Best Practices For Building A Multiple GPU System

[itou31]

Hi Notiusweb,
you check the issue further than me.
My splitter is connected temporary to the MSI board and has no issue with V3. Not check the effect with "Adaptative Sampling". I remember that we need to increase TDR delay in the registry to avoid driver timeout.

[Notiusweb]

Hi Notiusweb,
you check the issue further than me.
My splitter is connected temporary to the MSI board and has no issue with V3. Not check the effect with "Adaptative Sampling". I remember that we need to increase TDR delay in the registry to avoid driver timeout.

Itou31, I theorize, in principal, that one 12-GPU system will not perform as well as twelve 1-GPU systems with strict rendering speed, is that reason why you don't cram all your cards into one giant rig, to combat 'diminishing returns'?

[Tutor]

Smicha,

Sorry for the massive delay in getting back to you with the comparative data that you requested, but work has had me pinned down. With Nvidia's and Apple's recent "cooperation"*/, as of yesterday I am able to bear witness to the following in my title to the pic, below - 27Ms+In1xGTX1070InMacPro2012+WithOR3.06Test4.. My "grab" capturing skills leave much to be desired, but I did witness readings of up to 27.4 Ms/sec for just one GTX 1070 w/o any overclocking on my part and, of course, there is no overclocking software for the Mac. So if Octane still scales linearly as it has in the past, then 14 x 27+ = 378+ and 20 x 27+ = 540+, absent user overclocking.


*/ Small nos. of potential customers complaining are viewed as just talk, but lots more potential, but angry, customers frequently means bigger money walks.

1. From at least as early as November 22, 2016, some Mac users have unsuccessfully prodded Nvidia to release Mac OS X Pascal drivers:
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topi ... -macos-/1/ .

2. Apple (one of the riches companies on the planet - it's stock price is presently high) announces that it hasn’t completely abandoned the Mac Pro line - April 4, 2017:
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/04/04/ap ... -and-more/ .

3. Nvidia (whose stock price has about tripled over the past year, but presently is encountering resistance in the maintenance of those stock prices) responds by releasing Pascal drivers for OS X Sierra - April 11, 2017 (one week or seven days after Apple's announcement):
http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/117854

Coincidence? Lucy, I don't thinn so.

[smicha]

Tutor, thank you.

Are you a hackintosh user? Is it possible to use supermicro x9drx for hackintosh?

[Tutor]

Tutor, thank you.

Are you a hackintosh user?

On my systems, I run every major OS - Windows, Linux and MacOs. I'm aware of what a hackintosh is, how to build one and what a hackintosh does: See, e.g. http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/ ... ch-scores/ . From late 2010 to most of 2014 the fasted OS X Geekbench scores were run on hackintoshes.

Is it possible to use supermicro x9drx for hackintosh?

Yes, one can convert any P.C. - be it single, dual, quad, octo, etc. CPU - into a hackintosh (see. e.g., https://browser.geekbench.com/geekbench3/558552 where a Supermicro SuperServer SYS-8047R-7RFT+ Quad LGA2011 Tower Server System had been hackintoshed ). Andrew (aka "Rampage Dev") now holds the mantel of hackintosh sensei - See, e.g., http://www.rampagedev.com/?p=2036 where Andrew instructs on and provides solutions for dual CPU systems like the X9DRX.

[smicha]

Tutor,

I was asking because something deep in me told me that I read about your massive hackintosh machines and I just wat to make sure it was not an illusion

I will do more research on a hackintosh but is there any hardware related change required to convert a PC to a hackintosh? Or is it just about installing in macos Sierra? Are there any heavy difficulties you came across?
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/unib ... pc.200564/

[Tutor]

First, seems like with the additional tweaking going on behind the curtains of Otoy that the GTX 1070s were the best buy for me for the money and that when all is said and done they may be faster renderers than GTX 980 Tis, especially given the 1070's cost. Most of them cost $410 (USD) or less.

