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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 :)

RED ROCKET - X and mid 2010 MACPRO installation question??

I would call red support for recommendations, but off the top of my head its a difficult problem. the mac pro only has one fast slot in it. i am fairly sure that should be a GPU slot. as for can you run 2 gpus and a rocket x i'd refer to apple or red for that question. i am not sure if its too much juice and wouldn't want to advise you wrong. red has free tech support, think apple would charge you 50 bucks to answer the question so i'd start with red.

the old mac tower uses the former PCI standard and double wide cards typically block a slot, so it was always a pain to figure this stuff out. truthfully it would run best in a PC... but i refuse to go that route so i got a sonnet enclosure with TB2 for my rocket and when i hook it to anything with TB it runs fast enough for my needs. the thing that really hurts you is the resolve issue, since that wants two GPUs. you may want to call black magic tech support as well. i know with avid certain cards prefer certain slots to be "optimized". i am not sure if you can optimize it though since your various apps may not agree on slot choices. def check with red and BMD, since i am sure apple will be clueless about this stuff anyway...

edit I'm calling red, I'm bored..i'll try and figure it out for ya...


Red says put rocket x in slot 2

and recommends a cubix expansion chassis if you want to use all 3 of the GPUs... at a certain point i am not sure if its diminishing returns though and you may just consider a trash can or laptop with sonnet expansion TB2 slot for rocket...

i guess i'll call BMD next for ya and see what they say

edit 2

the wait time for BMD is too long for my patience...i'll give them a callback later but i think in the end you may have to call apple since i wouldn't want you to burn out any cards or have issues. def insure the rocket x before you tamper with it...
 
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i know the rocket x has both firmware for it AND drivers that need to be installed. also you need the newest redcine version 30+

What version of resolve are you running? is it the system not recognizing it, or is it your applications? try all the above and see if it helps...

red.com has all of this available for downloads under downloads on the support page. make sure you go for newest versions of everything and do full shutdowns when prompted to and wait a little bit. Do not do restarts, do full shut downs.
 
Brian is right on the money for troubleshooting procedures, excellent advice.

Mavericks iterations have been coming pretty fast and furious with various bugs killed and new one's created.

Getting the right versions of the OS and the latest RED hardware/software/SDK tools playing nice together is not always straightforward.

Cheers - #19
 
I have the exact same setup (Mac Pro 2010 12-core, RRX, 680). How are you powering both the RRX and the 680? The motherboard only provides two 6-pin power cables. Are you splitting one of them into two? Maybe that is why one of the cards is not showing up?

I got this additional 3rd party power supply that installs in a 5.25" slot but I'm having trouble making it work and even worse would be to try and route the cables inside the chassis even if I did get it to work...

The weird thing is that even with my original 5770 and the RRX, RedCine handles 5K full rez in realtime. But Davinci is slow as hell. I'm hoping something is wrong, or else the card is essentially worthless. I got about the same performance in Davinci with my 680 as I am getting with the RRX.
 
You're going to either have to do some cable routing from the optical bay power supplys or you're going to have to go Cubix. Just had to make the decision on that last month, ended up going with a Cubix and it works great. Also, going to put another GPU in the Cubix.

Hope that helps.
 
You're going to either have to do some cable routing from the optical bay power supplys or you're going to have to go Cubix. Just had to make the decision on that last month, ended up going with a Cubix and it works great. Also, going to put another GPU in the Cubix.

Hope that helps.

Thanks Charles! Quick question - what kind of performance are you getting from the RRX in Davinci Resolve? Since the results I am seeing are so abysmal, it makes me think more about selling the whole thing rather than investing more into it...
 
What is your power config? You may need to draw power from the SATA ports to power your RR-X, and 2x 6 pin to 6-pin & 8-pin adapters to power your video card. What other cards do you have in the system? You have options...
 
Jonas,

I think you are on the right track. I agree that you may need more power but I ran a single GTX780 Video card and a RRX on the motherboard with a y-Connector for about a month without a problem. I have three solutions.... good, medium and best.

Order a display port to Mini-Display port adapter: http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-...=1-4&keywords=displayport+to+mini+displayport your 27" cine display should plug right in.

Upgrade to a GTX780. I know this will work with internal power and a Y-connector but you need to make sure your box has plenty of airflow because it will run HOT.

Lastly, I love the Cubix expansion chassis.... expensive solution but you can't go faster.

Peace,

Michael
 
If the cost of the Cubix is a non starter for you I highly recommend the auxiliary PSU that mounts in one of the 5.25" optical drive bays to provide enough juice to bomber GPUs, RR-X, etc. Yes, it's a PITA to install but the part is only $50 and it should keep your expensive GPU from getting throttled. Agree with Michael that good airflow is key.

Cheers - #19
 
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