Testing Octane and trying to determine best configuration for current equipment and new graphics card. Would very much appreciate feedback on some of the many options.
I have Mac Pro 2008 (recently acquired)
8 core 2.8 GHz
10 GB Ram
OS X 10.7
2 Graphics Cards:
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB
I'm considering using Octane on the Mac booted into Windows 7 64 bit mainly because of more affordable Nivida card options but have some questions /concerns.
(1) Have read forum posts pointing to positive results using GTX 400 series cards but nothing conclusive on the newer 500 cards. Anyone have experience placing such cards into the Mac for use in Windows and what tweaks or hacks, if any, might be involved?
(2) It has been stated a GTX 460, 470, or 480 on Mac Pro under Windows would work better than Nivida Quadro 4000 for OS X. I do understand Quadro cards are better geared towards viewport visualization but for use in Octane is the preference for GTX cards just regarding price point, or actual performance? Also - in what way are the Quadro cards "crippled" under OS X (is it just because there are no 64 bit Nivida drivers for that card on OS X)? And if so, isn't that basically the case for any Nivida Mac card since Octane on OS X only runs in 34 bit?
(3) Multiple Graphics Cards: I'd like to continue using one of my two older cards (ATI or Nivida 8800) for main display and dedicate a newer Nivida card for headless rendering in Octane.
This configuration has worked with Octane in OS X. I can both open and render through Octane using the 8800 headlessly while easily performing other tasks through the ATI card.
However, that set up fails in Windows. While I can open Octane, I get the "failed to initialize CUDA drivers" error message when trying to render.
On Windows 7, it is only when I attach a monitor to the Nivida card that I can initiate a render in Octane (that defeats the purpose of having a separate display card though).
Also of note, even though the Windows device driver sees both cards, I can not open any Nivida control panels unless a monitor is physically attached to the card (error message says: "Nivida Display settings are not available - you are not using a display attached to a Nivida GPU").
So - is this normal behavior under Windows 7, or is there a way to use the ATI card just for display and my Nivida card as headless (again - that set up seems to work fine in OS X).
Thanks for considering my questions. It is no light matter purchasing so much equipment to embark on a completely new work flow but Octane promises such exciting possibilities for what I want to do that the time and money seems worth it (before I got this used Mac Pro I was on a 2010 Mac Mini - great machine but absolutely useless with Octane).
Advice on graphics cards using Mac Pro booted into Windows
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as i have no experiences with macs & octane, i can only say something about windows and using ati + nvidia cards: because gamers often want to use amd/ati cards as main display and a secondary cheap nvidia card for physx only, nvidia does its best to prohibit this scenario by blocking any advanced gpu functionality on the driver level, if an amd/ati card is detected in the system. there is no easy way to overcome this - there are some driver hacks around, but nothing to recommend, because these hacks are only for specific driver versions available, and implementing them is a pita in general...
„The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply ‟
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Hi,
1) i don't see any issue if you think to use the macpro with gtx 5xx only in win, the only problem comes from the power cable that is single, you need double for gtx 560/570 ecc. the solution at this link:
http://www.refractivesoftware.com/forum ... 366#p33366
have you seen also this link?
http://www.refractivesoftware.com/forum ... =14&t=6750
2) the quadro 4000 needs one power cable only so it's good for macpro 3.1 but it's expensive and what you pay is not necessary for octane, at last the speed is equal to an old gtx
3) look at this post:
http://www.refractivesoftware.com/forum ... 903#p51903
ciao beppe
1) i don't see any issue if you think to use the macpro with gtx 5xx only in win, the only problem comes from the power cable that is single, you need double for gtx 560/570 ecc. the solution at this link:
http://www.refractivesoftware.com/forum ... 366#p33366
have you seen also this link?
http://www.refractivesoftware.com/forum ... =14&t=6750
2) the quadro 4000 needs one power cable only so it's good for macpro 3.1 but it's expensive and what you pay is not necessary for octane, at last the speed is equal to an old gtx
3) look at this post:
http://www.refractivesoftware.com/forum ... 903#p51903
ciao beppe