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GeForce GTX 280 on a mac pro??

kabunaru said:
Is there any Mac that you think is good or good enough in terms of this?
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The consumer line - Mini, iMac, Macbook is perhaps more appropriately engineered. The Macbook can have lots of problems, but I've not had any grief with the Mini or the iMac when it's used like an undemanding basic user.

Pressure said:
It's clean and very accessible. Good looking too.
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If those are your priorities for a workstation, you'd be absolutely right. Being the owner-operator of more than a few Dell Precisions and HP xw's as well as the Pros, I have slightly different priorities.

Aren't we getting off topic?
 
It really is a shame that even though the MP is not a gaming box, that we can't get more diversity in the vid card options for such an otherwise high powered machine. As it is the 8800GT is now 2 generations behind in the latest nvidia releases. (9800/260/280) How hard can it be for someone to release some 2008 MP compatible version cards? Is it just the power connectors on the higher end models that are the roadblock?
 
I hope ATI gets the 4800's to Macs soon. But seeing as to how the 3870 was just announced for the MP and the 4850's were launched today, is within 6 months too much to ask?

1 Teraflop processing power at 110W power draw... yes please!
 
Sesshi said:
If those are your priorities for a workstation, you'd be absolutely right. Being the owner-operator of more than a few Dell Precisions and HP xw's as well as the Pros, I have slightly different priorities.

Aren't we getting off topic?
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My priorities are that it is fast (check), runs Mac OS X (check) and that it can run Final Cut Studio 2 (check). Of course, being able to fill it up with 32GB of ram is also nice. Pretty much maintenance-free as it is.

And it integrates neatly into the rest of our network. Which also happens to be Mac Pro's.
 
Sesshi said:
The motherboard specifications, the cooling specifications, etc are all up to Apple. We're not talking about individual components here - parts fail sometimes, it's fact. I'm talking about the system as a whole and Apple's inability to engineer it to address any use beyond what I've come to suspect as their core customer base - people who do very little.
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I would be very interested to hear more about this. In particular,
what are the problems with the motherboard specifications with
regard to reliability?

ps

I'm not looking for any kind of argument here. I am genuinely curious.
 
Primarily down to the cooling, or the lack thereof. From what we could figure out when we were looking at this problem, the salient aspects of the Pro unreliability could be traced down to that. There are other aspects of the engineering which could be put down to making the system look nice more than make it run better or be more serviceable (Pro drive bays, a case in point) - which is, I now realise, a very common Apple trait - but the underlying factor would probably be airflow.
 
Sesshi said:
Primarily down to the cooling, or the lack thereof. From what we could figure out when we were looking at this problem, the salient aspects of the Pro unreliability could be traced down to that. There are other aspects of the engineering which could be put down to making the system look nice more than make it run better or be more serviceable (Pro drive bays, a case in point) - which is, I now realise, a very common Apple trait - but the underlying factor would probably be airflow.
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You have to use Apple® air. It's very expensive
and can only be had from Apple branded nostrils.
 
It's got to be breathed by Steve Jobs first, so it's in very limited supply.

Most profitable idea ever, selling air like Verizon sells minutes.
 
Sesshi said:
Primarily down to the cooling, or the lack thereof. From what we could figure out when we were looking at this problem, the salient aspects of the Pro unreliability could be traced down to that. There are other aspects of the engineering which could be put down to making the system look nice more than make it run better or be more serviceable (Pro drive bays, a case in point) - which is, I now realise, a very common Apple trait - but the underlying factor would probably be airflow.
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This doesn't appear to be a widespread problem.

I only have a sample of 7 Mac Pro's but none of them have problems.

It runs just as well as the equivalent PC with the same specifications but instead of getting the generic experience of off-the-shelves parts, you get a system that is highly optimized.

What is this system deficiency compared to a similar specified PC you are refering to? And what engineering efforts is hampering the performance?
 
Pressure said:
This doesn't appear to be a widespread problem.

I only have a sample of 7 Mac Pro's but none of them have problems.

It runs just as well as the equivalent PC with the same specifications but instead of getting the generic experience of off-the-shelves parts, you get a system that is highly optimized.

