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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 :)

GTX 285 getting hard to find...

Tom.Wong

Tom.Wong

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Been holding out on building my Resolve system, getting ready to in the next few weeks. Getting hard to track down a gtx 285 for mac right now... used to be able to find brand new ones flashed on ebay from "macvidcards" but they seem to be sold out, and every other site i'm looking online seems sold out.

All that's left are refurbed ones on ebay, and I'm wondering if anybody has bought these and can vouch they work properly. I'm wary of refurbed products from vendors I don't know.

quadros are out of my budget too.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Mac-Pro-2008-20...o_TV_Cards&hash=item415515d3b4#ht_3222wt_1141


any review on these or alternatives that would be great. Or if anybody knows how to flash a gtx 480 or 580 for my Mac Pro?
 
hi Tom,
You can install a gtx 480 on Mac Pro originally published, but 'we must change the boot loader and other minor changes, but honestly I will not recommend you are better than the GTX 285. Edit an original mac does not make sense.
 
applemacanix (on ebay) has it but his prices are skyhigh
 
My graphic card went down last month so I started looking for the GTX 285. I was able to find one at Mac Pro online. Did not realize it was used until it arrived (my fault). It works fine but for how long? New ones are getting harder to find. Good luck
 
Guys. The free 7.1 update includes support for the ATI 5770 for the GUI. You no longer need to run the GTX285. You still need Quadros for the GPU, only now you can run more than one in an expansion chassis for that Linux feeling on your Mac - at a fraction of the cost.
 
Shane Betts said:
Guys. The free 7.1 update includes support for the ATI 5770 for the GUI. You no longer need to run the GTX285. You still need Quadros for the GPU, only now you can run more than one in an expansion chassis for that Linux feeling on your Mac - at a fraction of the cost.
Click to expand...

No, the GTX285 is meant as the GPU and is according to Blackmagic still faster than the Quadros - and if you can find them a lot cheaper.
 
jake blackstone said:
Do you mean, that PC version of GTX 285 runs correctly on a Mac with no ROM reflash whatsoever?
Click to expand...

It needs the ROM re-flashed for Apple EFI support if you wish to boot the system using it for primary display. Beyond that I don't know, I have not had time to test lately.

As for the GTX285 itself, it's out of production. Any new cards entering the market are from oddball vendors who are releasing cards using overstock chipsets, or they're generic brand cards that never sold and are being picked up by eBay sellers. All the name brand suppliers are done making GTX285 cards, this means EVGA no longer makes them, including the Mac version, which was just a PC model with different ROM flashed to it and a different sticker on the fan housing.

In my little bit of testing I've done so far, the Quadro 4000 seems to be performing about on par with the GTX285. Some differences between the two, but overall about the same. They can be had for around $750 if you shop around (same price as the PC version of the card). Yes, that's pricey and near 2X what the GTX285 was going for before getting the axe. But it is a viable solution and probably the best solution for the Mac at this time since it occupies a single slot space.

As for Shane's note above about the ATI 5770 being supported, that's OK if you have one, but it's a poor choice for the GUI card in a Resolve system due to power requirements and the need for a double-width slot space.

I finally have Resolve up and running and I'm still playing with various benchmarks and configurations. I still have not purchased a PCIe expander and I'm looking into the Cubix GPU expander thing. I will probably hold off for now, since it's running great so far, in order to see what the next round of Mac Pro hardware brings. The upcoming chipsets from Intel are very promising, it will be interesting to see what Apple will do with them. I'm thinking it won't be until around May or June though. New server/workstation chipsets don't release until mid April.

Current best-performing configuration I have put together:

'09 Mac Pro 8-core 2.83GHz
16GB RAM

Slot-1: GTX285
Slot-2: RED Rocket
Slot-3: Decklink HD Extreme 3D+ (HDMI 1.4 packed frames!)
Slot-4: nVidia GT160

1TB system/apps HDD
8TB internal RAID-0 (software RAID - sustains over 350MB/s)

Backups of this system are a painful process over Gig-E for now. Would like a more robust RAID solution.

Swapping the GTX285 for the Quadro4000 lets me run the HDMI and SDI connectors for the Decklink and Rocket out of the extra slot space, if I wanted to mess with re-routing cables. Performance is nearly identical.

I have to physically power-off the display via an external switch, that is connected to the GTX/Quadro card (or physically unplug the DVI cable), before launching resolve so that the 24" I have connected to the GT160 will re-assign itself as the primary display. I have to then do the same to that display after reconnecting the other to get primary display back onto the GPU card for other apps. Now that there's support for multiple GPUs, I will be moving to a dedicated system for Resolve at some point. Just not sure when...
 
macvidcards on ebay is currently out of stock, since resolve released they have been selling like freakin hot cakes. so hard to find one right now, and I'm hoping they'll be in stock again by the time I'm ready to buy. Worse comes to worse I'll try to scrape up the extra cash for the quadro 4000, it's just that gtx 285 is such a better buy for even slightly better performance than the 4000 can offer.

reflashing a gtx 480 is tempting, but I got a big job lined up as soon as I get it set up and have some time to work with it. Can't afford to have any hiccups. It really pisses me off they'd discontinue this version of the card when they are selling better than ever right now. ::shakes fist in anger::
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
I have to physically power-off the display via an external switch, that is connected to the GTX/Quadro card (or physically unplug the DVI cable), before launching resolve so that the 24" I have connected to the GT160 will re-assign itself as the primary display. I have to then do the same to that display after reconnecting the other to get primary display back onto the GPU card for other apps. Now that there's support for multiple GPUs, I will be moving to a dedicated system for Resolve at some point. Just not sure when...
Click to expand...

can't you just plug both ur monitors into your gt 120? it has a dvi and a mini display port, the gt120 is all for your gui monitors (dual display) and the gtx exists in the system just for hardware acceleration of the software, unless there is something i'm missing...
 
