I first tried the GTX 550ti but had some issues with the Mac coming out of sleep (this issue may have been fixed in the latest drivers)
I have now installed an EVGA GTX 660ti. My Mac Pro is running Mountain Lion 10.8.2, the latest Nvidia driver from here and CUDA version 5.0.36 here.
The Mac does not show a startup screen when booting into OSX but as soon as it gets to the login screen the display appears. The machine is stable under OSX and Windows 7.
The speed of the graphics card is excellent and running synthetic benchmarks I get very good results, however, one of the main reasons for installing this card was to get better performance in DaVinci Resolve 9, colour grading software from BlackMagic.
I recently came across this thread on the creative cow forums, about the "Standard candle" test for systems running Resolve 9.
Here you can download a test Resolve project and compare performance on your machine.
The link in that thread has expired, many thanks to Fernando for hosting the files here
Now some of the systems listed here are very powerful, with multiple GPUs but the standard system, based on a Quadro 4000 card, gives the following results:
V00 02 blur nodes 24 fps
V01 04 blur nodes 16 fps
V02 08 blur nodes 09 fps
V03 16 blur nodes 05 fps
V04 32 blur nodes 02 fps
V05 64 blur nodes 01 fps
V06 01 NR 2 nodes 4.5 fps
V07 03 NR 2 nodes 1.5 fps
V08 06 NR 2 nodes 0.5 fps
My system with the GTX 660ti gives these results:
V00 02 blur nodes 24 fps
V01 04 blur nodes 24 fps
V02 08 blur nodes 19 fps
V03 16 blur nodes 11 fps
V04 32 blur nodes 06 fps
V05 64 blur nodes 03 fps
I am only running the lite version of Resolve so I cannot test the Noise Reduction.
I am very impressed with the performance in Resolve and also in Adobe CS6
If any of you are thinking of running Resolve on a Mac Pro I would recommend the GTX 660ti as a budget card with excellent performance.
Just for clarity, my Mac Pro is the early 2008 3.1 model, with 14GB of 667Mhz RAM and is running just the 660ti as the GUI and GPU card. If I can pick up a GT120 cheap I may add that as the GUI card and would then expect faster performance in Resolve.
Hi! You just put new hopes for my 2008 mac pro. Just some questions: how many cables do you connect to the main board for power? Do you detect a dangerous temperature rise? Do you think this card is good for 3D applications as Cinema 4D or Maya 2013?
ReplyDeleteThanks in advance and a hug from Spain!!
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteYou need two power cables for the GTX 660ti, I got mine cheap from here:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300779498721
Temperatures seem fine :-) I specifically chose the 660ti for its low power consumption.
I think you should see good performance on your 3D software
Thanks for the hug :-)
Neil
I have to say my experience differs somewhat. I purchased a 660 Ti for my 3,1 Mac Pro running 18GB of RAM and Mountain Lion 10.8.2. The card runs OK for a bit, but then crashes the entire machine with a total freeze and screen corruption with multiple blue diagonal staircase-like errors.
ReplyDeleteI swapped it out for a Quadro 4800, and now everything's remarkably stable.
I have another 3,1 on its way, and I will definitely be trying the 660 Ti in that machine when I have some time. I'll try to report back to see if it's just my machine that doesn't like the card. And, yes, BTW, I have installed the new Nvidia Mountain Lion drivers made available last week.
It could simply be the case of your PSU not coping with the power requirement of the 660 Ti. Try a 'burn in' tool to check your system stability.
DeleteHi Eric,
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear that. What are you running when the system freezes?
If you send me a screen shot of your system info we could compare them and see if there are differences between our systems.
Just to check, are you also running the latest CUDA drivers for Mac?
Best regards
Neil
I had the same problem as Eric, before I updated to the latest Cuda drivers.
DeleteThe latest drivers (304.00.00f20) didn't do it for me, alas. I am running Premiere Pro CS6 (6.0.2), in a CUDA accelerated sequence when it crashes. I'm running the 5.0.24 CUDA drivers - did a fresh install of those, too. It really doesn't matter what kind of video is in the sequence - H.264, ProRes, MP4, DV50... All of them crash just the same.
DeleteI'm away from the office now, but it's a Mac Pro 3,1 (quad core 2.8), 18 GB RAM, OS 10.8.2, with a Crucial M4 512GB SSD main drive in the first drive bay using an Icy Dock adapter. I have just the ATI Radeon stock card (at 256 MB RAM) and a small Newertek eSATA dual port card in slot 4. Like I said, after a week of non-stop running, I have yet to crash the machine with the Quadro 4800 installed instead of the 660 Ti.
I think I'll just leave the 4800 in this machine, and try again with the 660 Ti on the 3,1 I've purchased from eBay. On the plus side, that machine has two of the GTX 120 cards in it, so I'll steal one for this machine and use it instead of the Radeon.
I'll try to remember to report back once I've given it a whirl.
It seems there is a problem with Adobe Premiere 6.02 and CUDA on Macs with the latest Nvidia drivers.
DeleteSee here: http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/3/930479
For the moment they recommend using OpenCL acceleration instead of CUDA
This problem was happening well before the new drivers were available, FWIW.
DeleteHi Eric,
DeleteDo you still get problems if you switch the Mercury Acceleration in Premiere 6.02 to OpenCL instead of CUDA?
(under Project settings> general)
Thanks
Neil
Very interesting stuff. I finally got the chance to swap the cards into my second 3,1 system. After wrangling with some software licensing issues due to also trading out my system drive for the new system, I was able to launch PP CS6 and an old project that continuously caused crashing in the old system. And what do you know... The darn thing works flawlessly! It's clearly a hardware issue with the other box, which now has a Quadro 4800 FX card running great in it. So, Therefore, it's not nVidia drivers. It's not Premiere Pro. Heck, it's not even the OS or some corruption, since I'm using the exact same system drive! I'm happily chugging along with two systems now, roughly identical, other than the headless acceleration cards and amount of RAM installed.
DeleteAll that being said, the 660 Ti smokes in this computer. I've never seen Premiere Pro less bothered by stacking effects and multiple layers of video. I can only imagine that Resolve would work reasonably great as well.
That's great news Eric, Congratulations.
DeleteWould it be possible for you to email me the system report from your two machines so I can compare them and try and see where the issue might be?
Thanks
Neil
Hi Neil, I'm away from the office, but I can assure you, aside from the amount of RAM, these machines are pretty much the same. Same make (3,1 - early 2008), same OS (10.8.2 with all the updates), same software (Adobe CS6 with all updates), same amount of hard drives installed (4), One has 18GB of RAM, the other has 12 GB - so that's the only significant difference. I've actually boosted the working machine to 20 GB now, and it continues to run fine. I even had them hooked up to the same monitors for testing purposes. My first machine just didn't like the newest nVidia card.
DeleteHi Neil,
ReplyDeleteI just installed a GTX 560 in my Mac Pro 3,1 (10.8.2), replacing the original 8800GT. I was able to install the CUDA driver from the Nvidia website, however I can not install the retail driver (304.00.00f20). I get a "driver not needed message." When I check GPU info in After Effects CS6 (I edited the CUDU support file to enable the card), it is not showing a Shader Model and the OpenGL version shows 2.1 NVIDIA-8.0.61. Any thoughts on this? I can go into the package for the retail driver and use the installer to bypass the system check, but I didn't know if that would cause any issues. Any help would be appreciated!
Best regards,
-Matthew
Hi Matthew,
DeleteI'm not sure why that would be. Could it be that the latest drivers are intended for 600 series (kepler) cards rather than 500 series (fermi) cards?
Best regards
Neil
Hi Neil,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the analysis of the 660 TI. I have a few questions. First off, let me apologize for my complete lack of knowledge on the subject of GPU's. Having said that, I have a mid-2010 Mac Pro 5.1 running 10.8.2 with 1 ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB.
My first question is, in your opinion will I see a significant improvement with the 660 over my current card in Adobe CS 6? Is it going to work my money, even with the current issues with CUDA? Also, when do you foresee this problem being corrected?
Second question, (and this is the one I'm really embarrassed to ask) will I need to remove the card I have in my machine now in order to install the 660? Essentially, can I run both cards at the same time? If not, will this card support 3 displays?
Thanks so much in advance for your help! Please, wait to laugh at me until after I leave. :)
K.L.
Hello there,
DeleteYou should get a big improvement over your Radeon HD5770. Up to 2.8 times faster in some benchmarks :-)
Although there are some problems with CUDA at the moment I'm sure Adobe and Nvidia will sort them out. They have worked very closely together to get the Mercury Engine running.
Your second question is trickier :-)
The 5770 and the 660ti are both dual width cards (ie they take up two slots) so in theory they could both be installed but I wouldn't recommend it.
Also there would be an issue with power connections as the GTX 660ti needs two 6 pin power cables.
The GTX660ti has connections for four monitors but I have not been able to test the Displayport or HDMI outputs.
So, it should work but I haven't tested it :-)
Good luck and let me know how you get on,
Neil
Haha, Nvidia just released new CUDA drivers :-)
DeleteNeil,
DeleteThank you so much for your thoughts. Also, thanks for explaining the particulars in easy-to-understand language. That makes it so much easier to figure out what will work and what will not.
Currently, my machine has 2 x 2.66 GHz 6–Core Intel Xeon processors with 16 GB of RAM. Most of my work is in high-definition video editing and some After Effects work as well. Considering my system, and what I am using it for, what would you suggest?
Should I commit to the GTX660ti or is there a better/different option you would suggest? I can't really make an investment in the Quadro 4000, but if there is a better option then the 660 four just a little bit more I am all ears.
Thanks again for your opinion it has been very helpful in my search for the most efficient upgrade.
