OTOY Forums

Christian wrote

Re: Mac Pro. Here is an update from me: Installed a GTX 460 in my macPro(2008-3.1)

Thank-You for this fairly detailed "recipe" I hope it also works with the new "Aug. 2010" MacPros.....
---As you know the devil's in the details.. (and in the PRICETAG, too often, as well!)

Since I have virtually NO funds to throw-down on getting a) a "cheap" PC and/or b) a copy of Windows v. 7 (or whatever.)
--and no ROOM to put another computer into my living-space (extreme shortage of electrical plug-in spots in this OLD building,
---already with "octopi" of extension cords everywhere..)

I'm hoping that this recipe will also work to run the Apple-sanctioned GTX-285 card, without garbling up my (soon to arrive...) system when booting it...
That's IF the recipe will also work to power it, without overcranking the MacPro powersupply... (and/or voiding my warranty!).

DAMN Apple for being unhelpfully closed-mouthed on anything about this sort of topic...

I'm somewhat disabled (diabetic complications, plus arthritis) so "hands-on" hardware stuff is just not something I can do anymore...

Plug-and-Play would be optimal, as in "INSTALL AND FORGET ABOUT IT"
---but it certainly sounds like a hot-wired boost to the power (Molex) is what's going to be needed...

Hi cakesson,
great "how to"
Thanx for sharing

ciao beppe

That is awesome cakesson. I wish I would of read this a few months ago.

Glad if it will help someone.
Sure, that would have been cheaper, but having 2xGTX480's must not suck

I have to jump in here and just set on thing straight.

It is not Apple's fault that NVIDA has their hardware based on old technology
and not really that good driver support.

This results into a bottleneck for MacPros which is a fact - and a reason why I do not consider this direction.
Keep in mind that this is not an issue with ATI cards for a reason.

If NVIDIA would follow the trend in technology as well - things would be different.

cekuhnen wrote:I have to jump in here and just set on thing straight.

It is not Apple's fault that NVIDA has their hardware based on old technology
and not really that good driver support.

This results into a bottleneck for MacPros which is a fact - and a reason why I do not consider this direction.
Keep in mind that this is not an issue with ATI cards for a reason.

If NVIDIA would follow the trend in technology as well - things would be different.

Sorry but you're wrong about this.
The new fermi architecture is a radically different alley and is very innovative, written especially for compute applications like ours.
Drivers are very very good, and documentation/toolkits is 10x better than openCL.

Current ATI hardware is still based on DirectX z-buffer speed and OpenCL drivers/documentation is virtually useless for production/commercial software.
But anyway, why does this all matter when you won't need any GPUs next year anyways ? (due to 'promised' new products, from both NVIDIA and ATI)

If we had chosen OpenCL for Octane, we'd still be be before beta 2.1, and 5x as slow, and customers would need expensive new multi CPUs too to try to keep up.
Cuda has made our lives 10x easier.

Yours,
Radiance

rushes wrote:here is the thread:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=886056

Such a very amazing link!
Thanks for the post.



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Looks like having a gtx 460, 465, 470, 480 (and even 580) in Mac Pro going into osX can now be solved. Thank god!!
New drivers from Nvidia plus the 10.6.5 update....

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?

a bit of light at the end of the tunnel
It seems that for the new drivers we need Cuda 3.2 so it's better to wait for v6 before making some test I think
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/quadro-m ... er-uk.html

ciao beppe

Hi everyone!
I've just made a litle upgrade to my setup.
GTX 470 is perfectly running in Mac Pro under Mac OS X 10.6.7. (after some tweaks with Multibeast) 448 cores working smooth.
I had unpluged my gtx285... both connected (one to motherboard other via molex>6pin connector) was too much for PSU... or maybe I should get 6pin Y-splitters to power it properly.

Little manual for all of you cheap bastards like me others go and buy two quadro 4000 :

1. Install Multibeast from http://www.tonymacx86.com
2. Unplug power cables from Mac ready card (gtx285) and plug in GTX 470
3. boot & pray
4. install tonymacx86 NVIDIA Update 2.0
5. reboot & pray more
6. got GTX470 on mac os x but no CUDA!
7. open terminal and run: cp /Library/Frameworks/CUDA.framework/Versions/A/Libraries/libcuda_256.01.10.dylib /Library/Frameworks/CUDA.framework/Versions/A/Libraries/libcuda_256.02.05.dylib
8. do some octane renders faster than ever and with little black apple in upper left corner of the screen.