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.
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SiliconDoc - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
Yeah... boy a GTX285 seems pretty weak.(good lord!)
psonice - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
Well, a radeon 2600 is very weak compared to a gf8800. Yet it kills it in core image tasks (probably bad nvidia drivers, seeing as core image is based on GLSL, and the 8800 is way faster for that).My advice for people running CI heavy apps has been "avoid nvidia" for the last year or two, I'd like to know if that should change :)
Lanska - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
On MacOSX there isn't too enough games, but World of Warcraft from Blizzard is availaible. So you can test GTX 285 as a game accelerator card for Mac. I think many Mac gamers want to buy it as a game card, but not to display more windows in Photoshop or similar. After all you can even compare perfomance of World of Warcraft in Mac and in Windows on the same MacPro system (in Windows for more competition truth you can also use OpenGL mode instead of DirectX, as Mac version is OpenGL only).Game have testing command /timetest to benchmark system.
World of Warcraft client for both systems can be freely downloaded from Blizzard, trial accounts are also availaible. So you willn't pay any charge for testing, but this review will be more interesting, without games game card review not so nice :)
sprockkets - Tuesday, July 21, 2009 - link
You think WoW needs a GTX anything?ipay - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
It always sends me into fits of laughter when Anand acts surprised at the absurd price premiums on Apple products - as if Apple's strategy from their inception has been anything else than putting shit in a box and selling it as gold to gullible idiots with lots of money.I also got some kicks from reading the description of how to install the video card (something that any self-respecting PC owner can do in their sleep), as well as the fact that the Mac motherboard uses an Intel chipset of some sort.
Keep the lulz coming Anand, I really appreciate it!
sprockkets - Tuesday, July 21, 2009 - link
Laughter?More like his credibility.
Stuff like he still hasn't done any more research into why a MacBook "Pro" has better battery life under OSX than Windows, or why we should spend $2k more on a Mac Pro just to add a video card that can work with a $100 motherboard. I'm sure the average Mac user spends $2400 minimum on a machine for OSX, only to have to dual boot anyhow Windows to play Crysis, adding another $100 to the price, minimum.
"The other change is firmware. In order to get your PC video card to work under OS X it needs firmware with a few EFI hooks in it. It’s not a huge change, but for whatever reason the PC specific cards don’t have it."
Yeah, might have something to do with the fact that EFI sucks and PCs are better off without that crap. And even if EFI becomes standard in "PCs", Apple will just change the way OSX works to again kill it from working on any hardware.
rpmurray - Tuesday, July 21, 2009 - link
I can't help rolling on the floor when some dipwad blames Apple for the high prices of third-party add-ons. Especially when that same company sells it cheaper for the PC, which just goes to show you who's gouging whom.afkrotch - Friday, August 28, 2009 - link
Actually, it all boils down to being Apple's fault. They make a platform that they locked down a ridiculous amount. They then charge a premium for the trash and this causes elitist bitches to buy it, while no one else cares.Because there is such a small platform of users, companies have to charge a markup for having to make a product for a minimal amount of users.
Personally, Nvidia and AMD should just let Apple rot. Let S3 make their graphics cards.
sprockkets - Tuesday, July 21, 2009 - link
If you are used to buying Macs with pointless markups you are used to buying Mac accessories with pointless markups.Dainas - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
Anything that says apple on it is soo overpriced that there are many many forums dedicated to finding or making pc stuff that doesn't say apple on it work. The evga gtx 285 mac might actually sell boxed as they are only slightly insulting.