Thanks,
K.L.
Thanks K.L.
DeleteI chose the GTX 660ti as the best "bang for the buck" graphics card at the moment.
The GTX670 and 680 are faster cards but at increased cost and power consumption.
There are sure to be other cards arriving with different performance characteristics but right now, for good performance with CUDA and OpenGL, the GTX 660ti is the card I recommend. As always, your mileage may vary, I take no responsibilty etc. etc. :-)
Best of luck,
Neil
Neil,
DeleteThanks again for all of your suggestions and opinions. I'm going to go ahead and take the plunge. I will post back after I've had it for a few days and let everyone know how it is responding and how it is working with 3 displays.
Thanks,
K.L.
How can you boot into windows if you don't see the boot screen?
ReplyDeleteHi Mark,
DeleteIf you need to switch between Mac and windows you can choose "startup disc" in mac preferences to boot to Windows or use boot camp control panel in windows to choose boot from Mac OSX Hope that helps Cheers Neil
Just use BootChamp, it's free and very cool tool for quick single (it means that after second restart you'll boot back to OS X) boot to Windows.
DeleteHi Neil.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your work on this, much appreciated. I've just ordered an EVGA GTX 660ti
I just wanted to know if you have tried the other ports on the card, the display port or the HDMI. Can these be connected while you have DVI monitors hooked up?
Many thanks
Ibrahim
Hi Ibrahim,
DeleteI'm sorry I have not tried the other ports.
I don't have monitor available with those connections.
Best regards
Neil
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteHi Neil
DeleteThank you. I managed to test the Display port and it works perfectly! So one down and one to go, will get back asap with my results....
On a side note.
I am an editor/DOP and have been working with FCP for many years, after FCPX came out, I was really dismayed as I had always hoped the software would catch up to my mac pro. (running a 2008, 8core 3.0GHz with 16GB ram and now the EVGA GTX660 ti) I hated FCPX and even though it was 64bit I stuck with FCP7 studio. I've got a fast SATA raid as well as SSD inside the Mac Pro but editing, rendering & transcoding are always so time consuming.... I was thinking about switching to CS6 for a while and after placing an order for The blackmagic Cinema camera I knew I needed to sort something out pronto!
Your solution is incredible! my machine is so fast now, I can layer up many streams of Prores as well as add screen overlays and it just keep up. I've had to learn CS6 Premiere but it's not too bad and I forced myself to switch on my last paid job so there were no excuses. It's definitely bye bye to FCP..... sad times, but apple really dont care about this market any more. The shift was when they renamed the company from Apple Computers to Apple Inc. They are an end user focused company now (iphone, ipad etc) Anyway rant over, but I just wanted to thank you for assisting me in the transition from FCP to CS6. Much appreciated.
Kind regards
Ibrahim
That's great news Ibrahim!!
DeleteThanks for letting me know and good luck in the future.
Best regards,
Neil
Hi guys i have Evga gtx 550ti for pc runing great on mac pro 4.1 osx lion 10.8.2 with latest cuda drivers 5.0.36 from nvidea for osx. When i launch resolve lite i get that screen (the fallowing unsupported card are being used for image processing nvidea gforce gtx 550ti)i have my gforce in sloot 2 and gtx 120 in sloot 1 of my motherboard and i am using gt 120 for lcd prevue. So if this card has cuda drivers why is it that resolve lite is giving me error message? I did resolve setup on windows mac and no problems at all with this card.
ReplyDeleteI have some questions if you can please answer.
1. Before 550ti card i was running Radeon 5770 and resolve lite would give me 2 error messages but resolve still was working should i return this card 550ti and save money for mac/resolve graphic card?
2. 550ti and resolve work just fine my primary editing system is FCP is it possible to edit in FCP and use resolve in Windows for color or should i stay with just one platform do all my work on OSX platform.
3.In resolve windows version is the graphic card setup same as in mac. slot 1 and 2
4. Most of my work is personal projects should i be using resolve at all since i don't have reference monitor.
Thanks guys
Hi there, I have the warning message from Resolve with my GTX660ti but the system still works. (I have had a couple of crashes but I'm not sure if they are driver or heat related, am investigating)
Delete1. I would personally spend a little more for the 660ti, you're getting over 1000 more CUDA cores.
2. It's possible but I would stay in OSX
3. The windows configuration guide for Resolve doesn't mention the Mac Pro :-) but it only needs 2 x16 PCIe slots. Both slot 1 and 2 in the Mac Pro are x16 so it shoud not matter which way round the cards are.
4. If most of your work is personal I wouldn't worry too much. Run a test project and check it looks good on your TV or projector. Otherwise you could buy a cheap colour cailbrator and calibrate your monitor.
Good luck,
Neil
Neil thanks for quick response man faster then any forum i posted it in like 4 of them. My last question i have radeon 5770 which was in my mac before 550ti can i have 5770 with 550ti which both need power cable do you think it might be to much for my mac/power supply to handle?
ReplyDeleteThanks again Neil
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteThe GTX550ti needs 116W, the 5770 needs 205w.
The Mac Pro power supply is rated at 950w but only 300w is supposed to go to the PCI slots
I would try it but be aware that you may be overloading your power supply.
When you run heavy processing like Resolve the system may freeze or crash.
The best combination for Resolve seems to be the GT120 (which have suddenly become very expensive) for the UI and a GTX500 or 600 class card for the GPU.
Let me know how you get on,
Best regards
Neil
I just purchased a Mac Pro yesterday, its the 12core system with 12 gigs of ram and the radeon 5770. I was dissapointed to discover their lack of support for video cards especially since these machines are pupulor for editing and studio work. I'm a new Primier Pro user, never got into Final cut. I currently have a Zotac GTX570 in my old PC machine, should I try using this on my Mac, or would it be better to shoot for the 660ti, since it seems to be a bit more on the stable side? Any word on how it runs AE? Thanks in advance Robert, I've read a few of your articles, and your reporting is impressive to say the least.
ReplyDeleteHi Christian,
ReplyDeleteIf you are not going to be using the old pc I would try the 570. I have heard that it runs well on the Mac Pro.
You could always go for the 660ti later.
Premiere and AE are both accelerated by the faster graphics cards. If you read some of the comments on my other posts there are quite a few happy AE users
Good luck, let me know how you get on
Neil
hi ! can someone confirm that this is the right card?
ReplyDeleteWould be ok in a mac pro 4.1 (early 2009) ?
THX a lot !
i forgot the link...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.steg-electronics.ch/it/article/evga-gtx-660-ti-279443.aspx
Can someone tell me if it is the 2 or the 3 GB card?
ReplyDeleteWhich one is the right one ?
1) EVGA GTX-660 Ti SC, 2GB GDDR5, PCI-E x16 3.0
2) EVGA GTX-660 Ti SC, 3GB GDDR5, PCI-E x16 3.0
THX a lot!
Hi there,
DeleteI am running the 2GB card, I don't know if the 3GB would give any speed improvements.
It should run fine in your Mac Pro 4.1, make sure you install the latest Nvidia drivers and CUDA drivers.
I think you could get it cheaper than that though, did you search for the best price?
Best regards,
Neil
Hi Neil,
ReplyDeleteGreat article - thanks.
I am running a MacPro1,1 with Lion 10.7.5 (Late 2007 MacPro's can't run Mountain Lion sadly).
Do you think that the EVGA GTX 660ti would work in my machine?
Fingers crossed,
Edward
Hi Edward, Nvidia did release drivers for Lion 10.7.5 You can download them here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/macosx-295.00.05f02-driver.html
DeleteHowever, these are only supposed to be for Mac Pro 3.1 and up. If you look at the comments on my other post here: http://nrsotw.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/pc-nvidia-graphics-cards-in-mac-pro.html You will find information on how to install the drivers on your Mac Pro
Once these are installed the GTX 660ti should work.
Good luck, let me know if you succeed in getting it running. Neil
Thanks Neil, I appreciate it. Will let you know how it goes. Edward
DeleteHere's a thread over on Creative Cow about your kind of situation. I'd be hesitant to go with the 660 Ti on your system, but perhaps another nVidia card of an earlier vintage might work OK.
Deletehttp://forums.creativecow.net/thread/3/925464
hi Neil, i just found you site and and i have some questions, i have a mac pro 3.1 with 20gb and a ati hd2600 i would like to change my graphic card to a newer version, i am a graphic designer and sometimes a edit videos and also sometimes i play games.
ReplyDeleteWhat Graphic card do you recommend to me, i been reading a lot but every page that i found i get more and more confuse.
thank in advance
My mail is ernestolascano2@hotmai.com
Hi Ernesto,
DeleteMountain Lion 10.8.2 has native support for Nvidia graphics cards such as the GTX 660ti. I would go for that or maybe a GTX 670. I think the GTX 680 and GTX 690 are too expensive and will draw too much power.
You will need to get two power cables for the card as the ones in the Mac Pro are different from the usual PC ones. Here is a link to cheap cables on ebay: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apple-Mac-Pro-mini-pci-e-6pin-pci-e-6pin-video-power-cable-922-7128-922-8446-/290761755723
Make sure you download the latest Nvidia drivers and CUDA drivers. See my other posts for links. Install those before the card.
You won't see a boot screen but don't panic, wait a minute and the login screen will appear.
If you are using Adobe CS6 follow the instructions here to enable CUDA acceleration: http://nrsotw.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/enabling-mercury-playback-engine-for.html
Good luck and let me know how it goes,
Neil
btw im runing lion 10.8.2
ReplyDeletehey thanks for the fast answer... i really appreciate your help ,
ReplyDeletePlease have a look :)
http://www.webhallen.com/se-sv/hardvara/159192-asus_geforce_gtx_660_ti_2gb_directcu_ii
Is the same card? first all the specification are in Swedish but if you scroll down you will se the same specification but in English...
