In that case, SLI / Crossfire is confirmed for you in OS X as well. Please test it out and let your fellow forum members know. Thanks.
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Max # of 30" Displays?
- Thread starter davoodoofunk
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In that case, SLI / Crossfire is confirmed for you in OS X as well. Please test it out and let your fellow forum members know. Thanks.
Yes, you can mix cards. The misconception was started by an Apple Developer's note that was later amended to remove the misconception. You can have an ATI X1900XT and an Nvidia Geforce 7300 in one Mac Pro, it's already been done.
Wrong. An 8x lane PCIe slot can run 2 30" displays with no problem. So you would have one X1900XT in the 16x slot (which is slot 1) and one in a slot configured as 8x which would have to be slot 3. You would use the PCIe slot configure tool to configure slot 3 with 8x lanes.
Did we ever establish why the OP needs 4 30" displays???
or was i jst really out of wen i read all this?
or was i jst really out of wen i read all this?
Do both cards work simultaneously in OS X? I'm glad you cleared up the misconception and cited its source.
The only probable choice is the one X1900 and two 7300s. Why? Because the Mac Pro probably doesnt have 2 PCI-E connectors inside of it to power two X1900s, and you dont want to split that line. Boy, these suckers use power like its candy.
Not really. The Radeon X1900 hardly uses all 16 lanes.
Hell, my Radeon X1950 which is faster is on an AGP 8X slot, and it only comes a few frames behind a PCI-E 16X version. A AGP8X is equilvant to PCI-E 8X
The only card that really needs ALL the bandwidth of the 16X slot is probably the 8800GTX.
Maybe he wants to see pr0n larger than life. XD
Not really. The Radeon X1900 hardly uses all 16 lanes.
Hell, my Radeon X1950 which is faster is on an AGP 8X slot, and it only comes a few frames behind a PCI-E 16X version. A AGP8X is equilvant to PCI-E 8X
The only card that really needs ALL the bandwidth of the 16X slot is probably the 8800GTX.
Maybe he wants to see pr0n larger than life. XD
While the X1900XT and the GeForce 7300 GT will indeed be able to run side-by-side in Mac OS X, there is anecdotal evidence that there is a major slowdown (at least in 10.4.8) in visual effects, as found in this thread.
I would assume that this is due to driver issues rather than a problem with PCIe bandwidth, but I'm only guessing, and I haven't heard if this problem is fixed in 10.4.9.
I would assume that this is due to driver issues rather than a problem with PCIe bandwidth, but I'm only guessing, and I haven't heard if this problem is fixed in 10.4.9.
Who would have thought such a simple question would be so difficult to answer?
We've gone through:
- duallink / dual ports
- 8 lane / 16 lane bandwidth
- simultaneous running of ATI / Nvida
- errors in Apple technotes
- vast numbers of comments by people who have never tried running this rig,
and now we're on :
- driver issues
- card power consumption vs number of PCI-E power connectors.
What next?
We've gone through:
- duallink / dual ports
- 8 lane / 16 lane bandwidth
- simultaneous running of ATI / Nvida
- errors in Apple technotes
- vast numbers of comments by people who have never tried running this rig,
and now we're on :
- driver issues
- card power consumption vs number of PCI-E power connectors.
What next?
What's next, you ask?
Your eyes will immediately fry from their sockets at the sheer amount of light being emitted from four 30" displays
Your eyes will immediately fry from their sockets at the sheer amount of light being emitted from four 30" displays
No because the Logic Board's chip set doesn't support it nor did I suggest that it would - I was simply stating that two different brand video cards with different drivers should work on Mac OSX due to info from an Apple Tech as well as an Apple phone rep.
I wanted to chime in on the PCIe dealio. Unless you're planning on playing games, the X1900 would run just fine on a 2x lane. The amount of data transfer required to render the finder is not that high. On a 4x lane you'll get a performance hit in games in theory but the high resolution of the monitor would be a bigger issue.
Also as far as Crossfire/SLI goes, the only deciding factor on if/when those technologies could come to the Mac is wholly dependent on ATI, NVidia, and Apple. There's no technical reason why it can't work, nor is there anything special about the SLI chipsets that makes them a requirement for SLI. In fact, ULI (part of NVidia now) has a patch so that you can run SLI on their boards. There are also hacked drivers out there to allow SLI to run on other non NVidia chipsets and "unsupported" Nvidia chipsets.
All that needs to happen is the creation of proper SLI/Crossfire drivers for the Mac. My guess is thats a low priority for ATI and Apple at this point.
Also as far as Crossfire/SLI goes, the only deciding factor on if/when those technologies could come to the Mac is wholly dependent on ATI, NVidia, and Apple. There's no technical reason why it can't work, nor is there anything special about the SLI chipsets that makes them a requirement for SLI. In fact, ULI (part of NVidia now) has a patch so that you can run SLI on their boards. There are also hacked drivers out there to allow SLI to run on other non NVidia chipsets and "unsupported" Nvidia chipsets.
All that needs to happen is the creation of proper SLI/Crossfire drivers for the Mac. My guess is thats a low priority for ATI and Apple at this point.
Only in regards to multiple video cards for different manufacturers running in the same operating environment. Rod Rod inferred that to also include SLI/Crossfire technologies as well. I could have been clearer but figured it wasn't relevant to the topic.
no. *I* didnt infer *****. you made a blatant claim saying "because it works in windows it must work in osx".
Rod Rod then stated that using the SAME LOGIC, SLI and Crossfire would work in OSX. Hell, using the same logic, I'm gonna go buy me an 8800GTX and Office 2007. they work for windows, so they must work for osx.
Those are assumptions (not by you - sorry I was referencing a previous post) , I stated my reasoning for my belief that it would work with out personally trying it myself with 3 separate reasons.
1 - Apple Tech
2 - Apple Sales Rep
3 - I have had success in Windows so the possibility is available
I said that it should work with my primary reasoning being point 1 & 2, while including point 3 from personal experience/opinion on the matter and I assumed that it would be read as such.
Got it.. the ensuing repartee has been amusing.
Sorry about that - I just wanted to make sure my words weren't being twisted.
For the benefit of the OP.
By the way, on the SLI front. You can run two cards in SLI mode on the Mac Pro in Windows ONLY (it can't be done in MacOS X as the drivers don't exist). It's done by setting two of the PCIe slots to 8 lanes each. So there is hope that eventually MacOS X will have SLI.