grafics cards

[bright]

gentlemen,

right now i am in the process of replacing the grafics cards in 2 of our machines, which are 2 years old. right now they have a HD4870 card. as one of them broke, i would love to replace both of them with a new one.

any suggestions on what to put in there?

thanks for any help
thomas

[OlliR]

Thomas I suggest NVIDIA quattro 4000 for Mac.
Best performing graphics card with Catalyst as far as I know and can judge.

[bright]

thanks olli ... we will go for the quadro 4000 then

[Mr_P]

I concur

just ensure that you download the latest drivers from the Nvidia website
(built-in apple drivers dont work...)


For macOS 10.6.8

Latest CUDA Driver:
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/macosx-cuda-4.1.25-driver-uk.html

Latest Quadro 4000 driver:
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/quadro-macosx-256.02.25f01-driver-uk.html


Simon

[brianstorm]

Hi,

we've just taken the plunge and installed a Quattro 4000 (for Mac) and it seems a bit tempramental at the moment (it works but crashed when left running overnight). I think we are using Cuda and Nvidia drivers from the SNP website for Snow Leopard, although I'm not a MAC expert.

The install procedure went as follows:

Run CUDA
Run the drivers package which said it wasn't required (and didn't install)
Install card.

At this point it didn't work, we had a single display and lots of green lines onscreen. I updated the CUDA to see if that would help. Catalyst wouldn't run and the Mac Pro crashed after a couple of minutes.

I manually installed the card drivers by opening the package and clicking on the 3 files individually. I also reinstalled the downloaded CUDA (from SNP) package.

That's where we're at. I'm looking for any advice of suggestions on how to improve the reliability, or track down my problem.

The card was purchased from ebay and it's replacing a GT120...

Help would be much apprecciated!

[Mr_P]

What Mac OS are you using?

Please use the most up-to-date drivers from the Nvidia Website for the OS that you are using.
Links on my webpage are direct to the Nvidia Site, but may not be the most up-to-date...

In theory - you don't need the CUDA drivers for catalyst use - but theres no harm in installing them especially if you use the Mac for other purposes other than Catalyst.

Cards sourced from ebay are at your own risk... is it an official Quadro4000 Mac version? Was it sold as working?

Green lines may be either HDCP if you have a non-HDCP display or DA connected (without a parrot) or the card may be faulty?

Quardo Cards are readily available at reasonable prices from a number of official suppliers and you should get a 3 year warantee direct from Nvidia

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/product-quadro-4000-mac-uk.html

If you're passing Milton Keynes - do drop in and I'll take a look.

Simon

[brianstorm]

Hi,

thanks, it's Mac Os X 10.6.8 on a mac Pro. I've read on this forum that 10.6.7 offers no advantages, so I'm not planning to upgrade this.

I'll upgrade to the latest Nvidia drivers. Things seem to have settled down (Catalyst made it through last night). The green lines problem was cured by forcibly installing the individual Nvidia drivers (the package installer said they weren't required).

Catalyst version is 4.40_m364_HD. Am I using the most appropriate version of Catalyst?

Thanks for the help!

[Mr_P]

it's Mac Os X 10.6.8 on a mac Pro. I've read on this forum that 10.6.7 offers no advantages

I think you mean 10.7 - (10.6.7 would be a downgrade...)
Most new MacPros are being delivered with 10.8.2 - which is fine - but still possible to downgrade to 10.6.8 if required...


I'll upgrade to the latest Nvidia drivers. Things seem to have settled down (Catalyst made it through last night). The green lines problem was cured by forcibly installing the individual Nvidia drivers (the package installer said they weren't required).

Bit odd - never seen this problem - usually the drivers are a simple install?
Did you get a picture of the green lines?


Catalyst version is 4.40_m364_HD. Am I using the most appropriate version of Catalyst?

m364 is the current public release and necessary if using 10. or 10.8 - but also works with 10.6.8

S

[brianstorm]

I think you mean 10.7 - (10.6.7 would be a downgrade...)
Most new MacPros are being delivered with 10.8.2 - which is fine - but still possible to downgrade to 10.6.8 if required...

yes, apologies, i did mean 10.7. is an upgrade to os x 10.8 recommended?



Bit odd - never seen this problem - usually the drivers are a simple install?
Did you get a picture of the green lines?

no, sorry. lots of horizontal green lines, about 1cm part. there were some flashes and dots too. once i got the drivers installed they disappeared. we've had an ATI Radeon HD 5770 and GT120 installed previously. i ran the cuda installer prior to running the downloaded installer




m364 is the current public release and necessary if using 10. or 10.8 - but also works with 10.6.8

we seem to be running happily now, catalyst made it through the weekend. unless there's some performance gain or other advantages to be had by upgrading this is probably a good point to leave well alone, but i'd be happy to have your advice...

thanks again for your time and expertise!

S

[Mr_P]

Given the choice between 10.7 and 10.8 - I'd choose 10.8
However, 10.6.8 is fine too...
Either - stick with 10.6.8 or stick with 10.8.x

S