Hello folks, I’m looking to upgrade the gpu in my Mac Pro 5,1. I’ve scoured the forums for advice as well as seemingly the entire internet and thought just actually asking on here would be the best option.
I’m keeping my Mac as high sierra is required for some obsolete software I use for work just to clear up the “why you still clinging onto that” discussion.
With high sierra in mind and the fact I intend to run blender through windows on the machine I was looking at either a single 1080ti or two 1070ti GPUs. I’m about to do the Pixlas mod so I have more options. My budget could stretch to either of the two things I had in mind.
Would there be any benefit in running two 1070ti’s over a singular 1080ti? I just can’t find any information that will help out there. I’m unsure if the extra GBs and cores of the combined two would outweigh the single card for rendering.
Not entirely sure on this, but will there even be working drivers for the cards and OS, that is obsolete for a couple of years already? Ah… Windows on Mac. Still…
Maybe it’s time to start looking into other hardware?
But -if- this works due to the way Windows works on Mac, you -might- be able to use both cards for rendering at once. I think that was still possible on those cards.
Lots of ifs, mights and buts here.
Someone else more familiar with Mac hardware will probably have a more definitive answer
I know both cards will work on the machine, they’re the last ones compatible with the operating system I’m running so no worries there. Windows 10 runs nicely on it too.
It’s more about the two cards vs one that I’m unsure of.
If you get two cards, you would be able to render two Blender sessions at once.
Or link them with SLI, and render on both at the same time. But both cards have to be the same afaik, and your mobo needs to support this afaik.
It has been a long time since I dabbled with this
edit: check OpenGL/OpenCL requirements for the later versions of Blender and these cards. Not sure if there are limitations.
The SLI thing is something that I’ve only just come across. I just gathered having both cards plugged in meant they would work in tandem through the system… seems a bit of a minefield.
Pretty sure I read some time ago someone on here was running two 1070ti GPUs on the same machine I have. I’ll have to try and track them down.
Cheers, I’m pre metal on my system due to OS limitations. Wasn’t aware eevee only used on card on a two card setup. It’s pretty quick anyway so isn’t a deal breaker.
You can check out Blender Open Data project for comparative hardware stats.
From the site, 2 1070 TI’s will beat 1 1080 TI that is assuming that your setup will scale properly when using 2 video cards (it will use more power though). The other thing to think about is VRAM. 1080 TI has 11 GB vs 1070 TI having 8 GB. Don’t know much regarding Macs. Unsure if SLI will work so unsure about that route. Although Blender should still see both GPU’s. I always suggest the best GPU that one can afford that your machine can support also. The more VRAM the better imho. Although, this really depends on the type of scenes you plan on doing now (and down the road). The 1080 TI still seem quite expensive so budget there is a big consideration.
I’ll try and track down the other person on here who I think has 2 1070ti GPUs in their Mac and see what they did.
I can imagine I’ll just plump for the 1080ti in the end. I’m going up from. Gtx 680 so anything will be an improvement.
Most of the stuff I’m making is short clips and still renders for stock using both eevee and cycles dependant on styling. I’m not trying to do a feature film or anything like that. I’ll worry about that in the future when I can afford to plump for a dedicated machine. It’s just to keep me going for the next year or two.
Yes, totally aware of this fact believe you me. I’m just configuring the system at the moment using an earlier version that my gear currently supports.
