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Triple 30" display

C

chedda

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 17, 2006
281
0
Underwater
My old dual G5 2.0ghz will be due an upgrade next year. I currently have 2x30" acd's to which i would like to add a 3rd. So when speccing a new mac pro do i opt for the 3 x NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB or is there another better combination. My work consists of 3D modelling and architectural rendering.
On a slightly different rant i will be sad to go non ppc. My powerbook G4 is still solid and gets the job done i'm not really part of the crazy upgrade gang sometimes i hanker after a quad G5.
As i understand my mac now is pci-x not pci express so i don't think adding another card to my existing unit is possible ?
 
Check if the 7300GT has dual dual-dvi links. If it does you'll only need 2 cards as one card will be able to drive two screens.
 
The 7300GT only supports one Dual-Link DVI Port.

The X1900XT supports two.

So go for X1900XT + 7300GT

or

3 x 7300GT.

Think they are about the same price.

Your prerogative.

Tracer
 
I don't think you can mix manufacturers on PCIe, so you're right that you'd need 3 off NVidia 7300. You could also use 2 ATI X1900.

As far as deserting PPC, I know how you feel except that my 2.5 GHz G5 drowned itself in it's own coolant at the thought of Apple abandoning RISC, leaving me no choice but to move to the inteltard side with a Mac Pro 2.66. There's been a bit of beach-balling when I ask it to walk and chew gum simultaneously but it's not been as bad as I expected.
 
Different Manufacturer's Video Cards will work in Mac OS X.

Not in Windows.

As far as PPC Machines, I have no idea.

Tracer
 
Tracer said:
Different Manufacturer's Video Cards will work in Mac OS X.

Not in Windows.

As far as PPC Machines, I have no idea.

Tracer
Click to expand...

Actually different video cards will work in windows. The problem the mac pro had originally was a bios issue on the geforce.
 
Since you do 3D modelling and architectural rendering, wouldn't the faster Radeon X1900XT help? Especially with viewing the model when moving it around or rotating it. Or is most of the work done by the CPU. Initial rendering would probably be. I'm not familiar with the 3D architectural modelling apps.

But yeah, you have the choice of 1 Radeon X1900XT and a Geforce 7300 or 3 Geforce 7800s.
 
TBi said:
Actually different video cards will work in windows. The problem the mac pro had originally was a bios issue on the geforce.
Click to expand...

Not in Vista. I ran into that problem when we upgraded my triple-monitor workstation at the office to Vista in January...after many hours of not being able to get both cards (an nVidia and an ATi) to work together, when they worked perfectly in XP, we found a Microsoft KB article explaining that because of the way Vista loads display drivers they must be from the same manufacturer...I forgot the weird-sounding explanation they gave, but the short version is that you do have to have the same brand cards so they can use the same set of drivers in Vista. It will not load more than one set of video drivers into memory.
 
Dual ATI will not work, each requires a x16 PCIe lane, and AFAIK you can only configure a single x16 lane on the Mac Pro. It would appear the only configuration that would work is 3x GeForce 7300. I'd be interested to hear about your working screen configuration, the mind boggles at a scenario where two 30" ACD's would not provide enough desktop space...
 
chedda said:
My old dual G5 2.0ghz will be due an upgrade next year. I currently have 2x30" acd's to which i would like to add a 3rd. So when speccing a new mac pro do i opt for the 3 x NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB or is there another better combination. My work consists of 3D modelling and architectural rendering.
On a slightly different rant i will be sad to go non ppc. My powerbook G4 is still solid and gets the job done i'm not really part of the crazy upgrade gang sometimes i hanker after a quad G5.
As i understand my mac now is pci-x not pci express so i don't think adding another card to my existing unit is possible ?
Click to expand...

I can't answer the question, but I would like to see a photo of your setup when you get it put together...3x30 is enormous.
 
3x30's? Nice. Reminds me of Swordfish:

image014.jpg
 
ecks618 said:
I watch swordfish just to see that first scene when he steps into the room and they talk about the computer and the connection, makes me drool every time.
Click to expand...

lol,
but we all know it's just mumbo jumbo.

I have the HD version of that movie and I just watch the 360 Matrix-esque effect in the beginning.
 
betelgeuse1 said:
Dual ATI will not work, each requires a x16 PCIe lane, and AFAIK you can only configure a single x16 lane on the Mac Pro. It would appear the only configuration that would work is 3x GeForce 7300. I'd be interested to hear about your working screen configuration, the mind boggles at a scenario where two 30" ACD's would not provide enough desktop space...
Click to expand...

The ATIs (along with all the other video cards,) only require a physical x16 slot, the electrical connection can be lower. The problem is that the X1900XT takes up two physical slot spaces on the back panel. I'm not sure if the Mac Pro's backpanel can handle a dual-slot card in any spot other than the 'main graphics card' slot. When you have more than one x16 card in the Mac Pro, you should then run a utility that allows you to allocate the PCI Express lanes to the physical slots. You end up mapping the main graphics slot as an x8 slot, and at least one other slot as an x8 slot. (Technically, you can have one x16 (the graphics card,) and one x8 at the same time, but the x8 then is the slot farthest from the graphics card, which couldn't handle a double-wide video card. See Apple article.) The Mac Pro has 26 lanes available, which have to be configured as x1, x4, x8, or x16 in a certain way. Slot 1 is wired so that it can be x8 or x16, slot 2 is wired so that it can be x1 or x8, slot 3 is wired to be x1 or x4, and slot 4 is wired to be x4 or x8. If you wanted to put two X1900XTs in, (and the physical case supports it,) the best configuration would be one of the configurations that has slots 1 and 2 as x8, with the two video cards in those two slots. If you get three 7300GTs, the best configuration would be to have slots 1, 2, and 4 as x8 slots, with the three video cards in those slots, and slot 3 empty as an x1. If you got an X1900XT and a 7300GT, the best configuration is to have slot 1 as x16 with the X1900XT, and slot 4 as x8 with the 7300GT, then slots 2 and 3 will be unused x1 slots.
 
Thanks for the correction, my understanding was that the ATI required the x16 electrical connection. On further inspection, it would appear that dual ATI is technically possible, however there are still limitations on how you install them. The ATI cards require aux power because each PCIe slot's power rail doesn't provide enough juice. There are apparently two aux power connections that can be used, but they can only be used with slot 1 (lower aux port) and slot 2 (upper aux port.) More info here. That being said, even if you could get two ATI cards in there, powered, and PCIe lanes configured correctly, you would probably still have thermal/airflow issues. Whichever route you end up taking, I'd be interested in hearing how it works.
 
chedda said:
It doesn't seem straight forward i do not have 100% confidence apart from 3 7300GT which are a bit weak for my taste i have posted in apple discussions with some success does anyone here run 2 quadros in a mac pro (shocking price) ??

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1164388&tstart=15
Click to expand...

Being that you are talking about upgrading next year the video card situation will be different, and perhaps in more than just the cards offered. Running two cards at full bandwidth should be no issue with the new systems.

To jump on two high end Quadros to power three displays (you can probably order the part from Apple) after using Geforce 6800 will likely be overkill for you. They will certainly get the job done, but finacially probably not wise unless hardware costs aren't that important to you. If they go ahead and offer a more midrange Quadro card like the 570 or 1700 they might be ideal for you.
 
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