Many Thanks
Hi Ernesto, Are you in Sweden?
DeleteI don't like the ASUS cards, too big, too expensive.
This is the card I have: http://www.webhallen.com/se-sv/hardvara/159038-evga_geforce_gtx_660_ti_2gb_borderlands_2
Don't forget the power cables :-)
Cheers
Neil
Hi Neil
ReplyDeleteThank's for all the good info.
I need to upgrade Early Mac Pro 3.1 2008 with ATI Radeon HD2600XT. 3 Harddrives inside
Monitor 30" 2560x1600 on DVI-D
Primary use CS6 AE AP,FCP 7
Will EVGA GEFORCE GTX 660 TI 2GB yield best bang for buck and not draw too much power?
What brands to avoid; ASUS, EVGA, GigaByte, MSI, Zotac?
Regards
Markus
Hi Markus,
ReplyDeleteI feel the GTX660ti is good value and is within the power requirements for the Mac Pro.
I chose EVGA as I had good experiences with them in the past. I find the ASUS cards to be overpriced and covered in stupid graphics :-) But apart from that I don't think the brand is that important.
Let me know how you get on,
Neil
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI have some waking up from sleep issues with the 660 ti card and also notice that the fans on the card runs at least twice as fast on os x than Win 7 bootcamp.
Im on a 12core (2012) 24Gb ram and 10.8.2. installed CUDA and Drivers from invida. but I also had the "wont wake from sleep" issue whit the out of box os x 10.8.2 drivers
Cheers
Hi Ole,
ReplyDeleteThat's strange.I had some wake from sleep issues with the GTX550 but have not had them with the 660ti.
Also the fans don't seem to run any faster in OSX than Win7.
Which model of card do you have?
Thanks
Neil
Hi Neil,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, thank you for all the info you provide and the kindness with which you offer advice. It's a real breath of fresh air.
I'm thinking of upgrading the graphics card in my Mac Pro 3.1 with a GTX660 (as opposed to the 660 ti model) which only uses one power cord. This would allow me to also power the 8800GT I have now. The question is: If I keep the 8800GT in there, would I be able to utilize it's EFI to maintain the Apple boot screen, but still get the performance enhancements on my main monitor with the GTX660? I love to have my cake and eat it too, and I'm hoping this is a situation where I can.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hello Andrew,
DeleteThank you for your kind words. :-)
I have a couple of questions before I can answer yours,
Firstly, which applications do you run on your Mac Pro?
Secondly, is keeping the Apple boot screen very important to you?
Let me know and I'll tell you what I think,
Best regards,
Neil
Hi Neil,
DeleteI use my Mac Pro to run Photoshop, Illustrator, Maya and the occasional game. This machine is mostly for light freelance work when I'm on hiatus from my regular job. The primary reason I was contemplating the 660 vs the 660 ti was the US$70 savings, not the single power cable requirement, and since this computer isn't my bread and butter, it seemed prudent to keep costs down somewhat, while still getting a major performance upgrade.
The Apple boot screen is not a make or break feature for me. I suspect the desire to hang onto it is partially sentimental, frankly. I DO prefer to keep the Mac acting as much like a Mac as possible, and I use the boot screen fairly often, as it saves some time over booting the computer and then immediately rebooting. I suspect I'd get over the loss of the boot screen but if I can easily keep it, it would be lovely.
Thanks again for your help and guidance. It's very much appreciated.
All the best,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
DeleteI understand wanting to save some money but that $70 buys you 384 more CUDA cores :-)
Also, I'm not sure if having the 8800GT and the GTX660 both installed would'nt overload the power supply in the Mac Pro.
I would go for just the GTX660 or maybe there will be some deals on the GTX660ti this week, (cyber monday, black friday)
You could keep the 8800GT to hand in case you ever need to safe boot the Mac.
Good luck and let me know how you get on,
Neil
Hi Neil,
DeleteI hear what you're saying re: the CUDA cores. I'll have to decide what to do in that regard. Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals are certainly a possibility to explore.
Do you think that there would be a danger to the hardware if I end up with a 660 and plugged in both cards at once? The two cards together are about 50 watts less than the 300 watt PCI limit, and there are no other PCI devices in my machine. I'd test it out if the only major worry was that I'd have a freeze or a crash, but if you thought that the overload might burn out one or both of the cards, the power supply, or the logic board, I'd steer clear of that experiment all together.
One more thing, while I'm thinking about it. Do the CUDA cores come into play with CS6 only, or will they play a major role in CS5 as well? I need to research how much Maya uses them, too.
Thanks a lot,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
ReplyDeleteYou could try it with both cards but there is a risk. I would stick to just one.
CS 5 has CUDA support but its not as well developed as in CS6.
Good luck
Neil
Hi Neil
ReplyDeleteWould you perhaps know how many monitors you would be able to run from the GTX 660ti? Or if you alo would also need Active adaptors?
And thanks for the other tips, finally a card that works soothly in my mac?
thanks
Romario
Hi Romario,
DeleteI'm sorry but I only have one monitor connected to my computer, via DVI-D. I don't have a monitor with displayport.
On a PC the GTX660ti can support four monitors. On the Mac you should be able to run at least two monitors if not three.
I don't think you will need active adaptors unless you are running very long DVI cables.
Good luck and let me know how you get on,
Neil
Hi Neil how is it going? first of all I want to thank you for having a great blog where lost mac users can get help from profesionals like yourself.
ReplyDeleteIve been searching all over the internet and forums and I am a little confused about graphic cards,maybe you could help me.
I have a mac pro 3.1 with snow leopard install,and want to upgrade my graphic card,my old 8800gt is getting old and need a new upgrade.
I work 90% with 3d software (cinema4d and Vray lighting) and my machine is really stable with snow leopard,what graphic card you would recomen me for those applications.
Thank you for any responde,I am a bit confused at this moment.
Hi Michael,
DeleteThanks for your message. I think you would see a big improvement with the GTX660ti or even the GTX650 but as far as I know they only started to be supported in Lion 10.7.2
Is there a reason why you are still on Snow Leopard?
They definitely run out of the box in Mountain Lion and there are rumors that 10.8.3 which should be released soon will also support the AMD 7000 cards.
More graphic-y goodness to choose from :-)
Cheers
Neil
HI Neil thanks for responding so quick! I am still on Snow Leopard because of the stability that all my 3d programs give me at the moment,i am afraid to update with lion,I have heard its slower than Snow Leopard,I have heard what you just said about the rumors in 10.8,so maybe its a good idea to updated and she what hapends,before I should make a backup of everything.
DeleteDoes the GTX660ti need mollar cords for the 3.1 Mac pro?
Hi Michael,
DeleteThe GTX660ti needs two power cables, you should have one already with your 8800GT.
I bought another one from here:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300779498721
Good luck,
Neil
Thanks Neil,so for what I understand I just have to install the Cuda and nvidia drivers on Lion,then plug the graphic card and it will work?
DeleteI cant believe how much money mac users can save,not going thru apple stores and buying the only graphic updates there is now available.
Thank you for your help Neil,if you need anything in graphic designing or 3d let me know ;)
Michael
Hi Michael,
DeleteYes that's right :-)
Let em know how you get on,
Best regards,
Neil
I forgot to ask you Neil,where did you order you graphic card at?
ReplyDeleteHere in spain there isn´t much to buy.
thanks
Michael
I bought mine from PC World because they had a special offer. You can order one from Amazon here:
Deletehttp://www.amazon.es/EVGA-GTX660Ti-6008MHz-192-bit-GRAPHICS/dp/B008YINJK8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1354617870&sr=8-2
..or if you click on the link in the right hand column and then switch to the Spanish Amazon store, maybe I'll get some commission :-)
DeleteWhen I buy the card and install it I will let you know if something went wrong or not,hope everything goes flawless,thanks for your help Neil
ReplyDeleteHello Neil!,
ReplyDeleteI tried to install a 660 ti into my Mac Pro (early 2008) even after updating the drivers but all I get is a black screen and no picture at all even where it's supposed to log-in. It also has a tendency to reboot too.
I'm currently have a 10.7.5 OS install on my machine.
Any ideas?
j
Hi there,
DeleteWhich Nvidia drivers did you install and which model of graphics card is it?
If you put the old card back does the system boot OK?
Thanks
Neil
Hi Neil
ReplyDeleteI run an EVGA GTX660ti in my 2009 MacPro 4,1 with Mountain Lion 10.8.2 for a few months now. I have disable sleep mode because I had some issues where the Mac was not coming back from sleep mode. But there is a bigger issue that bothers me for the moment.
My system is always crashing when working in After Effects CS6. Sometimes after 10 minutes, sometimes after 3 hours. I don't see any pattern (yet) what causes the system to crash. I just see the beachball turning and there is no way to shut down AE or even the Mac itself. The only thing that helps is holding down the power button and restart the system.
I read about a similar behaviour on a forum where a user is having issues with a Nvidia Quadra 4000 (which should be officially supported by Adobe on the Mac). So i think it's not a problem of the Nvidia card. Have you every used AE CS6 on your mac?
I also had a Blackmagic Intensity Pro installed which I removed a couple of hours ago. But since then, I had 2 more crashes. Now I have disconnected the HDMI cable where I had a 3rd monitor attached. I will do some further testing.
Can you tell me, what CUDA and NVIDIA driver versions you have currently installed on your system?
Cheers, Pascal
Hi Pascal,
DeleteI am running Nvidia driver 304.00.05f02 with Cuda version 5.0.36
I have seen some stability issues with 5.0.37 which I am investigating.
