Advice on graphics cards using Mac Pro booted into Windows
Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 10:40 pm
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).
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).