OTOY Forums

Hey guys,

I'm currently running a flashed GTX 770, but I'd like to get an expansion chassis for my Mac Pro in able to support more cards. My question is, will these other cards need to be flashed as well to be recognized by Octane, or would they be just fine from the factory (that is, designed with Windows in mind)?

Thanks.

The only was you can run cards in a expansion chassis (ei. Amfeltec, Cubix, Netstor) is if all cards have efi on them, PC cards will only register 2.

Mavericks will allow 2-3 nvidia cards and yosemite only 2, but with mac efi all will work. Its an expensive thing if you want current gen cards.

Im my opinion it would cost the same to build a pc render node and the bonus is you have a backup...

Wouldn't I need to buy another license of Octane though for the PC?

And if you could recommend a reasonably priced build I'd appreciate it. I'd eventually like to have up to 4 additional double-wide cards.

Yeah you would need another standalone licence.

But lets look at MVC's 980ti's @ 880 each thats 3520us for 4.
4 pc 980ti's would be 650 each thats 2600us for 4. plus a standalone licence @ 430us is 3030 total.

Skip the expansion chassis and you should have over 1000us to build a system that you can upgrade as new cards are released plus the fact you can later buy an expansion chassis for the pc...
The node doesn't need a fancy multi core cpu. 16gb ram and a good i5 would do the trick.

Thats my opinion anyway.
My main ws was a 5,1 for a while i tried everything nothing worked. Im looking to build a node now trying to figure out what combo gives me the most cards. the forum is full of info.
I bought a nMP and can run 4 through thunderbolt but thats an expensive process the above is cheaper.

The other thing is the cMP are hitting 3-5 years old now, Eventually you will need an update the above is your best option i think as if you do upgrade your main station you will always have a node.

And if I'm understanding this correctly, this node would be able to supplement my OS X box through network render, or would this just be its own thing? I really would rather avoid switching to Windows.

So even if they're not the primary card on a system, each graphics card used on a Mac needs to have been flashed? Do you have a reference for this?

They need to be flashed to work with an expansion chassis.
Im your reference... Il hook my amfeltec to my 5,1 and take a pic to show you soon,
Im sure there are others on this forum. There is a thread we had discussed it once.

But if you like google "OS X gpu limit netstor" etc.
There is heaps of threads on Creative Cow in regard to the issue, and 0 work arounds.
i know Mountain Lion works but you can't have a 780ti or higher as there are no drivers for them.
So if you can live with 3gb and 780's you can go back to 10.8.5 and get an amfeltec.

And if I'm understanding this correctly, this node would be able to supplement my OS X box through network render, or would this just be its own thing? I really would rather avoid switching to Windows.

And yes you would be working on OS X and sending the renders to the node through network render, You don't need windows, Linux works. You basically don't need to touch the node once set up.

http://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=24550&p=154741&hilit=cubix#p154741

http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mavericks-10-9-2-and-cubix.1713478/#post-18847118

http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,8403.15.html

Awesome, thanks man. That definitely gives me something to think about, I appreciate it.

i see a light on the horizont

just found this comment - and ask the user about more information -
i hope we will come to a final solution


"Hi guys,
Here is the news, after having updated my Mac Pro 5,1 to El Capitan following the steps advised by Macvidcards, my primary graphic card GTX Titan X as well as my 4xGTX Titan are recognised by the OS X system and Octane.
My nVidia web driver is the latest: 346.03.02f01
My cuda version is: 7.5.20
Octane version: 2.24.1-R1

I though it was interesting to share it as everything is working well.
"

http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,11247.0.html