Upgrading MacPro and nVIDIA CUDA cards.

I'm sure that I am not the only one who was taken back by the underwhelming MacPro "upgrade" yesterday. I have been holding out well over a year for an updated to my current MacPro 1,1, and I'm not sure I can wait much longer...
So, I'm trying to figure out the best solution that will hold me over. I am a Premiere Pro and After Effects power user, and have been excited about the CUDA capabilities and the amazing performance boost it will give. I figured when I upgraded, I would make sure I have a card in the machine that supports that.
I recently visited both "tech-spec" pages for Premiere and After Effects and they still list the same 4 nVidia GPUs supported on the mac. In fact, it looks like when AE and PP CS6 were released, they just changed the header. This hasn't changed in a long while.
GeForce GTX 285
Quadro CX
Quadro FX 4800
Quadro 4000
So here lies the frustration.
If I run out and get either a refurb of the 2010 MacPros, or one of the "new" MacPro towers running the ATI cards, I will still have to go out and replaced the video cards with one of the listed above. To make matters worse, the one reasonably priced card (GTX 285) is almost impossible to find. Not the least of which, it's already several years old.
I'm looking for any suggestions people might have, or workarounds, solutions...etc. I've considered picking up one of new Quad-Core's and using the price difference to kick up the video card. I guess I can sell the OEM one on eBay.
Unless someone can convince me that an i7 MacBookPro, and it's new nVideo card will do what I want to do, I'm not sure what other choices I have.
At this point anything will be a ridiculous upgrade from what I currently have. But for someone who wants to get a few years out of this investment, I'd hate to start off at a disadvantage.
I welcome all your thoughts and thank you in advance.
Best
Stephen

Stephen Barrante wrote:
I guess I've been just gun-shy about throwing $500 down on a card and having some immediately hack it. But, I completely hear what you are saying, there are so many other options in terms of cards if you go that route. It's possible I might have to seriously consider this.
The EVGA 2.5G GTX570 is $329 at NewEgg at this point. It's the most powerful card we can currently run in our Mac Pros without adding an extra power supply. The GTX580 will also work, but it has a 6-pin and 8-pin power requirement, something the existing Mac Pro can't quite deal with. The GTX680 has 2 6-pin ins, but the nVidia driver hasn't been updated to support it yet.
I'm still blown away that Apple didn't even put a newer video card in the latest towers. But, that's what I've come to expect from my love/hate relationship with them.
They're not really in position to do much more in the way of hardware validation for the existing Pros, so don't expect to see any new video cards added. Like... ever. The current rumor is that the Pros won't be re-done until sometime next year, likely when the Ivy Bridge Xeons are available. Until then, folks are going to have to make do with what little Apple is providing, and perhaps perform their own mods like I did.
jas

Similar Messages

Apple MacBook Air 11 inch, 13 inch, or Dell XPS 14 with i7 and nvidia graphics card?

I am a college student looking for either a MacBook Air 11 inch or a MacBook Air 13 inch. I was looking at the Dell XPS 14 with i7 processor and nvidia graphics card. It is similar in price to an Apple MacBook Air 11 inch. I will mainly use the laptop for browsing, a bit of Minecraft, watching videos (netflix/downloading movies), presentations, and documents. I would also need it to be lightweight because I will be carrying it around campus. I cannot choose between these three.....any ideas? I have an iPhone 5 and iPad with retina display (that is what I use currently and it is not working out). I just saw the WWDC14 and I saw how all my devices could connect to the Mac flawlessly.
Please let me know,
Thanks

I recommend the macbook 13" retina. Yes, it is expensive, but if you pair it with 8GB of memory, you should be futureproof for the next 5 years minimum. Why not the air.
Currently the air sports thunderbolt 1, This is super outdated. Macbook pro has thunderbolt 2 which allows you to daisy chain monitors via display port 1.2. Macbook Air sports display port 1.1a which only allows daisy chaining amoungst thunderbolt monitors which are expensive. $1000 minimum per a monitor where as you could pickup a daisy chainable displayport 1.2 dell monitor for $200. The only reason I am severely regretting my 13" Air.
The screen, yes, in a few years all screens will sport retina resolutions. It makes a big difference when reading and typing for long periods of time. Text is more clear. Also, 11" is way too small. If you want something that small, get an Ipad Air.
Battery life, 9 hours should still be enough to get you through the day. I go to school and I could only top out at 7 hours usage at most.
Gaming, Although I dont recommend gaming on any laptop because laptops aren't meant so much for gaming. Mostly because the heat generated from it kills the life of your laptop. It is up to 20% faster than the air.
Weight, half a pound off the 13" AIR is not a big deal. Actually the retina is smaller in height and width, so better center of balance when using it on your lap and the black bezel is less distracting.
Processor, its 10% faster in overall processing speeds generally.
Dont forget to purchase 2 year extended warranty. Buy that from bhphoto for 180 bucks. No tax and its way cheaper than apple.
If you still want the air after that, consider getting the 13". It comes with sd card slot, it is handy when you run out of space. And its 10% faster than the 11" even though they have the same processor. The processor's performance is based on the thermal threshold of the computer. The hotter it gets, the slower the computer gets to cool the processor down.
If you choose the Macbook Pro 13" RETINA(Not the $999 version with the DVD Drive), if you can, wait till late october when they update the computer with better hardware. Well... if you can.

