OTOY Forums

Hello,

I have a 3 year Mac Pro with currently have a ATI 4890 in it, and obviously can't run Octane.
It doesn't seem like Apple will have Nvidia as an option for the new Pro's right now, so getting a new Pro now seems pointless for me, and i really don't want to buy a new PC just to render.
I absolutely want to stay with OS X... so i wonder if i just pop in a GF 8800 or any working CUDA nvida card as a main card, would it be possible to add 2x GTX 460/480's as extra cards (4 slots available for graph cards in the Pro) even though OS X probably can't use them as main graphic cards?
Would Octane still be able to use them?
I realize this all sounds a bit fuzzy, but it would really make my day if this could be a solution to get going with Octane and with my current Mac Pro.

What do you guys think about this?
Anyone have any experience with such a setup?
Or do you think it's even possible?

Thanks

Sorry I dont know enough about Mac to give you a definitive answer but I'll try being helpful.
Nvidia list GT120, GT130, GTX285 and Quadro4800 for Mac presently.
The single slot 120 seems to be available separately from Apple and would be ok for a basic display card for Octane I think, if you add a GTX460/480(s) or whatever later.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC002 ... TA4MzU2MzE
The 120 seems akin to a 9500GT so you could actually trial the Octane demo on it in the meantime I think - 32 cuda cores and 512mb - it would be pretty slow and jumpy on its own but it would give you a taste...
I dont know exactly how people are setting up Octane on Mac but I assume it works with multiple cards as it does with Windows. You would need to check out the tech details to see how the cards have to be if you wish to say run the new 480 for most tasks but then use it exclusively for cuda/Octane on occasion while the 120 stood in on UI duty. In pre2.3 the Octane interface enables you to choose but there might be mobo or O/S requirements. Sorry I dont know about video driver requirements at all for Mac, someone else can answer that one.
You will have to check out too the pci-e arrangement to see what cards you have space for and what the power supply will run, including apppropriate connectors. A 480 would be Watt hungry. Perhaps a 460 will come out which might be more helpful and less $. If you arent just buying for Octane getting one card is probably enough.
HTH maybe a Mac user can chip in with some real informed info

the GTX400 cards are not supported by mac os X yet.
you can install them and boot into windows with bootcamp and use octane with it, until mac os X updates come out with driver support for these new cards.

also, if you have a windows x64 installed, you can run the 64bit version of octane and run much larger scenes than on OSX, wihich is 32bit. (nvidia has not released a 64bit cuda library for mac yet)

Radiance\