EVGA's GeForce GTX 285 Mac Edition: The Best for OS X?
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 17, 2009 7:00 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
OS X Apps That Need a Fast GPU
There are a few OS X apps that do benefit from a powerful GPU, but as far as I can tell the numbers are still limited. There are a number of functions that are executed on the GPU, but very few applications are actually GPU bound. Photoshop only makes minimal use of the GPU, the real benefits there come from having more video memory than having more shader processing power.
I tried using Autodesk’s Mudbox 2009 to measure GPU performance under OS X. Mudbox is a 3D modeling application that depends heavily on the GPU and includes the ability to benchmark rendering your model in real time.
Mudbox 2009
I created two models in Mudbox, one more complex than the other and measured rendering performance on the GTX 285, Radeon HD 4870 512MB and my Mac Pro’s default GeForce GT120:
The performance improvement over the GT120 is clear, but the GTX 285 wasn’t actually any faster than the Radeon HD 4870. The only advantage here is that the 285 has a larger frame buffer and could thus handle more complex models.
Even Cinebench’s antiquated OpenGL benchmark had troubles showing the GTX 285 in a positive light under OS X
This test isn’t particularly representative of anything but it does showcase some potential driver deficiencies for the GTX 285 under OS X.
OpenCL to the Rescue, CUDA Available Today
Snow Leopard will change all of this of course as it brings full OpenCL support to the table. Applications written in OpenCL will be able to execute completely on the GTX 285 and that’s where this thing will really be useful. Snow Leopard will be available in September and who knows how long it will take for good OpenCL apps to see the light of day. In other words, you may be waiting a while for your investment to pay off unless you have a high end workstation need for the GTX 285 today.
There is one other option. NVIDIA has made CUDA available for OS X, so if you’re a CUDA developer or are interested in playing around CUDA OS X apps you can put the GTX 285 to use today.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
48 Comments
View All Comments
bohhad - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
Will installation instructions be standard on all hardware reviews? Being Anandtech readers, I'm sure most all of us have no clue how to even take the sides of our cases off. Or was this a 'special' feature for our equally 'special' Mac-using members?utdman53 - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
Cost of a Mac pro configured with the two Xeon @ 2.93 is $6000.00 or more. What an absolute waste of money to match a core i7. If you want a computer that bad I'll build you one and myself one with that money.In life there are but kings and pawns, Apple clearly lives off the pawns.
archer75 - Wednesday, August 19, 2009 - link
I was looking at the price of the processors and ram and newegg and believe it or not it's cheaper from apple. We are talking about workstations here and as they go the mac pro is indeed priced well.ViRGE - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
Bear in mind that you're looking at a workstation system. The price on any of those is astronomical, it's not just an Apple thing. The chipset costs a small fortune, the Xeon processors cost a small fortune, etc.Apple's is still more expensive yet, but not by whole orders of magnitude like it is when comparing it to a desktop system.
ipay - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
I'd say there are clever people and stupid people, and that Apple makes its money from the latter.thurston - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
Why is the $100 price premium ridiculous? It seems to be in line with Mac pricing in general.JimmiG - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
"The first step to install the card is actually to install the drivers. If you fail to do so, you’ll be greeted with a kernel panic once you get the card installed and fire up the machine."That made me LOL after seeing those ads about how Macs don't need drivers and how they're so easy to use. At least a PC will load up Windows even without drivers. In fact, since Vista, it will even work at fairly high resolutions and in full 32-bit color. Just another example of how Apple's advertising is based on lies, exaggerations and misconceptions.
sprockkets - Tuesday, July 21, 2009 - link
But, but, I thought Macs just work and used "The World's Most Advanced operating system"!529th - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
The 4870 is also a working GPU for a Hackintosh. Also sold in the new Mac Pros. Apparently it is supported in Leopard 10.5.7 OS Xpsonice - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
Any chance of some core image tests of some kind? CI has traditionally been nvidia's very weak spot (ATI 2600 outperforming nvidia 8800 anyone?) and it's important for some apps.