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+--- Thread: second graphics card in Mac Pro - questions... (/showthread.php?tid=88784)
second graphics card in Mac Pro - questions... - clay - 12-01-2009
At work, I use a 2008 mac pro 2.8 8-core model. Currently running a 30" dell and a 22" gateway display off the ATI 3870 that we bought from OWC. I have the original ATI 2600 and a spare 19" display here at the office, neither of which are being used. I'm thinking about adding both into this machine.
Several questions:
1. I've read on a couple different websites conflicting reports that if you add an additional graphics card, and don't plug any displays into it, programs that take advantage of GPU processing (motion, color, etc) will use the card to speed up renders/frame rates, etc. I'd never heard that before, and I can't find a definitive answer.
2. Assuming I have open slots, will the 2600 work in one of the x4 PCIe slots? I know it will run slower in terms of how much data it can crunch than the x16 slot. I'm asking more about the physical fit of the card, whether the card will need additional power connectors, etc, etc. Does it occupy the width of 2 PCIe slots? It's been a while since I had this machine open.
Any other considerations I should....consider...before trying this out? Thanks.
Re: second graphics card in Mac Pro - questions... - Filliam H. Muffman - 12-01-2009
Hybrid Crossfire is pretty much Windows only and works best with similar mid to high performance cards.
"Hybrid CrossFire performance is limited to LOWEST performing card times two, if we could get 100% efficient scaling. So buying a discrete card that is more than 1.8x faster than your integrated graphics card would be overkill and a waste of money."
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=498
There was a recent update to the Lucid HYDRA 200 Multi-GPU processing technology, but that is Windows only. It allows GPUs from ATI and Nvidia to work together.
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=815