Hi Rick,
DPArt is correct, those figures don't make sense. I have read in a thousand places that the card draws around 250 watts. Same goes for the 780, from slashgear:
"This the GTX 780 Ti works with a design that's 533mm squared, bringing about 250 watts of power requirement for 0.47 watts required per square mm. "
http://www.slashgear.com/nvidia-geforce-gtx-780-ti-details-released-in-full-0730 3839/
I'm not sure why any card over 250 starts to become a problem since the mac has a 1000 watt PSU, but it does. Some people mod/re-route wires changing 6 pin to 8 and using Aux power from CD bays to avoid using a second PSU and pull power from the original PSU but more qualified people than me (macvidcards - http://www.ebay.com/usr/macvidcards) advise against it and suggest a second PSU. I can actually keep my GTX 780 in PCIE Slot 1 powered by my secondary PSU, and put my GTX 570 in PCIE slot 2 powered by the original MP PSU, and both will be utilized by the machine to render in After Effects. That brings me to another important point: You have to add the card name to a file in both after effects and Premeire for the CUDA acceleration to work (Google it, it's really easy)
@DPArt: The reason I use the Kanex adapter (Which is up to $129 Yikes) is because the adapter your referencing does not allow me to use the following that is built into my Cinema Display: Speakers / Microphone / WebCam / 3 USB Ports / Cappuccino Machine
DPArt, can you elaborate on this, I'm not sure what you mean, thanks. K-
"Every GTX780 I have ever seen has a DP. (Looks like rectangle with one rounded corner)
DP is pin for pin the same as MDP, just need a cheap adapter.
Biggest issue with 780 & Titan cards right now is the "B" issue."
@Grant & Hatter, thanks for the additional info. Rick, it's been covered a thousand times but yes, it is worth re-re-re-re-repeating... These cards are not officially supported by Mac, and will not give you the EFI boot screen (The grey screen with the apple that tells you your machine is, in-fact... starting up + the ability to get to utilities). It will be black until you get to the desktop. SO KEEP YOUR GT 120!!! Because if you ever need to get to the screens Grant spoke about (and you will... eventually ) you will need to swap your gt 120 back in to see the following:
"Boot up screens, Safe Mode, Installer, Recovery, debug screens, and Alt/Option boot screens".
I still have mine, and once or twice a year when I decide to screw something up royally, or my frigging' Cinema Display decides to shat the bed again (It's a common problem) to make me THINK my video card melted when in fact it's fine... I will swap the 120 back in to patch what I need to.
My opinion on the cards Grant mentions:
• 5770 / 5870 : 3+ years old now? In video card years this is very old due to the exponential jumps in tech. They are not worth the $, or the EFI boot screen. They are better cards out there for the $.
• nVidia Quadro cards (All of them) Absolutely not worth the $ unless you work @ NASA and are calculating the Mars Rover landing. These cards can render in AE as well... but are more expensive because they calculate math far more precisely. the 780 will render as fast if not faster than these for 1/4th the price. Get two and you'll 1/2 your render time. 🙂
• The 7050 looks like a good card (But I don't know much about ATI and if Adobe supports them for rendering / graphics card acceleration yet). The 680: At $600 this is overpriced. You can get a 780 for $100 less (but again, no EFI) with double the CUDA cores, and a higher Memory interface width and bandwidth. I could be wrong about this but as I recall, the 680 series was no faster than the 500 series (for rendering) due to the Memory interface width being lower in the 600 series (256 for the 680 Vs. 320 for the 570) despite having 3X the CUDA cores.
I'm running my reasonably priced 780 with additional PSU and it's working great. But I encourage you to do some more research and think about what is best for your given needs. I'll look for those links later today.
K-