Upgrading MacPro 1,1 graphics card, help!

Hello!
I was recently given a Macpro for my birthday, and its a 1,1. I use it for graphic design, and gaming. It was running great for about 6 months, but recently while playing world of warcraft, this has been happening:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y64/ravynwolf/Screenshot2010-12-29at94118PM.png
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y64/ravynwolf/Screenshot2011-01-01at114520PM.pn g
I'm still pretty new to this whole upgrading macs, and I don't want to spend anything on something that might not work.
So here is the info on my beasty:
Hardware Overview:
Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro1,1
Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 10 GB
Bus Speed: 1.33 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MP11.005C.B08
SMC Version (system): 1.7f10
Serial Number (system): G8**PZ
Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-0017F205DAE2
ATI Radeon X1900 XT:
Chipset Model: ATY,RadeonX1900
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x7249
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-A52027-140
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.140
Displays:
SMB2330:
Resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Rotation: Supported
Television: Yes
Cintiq 12WX:
Resolution: 1280 x 800 @ 60 Hz
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Rotation: Supported
So...help guys? I have no clue what the heck I'm doing.
<Edited by Host>

Dear Yotebeth
Your video card may be overheating when pushed hard, due to it being clogged with dust and fluff. Open the side panel on your Mac and shine a light into the white plastic shroud on the video card in which the GPU heatsink lives. If you can't see vertical metal fins it is blocked with fluff. Gentle stroking with a wooden toothpick should get out the mattress of fluff which has accumulated. This may solve your problem and make your Mac a lot quieter, as the GPU fan isn't running flat out. A more complete solution is to pull the card out (use anti-static precautions) and blow it through with an air gun (well away from your mac). The dust that comes out of it is quiet astonishing. The X1900 ***** up more dust than most vacuum cleaners. Some folk recommend cleaning it every four months. Hope this helps. BB

T61p with FX570M 512M and Nvidia CUDA

I need to enable the environment Cuda, but the current driver of Lenovo does not enable. Nor can install the driver for NVIDIA. When the LENOVO will provide a driver compatible with the Nvidia Cuda? The actual configuration is Windows XP sp3, DirecX version9.0c, processor Core2 7700, adapter Quadro FX570M bios 60.84.51.00.00, display 1920x1200, 3Gbytes Ram, Nvidia control panel 1.5.740.13, forceware version 176.18
Message Edited by sergio_render on 12-19-2008 03:37 AM

Sergio,
The questions you are asking are a recurring theme on this forum.
Lenovo has a history of being very slow to provide new video driver updates.
So, don't hold your breath waiting......
Centex

Choppy video on 1st Gen MacPro w/Nvidia 8800GT card

I upgraded my card to the Nvidia 8800GT for 1st Gen MacPro (verified I do have a 1st Gen, but now without the Nvidia box I can't figure out how to verify I received the card I ordered...).
30-inch display will not play video at any resolution smoothly; and it doesn't matter what sort of video source (DVD, iTunes, flash...) or what software used to play video (QT Pro, DivX...). All software is up-to-date. Plenty of RAM, hard drive space, and a 15MBPS Internet connection. Using Intego NetBarrier and VirusBarrier, all current, and disabling them doesn't solve the video problem. Doesn't matter what other programs are running, the problem happens when it's the only thing on or if I've got several programs running on both the Mac and WinXP via VM Fusion.
I've also noticed Internet performance issues even when Speedtest.net shows a good connection. And more system crashes than normal. But I can't say whether the problems are related. The display is fine except for motion video playback.
I don't know where to start on diagnostics... Help please?

k, I zapped the PRAM, reset SMC and searched for more info about the "16x slot". Found this:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2838?viewlocale=en_US
which explains what that's all about and how to use the Expansion Slot Utility. And, voila! I had taken the original 7300 out of slot 1 and put the new card in slot 2 for more room, but slot 1 is the only one able to fully support a 16x card. Now all is well:)
I see The Hatter amazingly often in support searches. Thanks muchly! You got a website for donations?

Is it possible to upgrade MacBook Pro 15inch iris pro Retina display version to Nvidia graphics card?

