Why mac pro 2013 not supporting illustrator GPU rendering

Requirements for GPU Performance

• Windows 8, Windows 7
• NVIDIA GPU card from the list below (recommended: medium/high-end card, 2 GB of VRAM)

Your complaints should be directed at Adobe, not Apple. Apple software such as final cut X works great with the display GPU and the compute GPU.

well if Illustrator supports GPU rendering in CC 2014 version and only on windows and on nvidia cards, then adobe has made their part already and it is up to OS and hardware manufacturers to provide support to adobe so they use their hardware as well and on selected OS isn't it?

Problem is, code is already there it just isn't used on mac pro hardware. All graphics cards are very good at computing vectors and graphics, don't tell me that only mac pro's GPU's aren't good enough for that?

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

All displays are supported by one GPU -- the display GPU. The second GPU is reserved for un-interrupted GPU computing and has no Display output Hardware.

Anandtech has a discussion of this in his review of the late 2013 Mac Pro.

Under OS X the situation is a bit more complicated. There is no system-wide CrossFire X equivalent that will automatically split up rendering tasks across both GPUs.

By default, one GPU is setup for display duties while the other is used exclusively for GPU compute workloads. GPUs are notoriously bad at context switching, which can severely limit compute performance if the GPU also has to deal with the rendering workloads associated with display in a modern OS. NVIDIA sought to address a similar problem with their Maximus technology, combining Quadro and Tesla cards into a single system for display and compute.

from section 9:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7603/mac-pro-review-late-2013/9

Another problem here: on windows bootcamp crossfire IS working, but not in OS X. As I wrote, sometimes it would be better to get more rendering power than computing power (actually at current state of GPU computing software, computing GPU isn't working very much if at all). It would be nice to have an option to switch on and off crossfire so we could use more rendering power when needed.

Also not all people are doing video rendering on their computers. What about 3D modelling and 2D work in photosohp? And maybe people like me are occasionally wish to play some games on their mac?

You linked me GPU usage from one program (probably adobe after effects or premiere pro or apple final cut X?), that is probably one of the only pieces of software that actually uses both GPU's under OS X. I made same experiment with software I use and I even tested some software I don't use but it is advertised it is "optimized" for mac pro like pixelmator.

And guess what? Second GPU is 99% time idle. Even when some stuff is using openCL in Photoshop, stuff is still computed on rendering GPU and not on computing one, which makes computing GPU just a good room warmer as I wrote before. Wouldn't be better to at least use second GPU for something than heating air?

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

Apple suggested that developers use OpenCL for good fast results that do not depend on closed, proprietary solutions from one vendor. Apple provided two excellent GPUs and took their flagship product, Final Cut, and made it run really fast using OpenCL and the methods they suggested everyone adopt. So it -CAN- be done.

Despite promises to adopt OpenCL, Adobe has moaned that this is too much work and has not made the investments needed to make this work. So at this writing, running most Adobe Apps on late 2013 Mac Pro Hardware will be frustrating.

Adobe and others need to work with Apple and get their stuff debugged and out into the marketplace. Adobe has said they are doing so, but has not delivered on their promises. Attempting to apportion blame Apple <--> Adobe is pointless. Yes, some of the Bugs will be Apple Bugs... but Adobe has not invested the time and energy required to make this work.

Yes that is true, it can be done. Actually adobe already done of that stuff, like some filters in Photoshop are using openCL, but still not enough. And as mentioned before, some applications are not even taking GPU power (like Illustrator).

Funny thing is, that photoshop was first created for Apple computers only and Apple were dominating graphics computers market for several years. But it seems like those years are long gone and Apple and Adobe aren't cooperating as much as before and that makes me pretty sad and frustrating at the same time. I bought mac pro with a good reason: to have good workstation to work with graphical programs with ease. But boy I was wrong and at the moment it seems like a bad investment of too big pile of money... 😟

-No GPU accelerating of vector graphics - GPU's love vectors!

-No 10-bit support (yay for buying 1100€ monitor with 10-bit support only to discover my mac just doesn't support it...). When I was buying computer I thought macs are supporting it and Apple is advertising their TB monitors as superior one and price tag is the same: superior. But when you go research a little deeper, you see those monitors aren't so special and they don't have 10-bit panels.

-Very bad or almost no GPU acceleration for other adobe programs. Having only few filters is not enough. I'm more painting than editing stuff in Photoshop and I use brush based tools most of the time and sometimes they lag like crazy... GPU would help here, but not used.

-No option to have crossfire or to use both GPU's for rendering - as current state of software isn't very much supporting openCL and GPU computing one GPU is more or less idle all the time and with that rate of software coming out supporting GPU computing this will be total waste in next few years and GPU will remain unused for most of the time and great room warmer...

Everything goes to mobile nowadays and it seems I will be selling my mac pro in next few years and buying some good tablet to work on as there is much better support from Apple on GPU computing...

I really started to like OS X and it's perfect integration with software. Drag & drop is actually working here and there are other gems that comes with system (I just love Apple color picker that can be used in Photoshop and extended with extensions). System is also very stable and nicely done and you can see that Apple had put a lot of effort into small details to make customers happy and to ease their lives using computer.

But maybe Apple should not spend so much time and money on next version of system just changing icons and UI/UX, but more on better support and cooperation with software developers!