What is this system deficiency compared to a similar specified PC you are refering to? And what engineering efforts is hampering the performance?
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I believe I've already explained the last part.

I use HP xw9400's, Dell Precison 690 / T7400's which are basically exactly comparable machines - and unlike some perhaps, I don't believe these aren't equally 'highly optimised' either. Prettier and neater does not always = better to all but the most easily deluded.

In fact, both HP and Dell take quite different - but seemingly equally effective, with the Dell surprisingly having a slight edge - approaches to system airflow.

In the ambients that the production facility is kept at, plus the almost 24/7 nature of the system running, we've had far more failures of the Pros than the Dells / HP's. In the initial torture tests that we did, at first accidentally (when the air-con failed) and then formally, we had 100% failure of the Pros compared to <25% failure of the Dells. I overlooked this in that the test was intended to represent extremes of their use... but when transposed to reality, they have not been much better, until we took matters into our own hands.

As for it being not a widespread problem, I think I'd concur with that - given the 'prosumer lite' use of the vast majority of Pros, I doubt most users would ever hit the limits that we were. xw's and Precisions are however usually deployed when people are actually preparing to do something actually serious, and we've had little complaints. However by the same yardstick, I think the classification of the Pro as a 'workstation' is a little comedic. Perhaps they should call it 'advanced home computer'.
 
Do you use any "real" workstations at all Sesshi in your line of work from people such as Sun at all (from their SPARC line)? Or are you completely Intel based? I'd be interested to hear what you do actually as it seems every time you post you've got a new computer or gadget on it's way :).
 
m1stake said:
It's got to be breathed by Steve Jobs first, so it's in very limited supply.

Most profitable idea ever, selling air like Verizon sells minutes.
Click to expand...

It's basically the Holy Water of air.

Actually, little known fact, all the liquid-cooled G5s ran with holy water..... Jobs himself gargled with it, making it blessed.
 
Cromulent said:
Do you use any "real" workstations at all Sesshi in your line of work from people such as Sun at all (from their SPARC line)? Or are you completely Intel based? I'd be interested to hear what you do actually as it seems every time you post you've got a new computer or gadget on it's way :).
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There were nebulous plans to at one time, but the cost/benefit ratio, the desktop utility factor as well as the software that we're using drives the hardware choice. Even CATIA is run under Windows. However, OS X drives part of our research and some number crunching.

My business is in diverse elements of providing custom technology solutions. As a result we have a decent annual budget on IT equipment & services. As part of that, incorporating anything I might be interested in is not a big deal.
 
Gtx 280

I just bought a Mac Pro, Duo Quad core etc. I am, however, a Windows guy, so I am running 64 bit on it. Runs great! I have tons of ram etc. However, the video card that came with the machine succcckkksssss. Especially since I am running high end 3D graphic software. Some of my Maya files are over 200 mgs so I need the graphics power.

I just bought the GTX 280, came home, and tried to install it. Went through a ton of crap trying to find the right 6 pin power cable that only Mac makes, to plug into the motherboard to power the 280. Got the cable in the mail today, plugged it in, to find it still was not powering up the card.

I called EVGA SUPPORT, who told me that the 8 pin power cable needed to also be plugged in. So I ran a cable from my spare optical drive molex cable to the 8 pin plug on the 280. Plugged in fine... but when I turned on my machine again.... nothing.

I was never a mac fan mostly due to the OS. I like the flexibility of Windows, but I am now really getting pissed off with this seemingly unresolvable issue. Can anyone suggest a way to get this darn video card to work!

I will send whoever helps me resolve this issue two hot Russian hookers :)

Thanks!

M
 
europeo said:
I just bought a Mac Pro, Duo Quad core etc. I am, however, a Windows guy, so I am running 64 bit on it. Runs great! I have tons of ram etc. However, the video card that came with the machine succcckkksssss. Especially since I am running high end 3D graphic software. Some of my Maya files are over 200 mgs so I need the graphics power.

I just bought the GTX 280, came home, and tried to install it. Went through a ton of crap trying to find the right 6 pin power cable that only Mac makes, to plug into the motherboard to power the 280. Got the cable in the mail today, plugged it in, to find it still was not powering up the card.