Hi
I purchased a MacBook Pro 15inch iris pro Retina display version (£1599) recently.
Can we upgrade tit with Nvidia graphics card?
Thanks

In USA, you can return a Mac within 14 days of purchase and buy a new one with the desired spec.
Retina MacBook Pro cannot be upgraded once bought.
Best.

PrP 5.5 MPE quandry - CUDA card or Kona 3 - Pick 1 for use

Wow, I just learned from Adobe tech support,something that has the potential to really disappoint a lot of editors switching to PrP 5.5. I was told that PrP supports only 1 graphics card at a time. So you have a choice. If you want to take full advantage of your CUDA card speeding certain things up, then you cant use the Kona 3 card to output the video to an engineering / client monitor. And conversely, if you need to see your video from the Kona 3 card displayed on a external monitor, you cant take advantage of the MPE / CUDA benefits from your Nvidia card. Yikes.

Hi All,
To be clear here, an AJA KONA or Io Express card WILL work in conjunction with Adobe approved nVidia 'CUDA' cards, and the GPU acceleration provided by the Mercury Engine.
When using an AJA card for monitoring, mastering, or other playout, the AJA cards do require that you use an AJA preset. However, those presets allow the Mercury Engine, including GPU acceleration, to do its thing on most file types. There are some uncompressed 10-bit RGB file types that AJA has additional support for, which, will not see the same GPU benefit, but for 99% of Premiere Pro users, their nVidia and AJA cards can work together.
The confusion is created to some degree by the fact that the AJA plugins for CS 5 did have some additional limitations which limited the performance bonus realized by the GPU acceleration when working in an AJA seqeuence in Premiere Pro. However, with CS 5.5, the performance bonus is greatly increased. While it is difficult to make a blanket statement like "4 RT streams" or "4 simultaneous RT effects" due to the number of potential variables that affect the performance of both the AJA plugins, and Premiere Pro, I can say with high confidence that those of you who use both an AJA video I/O card along with an approved nVidia graphics card, will see a great performance bonus relative to using the 'software only' version of Mercury Engine.
I can say, that on my own test system here, I run both Windows 7 and Mac OS using bootcamp on an older MacPro (2008, v3.1) with 8 cores and 8GB of RAM, and a Quadro FX 4800. On both operating systems I see similar results. I reliably see 3 RT streams, and sometimes more, with several different effects, running 1080i29.97 ProRes, DVCProHD, and uncompressed footage at full resolution out of a KONA LHi, and KONA 3G.
I have seen up to 6 streams with 6 effects run in real-time on this system, but that is generally with thin raster footage, at 24 or 25 fps. I certainly wont make the claim that you will always get this performance.
For those of you with more memory, newer systems, and newer nVidia cards, fast storage, lower resolutions, lower framerates, are likely to see better performance than this.
Thad Huston
AJA

MSI GT70 Dragon Edition Nvidia Video card crash

So I've updated my Nvidia driver to the latest version, but whenever I open a game the graphic starts to lag and then freeze... I also hear weird motor sounds in my headphones while this lags.... I tried to downgrade the Nvidia driver to the one which my model of MSI recommends: I tried both Beta and WHQL Nvidia drivers my model of MSI recommends but that didn't help either. I also witnessed the crash of the Nvidia driver ( a notification appeared that Nvidia driver has stopped working ) which made me totally be sure that this lag and freeze problems aren't the problems of the game nor the the switching of Intel and Nvidia video cards, they switch good. This is the problem of Nvidia video driver, all the versions I tried kept crashing due to the same lags and freezes in any game I try, can anyone help me !?

Check the temps of your gpu with Afterburner (>>How to use MSI Afterburner<<). Try with and without Cooler Boost.

I have a mid 2007 MacBook Pro with 2GB of RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 8600M graphics. Is it possible to upgrade the RAM and the graphics card?

I have a mid 2007 MacBook Pro with 2GB of RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 8600M graphics card. Is it possible to upgrade the RAM and the graphics card?

The RAM can be upgraded as indicated below. The Graphics card can not be upgraded.
Maximum Memory
6.0 GB (Actual) 4.0 GB (Apple)
Memory Slots
2 - 200-pin PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 SO-DIMM

Why is the Nvidia GTX 680 CUDA card supported by Premiere Pro CC, and NOT After Effects CC?

Why is the Nvidia GTX 680 CUDA card supported by Premiere Pro CC, and NOT After Effects CC?

Thanks Todd for all the info. It is much appreciated and very helpful. On a different note, could you possibly direct me to the correct forum to fix this bug? I am suddenly recieving a warning on my System SSD referencing Adobe Exchange. Here is a screen grab to best explain:

Please help :) Error Ray-tracing on the GPU requires an approved NVIDIA graphics card and CUDA 5.0.

