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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

nVidia Quadro 4000 mac TESTS? anyone?

Have not tested with Resolve. But I have a Quadro 4000 Mac edition here I'm doing CUDA stuff with. Save your money, buy the GTX285. :-/ I'm seeing about 6~7% overall gain with the Q4000 over the 285. The only advantage I can see is if you need the DisplayPort connector or if you're running specific software or CUDA development that would benefit from the extra onboard RAM. You only get 8bit out of the DisplayPort on the Mac anyway... There is still some advantage to the Fermi design and some functionality that is not available on the 285, but I'm doubtful that will play a role with Resolve.

On paper, the Q4000 is almost 15% faster than the 285. In PC land, many 285 cards are faster as they are clocked higher.

I'm curious to see what people come up with in terms of Resolve performance.

FWIW, the Quadro 4000 for Mac can be bought from J&R right now for $819.95 w/ free shipping. I've seen it a few other places over the past week where it's under $850. From what I can tell, based on some insider info, is that the cards received less than a luke-warm welcome. People want the GTX480/580 and nVidia & PNY give us the lower mid-range Quadro at a hefty premium.
 
I was very excited about the Quadro 4000, but have since become less interested.

I still want it because of its single slot solution, but I think I'm back to a GTX285 for the dedicated Resolve GPU. I'd also be happier with a later model GTX as Jeff mentioned.

I'd be happier if there was a new non-Quadro single slot card that offered very modern features and performance right in that range.
 
GTX480 already works with mac davinci (on Hackintosh at least), someone should try 580...
 
Nikolai Vavilov said:
GTX480 already works with mac davinci (on Hackintosh at least), someone should try 580...
Click to expand...

I've run into this before.

Its important to me that the card actually be a Mac version. Its the official support that matters.

If I'm billing a client and there is an issue while they are sitting in the room... it just doesn't make sense to have cut that particular corner. I don't know the relative performance of the Quadro 4000 and the GTX 580, but the price difference is just $200 or so.

So... despite some dissatisfaction, Quadro 4000 remains on my things to buy list.

I'd rather be sitting on two Quadro 4000 Mac editions than two hacked GTX580's if trouble stirs its ugly head.

Of course, that's a strategy of best of available evils, not an ideal strategy.
 
I always thought that the Quadro cards offer superior performance over their "gaming" counterparts even if they have lower clock/memory speeds ? Or is this true only in their specific driver tailored applications such as Maya, CAD etc. ?
 
I think there's a lot of marketing babble around them.

For us the GTX 285 is definitely performing a tad better than the Quadro FX 4800 under PPro and Resolve.
 
"I still want it because of its single slot solution, but I think I'm back to a GTX285 for the dedicated Resolve GPU. I'd also be happier with a later model GTX as Jeff mentioned."


Alexander,

Does Da Vinci works with only one quadro 4000 and no other cards?
I have a red rocket, black magic 3d and e-sata card...

It would be great if I could use just one graphics card single slot, would it reduce performance if it's just the quadro and no other Nvidia card and how much you lose in speed % ?

Cheers.
 
Vladmartins said:
It would be great if I could use just one graphics card single slot, would it reduce performance if it's just the quadro and no other Nvidia card and how much you lose in speed % ?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm also really interested in this. If using just a Quadro 4000, with no second graphics card, drops things below real-time performance generally, that wouldn't be worth it. But if it's just a matter of dropping from real-time with 10 or 11 nodes down to real-time with 7 or 8 nodes, that would absolutely be worth it for us to free up a slot for a RAID controller.
 
I tried with a single Quadro FX 4800 and a GTX 285, which both dropped in performance by about 30% when used alone. Could mean the difference between RT and non-RT.
 
Mike N said:
I always thought that the Quadro cards offer superior performance over their "gaming" counterparts even if they have lower clock/memory speeds ? Or is this true only in their specific driver tailored applications such as Maya, CAD etc. ?
Click to expand...

That would only be true in apps with specific driver tailoring.

In any case, the 4000 is most similar to a low-end enthusiast GPU like the GTS450 (which is under $150). There are gaming cards with much, much more raw power than a 4000 that would outperform it in any application.
 
Well I know Autodesk has that card as part as the minimum configuration for the Smoke on OSX. recently ordered it for our SMACK. Will report here once we have it up and running.
 
Vladmartins said:
Does Da Vinci works with only one quadro 4000 and no other cards?
Click to expand...

No.

You must have TWO graphics cards in the system for real time performance.

The configuration manual implies it won't work at all without two cards... but I can't find any direct statement to that effect.

One card is used for the "GUI." That's the term in the Resolve configuration manual for all the normal OS X functions.

The other card card is used by Resolve as "GPU." Resolve completely takes that card over for its own use, and it can not be used by the system for anything else while Resolve is running. The Resolve configuration guide recommends not connecting monitors to the GPU card. The Resolve configuration guide says that you should put the GPU card into the two slot wide "graphics slot" of a Mac Pro.

Most fast video cards require the extra space for cooling gear. (fans, heat sinks etc.) Some cards offer extra i/o ports in the extra slot they use.

There are Windows versions of various high end gaming cards that are made to use a single PCIe slot. Earlier in this thread someone linked to an EVGA GTX580. I'd REALLY like to see an officially supported OS X version of those cards.

So getting back to the Quadro 4000. It has approximately the performance of a GTX285. (It outperforms the GTX285 by a very small margin 5-8% typically.) I expected a lot more before its release, but it will do.

The performance level of the GTX285 is my "minimum standard" for both the GUI and GPU card in a resolve system.

So getting back to configuring a Mac- and why I want a single slot card for the GUI... the stupid Mac Pro only has 4 PCIe slots... one of which is the graphics card slot.

If I used two GTX285 or two QuadroFX 4800 cards in the system I'd use up the Graphics card slot and two "regular" slots. Leaving just one slot for other PCIe hardware. Boo.

So.. its acceptable, but not ideal. I can use a Quadro 4000 as my GUI and a GTX285 as my GPU card.

I remain hopeful that we'll see a Quadro 5800 or a GTX580

That leaves me two PCIe slots. One is used by a BlackMagic i/o card. So... the other card is either a Rocket, or some type of external disk access device.

Presently my plan is to use a fast drive for the system boot drive for Resolve. On the second drive I'll have another barebones system boot, day to day storage and data backup for the boot drive.

I reserve two internal drive bays for my current project. These can be configured RAID-0 in software for speed and capacity.

Firewire 800 is acceptable for tertiary storage for my regular system use, and secondary storage/backup for the current project.

If those limitations are acceptable, I can install a Rocket. For many workflows finishing in ProRes that is in fact acceptable.

If I need faster disk access (which is rare given my current workload) I can deinstall the Rocket and install some type of host bus adapter. (Fibre Channel or whatever)

If I do a lot of properly paid work in Resolve, there is a strong chance that I'll end up moving to Resolve Linux, which obviates these issues.
 
Philipe Ratton said:
Would you buy one of these ?
Click to expand...

No.

It's a generic, unlabeled, slightly overclocked card that has been re-flashed wth the Apple EFI. Price is a bit high, IMO.
 
Definitely works with one specified CUDA card only, but considerably slower.
 
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