further along the path than you are.

AEponym wrote:I read you thought about getting a card from MacVidcards. I'm sure they are good, but they're also more expensive than PC cards. I only use out-of-the-box PC cards in my MacPro 3.1, with external PSU's, and apart from the boot screen which doesn't show (the very first one with apple logo, not the one you have to type your password of course) I never experienced any incompatibility problem.

I had no idea this could work! So what you're saying is that I could get a GTX980 for PC and just plug it in? I read that you run two Titan X's, what does 1 hybrid mean?

Urt

And a further question: if I keep my Quadro4000 to run my monitors, and then plug a GTX980 in another slot using an external PSU, then maybe I won't have the bootup screen issue??!

Urt

Hi,
yes, with an external PSU you can use the 4000 for display and any kind of PC GTX supported by Octane only for rendering, my Mac Pro has used GTX 460/560/590/780 PC cards with no issue
The hybrid version is a special card with a mix of air and liquid cooling:
http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.as ... P4-1996-KR
ciao beppe

Macurt wrote:

AEponym wrote:I read you thought about getting a card from MacVidcards. I'm sure they are good, but they're also more expensive than PC cards. I only use out-of-the-box PC cards in my MacPro 3.1, with external PSU's, and apart from the boot screen which doesn't show (the very first one with apple logo, not the one you have to type your password of course) I never experienced any incompatibility problem.

I had no idea this could work! So what you're saying is that I could get a GTX980 for PC and just plug it in? I read that you run two Titan X's, what does 1 hybrid mean?

Urt

Yes you can, and if you have still a "native" macpro card in your tower, and your screen is plugged onto it, you'll do have the boot screen.

"Hybrid" is a special version of the TitanX from EVGA with a watercooling block attached to the gpu. I managed to order only one due to the high demand for this edition. In OctaneBench, the hybrid version scores at 133 if I remember well, and the normal one with fan scores at 129. The difference in performance is really minimal for the price (+250$ for watercooling block) BUT I won't cook any card placed around it.

Be aware of one fact: MacPro, although strongly build, are not originally designed to fit 3 double-height gpus. At all. In fact I used 2 Zotac 780ti for one year + a small radeon for display. There was something like 2-3mm space between cards. The radeon didn't like at all and refused to display anything but a white screen after 6 months of this treatment. The 780ti's are fine, thanks for asking

I tried to put a 3rd card along with the 2 titanX, and there was 1mm space between cards. I don't think it's recommended. Plus the Hybrid TitanX is 2-3mm thicker than the normal one due to a solid metal plate on the bottom of the card which isn't present on the regular one.

You guys rock!

About the crammed space in the Mac Pro, it's a good point. However I don't think I'm going to put more than the Quadro and a 980 in there of now. If I wanna go all in I might opt for a separate pc tower water cooled madness thingy.

Thank you all for your time, it's time to get PSU'ing!

Urt

AEponym wrote:

Macurt wrote:

AEponym wrote:I read you thought about getting a card from MacVidcards. I'm sure they are good, but they're also more expensive than PC cards. I only use out-of-the-box PC cards in my MacPro 3.1, with external PSU's, and apart from the boot screen which doesn't show (the very first one with apple logo, not the one you have to type your password of course) I never experienced any incompatibility problem.

I had no idea this could work! So what you're saying is that I could get a GTX980 for PC and just plug it in? I read that you run two Titan X's, what does 1 hybrid mean?

Urt

Yes you can, and if you have still a "native" macpro card in your tower, and your screen is plugged onto it, you'll do have the boot screen.

"Hybrid" is a special version of the TitanX from EVGA with a watercooling block attached to the gpu. I managed to order only one due to the high demand for this edition. In OctaneBench, the hybrid version scores at 133 if I remember well, and the normal one with fan scores at 129. The difference in performance is really minimal for the price (+250$ for watercooling block) BUT I won't cook any card placed around it.

Be aware of one fact: MacPro, although strongly build, are not originally designed to fit 3 double-height gpus. At all. In fact I used 2 Zotac 780ti for one year + a small radeon for display. There was something like 2-3mm space between cards. The radeon didn't like at all and refused to display anything but a white screen after 6 months of this treatment. The 780ti's are fine, thanks for asking

I tried to put a 3rd card along with the 2 titanX, and there was 1mm space between cards. I don't think it's recommended. Plus the Hybrid TitanX is 2-3mm thicker than the normal one due to a solid metal plate on the bottom of the card which isn't present on the regular one.

Yikes! I have 2 Titan X's in my Cheese Grater. The heat has been worrying me. Are the titan's more robust?

Would it be better to move the top Titan up a slot so there's more gap, I assumed the fan sucked air through the card front to back?

You mean : is the TitanX Hybrid more robust than the regular one? I hope so!

The watercooled one is far cooler than the regular one when rendering, that's sure, so I'm not afraid anymore with the temperatures. And yes, they are separated by 1 pciE slot (which used to carry an ati for display), so even at 100% load you barely can hear the fans spinning.

To be exhaustive, the Hybrid titanX didn't fit in the first pci slot (the one at the bottom, just above the RAM carriage) because of the metal plate below the card I talked about earlier which makes it slightly thicker. So currently it fits only above the regular one. Not ideal I think.

I still think about using the last available PCIe slot (under the Hybrid) to put one 780ti outside of the tower, using a riser. Don't know if it's gonna work or not. Do you have knowledge about that?

AEponym wrote:You mean : is the TitanX Hybrid more robust than the regular one? I hope so!

The watercooled one is far cooler than the regular one when rendering, that's sure, so I'm not afraid anymore with the temperatures. And yes, they are separated by 1 pciE slot (which used to carry an ati for display), so even at 100% load you barely can hear the fans spinning.

To be exhaustive, the Hybrid titanX didn't fit in the first pci slot (the one at the bottom, just above the RAM carriage) because of the metal plate below the card I talked about earlier which makes it slightly thicker. So currently it fits only above the regular one. Not ideal I think.

I still think about using the last available PCIe slot (under the Hybrid) to put one 780ti outside of the tower, using a riser. Don't know if it's gonna work or not. Do you have knowledge about that?

Not yet If I decide to keep using octane I plan on moving the cards to an external PCI box or some sort. These seem cheap and cheerful, no idea what they're like though...

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/akitio-t ... -height-do

If I could find long enough riser card/cables I'd used that for the time being. I have a 980 that I can't use at the mo.

According to OctaneBench the 980 Ti is better than the 980 by 26 points.
Would you say that it's a worthy choose getting the 980 Ti to run on a Mac??

Thanks!