I called EVGA SUPPORT, who told me that the 8 pin power cable needed to also be plugged in. So I ran a cable from my spare optical drive molex cable to the 8 pin plug on the 280. Plugged in fine... but when I turned on my machine again.... nothing.

I was never a mac fan mostly due to the OS. I like the flexibility of Windows, but I am now really getting pissed off with this seemingly unresolvable issue. Can anyone suggest a way to get this darn video card to work!

I will send whoever helps me resolve this issue two hot Russian hookers :)

Thanks!

M
Click to expand...

The way you installed it, is the way iy is supposed to be done.

Anyway, gratz to getting a closed computer for twice the money ;)
 
Cindori said:
The way you installed it, is the way iy is supposed to be done.
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Hmm the 280's have to use BOTH power connectors, but the mac will not recognise the G200 GPU (yet). (with a 9800 you can have a Mac 8800 in the first slot and then the Mac will read the second GPU)

Cindori said:
Anyway, gratz to getting a closed computer for twice the money ;)
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How in the world is that a helpful comment? really? (I know its none of my business but people who post useless fanboyish comments get on my nerves) :(
 
costabunny said:
Hmm the 280's have to use BOTH power connectors, but the mac will not recognise the G200 GPU (yet). (with a 9800 you can have a Mac 8800 in the first slot and then the Mac will read the second GPU)
Click to expand...

Thank you, I appreciate your feedback costabunny :)

costabunny said:
How in the world is that a helpful comment? really? (I know its none of my business but people who post useless fanboyish comments get on my nerves) :(
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Cindori, that's right... I did spend twice the money, you know why? Because I have a lot of money, and I love being able to waste a tiny portion of my money on whatever I want. Last month it was a Mac Pro. Last week I bought a brand new Aston Martin DBS (one of 10 exported to where I live). You probably drive a 1971 Fiat 500 and love it, which doesn't make me feel any worse about being rich, and gloating about it :) If you have any useful answer about my video card problem, I would love to hear it. If not, you might want to spend the 1000 dollars you saved on spelling lessons.

Thanks.
 
europeo said:
I just bought a Mac Pro, Duo Quad core etc. I am, however, a Windows guy, so I am running 64 bit on it. Runs great! I have tons of ram etc. However, the video card that came with the machine succcckkksssss. Especially since I am running high end 3D graphic software. Some of my Maya files are over 200 mgs so I need the graphics power.

I just bought the GTX 280, came home, and tried to install it. Went through a ton of crap trying to find the right 6 pin power cable that only Mac makes, to plug into the motherboard to power the 280. Got the cable in the mail today, plugged it in, to find it still was not powering up the card.

I called EVGA SUPPORT, who told me that the 8 pin power cable needed to also be plugged in. So I ran a cable from my spare optical drive molex cable to the 8 pin plug on the 280. Plugged in fine... but when I turned on my machine again.... nothing.

I was never a mac fan mostly due to the OS. I like the flexibility of Windows, but I am now really getting pissed off with this seemingly unresolvable issue. Can anyone suggest a way to get this darn video card to work!

I will send whoever helps me resolve this issue two hot Russian hookers :)

Thanks!

M
Click to expand...

You need to leave the original card in to boot from, then you can switch your monitor to the new card. The mac pro requires an EFI driven video card to boot up, then you can use what ever card you want in windows. So to recap, you need both video cards for the 280 to work.
 
Thank you zmttoxics. I did just as you said, but the problem seems to be that even with both the 8 pin and 6 pin power cables connected, I still do not seem to get enought power to the card :(
 
MAC PRO CAN HANDLE GTX 280 any day!!!

The Mac Pro dedicates 300Watts for graphics cards. The GTX 280 requires at max 236 WAtts, Nvidia says so on their web site. The 500 watt requirement is for the whole system and the Mac Pro has a 1.2 KW power supply which more than does the job. However, if you also want to keep a 8800 GT in it which requires 107 watts at max load you will have to connect it to the molex connectors in the 2nd superive which will work fine and will Not do anything to your system. Worth a try.
 
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