Dual GTX 680 4GB make my 2010 12-core Fly!

[Dr. Stealth]

Originally Posted by AlexMaximus

Hello Stealth,

First of all many thanks for this interesting thread/post and the impressive work on the rendering job on the posted grabcad link.
At the moment I am planing to get a workstation for solidworks 2012. Since its a home project and not work related I will go for a MacPro from 2010. Now here is the question:
Since I have only one Cinema Display 27 at the moment, would a dual GPU setup make sense for me? I assume you use two displays with your setup.
I am wondering, can a MacPro with only one screen even take advantage of two cards that are not linked through SLI or Crossfire?

The hardware I have is specific to what I do. The hardware you should have should be specific to what you do. =)

I use one 27" Cinema Display. I'm a little older and, to me, multiple monitors would be too much like watching a never ending tennis match. Ny neck couldn't handle it. I have found the single 27" display to be perfect, FOR ME. I even thought a single 30" was too large when looking. I love my 27" though. Vast improvement over my first Mac that had a 9" display.

The main reason I run the dual GPUs is for the CUDA cores. This is a terrific benefit to the rendering program I use, Bunkspeed Shot. It actually cuts render time in half compared to a single GPU setup. I use Solidworks every day and it runs very well on even a single GPU.

You can think of it like this. SLI or Crossfire are for the benefit of faster smoother "Display Graphics" with the signals being sent out your video ports. Mainly for gaming. I do no gaming.

In my case my render program utilizes the CUDA cores just as if they were an extra 3,000 CPUs in my machine. They are utilized for number crunching only with the signals being sent in a loop from the rendering program, to the GPU, then BACK TO the rendering program. Not out the display port. I generally render in the background as most people do and never even watch the rendering process. It's a lot like watching grass grow. =)

Activating SLI in my case, has been seen to cause issues and actually slow down the rendering process. Nvidia (and many others) say be sure to disable SLI when using the cards as I do.

In closing I think this is what causes a lot of people confusion. I have a $600.00 Video Card in my Mac with NO display plugged into it. Seems very silly to most people, but believe me, I run the hell out of it.

Hope that helps....

[SilvioM]

Originally Posted by Dr. Stealth

The hardware I have is specific to what I do. The hardware you should have should be specific to what you do. =)

I use one 27" Cinema Display. I'm a little older and, to me, multiple monitors would be too much like watching a never ending tennis match. Ny neck couldn't handle it. I have found the single 27" display to be perfect, FOR ME. I even thought a single 30" was too large when looking. I love my 27" though. Vast improvement over my first Mac that had a 9" display.

The main reason I run the dual GPUs is for the CUDA cores. This is a terrific benefit to the rendering program I use, Bunkspeed Shot. It actually cuts render time in half compared to a single GPU setup. I use Solidworks every day and it runs very well on even a single GPU.

You can think of it like this. SLI or Crossfire are for the benefit of faster smoother "Display Graphics" with the signals being sent out your video ports. Mainly for gaming. I do no gaming.

In my case my render program utilizes the CUDA cores just as if they were an extra 3,000 CPUs in my machine. They are utilized for number crunching only with the signals being sent in a loop from the rendering program, to the GPU, then BACK TO the rendering program. Not out the display port. I generally render in the background as most people do and never even watch the rendering process. It's a lot like watching grass grow. =)

Activating SLI in my case, has been seen to cause issues and actually slow down the rendering process. Nvidia (and many others) say be sure to disable SLI when using the cards as I do.

In closing I think this is what causes a lot of people confusion. I have a $600.00 Video Card in my Mac with NO display plugged into it. Seems very silly to most people, but believe me, I run the hell out of it.

Hope that helps....

Hello stealth,
I am think of doing something like your dual gpus but I'm doing it for hardcore gaming. What I want to know is what geekbench score you get on that machine, like you I have upgraded my machine to dual X5690 (3.46 Ghz). and can you please post some pictures of About this Mac and system profiler?

Thanks

[Dr. Stealth]

Originally Posted by SilvioM

Hello stealth,
I am think of doing something like your dual gpus but I'm doing it for hardcore gaming. What I want to know is what geekbench score you get on that machine, like you I have upgraded my machine to dual X5690 (3.46 Ghz). and can you please post some pictures of About this Mac and system profiler?

Thanks

Here ya go... Sorry it took a while. If there's anything else specific just let me know.

So... Curious.... What's your Geekbench ?

[SilvioM]

Originally Posted by Dr. Stealth

Here ya go... Sorry it took a while. If there's anything else specific just let me know.

So... Curious.... What's your Geekbench ?

I get about 25K in 32 bit mode, I wonder how much will I get if I upgrade to a newer GPU. What do you think I would get If I added a GTX 690 or even two? The newest update (10.8.3) remove the 2 GB VRam limit so no more OpenCL hack, did you hack your OpenCL to take full advantage of the 8 gigs?

Thanks

[Dr. Stealth]

Originally Posted by SilvioM

I get about 25K in 32 bit mode, I wonder how much will I get if I upgrade to a newer GPU. What do you think I would get If I added a GTX 690 or even two? The newest update (10.8.3) remove the 2 GB VRam limit so no more OpenCL hack, did you hack your OpenCL to take full advantage of the 8 gigs?

Thanks

Yes, I did the hack. But, now with 10.8.3 it's not needed.

Not sure how it works with gaming but in rendering you don't get 8GB by having two 4GB cards. The memory is separated per GPU. So if I render a 3.5 GB scene it will copy the scene into each cards ram and work fine. If I try to render a 5GB scene it wont work because the whole scene has to fit into each cards ram.

Graphics cards make no difference in Geekbench. Geekbench is purely a CPU and memory bench test. Nothing else is included in the test, it's pretty much a raw power test.

Here.... I just ran the 32bit test in Geekbench. Looks about right if your getting around 25K.

When I did my cpu upgrade the huge difference in price between the X5690 and the X5680 didn't justify the marginal speed gain.

[Tesselator]

Originally Posted by Dr. Stealth

Actually my MP is the server version whatever that means. Besides the OS, the only difference I could see was there was no keyboard or mouse in the box.

It means they supply you with the software needed to totally frak your system in just a few clicks.


23886... you dog you...

[SilvioM]

Originally Posted by Dr. Stealth

Yes, I did the hack. But, now with 10.8.3 it's not needed.

Not sure how it works with gaming but in rendering you don't get 8GB by having two 4GB cards. The memory is separated per GPU. So if I render a 3.5 GB scene it will copy the scene into each cards ram and work fine. If I try to render a 5GB scene it wont work because the whole scene has to fit into each cards ram.

Graphics cards make no difference in Geekbench. Geekbench is purely a CPU and memory bench test. Nothing else is included in the test, it's pretty much a raw power test.

Here.... I just ran the 32bit test in Geekbench. Looks about right if your getting around 25K.

When I did my cpu upgrade the huge difference in price between the X5690 and the X5680 didn't justify the marginal speed gain.

From what you said I think I might upgrade the memory too. I currently use 32GB and I am thinking of going all the way and getting 128GB, the problem is that Mac OS X only supports 96GB. Do you think I should go for the 96 or 128? Another thing I am thinking of doing Is getting two OWC Accelsior 960GB, it's a shame that the Mac Pro only supports SATA II or else I would of gotten the soon be released OWC Viper.

Thanks