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nVidia confirms Quadro 4000 (fermi) for the mac
- Thread starter aneks
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jav6454
macrumors Core
In principle, it's exciting news. But I'm not popping any champagne corks until:
1) The hardware turns up
2) Some decent drivers are written
3) Mac software actually uses the hardware in a meaningful way that justifies the cost
4) The hardware shows proven reliability.
I have lost faith in Nvidia sine the 8800 GT nonsense. I also prefer open standards and competition in the marketplace wherever possible.
1) The hardware turns up
2) Some decent drivers are written
3) Mac software actually uses the hardware in a meaningful way that justifies the cost
4) The hardware shows proven reliability.
I have lost faith in Nvidia sine the 8800 GT nonsense. I also prefer open standards and competition in the marketplace wherever possible.
Indeed - I have seen no evidence yet that the 2010 Pro will have any more on-board support for more than the 2x6-pin in previous models, but I will be happy to be wrong about this. Anybody know if there is 8-pin output on the new kit?
I hope that card will work with the 2006 Mac Pro! Specs on nVIDIA page say that it does support x86 and x64 architectures do I do have hope🙂
jav6454
macrumors Core
Remember, Apple wants your money, so don't count on them allowing said card to be supported. Apple would rather want you to upgrade to one of the new Mac Pros.
Yeah, but the 4870 worked in the 06 MP and so does the GTX 480, so I don't think it will be impossible to use the Quadro 4000 in this model.
There won't be.
You can work backwards from exising information that states:
1x 5870 or
2x 5770's
This translates to 1x 6 pin PSIG socket per 5770, and 2x for the 5870 = 2x PSIG connectors still on the logic board.
From what I understood (english not being my native language), the guy only mentioned a Quadro card coming to the Mac. Can't afford that. What about Geforce cards? 😕
The GTX 480 does work in all Mac Pros, see The Rominator's thread about it or serach insanelymac.
jav6454
macrumors Core
Won't they release a Geforce GTX 4xx?
Quadro just provide zero advantage on OS X. Drivers aren't finely tunes for pro Apps, like they are on windows.
Is this a way to fool OS X user into believing they'll get a killer card (and spending tons of cash)? 🙄
Quadro just provide zero advantage on OS X. Drivers aren't finely tunes for pro Apps, like they are on windows.
Is this a way to fool OS X user into believing they'll get a killer card (and spending tons of cash)? 🙄
jav6454
macrumors Core
@jeanlain: As I already set you can just buy a regular GTX 480 and make it work in any Mac Pro...
Yes.
The 2010 is only a firmware change to the existing boards (Intel designed their product cycle, aka Tick-Tock specifically for this). One socket and chipset work for 2x years to reduce costs to vendors (just need a firmware update for the shrink portion of the cycle to get those parts running).
Well that's your opinion, but since nvidia accidentaly released a driver with Fermi kext in it, I think it's quite safe to say that the GTX 480 will be released for Mac Pro.
needfx
Suspended
I think the kext is for quadro cards not gtx ones, anyway does anybody had experience whit gtx460 in mac pro?
jav6454
macrumors Core
Cindori would know the answer. However my gut feeling is that no because of difference in chips (GF-100 vs GF-104)
Seems to me we just have to wait for the drivers (and ROM) with the Mac Q4000 and then see how far we get adapting it for GTX 480 etc.
There could be superficial and easily removed obstructions such as PCI ID linking, slightly deeper stuff like counting the cores or working only on the number in the Q4000, through to weird obstructions on some GTX but not others.
Right now I do not think any of us know how more widely useful the final Q4000 drivers will be, but I AM sure we will know within days of them hitting the web. All we really know is that the transient premature release a few weeks ago allowed us to inject 480s but only to run at a fraction of full speed (and so far no OS X CUDA either). If we get a 480 up that is no guarantee that a 460 will work, judging by the trouble people had with GTX 275s. I know this is a rumor site but until we get another driver we are stuck in pure speculation, IMHO.
There could be superficial and easily removed obstructions such as PCI ID linking, slightly deeper stuff like counting the cores or working only on the number in the Q4000, through to weird obstructions on some GTX but not others.
Right now I do not think any of us know how more widely useful the final Q4000 drivers will be, but I AM sure we will know within days of them hitting the web. All we really know is that the transient premature release a few weeks ago allowed us to inject 480s but only to run at a fraction of full speed (and so far no OS X CUDA either). If we get a 480 up that is no guarantee that a 460 will work, judging by the trouble people had with GTX 275s. I know this is a rumor site but until we get another driver we are stuck in pure speculation, IMHO.