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4 Nvidia 8800 GT

YahonMaizosz

YahonMaizosz

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 28, 2007
233
101
Hi guys,
I wonder if it would be possible for us to have 4 8800 GT in the New Mac Pro. The 8800 GT is a Single Lane PCIE 2.0 card right? So, I figured that since the previous Nvidia 7300 GT that was offered in the last generation Mac Pro had a configuration of 4 of them would it actually be possible for us to have 4 8800 GT this time around??:confused:
Another point is that there is also a configuration of 4 ATI 2600 XT, which is also a single lane PCIE card. This makes me believes even more that you can actually have 4 8800 GT inside your new Mac Pro.
Well guys, convince me if I am right, or correct me if I am wrong.:)

Thx.
 
4x8800GT would draw way too much power for the bus. The total draw over the PCI-e express bus must be 300W or less. Each of those cards can draw over 100W. Either some would not power up (probable) or you would damage your logic board (less probable).
 
Hmm.. Interesting.. Just how much power can the Mac Pro board sustain? If it is the power supply that is hindering its improvement, can we just upgrade the power supply of Mac Pro??

Thx:)
 
YahonMaizosz said:
Hmm.. Interesting.. Just how much power can the Mac Pro board sustain? If it is the power supply that is hindering its improvement, can we just upgrade the power supply of Mac Pro??

Thx:)
Click to expand...

I would think not. I haven't seen the innards, but I assume there is some sort of proprietary connector somewhere, not to mention the fact that the power plug is centered, whereas 99.9% of the power plugs on retail PSUs are on the right side.

Besides, since NO ONE has the 8800GT in their Mac Pro there is no way anyone can answer your original question.
 
Wild-Bill said:
I would think not. I haven't seen the innards, but I assume there is some sort of proprietary connector somewhere, not to mention the fact that the power plug is centered, whereas 99.9% of the power plugs on retail PSUs are on the right side.

Besides, since NO ONE has the 8800GT in their Mac Pro there is no way anyone can answer your original question.
Click to expand...

Ya. I understand that there is no one who owns it right now. Perhaps as time goes by, the mystery to my question will be unfold. Hopefully it will happen soon as I am very curious about this before I purchase my new Mac Pro. I had been a long time PC user and I mainly play games with it. Thus, it is vital to know that my future Mac Pro would be able to handle graphic heavy application.
 
It's 300 watts total for the PCIe bus, so two 8800 GTs should be possible (I want to know, as I want to rock that setup). Guess we'll have to wait until some people get not only their 8800 Mac Pros, but an 8800 upgrade card.
 
aaronw1986 said:
Mac's don't have SLI. The only benefit of multiple video cards is to run a ton of monitors.
Click to expand...

If that is the case that it would seem rather pointless to have more than 1 graphic card unless you are in need of a huge screen estate. I thought that the effect would be just like with PC, whereby 2 cards would give you much better performance. (SLI/CROSSFIRE). But again, who knows what will happened.. Maybe someone might built a driver that would enable SLI or CROSSFIRE in Mac Pro..
That would be good..:)
 
Can I put the 8800 GT on the pci 2.0 slot and an Ati 2600 on one of the other slots for a third monitor?
 
It's possible, but on the previous Mac Pros there were driver problems that resulted in a performance hit when you ran an X1900 and a 7300GT together. I'm not sure if that's been worked out or not.
 
YahonMaizosz said:
II thought that the effect would be just like with PC, whereby 2 cards would give you much better performance. (SLI/CROSSFIRE). But again, who knows what will happened.. Maybe someone might built a driver that would enable SLI or CROSSFIRE in Mac Pro..
Click to expand...

I think folks here on this forum need to read up on the use of XFire and SLi, both from a hardware and software perspective. First, the motherboard in question has to support it. The MP's MoBo doesn't support either.

Game over, right there. The end.

Next, at least with SLi, it's not only a question of operating system drivers, but software/application support as well. In other words, if you want to take advantage of SLi with FC Pro, FC Pro would have to be written for that, specifically.

Not as easy as you might think.

jas
 
robbieduncan said:
4x8800GT would draw way too much power for the bus. The total draw over the PCI-e express bus must be 300W or less. Each of those cards can draw over 100W. Either some would not power up (probable) or you would damage your logic board (less probable).
Click to expand...

Not quite true... PCIE 2.0 allows 150W per lane, previous PCIE 1.0/1.1 allowed 75W per lane. Add in the 6-pin/8-pin PCI-E plugs from a power supply and you'll be able to do cards that draw much more power. For example, the 8800 Ultra draws well over 150W of power (75W from the PCI-E lane, 75 x 2 from 2x6-pin plugs) and yet you can SLI or Tri-SLI them if you want.

As far as there being SLI or CrossFire (ATI's version) on Macs: it won't happen without drivers as they are driver based.

However, SLI is not entirely an Nvidia thing - Workstation motherboards and Skulltrail support SLI on Intel chipsets. CrossFire exists on almost any Intel chipset in the past year or two that has more than one PCI-E x16 lane as well. Without drivers though, having extra video cards only provides extra monitor support (for > 2 monitors).
 
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