I don't use AE but have you tried running it with OpenCL acceleration instead of CUDA?
Did you have the output to HDMI working as well as two other monitors?
Let me know,
Neil
Hi Neil. I have not yet tried running it with OpenCL. Concerning the HDMI output, I had a third monitor connected to this port. It was my fullscreen preview monitor for Premiere and AE. Since I disconnected the HDMI Cable (yesterday evening), I had no more crashes or freezes. It seems that this was the problem...
DeleteDo you have a Blackmagic Card installed in your MacPro and have you hooked up a Broadcast monitor to it? If so, which BM card do you use?
Cheers, Pascal
Hi Pascal,
DeleteGood to hear you found the reason for the crashes, shame it was the HDMI output, I've had a few people asking me if that would work.
I have an old Decklink SDI card in my Mac Pro but I currently don't have access to a monitor with HD-SDI inputs so I can't tell if it works :-)
I'll see if I can borrow one soon.
Cheers,
Neil
Yeah, I'm pretty happy I figured it out. And at least for two days there are no more crashes so I'm pretty shure it has something to do with the HDMI port on the NVIDIA.
DeleteI wouldn't say, that it is not working in general but especially when you set up your HDMI monitor as fullscreen preview, you might get in trouble. Outside of AE, I never have had issues with the 3rd monitor on the HDMI port.
As soon, as I have some more infos, I'll post it here.
Cheers,
Pascal
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeletePlease don't use my blog to promote your services
DeleteHello Neil! how is it going? I havent bought yet the graphic card Ive been having some trouble with my memory and I am here to see if you can help me! please.
ReplyDeleteSuddenly this morning I only had 2g left in dimm1 in my mac pro.
I wanted to ask you if you can put pc memory (DDR2, 800) in a mac pro 3.1? or it needs to be fb-dimm?
Thanks for your help
Hi Michael,
DeleteMemory for the Mac Pro does need to be FB-DIMM
You can find it on most of the online memory configurators like Crucial.com or there is usually some on ebay.
What happened to your other RAM?
If you move it to other slots is it recognised?
Cheers
Neil
It only recognised 4g,but need at least 8 more,I bought this ram at amazon,I shaw it in a mac forum that this one should work.
ReplyDeleteand it was really cheap I am speackting this memory on monday to arrived,you said this would not work?
http://www.amazon.es/Transcend-JM4GDDR2-8K-JetRam-Memoria-DDR2/dp/B00113XFAW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355500338&sr=8-1
Hi Michael, It's not FB-DIMM so it's not recommended for the Mac Pro. If you've ordered it though I would try it, if it works, run some serious memory tests before you do any real work :-)
DeleteLet me know how it goes,
Cheers
Neil
Some member in Applesana.es a mac blog recomend it and say it works just fine so thats why I order it already.
ReplyDeletewhen they arrived Il run some test on them and let you know.
When you mean apple doesnt recoment it? its because of the heat coolers on the chip itself,because of what i know already Apple didnt recomend your graphic card and either my ssd vortex ozx,and there are running really good in the machine.
The chipset on the motherboard is supposed to work with FB-DIMMs, but if it works, cool :-)
DeleteIf the chips get hot you can buy heatsinks, or take the heatsinks off your old RAM
So you are saying it wont work with DIMM? on the motherboard?
ReplyDeleteDam,maybe i have to return them.
It says in this link that this ram will work in a 2008 mac pro.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thomann.de/es/dimm_ddr2_4gb_800_mhz.htm?sid=c07a1a72027e0ce449d9733238bfd355
thanks for any help
I would wait for the RAM to arrive then try it. If it doesn't work, send it back. Getting the right RAM for any computer is tricky.
DeleteThanks for the wise advised,it is really hard to buy ram for a mac.
ReplyDeletehave a great weekend Neil.
Long time ago i bought my RAM here at http://stores.ebay.de/QS-Premium-Shop and got the same brand and version as the original Apple RAM inside my MacPro 3,1 (Hynix).
ReplyDeleteHi Neil,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your insightful blog. I just bought a GTX 660 Ti, after thinking my GeForce 8800 GT was toasted.
I've had a bit of a chicken vs. egg dilemma -- couldn't use the card if I didn't have Mountain Lion, but couldn't see anything on my machine to actually install ML ... because the new card needed ML. So I pulled the drive out, installed it in a drive carrier via my MBP laptop, then put the drive back into the tower after installing the latest Nvidia / CUDA drivers.
With only one power cable, I just saw a black screen, so I thought, maybe I needed to bake my old 8800 GT some more! [http://www.hardmac.com/news/2012/04/27/faulty-geforce-8800-gt-let-s-cook-it ] 45 minutes later, with the solder reflowed and cooled, I put the heat sink back on, and it worked like a charm.
So now, I want to power both cards, but only have 2 Molex connector cables , even though there are 3 ports. How did you go about supplying power to the GTX and another card [assuming you are using one card for display, and the other GPU card to accelerate Resolve? Are you powering the old card with a single cable, an the other with a dual, like this?
http://www.moddiy.com/products/Apple-Mini%252dPCIe-6%252dPin-to-Standard-Dual-PCIe-6%252dPin-Video-Card-Power-Cable.html
I'm in the midst of soldering a dual cable together now, but.. I thought I'd ask first.
Thanks!
Todd
Hi Todd,
DeleteI'm using a GT120 with my GTX660ti which does not need extra power. The dual power cable looks like it will do the job although I'm not sure if the combination of the 8800GT and the GTX660ti will overload the Mac Pro PSU?
Let me know how you get on,
Cheers
Neil
Hey how is it going Neil,The DiMM ram that I got did not fit and work for the mac,just order new FB-DIMMS,thanks for the advice any way,and your knowledge.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Mike
So I just bought a GTX660 (NOT the Ti) because it was on sale and because I'm on a budget. Eh. Anyway the 660 comes with one 6 pin PCIe input port and the cable that it ships with is a y cable that splits to two 4 pin molex connectors (for the PC). I bought (ordered) the regular 6 pin PCIe to 6 pin MINI PCIe cable from moddiy and I'm not sure if this will work now that I look at it. Any ideas?
ReplyDeletelink to cable--> http://www.moddiy.com/products/Apple-Mini%252dPCIe-to-PCIe-6-Pin-Video-Card-Power-Cable.html#.UNXB5nBCUb0
Hi Tom,
DeleteThat looks like the right cable.
Let me know how you get on,
Happy Holidays :-)
Neil
Cable came today. Let you know shortly.
ReplyDeleteCorrect cable. Installed cudadriver-5.0.37-macos, Retail-304.00.05f02-macosx. Moved the original GT120 to slot 2 and installed the GTX660 in slot 1. Problem was that the connector cable I purchased was about 4 inches too short. A trip to RadioShack and splicing all 6 wires with an extra 6" remedied the situation and plugged everything in, closed the case and booted up. Brilliant. Setting up CUDA cores, Mercury engine in AE CS6 and then running some benchmark tests using LuxMark v2 and geekbench. (I can already see the speed difference - especially in Photoshop)
ReplyDeleteSystem profiler lists the new Nvidia card perfectly.
Hi Neil, I'm currently attempting to help out my buddies wife with her old 2007 Mac Pro 1.1. I'm a PC guy but after doing the research it really isn't hard work out the difference accept apparently with video cards. Her current OS is 10.4 but I have purchased 8 gigs of RAM and the 10.6 and 10.7 OS upgrades and now I just need to know what card I can tell them to buy. I don't want to stick them with some PC card that won't do them any good. Any advice? Everything I have seen about upgrading to GTX cards has been for 2008 models and up...
ReplyDeleteHi Rick,
DeleteIf you look at the first few comments on my other post here: http://nrsotw.blogspot.nl/2012/05/pc-nvidia-graphics-cards-in-mac-pro.html
You will find info about installing GTX cards in a Mac Pro 1.1
I would think the GTX550ti would be a good fit depending on what she wants to use the machine for.
Good luck and let me know how you get on,
Cheers
Neil
Hi Neil
ReplyDeleteGood blog, good information ! Thanx a lot !
One question. I plan to switch my Nvidia 4000 on my MacPro 2010 to a GTX 670. My main business is 3D-Graphic ( Cinema and After Effects). There are cards out with more than 2GB Video Memory. As i use a lot of textures during modeling i´ve interest to buy a card with 4 GB.
But i read something about trouble with OPEN GL when the card have more than 2 GB. Can you give a bit light to that specific point ?
Best,
Tom
Hi Tom,
DeleteThanks for your question.
I have no personal experience with a 4GB card and I have heard mixed reports.
If I were you I would go for the 4GB card but buy it from somewhere that will let you return it if there are problems.
If it doesn't work out you could go for the 2GB card instead.
Good luck and let me know how it goes,
Neil
Thank you Neil ! I will do that in that way ( via Amazon). As i read in the net, by using the 4GB , you have to modify the OpenGl Framework manually. I don´t will do that , if necessary, i switch to 2 GB . I will report in some days.
DeleteBest,
Tom
Neil, thanks for all of your work on this. I just received my GTX 660Ti card but am still waiting for the power cables to come.
ReplyDeleteSystem Info
OSX 10.8.2
8-core MacPro4,1, Early 2009
16 gb RAM
CUDA Driver 5.0.37
GPU Driver Version: 1.3.4.0 (304.00.05f02)
I inserted an old GTX 440 card I had (which does not require external power connectors) in Slot 0 and moved my GT120 display card to Slot 1. I had never been able to make work on Snow Leopard.
When I boot the system, it brings up the white Apple screen for awhile then I get a kernel panic and a black screen that tells me that the system has a problem and cannot boot. If I recycle, it does the same thing.
I have been reading information about kext files that the Hackintosh community have modified and I am wondering if I need to do anything with these files.