1x1070-3.05.png

1x1070-3.06Test.png

Tutor,

I was asking because something deep in me told me that I read about your massive hackintosh machines and I just wat to make sure it was not an illusion

It was not your imagination running away with you.*/

I will do more research on a hackintosh but is there any hardware related change required to convert a PC to a hackintosh? Or is it just about installing in macos Sierra? Are there any heavy difficulties you came across?
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/unib ... pc.200564/

It isn't all about just installing Sierra or what happens to be the latest Mac OS. There were/are hardware issues, particularly involving ( and these are what I call some of the heaviest of difficulties) multiple GPUs and CPUs. Although I was a frequent visitor to Tonymacx86's site (also - you can search for my posts on that subject on that site and here - http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1333421 ) for GPU guidance, what you specifically propose falls as much in Andrews domain of expertise which is multiple CPU systems. Thus, I recommend that you begin by learning all that Tonymacx86 has to offer about GPUs, but don't consider your education complete until you learn all that Andrew and his site has to offer on the subject of multiple CPU systems [plus Andrew has more relevant goodies (applicable DMGs) that you are free to download]. Andrew knows more about multi-CPU systems than anyone that I met at Tonymacx86, although I did learn alot there and on the InsanelyMac site ( http://www.insanelymac.com ) about resolving GPU issues. I recall having to learn to write and edit kext code to get multiple GPUs recognized and working, as well as editing a system's bios parameters to maximize performance through, of all things, underclocking the CPU and then maximizing the system's turbo boost potential through reconfiguring the turboboost stages - that's how I had the fastest Geekbench tested hackintosh for about 4 full years . As GPU rendering became more important to me, hackintoshing began to lose lots of it's allure, especially because I have always had lots of Apple systems and my time was better spent learning and doing other things. I don't really regret the journey because I learned so much that I apply to keeping my 2007 and 2009**/ Mac Pros running even to this very day and each such system is a lot more relevant and powerful right now than it would have been had I not made that journey. I learned more about Macs and Windows systems during that sojourn than I can now immediately recall. I actively try to forget all of the bloody/unmanageable details. But I also currently try to remember the smilely face details. So to make what would otherwise be a tome into a reasonably sized response - I end/summarize by saying, "It wasn't easy, but I wouldn't have had it any other way." Knowledge is power and powerful.

*/ Acknowledgment - that response was inspired, in part, by a group of singers most of whom grew up in Birmingham, AL. The group called themselves the Temptations. Eddie Kendricks was my favorite member of that group.

**/ I frequently now refer to my 2009 MacPro system as a 2012+ MacPro because early on in its life span (circa 2011) I made that Apple tower computer faster than the real 2012 MacPro tower system that hadn't even then been announced by Apple, by applying hackintosh principles to a Mac. In sum: knowledge from Mac => to knowledge for Hack => to hack knowledge back to Mac. I call it round tripping.

[smicha]

Fascinating. Thank you again so much.

[Tutor]

Congratulation to whomever got that 2,179 Octane Bench score with 11 GTX 1080 TIs. Whow!
That number of GPUs exactly matches the number of slots on a Supermicro x(9 or 10)drx motherboard. I'd welcome any thought's about whom that could be? Is it the master blaster of all things team Aqua? Does his name begin with the letter "S." I'm not talking about SuperMan, although who I have in mind is a super gentleman whose many skills include achieving such feats (and many more).

[smicha]

Tutor,
Huge thank you for this great thread and you massive help. The score is based on Linux and these GPUs are not overclocked .... I know too little about Linux for now to OC GPUs. Core clocks on water are 1900mhz and with slight OC to 2050 I think 2300 score seems to be achievable. I am on Ubuntu 14.04 lts.is there any software as MSI afterburner to easily OC GPUs in Linux?
I'll post on the forum details from the build.

A short video for now.

https://youtu.be/Uk2qIYvgFaE
Smicha