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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 :)

Mac Pro PCI card configuration / PCI expander / GPUs / Resolve

I dig the Cyclone 2707. Early on I swapped the fans as Jeff suggested and it runs nice and quiet. I think I found the quieter units on a thread here somewhere. I keep moving GPU's around trying to find the best combination. Right now I have...

Tower: ATI 5780, Cyclone Card, R680, Decklink
Cyclone: GTX 570, Quadro 4k, Rocket, H680

Everything seems to run quite good, tho never fast enough, ya know?

Also have the Magma and Rocket performance in that with the MBPR is quite nice.

CB
 
How does the cyclone operate in regards to power up/down and sleep modes? Do I need to restart/shutdown everytime I connect/disconnect from it? Or is is hotpluggable of sorts? Will it sleep and wake with my machine?
 
Jarek Zabczynski said:
I'm considering getting a 5 slot cyclone for my 2012 MP, Jeff said you know the most about it. I guess one of my initial questions is how does it operate in regards to power up/down and sleep modes? Do I need to restart/shutdown everytime I disconnect from it? Or is is hotpluggable of sorts? Will it sleep and wake with my machine?

Also as far as GFX cards, what do you recommend? Was thinking three NVIDIA 680s, one in the tower and two in the expander plus a rocket and usb3/esata cards.

And input on this would be great!
Click to expand...


Jarek,

Sorry it took so long to get back to you.

The Cyclone 2707 is great. I don't like default case it comes in and the default fans are INSANELY LOUD!!!! There is really nothing wrong with the case, I just prefer something with more 5.25" drive bays. I really like Silenx Brand fans.

The Cyclone powers on and off with the Mac Pro, so no need to worry about it.

You can not hot plug the Cyclone. You have to shut down to disconnect.

The GTX680 is a great choice. I think the GTX580 Classified is still the fastest GPU right now and costs about the same as the GTX680. Macvidcards on Ebay has some great cards, but you can't go wrong with the GTX680 Mac. Also check out the benchmarks tests on Barefeats to see how several different cards do with lots of different apps.


Mahalo,
Dusty
 
Thanks Dusty!

Would standard PC cards work in the expander if just used for CUDA? Or do I need official or flashed cards in there? Would be sweet to put a couple titans in the 2707.
 
So here's my setup, or at least as soon as everything arrives. Coming from a 2006MP I'm pretty excited! Still debating my additional GFX cards.


2012 Mac Pro - Dual Six Core 2.4 (will upgrade processors when prices drop)
64GB Ram from OWC
Dual 256GB Samsung 840Pro SSD for Boot - Raid 0
1TB Velociraptor for Application cache/scratch and sound and image libraries
Dual 2TB Ultrastars in Raid 1 for project files
Stock 1TB drive for personal stuff, music, pictures
External Bluray drive on USB2.0

Slot 1 - Nvidia GXT680
Slot 2 - Cyclone 2707 Card
Slot 3 - Atto r680 Raid Card
Slot 4 - BM Decklink 4k Extreme

Promax 24TB, 8 Bay Raid Tower


In Cyclone

Slot 1 - GFX Card 2???
Slot 2 - GFX Card 3???
Slot 3 - Red Rocket
Slot 4 - Atto h644
Slot 5 - Caldigit esata/usb3.0 card

4 Bay trayless drive cage with fanout from h644
External SAS port for LTO drive in the future

Turning my 2006 into my secondary machine and dual boot win7 machine so I can dump my aging HP pavilion.
 
So I got my Atto r640 installed. Looks like it wants to be in an 8x slot. Will I have problems running it on slot 3 in my MacPro? My raid tower is supposed to top off around 920MB/s.
 
You will be just fine with the ATTO in an X4 slot. Max throughput on PCIe v2 X4 is full-duplex 2GB/s.
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
You will be just fine with the ATTO in an X4 slot. Max throughput on PCIe v2 X4 is full-duplex 2GB/s.
Click to expand...

I figured so.

Any recommendations for what GFX cards to put in the cyclone and if they NEED to be Mac cards?
 
I'm still saying the GTX680 cards are the best way to go and probably the Mac versions or if not that, then ones with flashed EFI firmware. Moving forward, we don't know what's going to happen with the Mac Pro platform and GPUs. According to Apple, Intel and AMD/ATI, the GPUs in the Mac Pro are a new "standard" that they are hoping others will adopt. It could be a long road to that adoption and it may even hit a dead end. We don't know what the future will bring for GPU drivers and other related support, so I think sticking with an actual Mac edition card or one that is flashed to replicate that functionality, would be the best choice. FWIW, the GTX680 is keeping up with the MacVidCards GTX780 flashed cards in most benchmarks I've seen, including the one at BareFeats. It really is a nice card and they did a fine job of tuning it. You only pay about a $50~$60 premium for it if you shop around. If you go with off-the-shelf GTX680 cards, there is no guaranty that their onboard RAM capacity will be properly supported or their cooling functions and other attributes. That's been the biggest problem with off the shelf GPUs in the Mac. For every one that works just fine, there are 7 or 8 of them that just aren't right. And there are too many GTX680 cards variations on the market for us to attempt testing all of them. And then there's no guaranty that the results will hold as card makers upgrade firmware and as new drivers come out.

FWIW, to the people who like to keep asking me about the Titan in a Mac... I gave it another shot over the weekend. Not worth it, IMO. There is better support for it now than when I tried it several months back. However, the support is still incomplete and even a hacked firmware on the card isn't going to fix all the issues. NVidia hasn't fully implemented the GK114 GPU driver core in the OSX driver set. And I'm not so sure that they will unless they start offering GTX Titan or Quadro K6000 or Tesla K20x cards for the new Mac R2 Pro D2 trash can computer.

CUDA seems to kinda work mostly OK on the Titan under OSX. However, it doesn't seem to be any better than a GTX680 Mac Edition. Save the money, buy the 680.... Unless you're also going to boot into Windows or Linux regularly. And Titan as a primary GPU under OSX? Not worth it..
 
Good call. I was kinda leaning toward another pair of 680s. I got the one so far and put it in the tower, very nice card. I had to hack After Effects to be able to use it, that was a little scary, but I figured it out. Will be getting the Cyclone next week or so.

Also, the 680 comes with a Splitercell game that goes for at least $30 easy on ebay. I sold mine within minutes of putting it up.
 
So far I am seeing 1/4 res playback locked solid in both Premiere and RedcineX. I'm also getting pretty decent 1/2 res in Premiere, probably due to the GTX680. 1/2 res in Redcine, not so much, very laggy. New version with GPU support will probably help.
 
Sorry if it's already been dicussed but I just want to confirm, a single GTX 680 is better than a Radio that comes standard with a Mac Pro 2012, than both together with the GTX being the second card?

And... I have the PC one which works fine in my mac, would it be better the flash the firmware or leave it as it is?
 
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