I have struggled with this problem for about six months and I now assume I will have the same problem with the 660Ti card.
Thanks
Hi there,
DeleteSupport for the Nvidia cards only started with Lion 10.7.2 I would expect the GTX440 to work in Lion or Mountain Lion but the GTX660ti will be much faster.
Read some of my other posts for instructions on drivers and enabling GPU acceleration for Adobe software.
You shouldn't need to edit any kext files :-)
Good luck and let me know how you get on
Neil
Neil, I wanted to provide an update on my journey to get the GTX 660 Ti card working in my system. Someone on the Apple forum identified the problem. While attempting to get my GT440 card working on Snow Leopard last year, I had installed a kext called Natit. This was the reason that my system was reporting that I had a GT440 card installed when I really had the GT120. After removing Natit.kext from my /System/Library/Extensions directory and rebooting, System Profiler reported the GT120 card.
DeleteI was then able to install my 3 gb GTX 660 Ti card in slot 1 and use it as the only Graphics device.
I modified the /System/Library/Frameworks/OpenCL.framework/Versions/A/OpenCL file as instructed by Netkas to open up to support the 3gb of memory.
I have already added the GTX 660 Ti card to the cuda_supported_cards.txt to make Premiere Pro work.
That said, I still cannot get Premiere to locate the GPU.
I performed the same steps on a colleague's system and we were able to get it working.
Thus I must have done something else to the system that I must track down and undo, but I am indeed making progress.
Thanks again for your help.
Rod
Neil:
ReplyDeleteHaving read your article on Enabling the Mercury Engine in Premiere Pro CS6, I noticed that you had a GTX 550 Ti in both slots as reported by GPUSniffer, so I tried leaving my GT120 in slot 1 where it is working fine and put my GT 440 into slot 2. The system would not boot.
I guess I will have to wait until I get my power cables and try the GTX 660 Ti card on the assumption that there may be something wrong with the GT 440.
Thanks
Rod
Neil. Thanks for all the info. but I got to say i am a bit stuck, so i got the card but it does not work I tried both the .36 and . 37 cuda drivers along with the card drivers, without luck the card is not visible to any of the Adobe Apps. I see it in the system prefs and under yhe system info for the hardware when so my question to you is do you think it could have anything to do that I got the Super clocked version? which one do you have?. again thank you for your time.
ReplyDeletehere is a link to the card I got.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130810
sorry I pushed publish before i finished... so I was saying under the system's hardware info when i click the PCI Cards option the description reads "There was an error while gathering PCI Card Information" note that I have pulled out all other cards but the GTX and still same message. which kind of ponts out that it might be the Super clock feature.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think?
Hi Albert,
DeleteWhich version of OSX are you running and which Nvidia drivers?
Thanks
Neil
The Latest ... Running 10.8.2
Deletethe latest drivers for the card and I tried both the XXX.36 and 37 Version of the Cuda Drivers
Hi Albert,
DeleteYes I've been busy :-)
It may be that the superclocked version takes too much power.
I am running a standard EVGA GTX660ti.
Is it too late for you to return the card?
Cheers
Neil
the latest for both
ReplyDeleteOSx 10.8.2
Nvidia Drivers.1.3.4.0 (304.00.05f02)
Cuda Drivers 5.0.37
Also i just wanted to mention that I am using power from the molex cables that use to power the DVD drives. would that have anything to do with it?
so I installed the Nvidia 660ti last week into my MacPro 3.1 and im getting a hand full of issues.
ReplyDelete1st: Computer wont wake up from sleep.
2nd: C4D R13 freezes when i apply textures sometimes.
3rd: AE CS6 won't allow Cuda GPU acceleration even after i followed the steps here:
http://www.vidmuze.com/how-to-enable-gpu-cuda-in-adobe-cs6-for-mac/
Im currently using
OSX 10.8.2
AE 11.0.2.11
GPU Driver Version: 1.3.4.0 (304.00.05f02)
CUDA Driver Version: 5.0.37
is there something i'm missing to make this smoother, and acceptable in AE6?
Best,
Tim!
Hi Tim,
DeleteCould you try the instructions here:
http://nrsotw.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/enabling-mercury-playback-engine-for.html
Including the OpenCL cards. I think AE uses Open CL more than CUDA.
Also maybe back the CUDA driver down to 5.0.36. I did hear of some people having problems in 5.0.37
Let me know how you get on,
Cheers
Neil
Thanks for this article. I couldn't tell from here, but can you tell me if a 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 running Snow Leopard and bootcamp Win 7 x64 (where I do most of my 3D work with CUDA apps and video editing with Premiere Pro CS6) work with a 660 Ti. No one seems to mention if they are using Bootcamp.
ReplyDeleteI need to be able to switch between Win 7 x64 and OSX (I can upgrade that partition to Mountain Lion if needed) for the apps I use, but I still want a better card than the Nvidia 8800 GT. I was considering a new Quadro K5000 for mac, but it seems very expensive and I can't find if it is actually shipping anywhere.
So my next best option for best Mercury Acceleration along with fast 3D and CUDA is the 660 ti. Is there a guide that would help me use such a PC card in a Mac Pro that uses Win 7 bootcamp too? Will I be able to hold the option key down and switch from win to osx when booting if I use one of these cards? If not what is my best option if I absolutely need bootcamp and high performance 3D & video on this 8 core machine?
thanks!! :)
He seems to have taken a few days off or something. he is not responding to anyone.
DeleteHi there,
DeleteYes sorry I've been busy :-)
I run the GTX660ti in my system with bootcamp, Windows 7 & and OSX mountain Lion.
You don't get the boot screen but you can set the boot drive from the OS. So if you are in OSX and need to boot to Windows you use system preferences and choose the windows disk as the boot disk or from Windows use boot camp assistant and choose the OSX drive. It works like a charm.
Give it a try and let me know how you get on,
Cheers
Neil
thanks, very much for your reply! Also, can you confirm that the 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 will be able to power the Geforce 660ti? And if so what power cables do I need (or do they come with the card) and also does the manufacturer of the board matter? e.g. is an MSI Geforce 660ti Power Edition going to work? thanks again!
DeleteHi there,
DeleteThe 2008 Mac Pro 3.1 will power the GTX660ti.
You will need two Mac specific power cables, you have one with your 8800GT. I found cheap ones on ebay.
I have used EVGA boards but it shouldn't matter which brand.
I would stay away from superclocked cards or cards with more than 2GB of RAM I have seen people having issues with those.
The Mercury playback engine can also be enabled in Windows :-)
Cheers
Neil
Hello Again Neil. Thank you for your time. I have been trying to get this done. I just cannot get it to work. so are you saying i need Windows installed in the mac for the card to work. because as it is it does not work. I have M. Lion installed thats all. I also bought a regular non Over-clocked card with the same results. I got the cables, the Card Drivers, Cuda Drivers n nothing really happens.
ReplyDeleteHello Albert, Sorry I have only just seen your post.
DeleteYou don't need Windows installed for the card to work.
If you have Mountain Lion installed the Mac should see the card and use it. You can install the Quadro drivers from Nvidia but they shouldn't be necessary. The CUDA drivers should be installed. The GTX660ti does need two auxiliary power cables, are you sure they are OK? If you are getting no response at all I would suspect the power cables or the card is not seated properly in the slot. Which slot are you using?
Cheers
Neil
thank you again. I do run 10.8.2. on a Mac Pro 3.1
ReplyDeletewith Cuda drivers: 5.0.37
GPU Drivers:1.3.4.0(304.00.05f02)
that I downloaded from Nvidia.com and installed after installing the card.
the card sits on slot #1. powered by too original cables. I even powered it via an external power supply
Neil. I do see and use the card with or without any drivers but not to its full potencial because the the GPU is not visible to any of the Adobe Apps. so I cannot use the adobe mercury playback Engine.
I Installed windows 7 Via Parallels and no luck. I am testing W7 in Bootcamp. the problem is I can't point it to reboot to M.Lion the only drive visible is W7 so I have to pull the card out and use my trusty ATI card to be able to see the boot selection window.
can u explain where do a pick how to reboot to OSX while in Windows. Perhaps I am doing it wrong. thank you for your time.
Albert,
ReplyDeletethe easiest way to reboot into Mac OS X while in Windows is on the taskbar. It's actually a small black diamond icon that will let you boot back into Mac. Vice versa you can hit the Apple and go to system preferences and choose start up disk to direct your computer to boot into Windows. It's actually much easier to direct boot this way then trying to hold alt.
I hope that was helpful.
Hi Albert,
ReplyDeleteYou should be able to choose your OSX drive in boot camp assistant.
How do you have your drives connected?
You do need to edit the Adobe text files before you can activate the Mercury playback Engine, did you do that?
Cheers
Neil
well I guess I messed that Can you please if you have time help me with a step by step guide on how to do it from the beginning. I am about to wipe the drive and start from scratch.
ReplyDeleteK.L thank you I will try that.
Guys, I am Feeling so stupid right now. I just cannot find the diamond-like Icon you mention. all I have is. show desktop, Clock, Speaker, Network, Windows messenger and the customize toolbar arrow/icon. that is on the Right side on the left I have WMP, IE and the Windows Start Icons. I have the feeling I did something wrong.
ReplyDeleteDid you install boot camp assistant from the osx disk?
DeleteIf it doesn't show up automatically, it will probably be under the customize toolbar icon. At least mine usually is.
ReplyDeleteI got the card to work neil. I just had to modifie the Adobe text. I had not done that because there is no explicit mention of that. thank you for your time again. i know is very valuable.
