Nvidia Quadro K5000 for mac

[Reinis Traidas]

There is no one single card to rule them all, unfortunately. For a new PC build with enough PCIe v3 slots and if budget were not a consideration, I would go with dual overclocked GTX680 4GB cards for use in Premiere and Resolve. If I needed more robust OpenGL support and spent more time in Maya, but also Premiere and Resolve as well, I would go with the K5000 + K20X combo.

Jeff, these 2 options you mention (dual GTX680s versus K5000+K20X) differ HUGELY in price. AFAIK, you can get a GTX680 4GB card for around $800. $1600 for dual, whereas the K5000 alone costs $2200 and the retail for a K20X is above $3000. Can you really compare a $1600 setup versus a $5200 setup? There must be a trade-off there somewhere, right?

[Eric Santiago]

Rienis if you have to hack the GTX680 to get it working right then some of us cant do it.
I work for a corporation that doesn t allow that option.
For personal use, not a problem.

[Reinis Traidas]

Rienis if you have to hack the GTX680 to get it working right then some of us cant do it.
I work for a corporation that doesn t allow that option.
For personal use, not a problem.

In what way you have to hack them and why? I understand that you may need firmware hacking in order to get them working in a Mac Pro, but a PC?

[Eric Santiago]

In what way you have to hack them and why? I understand that you may need firmware hacking in order to get them working in a Mac Pro, but a PC?

it would be on a Mac Pro and we have a policy on hardware.
Im sure some corps have similar.
Im only referring as to why some will pay the high cost of GPU power.

[Reinis Traidas]

it would be on a Mac Pro and we have a policy on hardware.
Im sure some corps have similar.
Im only referring as to why some will pay the high cost of GPU power.

Right. I'm actually interested in the fact that from what I gather - the hardware in a GTX680 is about the same as the K5000, so my question is - what is there in the Quadro that justifies the extra $1200 of its cost?

[Eric Santiago]

Right. I'm actually interested in the fact that from what I gather - the hardware in a GTX680 is about the same as the K5000, so my question is - what is there in the Quadro that justifies the extra $1200 of its cost?

Its been like that for years now.

Same issues with Quadro 4000, 4800, etc.....

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Quadro cards are specified for different purposes vs. the GTX series of cards. They cost more for certain reasons and it's not directly based on performance. The GeForce cards offer superior performance for many common tasks and yes, there are trade-offs to be made either way. Quadro cards have features like ECC memory, better warranties, superior tuning for OpenGL and greater precision as their primary advantages. If you're just looking for raw CUDA performance for accelerating Resolve or Premiere, the Quadro isn't your best option. If you need the extra precision and boost the Quadro cards give within OpenGL and the more fluid performance for apps like Pro/E, SolidWorks, Maya, XSI, etc.. Then the Quadro is your best option.

In terms of hardware, the cards will typically use the same GPUs at their core, but the Quadros have a more robust memory interface, going back to the ECC RAM as an example. They are typically clocked slower and built to run within certain power profiles we see in a lot of the mainstream workstations. Drivers and firmware are tuned differently to perform in a different way, mostly for OpenGL. GPU selection really comes down to using the right tool for the job. In the Mac world, the tool selection is usually quite limited as far as GPUs go.

[Reinis Traidas]

Quadro cards are specified for different purposes vs. the GTX series of cards. They cost more for certain reasons and it's not directly based on performance. The GeForce cards offer superior performance for many common tasks and yes, there are trade-offs to be made either way. Quadro cards have features like ECC memory, better warranties, superior tuning for OpenGL and greater precision as their primary advantages. If you're just looking for raw CUDA performance for accelerating Resolve or Premiere, the Quadro isn't your best option. If you need the extra precision and boost the Quadro cards give within OpenGL and the more fluid performance for apps like Pro/E, SolidWorks, Maya, XSI, etc.. Then the Quadro is your best option.

In terms of hardware, the cards will typically use the same GPUs at their core, but the Quadros have a more robust memory interface, going back to the ECC RAM as an example. They are typically clocked slower and built to run within certain power profiles we see in a lot of the mainstream workstations. Drivers and firmware are tuned differently to perform in a different way, mostly for OpenGL. GPU selection really comes down to using the right tool for the job. In the Mac world, the tool selection is usually quite limited as far as GPUs go.

Thanks for this. Like many others, I am eager to find out what Apple has in store for the Mac Pro (if anything). I'm hoping for enough PCI v3 slots to have dual Nvidia cards, as well as space for a Red Rocket and a Decklink card. Thunderbolt would be great for storage.

[Eric Santiago]

If you cant wait get a CUBIX XPANDER.
We run Avid and Resolve along with FCPX and Premiere Pro on the same Mac Pro with Quadro 4000s as GPU plus a ROCKET and the DeckLink to boot.

[Olivier Brisson]

I just tried my new Quadro 4000 for Mac on the Windows 7 side. I tried a render in Maya 2013 and actually, to be honest, I didn't even saw a difference than what my previous GeForce GT 120 did.. In fact, while just browsing around I don't see any difference (Though on the Mac side, open pages on internet seemed faster since I installed the Quadro 4000..)

So yea, any reason you can see why it doesn't seems to have a difference? I actually downloaded the lastest drivers on the Windows side, but nothing seems to change on the performance side.

EDIT: Alright, I just tried both cards. I made the EXACT SAME RENDER with the Quadro 4000 and the GeForce GT 120, and both did the render in 25 seconds.. I guess there is a problem here, I can't beleive I paid $800+ for nothing better.