Is My Video Card CUDA enabled?

[Paint Guy]

Hi, I am using a MacPro Tower with a GeForce 8800 GT video card and according to this web page I think it says I have a CUDA enabled card. http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_gpus.html
but can someone please confirm that my video card is CUDA enabled?

By keeping the cost lower, more individuals will have access to this power and will be able to generate more economic growth than if only a few were able to afford Octane Render.

I appreciate the reasonable price for this software but the video cards they recommend cost three grand $3000.00 so unfortunately, that no longer makes this software very affordable.

If you are interested in purchasing a new graphics card to use with Octane Render, the Geforce GTX470 or GTX 480 currently have the best Performance to Price ratio.

If someone out there is using a MacPro tower with a GeForce 8800 GT video card please tell me how fast "octane" is rendering and if you have upgraded your card could you please offer some suggestions as to what cards I should be looking at that are in the $100 - $200 range.

[ttaberna]

8800 is cuda but weak card for rendering.
470 and 480 cost around 400$ and 500$ respectively
and you can find gtx 460 starting at 200$ for less memory versions and around 300$ 2gb versions
There is a gts 450 with 1gb that is cheaper than gtx 460.
That is for PC. about MAC I think they are a little more expensive, but I don't think it reaches 3000$
Hope it is helpfull

[Paint Guy]

Thanks for the info. That's why I am asking anyone using a mac for more information on this. I've phoned 2 suppliers of this card and they both say they are like $3000.00 US so if the PC cards are $200 - $300 then why are the mac cards so expensive. I also want to know if I can use and ATI card or if CUDA is propietary to NVidia. Any help is appreicated.

Mac Pro Octocor Tower
NVidia GeForce 8800GT (VRam: 512 MB)
12 MB Ram

[bepeg4d]

The most important thing to know, for working smoothly with octane, is to have at least two cards, one for display and the other one only for octane.
At this link you can find an interesting solution of another user with the sam mac pro
http://www.refractivesoftware.com/forum ... 7&start=20

ciao beppe

[Paint Guy]

Thanks for the link, but after reading those posts my head is spinning. I am not too big on customizing my mac and ripping apart my mac and trying to retrofit a pc video card into my mac is not a good solution IMO. I had hoped there was a plug and play solution. I love my mac but this is seriously making me consider buying a pc the next time. Apple just always seems to make everything so difficult.

So it seems Octane is not going to run on Mac unless we do some serious retrofitting.

[Proupin]

The card you need is the gtx 285 for mac, it costs around 420$...
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2805

[Paint Guy]

Thanks. Thats somewhat good news even though it's still quite pricey compared to the PC cards, at least it's plug and play isn't it? Do you use this card with "Octane Render" and how does it compare in speed with a 480GX card. What about heat. I heard some of these cards can run at 82° Celcius which is hotter than most cards I believe.

[Proupin]

A friend of mine did buy this card in replacement of an big ATI. Yes the extra-premium is ridiculous, I used to be a mac (evangelist) but these things got me sick so I got out...

I would advise you to not take this GPU decision too seriously, but a way to get to know Octane. There is not an affordable card out there with enough VRam for heavy work (Cuda and Octane are babies too)... in fact, you can consider a new gtx285 for mac with less vram, 896MB to be exact, and costs 200$ in eBay.

[Carl S.]

There is a mac pro thread here where someone got a gtx460 working on a mac pro.

[bepeg4d]

Another solution would be to buy a GT120 only for display and use the 8800 for octane.
It seams that this card is working perfectly also on Mac Pro 2008.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC002ZM/A

ciao beppe