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Nvidia GPU for Mac Pro 3,1 will it help with iray

Wedge_2659076Wedge_2659076 Posts: 15
edited December 2020 in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

I have an early 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 with 64GB of memory and 2 SSDs running OS X El Capitan (yes it supports 10.11 and runs great)
Sadly no Nvidia card so Daz operates entirely CPU for renders.
I have seen Flashed Nvidia GPUs at Macvidcards.com and have spoken to some users who have installed these and say they work great.
There is a lot of info that is confusing on these forums about which Nvidia cards actually work with Mac and Daz Studio.
Their website recommends the Nvidia GTX 770 4 GB as the high end for my mac pro as they state going any higher is a bit of a waste due to limitations of the machine itself.

Anyone have any knowledge if the 770 will help me with DAZ? One forum page said they heard it didn't work with daz but it was a much older forum page.
I currently have the ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB. I really need an upgrade even if not the 770.

Any help is appreciated and I'm very new to posting on the forums.
Thank you

Post edited by Wedge_2659076 on

Comments

  • fixmypcmikefixmypcmike Posts: 19,580

    It won't work with the latest DS, as there are no recent Mac drivers; @Totte would know what the newest Mac driver is and what version of DS will work with it.

  • TotteTotte Posts: 13,861

    Hi
    a few issues (I have a 2008 here collecting dust),

    you won't be able to install a macOS version beyond 10.6.8 which is too low for nVidia drivers and Cuda,

    at least my experience. 
     

     

  • Wedge_2659076Wedge_2659076 Posts: 15
    you won't be able to install a macOS version beyond 10.6.8 which is too low for nVidia drivers and Cuda

     

    I should have added more of my details. My early 2008 Mac Pro 3,1  has been on El Capitan for quite some time. 10.11.6
    It is fully supported. I have also read several blogs of 3,1 mac pro users installing up to High Sierra (not my plan).
    My other mac is the black 2013 trashcan model, which does not take any Graphics cards other than what came installed, so it also runs entirely on CPU.
    Though I admit I seem to have the two models that do suck for Iray.  If I had a 2010 or 12 mac pro I'd be in business.

    I do not plan to install that latest Daz (I'm on 4.10) on this machine as it was having too much trouble with G8 (not rendering but just using the work flow).
    So I'm mostly using G2 and G3 figures.

    I can always gamble the graphics card as it will help with other items if not with DAZ.

    Thoughts?

  • Wedge_2659076Wedge_2659076 Posts: 15

    I didn't mean to say I was unable to render, I meant that working with G8 figures really slowed the workflow down. That little mac spinning wheel of doom.

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