Tom.Wong said:
can't you just plug both ur monitors into your gt 120? it has a dvi and a mini display port, the gt120 is all for your gui monitors (dual display) and the gtx exists in the system just for hardware acceleration of the software, unless there is something i'm missing...
Click to expand...

My graded output comes out of the Decklink card. So the only other display I care about within DaVinci is my 24" GUI monitor. Unfortunately, the nVidia GT160 I'm using isn't much of a GPU. To put it bluntly, it sucks balls. So it's absolutely worthless for other GPU-accelerated apps and GPU tasks. So I need my displays connected to the GTX285 (or Quadro, if I go back to it) for nearly everything on this system except for Resolve.

Resolve needs to be on a dedicated system. I'll get it there, eventually. But I'm going to wait and see what Apple's next round of systems bring. And I need to save all my current available budget for EPIC purchases coming up...
 
Why not use a DVI switcher?
 
Uli Plank said:
Why not use a DVI switcher?
Click to expand...

Uh... Because it doesn't work? I have the Gefen DVI|DL switcher and when the monitors are switched away from the GTX, the switcher still maintains a baseline signal with the video card. Just as if the monitor was put in standby mode. This does not allow the OS to release the video card as the primary display adapter, leveraging the GT160 as the primary.

Other than complete power-off of the display or disconnection, the other solution that works is via software. Disable the GTX and then re-load the driver for it. Seems to work most of the time.

So I guess I need to ask others here, what are you all doing? Or are you not connecting any displays to your GPU card? Do you not need GPU acceleration for any other apps?

Have any of you been successful in getting full CUDA acceleration in Resolve while having a monitor attached to your GPU card?

I'm running dual 30" displays on this system via the GTX285. I need the 285 for acceleration in Adobe MCE, for my own GPU development tasks and some other apps. I have a 24" display attached to the GT160. I'm fine shutting off the 30" displays -- keep them on their own power strip so I can physically kill all power to them otherwise they report they are in sleep mode or standby mode to the graphics card when I switch them "off". Same goes for the 24" display. I can't run dual 30" displays off of the GT120, or at least not these with DVI|DL interfaces. There are no DisplayPort to DVI|DL adapters that fully support 2560x1600 resolution. So I can only run one of them on the single DVI port on the card.

If I want the GT160 to be the primary card, I have to kill the power to the two 30" displays. Or I could disconnect their interface cables. Then the OS will shuffle displays around. But with the GT160 as the primary display, it screws up running Apple Color, Adobe MCE and others. So I have to shuffle back.

I was hoping Resolve would use my GT160 automatically as the tools display and just blank out the displays on my GTX. But it doesn't. If that card is my primary video card, it loads up the tools displays there and I don't get GPU acceleration. I'm tempted to just dump the GT160 and put the Quadro4000 in there instead and solve all these problems. However, there's not enough aux power to run both the Quadro and the GTX. I would have to pull external power to do it since I already have a Blu-Ray writer and 5 internal HDDs in this Mac pro.
 
sounds like the only choice would have to be pci expansion. quadro in the tower, cubix with more cards for acceleration. quadro stays in your tower as gui and cuda acceleration, and expansion chassis serves as acceleration for resolve...

buttload of money for such a simple need.
 
Looks like it might be better to have two machines. A refurb isn't very expensive and you have more options, a backup, more computing power and clean configurations instead of switching and re-booting hazzle…
 
Manuel Wenger said:
Jeff, there is a mini Display Port to Dual Link DVI Adapter from Apple
Click to expand...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're running a 50Hz display, right? ...Doesn't help here. The adapter doesn't support 2560x1600 @ 60Hz. Plain and simple. It creates stray pixels and intermittent screen pops and flickers. Apple has claimed for more than a year that they would have an update or fix for this. And yet, nothing... Now they have gone to their 27" display and it doesn't matter I guess. Those of us with 30" DELL, HP and ACDs are SOL.

What's weird is that no one else makes an adapter that supports it either. Gefen has been promising theirs for over a year and it hasn't materialized yet.

Either way, that's not the issue here. Yeah the whole switching cards around shouldn't be an issue. But it is an issue with Resolve and other software which is just brain-dead when it comes to looking at installed display adapters and determining which to use. Oh well...

A dedicated system for Resolve is definitely the way to go... I'm working it into the budget. I'm up to 4 Mac Pro towers as it is.
 
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