Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
MacPro 3.1, Mac OS X (10.6.3), Xeon 2.8 GHz/8 GB RAM/nVidia GTX 285/Apple Cinema 20" x2/FCS 3
Hi DPArt:
I really respect what you're doing here for guys like me and I'm still wanting to get some help because I'm currently running a XFX 280 GTX and just purchased a XFX 6870 card and I wanted to really get a card that was going to take advantage of rendering vids for FCP 7, Motion & Photoshop. Would the 285 if I purchased on eBay, like this Mac version here:
or a PC version that can be flashed to work for my Mac:
Whatever input you can give that would be great.
Sorry I was replying back to DPArt and just posted not seeing that I can reply directly to you. So here is what I posted:
Hi DPArt:
I really respect what you're doing here for guys like me and I'm still wanting to get some help because I'm currently running a XFX 280 GTX and just purchased a XFX 6870 card and I wanted to really get a card that was going to take advantage of rendering vids for FCP 7, Motion & Photoshop. Would the 285 if I purchased on eBay, like this Mac version here:
or a PC version that can be flashed to work for my Mac:
Whatever input you can give that would be great.
Also, I noticed that you have the GTX 480. How much better is that card for rendering compared to the GTX 285 and GTX 470? Just curious... Thanks...
Barefeats recently tested GTX470 & GTX480, hopefully the results will get posted soon.
I would avoid AppleMecanix like the plague, they do not contribute to the Mac community, they just take.
Mac Pro Systems in San Jose, DV Wharehouse and other Ebay sellers are all better choices than old CrappleMePantix.
It is impossible to flash a GTX285 without resoldering an EEPROM onto it.
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly and for the input on AppleMecanix, but since I have a Hackintosh (or what I call a Mac Hak Pro), I'd be better off using a PC card for less than what they are charging. Again, thanks for the input. I actually was a big mac guy for 12+ years and got tired of not being able to upgrade the processor or cards because I believe that everything is so proprietary and expensive when you can now just build one for $1,200 and have a screaming machine. While I was waiting (last year) for the new Westmere chips and wanted to watch some vids on the topic, there was a vid that caught my eye YouTube. Here it is:
i7 930 @ 4.2GHz Hackintosh on an SSD opening 56 apps in 7 seconds. (SL 10.6.3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzxDAL_bwOo
Now at first, I almost didn't believe the title, but that's what made me want to watch it all the more. And when I did watch it I couldn't stop laughing. One of the main reasons why I could not stop laughing is because not only did this $1200 machine out school (at the time) any top-of-the-line Mac out there, it was done at one third the cost, and it was twice as fast! Again, I could not stop laughing, I had to watch it again. I was completely floored.
Later, I contacted the guy who put the video together and found out that he was a 19-year-old guy that went on a few other sites to get the help that he needed to install a legal copy of Mac OS X on PC. And this is right when my Mac fried and I was waiting for the new Westmere Macs to come out and I couldn't wait any longer (almost TWO months longer). I contacted the guy who put that $1200 machine together and he helped me piece together a top-of-the-line system that I personally put together myself. Mind you I'm a 40+-year-old man who has no clue about anything when it comes to PCs except installing RAM.
So began my quest in building this top-of-the-line machine that I only spent in the end $3800 compared to the new Westmere Macs that cost $7200. so I saved almost 50% and not only that I learned so much and also realized it really isn't that hard to put something together that has now become my hobby. The best part of it all is that if I want to be able to upgrade (which is what I'm doing right now), all I have to do if you spend a few hundred dollars more and make my machine 35 to 45% faster than before. Also, the website communities that are out there are phenomenal and extremely helpful (very much like yourself - DPArt).
Please take a look at my Mac Hak Pro you can go here and see for yourself:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=258110&st=0#entry1690453
I'm extremely grateful for all the help I've received from everyone and along the way I've been able to help a few others.
Now onto the main reason for why I'm here to reply back to your post a moment ago...
You made a comment about it being impossible to flash a GTX 285. Well maybe on a Mac you can't do that, but since this is a PC this is where the flexibility comes into view. I can pretty much pick up any GTX 285, GTX 470 or GTX 480 card and get the proper kext files needed to make these cards work. The only unfortunate thing the GTX 480 has been extremely glitchy and so that's why I was wondering how you got yours to work. Since you're using a Mac you're obviously seeing different results that are more successful than I am in that area, and I'm okay with that. If I can only use a GTX 470 then so be it.
But my main question to you is, from reading your rendering scores that you posted on the first page here on this post it seemed like the GTX 285 had better performance than the other two cards.
You posted these specs:
GTX285
Standard Memory Config 1024 MB GDDR3
Memory Interface Width 512-bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) 159 GB/s
GTX470:
Standard Memory Config 1280 MB GDDR5
Memory Interface Width 320-bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) 133.9
and then you went into the bandwidth information right after. Now if I'm looking at this correctly, although the GTX 470 has more RAM it seems like the GTX has a bigger Memory Interface Width 512-bit and Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec). so that's what I wanted to find out. If it would be better to get a GTX 285 over GTX 470 then I will. If you feel the GTX 470 would be better than I can do that as well. Please let me know what you can as both these cards will work with the current system set up that I have, as all I have to do is pick up the PC version of these cards and install the proper kext files to make them work and go from there.
I do want to say how much I appreciate you taking the time to reply back to me and hope that I will be able to receive the proper education to understand where I could be going wrong in what I'm reading. I look forward to your reply here shortly, you've been awesome… 🙂
They are both good cards.
I think they are similar in performance for a good many things.
If you use Bootcamp, then the 470 might be better as it is DX11 compliant while 285 is DX10
Hey DPArt,
Thanks for your reply. Honestly, I thought you didn't want to reply as I own a hackintosh. I appreciate what you shared. Actually I went with the GTX 480 & Koolance 480 Waterblock. These run hot and I want to OC this card to it's max to get the most performance out of it. So far the card works on most systems, but there are a few that are having a few issues. But www.tonymacx86.com community has been extremely halpful and supportive as everyone needs help from time to time. Can't wait to install mine next week !!! :-) Later...
GTX285 vs Quadro 4000