ReplyDeleteHey Neil. What a breath of fresh air and hope your site brings to me. I have been researching for days my head hurts and I am getting more confuse everyday. I thank God that brought me to this site and hopefully you can help me make an informed decision since I only have a day to do it now.
ReplyDeleteHere is were I am. I have a 2008 Mac pro 3.1 running Snow Leopard will upgrade to 10.8 latest version in the next few days,120 SSD, will also upgrade to OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G 240 GB SSD 2.5" 16GB of Ram and have 2 graphic cards, a GT120 and a GTX285 manly for running Davinci Resolve.
Now I plan to use my computer not for gaming, I do this professionally and this my only computer and this is were I make my money. I will be running most of the time After effects CS6, Davinci Resolve, Final Cut pro, premier Pro, Smoke 2013, Maya and C4D working with HD video. I was already set on a Quadro 4000 because that is what all the pros were suggesting as a powerful and reliable card, but after calling Blackmagic support to find out if the Quadro was a supported card the support guy dropped a bomb on me that has driving me to go crazy, He said that they are running the GTX680 on their machine and that I should consider that. Man oh Man I have been researching since then and there is a lot of mix feelings out there but no concrete and absolute answer for me. Please help me. I love the Quadro because since this is my only machine and were I make my money reliability since my computer runs sometimes for days non stop is a must but also if I can gain speed and power I will be very happy. So I dont know what to do. Will the GTX cause me problems becuase is not design for pro app? How much of a difference there is realy in bettewen both cards? Can I combine the GTX 680 with th GT120? How will that affect the perfomance? As a profeesional what would you do?
Thanks a bunch neil God bless.
Hi Fernando,
DeleteThank you for your kind words.
I would definitely go for the GTX680 over the Quadro 4000, the Quadro is over two years old now, but just to be sure why don't you order it from somewhere that will let you return it?
That way if it doesn't work you could exchange it for the Quadro 4000, or the new Quadro K5000 if you can afford it :-)
Let me know how you get on,
All the best,
Neil
Don't forget you will need two Mac GPU power cables for the GTX680
DeleteThank you Thank you so much for your fast response. I guess that is what I will do. Buy a GTX680 set it up and work like a normally do pushing my system to the max all the time, and If I am not satisfied them move to the Quadro. Great advice, that will give me the peace of mind that I need to move forward. Any suggestion to were to buy acard that I can return? I believe EVGA will be a better choice right? and can I combine the GT120 with GTX680 for even better performance? I've seem a link for the power cables you have on previous reply will that still work for the GTX680?
DeleteThank you so much for your help. I will refer you to all of my friends in need also. Hope you don't mind me sharing a link to your site on my pages(FB twitter etc...)
Regards
You're welcome Fernando,
DeleteMost retailers will let you return the product within seven days if it is still "as new". I have been happy with the EVGA card but other people have used different brands.
The GT120 and GTX680 should be fine and the power cables will be fine too.
Of course I don't mind you sharing the link, I would like to help anyone who is in a similar situation.
All the best,
Neil
I read on your site that you are willing to personal assist those in need and help them save money for a fee. Please email me the details of that so that I can share it with friends,
DeleteFelopes1@gmail.com
Thank you so much.
Hi Fernando,
DeleteI am happy to help in any way I can.
Knowledge is only useful when it is put into the hands of the people who need it :-)
You can ask for my help at techguru@euro-hd.com
If you or anybody would like to donate some money there is a Paypal donation button on my blog.
Cheers and good luck,
Neil
Hi Neil,
Deletehope you can help me.
GTX 660 Ti installed today.
Running Geekbench and Cinebench 11.5. Miserable performance after all:
Cinebench (before upgrade to GTX 660 Ti) OpenGL 31.11 BpS
Cinebench (after upgrade to GTX 660 Ti) OpenGL 26.71 BpS
Is it possible?
Did I do anything wrong with the installment of the card?
As you wrote above, I installed the newest nVidia drivers and the CUDA Driver for MAC.
Result: Cinebench OpenGL 26.91 BpS.
Does anyone have an idea?
That would be great!
Cheers,
Daniel
Hi Daniel,
DeleteThat seems strange although I am not a big fan of benchmark programs. What applications are you running? Are you seeing improvements in those?
You could also try the Heaven benchmark from Unigine, it seems to push the GPU quite hard.
http://unigine.com/products/heaven/
Good luck and let me know how you get on,
Cheers
Neil
Hey Neil,
ReplyDeleteThanks I will save your email.
I forgot to ask you in my case that I plan to use the card with Maya and C4D and AE should I go with the 4GB or the 2GB GTX680?
I also want to share with you some test I found to test AE and your card in real situation, I imagine that you have seen it but just in case the guys at creative cow here is the link:http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/1019120
My current system MacPro 2208 3,1 120GB SSD with 16gb ram dual card GT120 and GTX 285 did it in 28 min, almost the same as the Quadro 4000 example that there is on that forum post. Its a lot compare to what other system are doing some in about 1min and some change. I will be curious to know what your result is.
I have order my new OWC mercury pro 6G 240GB SSD and Mountain Lion. I will start my upgrade tomorrow.
As always thank you for your help cant say thank you enough.
May God continue to bless you with wisdom.
My friend as always Thanks you thank you so much.
Regards
Fernando
Hi Fernando,
DeleteI would try the 4GB model on the same basis, if it doesn't work return it and get the 2GB model instead.
Good luck and let me know how it goes,
Neil
Hey Neil Thanks again. That is what I will do. Sorry to ask you this lol what you mean by same basis?LOL I just don't know and want to make sure I follow your advice well.
ReplyDeleteHere is my update so far since you been helping me.
Got my new OWC Mercury pro 6G SSD, its installed, bought and installed Mountain lion. Installed all the updated Cuda and nvidia drivers from your above link. My system is running smooth. Did a geekbench ad I benchmark 10180+- and I am a little better then when I was running Snow leopard. Will now install all my apps and run test on all of them one by one before I erase my first ssd and use it as a media drive. Hopefully that will give me a better performance even before upgrade to new GTX680 4GB.
Is there a change you can share with me the files from the candle light test for resolve because the yousend link is no longer active. I would like to compare my test to yours, and a brief explanation how to run the test so I can be accurate.
As always I would like to say thank you for you help. I know you are a busy man, but you still take time to help others, and I don't know how to thank you enough. Please let me now how I can be of any assistance to you here in Florida, It will be a pleasure.
Best to you my friend.
Fernando
Hi Fernando,
DeleteI just meant buy the 4GB version from somewhere that will let you return it if it doesn't work. :-)
You can find the Standard candle test files here:
http://www.michaelcinquin.com/Stabdard_Candle_9.0.drp.zip
You will get a timeline with one shot with various grades on it which are labelled like the results you see on the thread.
You can switch from one grade to another and then test your playback speed.
Are you running the full verson of Resolve or the lite version?
The lite version will only support one GPU.
You can send me some of that Florida sunshine :-)
All the best,
Neil
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHey Neil,
ReplyDeleteI remove my 2 previous comments because I was having problems opening the file in Resolve and could not find the image file for the test,and I had some questions but after some research and the help of our friend Google LOL I found the video file to use with the test. With your permission I would like to offer to host a link with those files for easy access to some friends here in your blog or I can send the file to you.
I am running Resolve 9.1.1 Lite so far, coming from color, so testing but really hoping to make the complete switch soon and never look back. My plan is to get the BM Camera and the full software in the near future.
Here is my test results for the Candle Light Resolve.
My system:
2008 Mac Pro 3,1 2x 2.8 Quad-Core, Runnig 10.8.2 and lastest Cuda and Nvidia drivers from your link above. 16GBram 240GB SSD OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G and a second SSD 120GB 1TB Disk and 750 Disk. GT120 GUI runnig 27" Mac display and 20" Mac display and GTX285 GPU no Display attached.
V00 2Nodes 23FPS
V01 4Nodes 23FPS
v02 8Nodes 14FPS
v03 16Nodes 8FPS
V04 32Nodes 4FPS
V05 64Nodes 2FPS
I send you an email. Thank you again so much my friend I am very happy now that I have your guidance I can look into the future and plan ahead.
I will be sending you some Florida sunshine soon. LOL
Regards
Hi Fernando,
DeleteIf you want to host the files and send me a link I will add it to the blog. I look forward to seeing your results with new card :-)
All the best,
Neil
Hi Neil,
ReplyDeleteThis post and the thread have been a lifesaver. I've got the same system as you have and was considering the GXT 660 Ti, but had some concerns. Less so now.
One question, for you or anyone else out there doing this: I see that you say you can run the GT120 along side the 660 Ti without a problem. Is the same true for the Radeon 4870 (which is what I have now)? I've read elsewhere that using two cards in the 3,1 runs the risk of drawing too much power and frying the motherboard... ?
Hi Chris,
DeleteThe GT120 has a very low power draw, only 50 watts, compared to the Radeon 4870 at 160 watts and the GTX660ti at 150 watts.
The Mac Pro supports a maximum of 300 watts so I think the Radeon and The GTX660ti would be too much.
You can find GT120's on ebay, but they're not cheap :-)
Good luck and let me know how you get on,
Cheers,
Neil
Thanks Neil. My main concern was not being able to boot into safe mode if necessary, but I've discovered there are a pair of terminal commands, one that makes the os boot into safe mode and the other that returns it to normal boot mode.
ReplyDeletesudo nvram boot-args="-x"
sudo nvram boot-args=""
Of course you can't do this if you can't boot up in the first place. So I may hold on to my 4870 for that kind of situation. Or... I checked out ebay and see used GT120's for about $100. Not too bad really.
Thanks again!
Why you said 667 MHz if Early 2008 models have 800 MHz memory?
ReplyDeleteBecause I got some cheap 667hz RAM and can't afford the 800mhz at the moment :-)
DeleteAmazing blog Neil!!!