Hi All, if anyone can help me fix this error I will be most aprreciative.
I get this error when I open After Effects.
Ray-tracing on the GPU requires an approved NVIDIA graphics card and CUDA 5.0 or later. For now, ray tracing will use the CPU.
After installing CUDA 5.0 or later, restart your computer.
For more information see: http://www.adobe.com/go/aeraytracegpu
Im on a MAc Pro Desktop running latest OSX (OS X 10.9.2 (13C64) and a
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB (not a NVIDIA its AMD)
I have tried updating software and the operating system as this is now what recent OSX versions do apparently. Not downoloading the driver software as AMD only support up to the previous operating system.
Kind Regards Toby.
Motion Designer / Editor

I have this warning come up, too. And when I close it, the program crashes. I can't get it to work without it.
I use Photoshop CC and that works fine.
I'm running Windows 8.1(more info below). I've tried to read for solutions in forums but none of them provide any.
Some have said they figured it out but don't say how, another said he re-installed Windows?
Any help is appreciated!

Please help ... Ray-tracing on the GPU requires an approved NVIDIA graphics card and CUDA 5.0 or later?

Hi there,
I'm have a bit of an issue with After Effects and Premiere.
After Effects:
Keeps asking for Ray-tracing on the GPU requires an approved NVIDIA graphics card and CUDA 5.0
Premiere crashes unexpectedly
Can someone please help
Much-ly appreciate

Hi there,
Sorry took a while to get back to you guys. I have been having some issues with Premiere and Aftereffects CC.
I recently bought an Apple Pro CTO - Intel Xeon E5 3.7 GHZ Quad-Core with 10MB of L3 Cache, 32GB (4x 8gb) 1866MHZ DDR3 ECC DDR3 RAM, 1TB PCIE-BASED Flash storage, DUAL AMD FIREPRO D500 GPUS with 3GB of GDDR5 VRAM, DUAL Gigabit NIC, 802.11AC, bluetooth, 6x thunderbolt2 ports, MAC OS X.
Issue 1 - Aftereffects CC
Ray-tracing o the GPU requires an approved NVIDIA graphics card and CUDA 5.0
Issue 2 - Premiere CC
Warp Stabiliser wasn't stabilising correctly and now doesn't work at all in premiere CC. I even tried to link to aftereffects but it still doesn't stabilise the shots correctly.
I use to operate PC before with Adobe CS6 and I didn't get any issue stabilising.
If you guys can point me what's the best way to get it to work correctly that would be magic.
Look forward to hear from you
Regards,
Jean-Eddy Moutou

Expansion - Mac Pro, Nvidia, Graphics Cards, 3d, CUDA

Hello,
Are there any plans to make a Mac that is expandable and upgradable with regards to graphics cards? Specifically Nvidia cards. We are doing more and more 3d work and require Nvidia graphics cards for GPU rendering with CUDA. For doing any 3d work CUDA is a MUST. Even on the fastest CPU's, it's the difference between a 1976 Pinto, and a 2014 Lamborghini Aventador when it comes to rendering.
Thunderbolt expansion doesn't seem to be a possibility... While technically this should work, there is currently no support for graphics cards in external Thunderbolt chassis (to my knowledge)... and there are no drivers (nor are there plans to make any as far as I know) for Nvidia graphics cards for Mac's. I can only assume it is because there doesn't seem to be any way to expand these new Mac Pro's.
Without the ability to expand for these graphics cards, we (I and the company that I work for) are only left with a few options (as I see it).
1)     Switch to Windows (Really?)
2)     Linux
3)     Create a render farm from old computers. (Not Ideal for several reasons, not the least of which is the ability to preview before final render.)
We are approaching the time for equipment upgrades, and we simply can't justifiy spending that amount of money for a computer that frankly will not do what we need it to do. Especially since a comparable PC at a third of the price, will.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Since silence is the only thing you get from apple on this subject here is a little help:http://www.tonymacx86.com/416-building-customac-buyer-s-guide-march-2014.html
This ongoing feud between adobe and apple leaves us, the users in a very bad position. We should have a choice.

Nvidia CUDA for 27" iMac and the Mac Pro

I want to use Adobe Premier CS5.5 and it's Mercury Playback engine. What Nvidia CUDA-enabled card should I get for the 27" iMac and the Mac Pro to use this feature in Premier CS5?

No. Open the App Store on one computer running Snow Leopard. Purchase and download Lion. On the other computer open the App Store, log on using the same Apple ID, re-download Lion at no extra charge.
Alternatively, see Burning A Lion Boot Disc

Possible to upgrade my Nvidia Graphics Card on my Mid 2014 Macbook Pro?

I purchased a mid 2014 Macbook Pro recently
and it has a NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M.
I was curious if it were possible to upgrade this to a better card?

Thank you so much.

Upgrading MacPro and nVIDIA CUDA cards.

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for