Davinci Resolve GPU

[Eric Hansen]

hey Ahmed

I have the GTX570 and love it. i got it because it’s the most powerful nVidia card you can get for the Mac Pro without needing another power supply. I ordered it on eBay from seller MacVidCards, who flashes PC cards for Mac. If you get an expander, then you don’t have to worry about power as much as they will have plenty of power for even the largest cards. I will let others chime in on the expander options, but I believe the most popular is the Cubix Desktop 4

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Eric Hansen
Production Workflow Designer / Consultant / Colorist / DIT
https://www.erichansen.tv

[Toby Tomkins]

4gb 680 is the best I believe.

[Margus Voll]

would 680 run on internal power also ?

i know 580 would kill psu in you mac.

—

Margus

https://iconstudios.eu
https://vimeo.com/iconstudioseu/videos

DaVinci 9, OSX 10.7.4
MacPro 5.1 2×2,93 24GB
GTX 470 / Quadro 4000
Multibridge 2 Pro

[Eric Hansen]

[Margus Voll] “would 680 run on internal power also ?”

I thought it wouldn’t work, but I took a look at nVidia’s site and it has lower power consumption than the 570.

GTX 570 – 219w – https://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-570/specifications
GTX 680 – 195w – https://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-680/specifications
GTX 580 – 244w – https://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-580/specifications

so it looks like it will work, but you might need 6 pin to 8 pin adapters.

i may be wrong, but I believe that the change in architecture between the 5 series and 6 series has meant that the 6 are not as much of a speed bump as people were expecting for Resolve. someone want to chime in? Juan?

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Eric Hansen
Production Workflow Designer / Consultant / Colorist / DIT
https://www.erichansen.tv

[Eric Hansen]

according to this test on Barefeats.com, the 570 and 580 hold an edge over the 680 in simple Resolve 9 tests:

https://www.barefeats.com/rogue04.html

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Eric Hansen
Production Workflow Designer / Consultant / Colorist / DIT
https://www.erichansen.tv

[Dwaine Maggart]

The GTX680 card has a pair of 6 pin power connectors. So no adapters required. If you don’t already have a pair of Aux power cables with the Mac, you would likely need to acquire those from somewhere, as they won’t come with the card. So this card fits nicely inside the Mac.

I did a recent test between a GTX580 and a GTX680 in a Cubix Desktop 4 expansion chassis, using Resolve 9.0.4 and the Standard Candle 9 test, with a 5,1 MacPro running OS X 10.8.2 and the NVIDIA 304.00.05f02 GPU driver with CUDA 5.0.37, and an HD5770 GUI card in the Mac. I had “Use optimized display mode during playback” enabled.

On the 16 blur test, the 580 card had 13 FPS playback. The 680 card had 14 FPS playback.

On the 1 NR2 test, the 580 card had 13.5 FPS playback. The 680 card had 11 FPS playback.

So the 680 appears slightly better with blur and the 580 is slightly better with NR.

Based on this, it would seem like the 680 inside the Mac would have better performance than the 570 inside the Mac.

Your mileage may vary…

Dwaine Maggart
Blackmagic Design DaVinci Support

[Juan Salvo]

In my testing I’ve found that performance for gtx cards comes in as follows in ascending order:
GTX570
GTX680
GTX580
GTX690

I’ve successfully run all of them in a macpro. The 570 and 680 (not over clocked / ftw versions) work with two 6-pin power so well within the macpro power envelope. 680 FTW and 580 (not over clocked) work in the macpro but require one 6-8pin adapter. So they have 6/8pin connections. Obviously this is pushing the power envelope on the macpro. But in my now long term testing with several 580s, this has not once been an issue. The 690 (which is a beast!) requires two 8pin connectors. So two 6-8pin adapters for the macpro. I’ve only stress tested this for about 190 hours straight without fail, but who knows, so grain of salt. But even if you have to add additional power to be on the safe side. The thing is awesome. It’s basically like having half a 3×580 Cubix inside your MacPro. And like I said, I have it working in a box using built in power, 0 power issues so far.

Colorist | Online Editor | Post Super | VFX Artist | BD Author

https://JuanSalvo.com

[Eric Hansen]

this is awesome Juan, thanks.

regarding power, are your computers relatively power-light otherwise? do you have spinning hard drives running in the tower or are your bays empty?

e

Eric Hansen
Production Workflow Designer / Consultant / Colorist / DIT
https://www.erichansen.tv

[Margus Voll]

impressed about 690 stuff.

thnx.

—

Margus

https://iconstudios.eu
https://vimeo.com/iconstudioseu/videos

DaVinci 9, OSX 10.7.4
MacPro 5.1 2×2,93 24GB
GTX 470 / Quadro 4000
Multibridge 2 Pro

[Sascha Haber]

Guys, I feel like I have to chime in when it comes to overpowering cards.
It might be a coincidence, or not…but my MacPro is in Apple Care for the third time now .
I was using a Q4000 and a GTX470 together using a splitter for a good while until one day it just died.
They did not say anything in the shop…they just put in a new CPU and Logicboard.
Since then the Mac is not waking up from sleep and needs two boot cycles every time , so it went back into service twice.
I guess they will take out every part and just give me back the old enclosure with new e-parts.
Sooooo, I will stick to the Q4000 for the home system and be patient.
At work both Cubix operate as planed.
One with 4×580 PC and one with 3×680 and frankly, for any semi serious grading session, thats what you wanna do.
Leave the stress and the noise in the room next door and free your Mac 🙂

A slice of color…

Resolve 9.0.5 OSX 10.8.2

Colorist / Aerial footage producer
https://vimeo.com/saschahaber