ReplyDeleteI've got a macpro 4,1 2 x 2.66 quad core, 12 gb ram, ati radon 4870.
I'm going to swap it out with the gtx 660 ti.
What's the difference between O2G P4 2662 KR and the 02G P4 3660 KR ???
Thanks!
Thanks :-)
DeleteThe O2G P4 2662 KR is the superclocked GTX660 but not the ti variant, it has 960 CUDA cores.
The 02G P4 3660 KR is the GTX660ti, which has 1344 CUDA cores.
If you are going to be using CUDA accelerated software (like the Adobe suite) I would go for the GTX660ti as the extra CUDA cores will make it much faster.
Good luck and let me know how you get on,
Cheers,
Neil
Thanks, Neil. I've ordered a couple items to improve performance of Cs 6 on my Mac pro 4,1 2x2.66 quad 12 gb ram ATI radeon 4870 512 mb.
Delete1 - the gtx 660 ti and 2 Mini pcie 6 pin to pcie 6 pin cables.
2 - 2 x 8 gb of 1066mhz ddr3 ecc (thermal) RAM. I'll be following instructions closely on installing drivers, card n cable, as my tech ability is limited.
3 - upgraded to mountain lion
I'm considering installing a solid state drive to dedicate to the cache and maybe the OS but not sure if it's worth the money, I've seen internal SSDs sell for about a dollar per GB.
Do you have experience with a similar upgrade?
Thanks again.
Hi there,
DeleteI would go for the SSD if you can afford it, a 256GB SSD should give you plenty of room for OS, software and cache.
Having the cache on the SSD makes a big difference to preview and render times, as does the CUDA acceleration from the GPU.
Don't forget you will need to tell CS6 about the GTX660ti, there are full instructions in my post here:
http://nrsotw.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/enabling-mercury-playback-engine-for.html
Good luck and let me know how you get on,
Cheers
Neil
Hi Neil,
DeleteI've installed the GTX 660 ti and premiere has enabled GPU acceleration. Your instructions made it easy.
Premiere is now in beast mode. Love it. I don't find the EVGA model to be as loud as some reports might suggest, at least it's not louder than my ATI radeon hd 4870.
Huge thank you and high five. WHAPPPISH!!!
I repeated the process for AE copying name of GPU into the file "raytracer supported cards.txt"
Any other advice so that AE and other apps can leverage the new GPU ?
I read on another blog that AE would only activate GPU acceleration for the ray traced renderer. Bit of a downer cause performance speed in AE was my main reason for upgrading my GPU. Hopefully installing an internal SSD and boosting my RAM will speed it up.
THANKS!
I should add that currently AE is not recognizing the GTX 660 ti as supported card for GPU acceleration. Not sure what I missed. I'll report back if I find something.
DeleteHi Neil,
ReplyDeleteFirst, I just went ahead and donated to you. You've been incredibly helpful and I wanted to value that in a practical way.
I've got another question for you: I've been looking at alternatives to the EVGA model of the 660 ti and see on a bunch of discussion sites people saying that the MSI version is quieter and cooler. As a video editor quiet means a lot to me. It's only about $10 or $20 more expensive. Any thoughts/opinions about going with the MSI instead of the EVGA?
Thanks Chris that's very good of you :-)
DeletePersonally I would have no issues with going for the MSI card over the EVGA. Quiet gets my vote too.
Good luck and let me know how you get on,
Cheers,
Neil
Final Question: are the specs on this MSI version comparable to the EVGA model you have re: cuda cores, etc. I'm not technical enough to trust myself to know: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127696
DeleteThat looks fine Chris :-)
DeleteWill GTX 660 Ti works with Autodesk smoke 2012/13 ?
ReplyDeleteHi Neil,
ReplyDeleteSo I've got the 660ti up and running. Thank you again for all your help. I also installed the latest Cuda driver from NVIDIA. Two more questions for you: their site doesn't seem to have drivers on it for Mac. I noticed some folks here talking about updating to the most recent drivers. How does one go about that? Or is it even necessary?
Finally, is OpenCL enabled on this card? Is it something we can enable? Is it worth the trouble? I'm a video editor and I use just about every editing, media, and graphics application you can think of.
Thanks in advance.
~ Chris
Hi Chris,
DeleteYou need the drivers for the Quadro 4000, they are the latest Mac drivers from Nvidia.
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/macosx-304.00.05f02-driver-uk.html
OpenCL should work, for Adobe After effects you need to enable it by adding the card to the OpenCL_supported_cards.txt file in the AE package. See my blog post about enabling CUDA support for details.
http://nrsotw.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/enabling-mercury-playback-engine-for.html
Cheers
Neil
I'm not sure there is an openCL _supported_cards.txt file in the After effects CS6 package contents. I've only found raytracer_supported_cards.txt. I noticed a big difference in raytracer rendering preview times.
DeleteHi Neil,
ReplyDeleteI installed that driver that you said to install -- and now my computer won't start. I get that grey screen that indicates that it's booting and then it reboots. Any suggestions about how to get out of this situation and fix things?
Hi Chris,
DeleteStrange, installing the driver shouldn't have done that.
If you re-install your Mac card does it start OK?
Let me know,
Neil
Hi Neil, I put my old card in and it boots fine. I also found some information on how to uninstall and revert nvidia driver to the Mac version, which is to run the "NVIDIA Driver Resore.mpkg" file under application support/NVIDIA. I've done that but I'm hesitant to try to put back the 660 ti until I know if this worked. I can't figure out how to know what version of NVIDIA driver I have on the system now (or if it would be a different number than the one I tried to install). There's plenty of info on how to find out this info for a Windows machine. Any thoughts on this?
ReplyDeleteCould the problem have been that I installed the new driver without uninstalling the CUDA driver first? Is there an order this is supposed to take place in? Are we sure the 05F02 is the right one? The reason I tried to install it instead of letting the mac driver alone is that I noticed some issues on video playback, where parts of the screen were slower to refresh than others, causing lines across the screen. I didn't have that issue with my 4770.
Thanks in advance for the help.
Chris
Hi Neil,
ReplyDeleteI just now had the time (and the courage) to put the 660Ti back and try to boot up -- and it worked, which is a great relief. I assume the NVIDIA Driver Restore app did what was advertised and reverted my machine to the 10.8.2 apple 660 ti driver.
I just went through it again to make sure I didn't mess up the driver installation the first time, or install the wrong one or something and the same things happened all the way around. I'm posting again to suggest that perhaps it's the MSI implementation that is the problem, since all other factors are the same as the folks here have had no issues with.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to exchange my MSI for the EVGA and see if it occurs with the new card. I really don't want a card that can't have its drivers updated. If it doesn't work then there must be some kind of system issue unique to my situation. Perhaps I installed the wrong driver at some point in the process and then the right one, but something got messed up along the way... ? Who knows.
Hi Chris,
DeleteThanks for keeping me up to date with your progress.
I'll be interested to see what happens with the new card.
I wish I had the time and the money to test lots of different cards in different systems :-)
Good luck and thanks again for the updates,
Cheers
Neil
Hey Neill,
DeleteHope all is well.
My friend I am in desperate need of your help again and hope I am not abusing of your willingness to help those in need. Since I found your site it has been my following guide, so every time I can't figure something on my own after days of research I came to you, hope you don't mind.
Here is were I am. Have finally put the money together for the GTX680 4GB. I was ready to buy the EVGA. Well the guys at Blackmagic advice me not put any 6pin-8pin or 8pin-8pin power configuration card. Unfortunate after researching and calling EVGA I found out that EVGA does not produce any dual 6pin configuration for their Geforce gTX680 4GB, left with no choice I start researching what other company also produced the Nvidia Geforce GTX680 and out of all of them only 4 has the dual 6pin configuration available on their GTX680 4GB. ASUS, MSI, PNY and ZOTAC. Of the four I came down to ASUS and MSI due to their colling abilities since I run my system for long periods of time. I have search the internet for a MSI N680GTX Twin Frozr 4GD5/OC and its almost impossible to find one, Amazon has one but at $1700, that is crazy, Newegg has it listed but it says discontinued, Can't find one WHY? Are they that good?(I will call MSI today to find out more)now the ASUS is available from Amazon and Newegg. Now my friend here is were I need your help. Witch one of this card do you recommend and why? I would love to buy a card today and get over with it LOL, after so much research man I am hurt,LOL
Please help me understand one more time, so that I can carefully take the next step.
Neil thank you in advance for everything.
I send you the email with the link as promised, hope you recived.
Regards
Hi Fernando,
DeleteI'm sorry I don't have direct experience with those cards so I'm not sure which one to recommend. I would maybe go for the standard GTX680 or the GTX670 rather than one of the overclocked models because it's still going to be a fast card for the Mac Pro and probably more stable.
Let me know what you decide,
Cheers,
Neil
Hi Neil,
ReplyDeleteI've been reading the whole thread and it's been really helpful. I finally bought a evga gtx 660 (not ti). Everything seems to work but the performance is not what I expected. I have a Mac Pro 3,1. I've tested Cinebench11.5 and i get almost same results as my old 8800gt. Only 27fps. And the performance within cinema 4d viewport is pretty low also. I've installed the last versions of cuda and nvidia drivers. I'm running osx 10.8.2... Any suggestions?
Hey Neil,
ReplyDeleteI went ahead and got a ASUS GTX680-DC2-4GD5, could not find a MSI for a decent price. I got the card today, its a monster and beautiful lol,I have not installed yet, but cant wait. trying to gather all the necessary steps and got a few jobs to finish, so I don't want to installed until I finish first. I will keep you informed. As always thank you my friend.
