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Nvidia quadro 4000 and bootcamp

Hi all!
in my organization I'm planning to change all the workstation with new macpro and Quadro 4000 as graphic card.
I need to run Solidworks via bootcamp on some of these workstation (with fusion or parallels run bad...)

My question is about the windows 7 64bit driver... can I use the one from a normal non mac Quadro 4000?
in nvidia site there is no specifc driver for the mac version...

any experience on this?

thank you!

Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Feb 3, 2011 12:50 AM

Reply
15 replies

Mar 11, 2011 2:31 PM in response to Steel Dragon

Gotta love the flexible design and upgrade/expansion of these systems 😟

Off-label prescription with splitter or molex, not my cup, you can check MacRumors Mac Pro forum for others solutions.

add 450W PSU to optical drive bay
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817101044
mess of cables but safe

Funny that you can run dual Quadros or only one 5870 (so forget the new 6990 monster just out from AMD).

I'd love to gut, find a suitable case that can do dual PSU or replace Apple 1Kw unit for one with modular 6/8-pin. Oh, well, I do, but it doesn't do Mac OS, just Windows. 🙂

Mar 12, 2011 1:20 PM in response to The hatter

lol, hatter...yeah, i very often wonder what's going on there at Apple. i wish i could take charge….but don't we all, right? 🙂

in my humble opinion, the upgrade/expansion options on the Mac Pro need to be addressed asap...its very sad. at the very least, Apple really has to supply more power for one more hungry graphics card. gosh, i'd love to know what they are thinking over there in the Mac Pro sector at Apple....

yes, there is one guy at the MacRumors forum that is running an ATI 5870 and Quadro 4000 at the same time. he is using a generic PCI-Express 2.0 Power Adapter Y-Splitter Cable to draw power for the Quadro. he says everything works just fine...he's got a green LED lit on the board, and is successfully leveraging the graphics card's CUDA capabilities.

i will admit, i'm a little apprehensive about using the adapter.... i know that all the PCI Express slots combined draw a maximum of 300W. the ATI 5870 itself draws about 150W drawn from two 6-pin cables, and the Quadro 4000 for Mac has a maximum power consumption of 142W drawn from one 6-pin cable. if i add that up, its easy to see that its a dicey scenario.

but wait, how can one 6-pin cable deliver 142W max? don't 6-pin cables hover around 75W and 8-pin cables provide around 150W?

i'm happy about one thing, though. at least i know i can run the Quadro 4000 by itself, and under Windows 7 Bootcamp, i can run the card with a finely tuned Windows driver.

Jun 29, 2011 9:49 AM in response to The hatter

To clarify,


I have no ATi card installed now, i only used the ATi card to install a boot camped windows 7 x64. I removed the ATi gpu and drivers, installed the quadro's and it wont boot. Will not get past the screen where i select OSX or windows boot. As soon as i press enter on the windows boot it just hangs, that is why i believe it to be related more to the EFI setup. If it hung during the windows actual boot sequence i would think its related to the windows install.


Thank you again,


-SE


PS i am running 2 cards in the 16x slots 1 and 2. Works flawlessly in OSX 10.6.8.

Jun 29, 2011 10:09 AM in response to m3the01

Nomal "best practice" is to uninstall drivers of one card before removing the card and installing the 2nd.


If there is a bug, my guess would be the 2GB VRAM, though there are cards with more Apple has faced a 1.5GB VRAM limit in the past.


I know there are some who have 2nd small psu and run with GTX 285 and ATI (4870 or later) and some other configurations (ATI 5870 plus Quadro 4000).


Seems like it is tested etc to work -


OpenGL 3.1 on Mac OSX, OpenGL 4.1 on Windows using Bootcamp


Quadro 4000 for Mac – Mac Pro graphics card for 3D design, styling, visualization, CAD, and more

Jun 29, 2011 10:14 AM in response to The hatter

Thank you, i did remove the driver.


As stated though, it doesnt even get to the windows bootup. Dies before there, so doesnt really matter anything on the windows side. The reason it is working on the other system is the use of the ATI card that is supported by the EFI,


I dont want to run any ATi cards, seems points to need to reinstall the ATi card every time i need to boot to windows. Likewise, i would only be able to use one Quadro 4000 in windows if running the ATi card as well to boot,


Thank you for the thoughts,

Jun 29, 2011 10:24 AM in response to m3the01

I get really confused when there are multiple different "threads" in one.


One person wants 5870 + Quadro 4000 - needs more power connectors, and the "300W" is 4 slots x 75W and is not the max for all cards or take into account the two 6-pin aux power connectors.


The lack of modular 6 or 8-pin going into the PSU directly.


So two Quadro 4000s won't boot. Sounds more like good olde Apple engineering and planning at work here, having 4GB VRAM.


And I thought you had mix ATI + Nvidia due to being confused.


And a single Quadro 4000 won't also?


http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1178714

Nvidia quadro 4000 and bootcamp

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