A public forum for discussing and asking questions about the demo version of Octane Render.
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Hi guys, I would buy GPU-Xpander for my macbook pro in order to use Octane Render and I wondered if I will able to use graphic cards like GeForce GTX 480 although the only CUDA graphic card for mac is GeForce GTX 285. ( http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_gpus.html )
Another question is, how many graphic cards can I put into GPU-Xpander? And also If I have one GeForce GTX 480 and Nvidia releases a brand new graphic card in 3-4 months...may I put this new one into my GPU-Xpander?
Last question is: can I use the internal macbook graphic card to run the OS X using GPU-Xpander for rendering at the main time?
You can fit 2 cards into the xpander for octane, and they need to be cards supported by mac os X to be able to be used.
(eg GTX285 and a few others)
You can put GTX400 series cards in it, and use bootcxamp to boot into MS Windows and use the windows version of octane with GTX400 series cards, until apple supports them in future Mac OS X updates. (which won't take long i think)
You can use your internal GPU for display while rendering with the Xpander provided you're internal GPU used for display is also an Nvidia chip, and not an ATI chip. (it *could* work with an ati chip, but we cannot guarantee it will, and most likely wont)
I'm not sure to buy GPU-Xpander it's going to be very expensive....I want start to use octane or other realtime render engines based on GPU but to do that I need to buy a new computer since I've got just a laptop. Can you advice me any computer....I had look at this http://search.dell.co.uk/1/1/121507-del ... x-480.html but I'm not sure if I can add another graphic card...
If you want to buy a system specifically geared for use with octane,
i suggest you go to a PC clone shop and get an offer for a clone PC,
with an ASUS motherboard with at least 2 PCI-E 16x slots,
a 750 watt brand cable-management power supply,
and a low-range quad core i7 CPU. (it's not very important for octane, CPU speed)
For display card configuration there's a lot of options.
currently i would recommend you place 2 GTX460 cards in it with 2GB each if you can find them.
If not, i'd get a GTX465 and start with that, and see what will become available during the next 2-3 months of newer GTX400 cards with more memory as this is one of the most important things (besides speed) that octane needs,eg video memory so you can render high-res, complex scenes.
Hey, thank you very much to explain me all those stuff.
One more thing, you said:
newer GTX400 cards with more memory as this is one of the most important things (besides speed) that octane needs,eg video memory so you can render high-res, complex scenes.
...so what about Nvidia Telsa as I know they have large memory amount... what's the difference between Telsa C20xx and GTX4xx...
If you want to buy a system specifically geared for use with octane,
i suggest you go to a PC clone shop and get an offer for a clone PC,
with an ASUS motherboard with at least 2 PCI-E 16x slots,
a 750 watt brand cable-management power supply,
and a low-range quad core i7 CPU.
It would be very helpful if someone can help me to understand the motherboard and the power supply...and advice me some nice match between the components....and tell me his opinion about the price. http://www.computerplanet.co.uk/special ... step1.html
tnx
G.
last question... if I have 2 graphic cards can I use both of them for rendering in octane and navigate in Windows at the main time? ....or using photoshop for changing texture in the scene for example...otherwise if i need one of them to use windows it's like I waste one of my graphic card...is it right?
if you got 2 cuda cards you can either use them both for rendering or use the "weak" one for a smoother display/navigation/multitasking and the faster for rendering... the switch can be made from within Octane before any render job so it's pretty painless
sorry but what about the navigation in octane using both graphic cards for rendering... because when I use octane on my macbook it goes very slow, I'm not surprised about this but I have problems to use the interface too... is it just because I'm using it on my macbook or I will have the same kind of problem on a desktop computer with 2 gtx470....can someone give me more information about this