Hi Neil
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to say thank you for all you info and maybe you could help me with a small problem I'm having with my EVGA GTX 660 Ti.
I have a 10.8.2 MacPro5,1 with 32gigs memory a 512gb solid state drive.
My cure driver is: CUDA Driver Version: 5.0.37
and my GPU driver is: GPU Driver Version: 1.3.4.0 (304.00.05f02)
and I'm running 3 monitors from it (2dvi, 1hdmi)
so all up to date.
The problem is my card keeps hanging my machine. And its totally Random. But what i have noticed is it tends to happen while swapping programs or going into my browser (safari). I had the over clocked card and that kept hanging the machine so swoped it for the standard 66ti. The thing is the Machine does not crash the display just hangs. if music or a video is playing in the background you can still hear it and the mouse cursor works but the monitors are frozen. Any Suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you very much for your time.
Hi Romario,
DeleteHave you tried disconnecting the HDMI monitor?
Hopefully there will be new drivers in 10.8.3 when Apple get round to releasing it.
Let me know how it goes,
Neil
Thanks Neil
DeleteWill give it a try and update you.
Hi Niel, many thanks to share your experience here !
ReplyDeleteI use a similar computer than yours (Macpro 3.1, 2x2,8Ghz Quad, 22Go 800Mhz ram, GTX660TI 2Gb, Decklink HD with latest Desktop Video 9.7, Cuda driver V5.0.36, GPU driver V1.3.4.0 (304.00.05f02). Only one monitor.
But using Resolve 9.1.1 lite with my new 660TI don't give any improvement in playing h264 clips (Canon 5D 1920x1080 25fps) or rendering to ProresHQ. I still have the slow 11fps to 15fps max that I had with my old geforce 8800 for Mac.
It's not a hard drive speed question. The clips play well with any other software.
Graphic card appears in OSX and Resolve recognized hardware lists.
Same warning message than you when I open Resolve.
Any idea or suggestion would be welcome!!
Thanks again
Rom
Hi Rom,
DeleteAre you using just the GTX660ti? I found Resolve worked better with a GT120 for the UI and the GTX660ti purely for CUDA.
There is a new CUDA driver now for 10.8.3 and I expect Nvidia to release a new video driver soon too.
Which version of OSX are you running?
Cheers,
Neil
I also added a 660Ti to my Mac Pro 4.1, running 10.8.3 but no performance gain compared to my ATI 5870.
DeleteActually, the 660Ti is slower in cinebench, 23fr for the 660Ti and 27fr for the 5870. Is this normal or am I forgetting something.
Hi Niel,
DeleteWhat actual software are you running?
Cinebench only really tests OpenGL. I think if you run something that uses CUDA you should definitely see an improvement. There is also an OpenCL benchmark here:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/268209-opencl-oceanwave-bandwidth-bench-07-march-2013/
Let me know how you get on,
Cheers,
Neil
Hi Neil
DeleteI get the following result:
GeForce GTX 660 Ti 1058 MHz 259.3 fps
AA ON fullscreen!
I can not compare it with the ATi because I swapped it, but is this normal or should it be faster?
Hi Niel,
Delete260 frames per second sounds pretty good to me :-)
If you look on the thread you'll see you're faster than most other cards, a Quadro 4000 in a Mac Pro only gets 218fps.
What do you use the Mac for? Are you running Adobe software or something else. Benchmarking is fine but real use improvements are better.
Cheers,
Neil
I am a motion-designer / grader. So I mainly use it for AE and Davinci Resolve.
DeleteThe performance gain in resolve is very low to slower compared to my ati 5870 and I can not believe that an non-cuda card is faster.
That why I was wondering if anything is wrong.
Hi Niel,
DeleteI'm not sure if Resolve is recognising your GTX660ti correctly.
Give this a try:
Go to Preferences/Debug and add these lines. Then reload Resolve.
LsManager.3.NumGPUs = 1
LsManager.3.GPUMapping = 0
LsManager.3.GPUMappingEnable = 1
Let me know if that makes any difference,
Cheers,
Neil
That seems to do a lot!!
DeleteIt's running an old project on 24fps!
Still a bit odd that it is so much slower in cinebench.
Hi Neil, thanks for your quick answer!
ReplyDeleteYes I use the GTX660ti alone. Booting with one or two monitors plugged does not affect its performances.
I've installed OSX 10.8.2 with Cuda driver V5.0.36, and GPU driver V1.3.4.0.
I've also tried OSX 10.8.3 with Cuda driver V5.0.45, and GPU driver V8.10.44. (304.10.65f03) but it's not better.
A Macbook with Geforce GT 650M 512Mo make it in real time (up to 30fps)...
I think I just have to wait and prey for a new driver that would correct that...
Merci de votre attention, et amitiés de Paris! (Thanks for your help, and kind regards from Paris)
Rom
Bonjour Rom,
DeleteI'm not sure if Resolve is recognising your GTX660ti correctly.
Give this a try:
Go to Preferences/Debug and add these lines. Then reload Resolve.
LsManager.3.NumGPUs = 1
LsManager.3.GPUMapping = 0
LsManager.3.GPUMappingEnable = 1
Let me know if that makes any difference,
Cheers,
Neil
Hi Neil,
ReplyDeleteDo you think it would be possible to put two 660's in a Mac Pro 5,1? Or is there not enough power?
Cheers,
Mark
Hi there,
DeleteI think to run two GTX660's you would need an extra power supply.
The Mac Pro power supply is designed to provide around 300 watts to the graphics card, enough for one GTX660 but not two.
There are some third party power supplies designed to fit in a CD drive bay or there are external power supplies.
Make sure the ground rail is linked to ground on the Mac Pro.
Good luck,
Neil
Hi Neil,
ReplyDeleteBoy this thread never ends, huh? A testament to how much help you've provided to people through it. :)
I'm following up with a report and a question or two. I went ahead and got a GT120 and the EVGA 660 ti, to mirror your setup and all seems well. I've installed the latest CUDA driver for 10.8.3. I'm leaving the Nvidia driver in the Mac OS alone because of issues I had trying to update it with the MSI card I tried previously. If it's working, why change it?
I also enabled the mercury playback engine in Premiere following the instructions from your blog post on the issue. Worked like a charm, thank you.
Let me ask a question I have about that first. I noticed in the post that you said it was optional to make your card OpenCL compatible as well. But I think your post was graphics card agnostic. Is this something I could or should do for the graphic cards setup that you and I share?
So I've re-read this thread and noticed a couple of things you've said that I'd love it if you could clarify for me:
"I found Resolve worked better with a GT120 for the UI and the GTX660ti purely for CUDA." Does this mean I should connect my monitors just to the GT120? Or is there some other kind of setup change that I need to do in Resolve or elsewhere to use the 660 ti "purely for CUDA"?
I've also seen you suggest to some that they should go to Preferences/Debug and add these lines, then reload Resolve.
LsManager.3.NumGPUs = 1
LsManager.3.GPUMapping = 0
LsManager.3.GPUMappingEnable = 1
Is this something all of us who want to use Resolve with the 660 Ti should do? Or only those with a particular problem?
Also, I thought I remembered you mention a way to activate all the cores of the card for use by Resolve, or is my memory playing tricks on me? I didn't see it in my read through.
And finally, do you have any other final suggestions? I'm hoping I'm reaching the end of the journey...
Thanks again for everything Neil.
Chris
Hi Chris,
DeleteThanks for updating me on your progress, I never realised how much interest this post was going to generate. :-)
Your questions in order:
Enabling OpenCL should improve processing on Non-CUDA based cards, but also possibly in After Effects with CUDA cards. Anyway it can't hurt to enable it.
Regarding GPU's and Resolve, If you go to Preferences > system overview in Resolve it will tell you which card it is using for the GPU. If you have the GTX660ti connected to a monitor it may default to the other card.
The LsManager lines seem to be switches to tell Resolve to use any CUDA capable graphics card, I got those from the forum on the Blackmagic website. You could give them a try and take them out again if it doesn't help.
I think that covers it :-)
Let me know how you get on,
Cheers,
Neil
Hi Neil,
ReplyDeleteYes, inside Resolve it has both cards identified (though at first it only seemed to see the GT 120), but it says "GUI only" for the 660 ti. I think we want the opposite, yes? So I went looking for the Preferences/Debug folder to add those lines, but can't seem to find it. I've looked under [user]/Library/Preferences, but don't see it there. I've also looked under the main hard driver Library folder. Is there a specific Resolve Preferences/Debug folder I should be looking for? Thanks!
Okay, I've read elsewhere that it's supposed to be in the Preferences menu of Resolve itself. I had looked there but there is no Debug tab in my preferences window. :{ Just "System Overview" "Media Storage" "Video I/O Hardware" "Control Panels" and "Advanced" and inside none of these is there a Debug tab. Or, again, is there someplace else I'm supposed to be looking? Sigh.
ReplyDeleteC
Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteJust switch the monitor connection to your GT120 and then Resolve will use the GTX660ti as the GPU.
Are you running the full version of Resolve or the lite version?
Cheers,
Neil
Got it! It's now the Advanced tab, not the debug tab. Now the only card listed is the 660 ti and it is chosen by Resolve. Thanks for everything Neil.
ReplyDeleteWait, one more Q: So is it okay/preferred/irrelevant if I run my monitors off the 660 ti vs the GT120 at this point?
C
Ah you just posted I see. I'm running the Lite version.
ReplyDeleteI would assume: better video card, better to run the monitors off of it. ?
ReplyDeleteHi Chris,
DeleteUsually yes but not with Resolve. Letting the GT120 handle the UI leaves the GTX660 free for all processing using CUDA.
Of course you may want to switch it back for other programs...
Cheers,
Neil