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The Definitive Hackintosh topic
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  • andrevanberloandrevanberlo

    Trying to make up my mind on the graphics card to go into the hackintosh. (I've pretty much decided on the main board (P9x79 Pro) and processor (i7 3960K).)

    I work mainly in FCPX and I'm not sure about the benchmarks in some tests as many benchmarks are about gaming, not video editing.

    On top of that, i believe i saw somewhere that both resolve and adobe are going to be supporting OpenCL soon and off course FCPX is going to be optimized for the AMD dual GPU card.

    But.... Hackintosh forum only lists the GTX cards in their lists so does it mean i can't use anything else?

    So... which card for the hackintosh that will be primarily used for FCPX?

    GTX ... ? Radeon HD ... ? Firepro ... ?

  • alcomposeralcomposer

    @andrevanberlo

    7970- buy it now, while they are still in stock... I'm thinking of buying a few. ;-)

    With a 7970 you can switch background render BACK ON! (Oh, and set it to 0)

  • dtrdtr

    Myeah... only do that if you're prepared to work out the kinks. There is no full support yet AFAIK. No guarantee there will be either.

    http://www.tonymacx86.com/347-depth-gigabyte-amd-radeon-hd-7970-oc.html
    http://www.tonymacx86.com/graphics/92710-10-8-3-amd-radeon-hd-7xxx-graphics-testing-thread.html

  • alcomposeralcomposer

    True, yet try not to spend too much cash on Nvidia, its a bit of a up hill battle with OpenCL. Why do you think apple has ditched them. Besides - who has time for game play when you can be editing video?

  • dtrdtr

    hehe, well, gaming is my oldest addiction and the only one i still succumb to from time to time ;)

  • alcomposeralcomposer

    I would get a Titan then, at least you will have half the OpenCL power of 7970. (oh and AWESOME gameplay!)

  • dtrdtr

    Right now I don't care about openCL. I use Premiere (casually) so CUDA. My main thing is 3D openGL coding in Max/MSP/Jitter. My GTX670 is doing fine for now :)

    It's working 100% too. Very important for me as I work with lots of displays/projectors in my projects and have to rely on it for live performances.

  • vicharrisvicharris

    For what it's worth, my 660 renders in the background of FCPX with no problem as well. Not sure what's considered fast or not but coming from FCP7, I'm just stoked it works!

  • andrevanberloandrevanberlo

    well i play 0 games, haven't played any since years, not on the mac or pc anyway.

    I'll check out the Titan or wait how the HD Radeon thing develops, i still have some time. Wouldn't surprise me if the would get more support in the near future. On the tonymacx86 forum there are some who got it to work so maybe more people will dig into this.. (i hope :-)

    Just wanna make a setup that'll last me for about 4 years until it needs an upgrade.

    Are the also benchmarks for videocards that are not focused on gaming?

  • dtrdtr

    There's Luxmark for openCL benching. Some review sites also include non-game benchmarks: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review-benchmark,3232-14.html

  • inqb8trinqb8tr

    Any thoughts/experiences about "TC Electronic Desktop Konnekt 6" firewire audio card on Hackintosh?

  • andrevanberloandrevanberlo

    @dtr thanks! @inqb8tr i'm interested in that too, need firewire for my audio interfaces

  • dtrdtr

    If there are OSX drivers there's no reason it wouldn't work on a hackintosh.

  • alcomposeralcomposer

    @dtr have you spent any time using Quartz Composer in OS X? I have and its remarkable. Very fast, & very stable.

  • alcomposeralcomposer

    @andrevanberlo, @inqb8tr,

    I have my Motu Traveler Mk3 up running 100%. Only thing that was an issue is that the choke whine of the 7970 was being picked up by the speakers! (sounded like a pig dying) :-( poor pig. I had to isolate the input and output through ADAT interface to the Traveler. However this isn't an issue with the computer- rather an ongoing issue I have with my Traveler. 1st one of my mic inputs on the traveler went strange (as in hissing) a few years back- then all 4 went white noise on me. (mind you this is my second one- first I took back).

    So long story short- if your audio equipment isn't made by Apogee expect to hear GPU whine with this new bread of super fast GPU's.

    YMMV

    Alcomposer

  • andrevanberloandrevanberlo

    @alcomposer I use an RME fireface 800, never ever ever ever did i have ANY problems with that interface. no channels acting weird or things malfunctioning.

    I remember a discussion on a thread about technical support and interfaces, one was better than the other, but consensus was that all the "RME people" never had the need to call technical support, the stuff just works, always.

    Don't know if that is true but I know quite a few people using RME and all claim it is solid as rock...

    (EDIT) looks like a serious piece of hardware though!but can't figure out from your post how the 7970 was messing up sound , you mean with built in sound?

  • alcomposeralcomposer

    @andrevanberlo, the is documented on some MacPros - Apple solved this by (what I believe) turning down the processing power of the GPU on some models (my educated guess).

    With the 7970 I can hear it whine in the computer case, and when my Traveler is plugged into firewire and 'directly' connected to speakers it somehow is not isolated enough- and the whine translates to the speakers.

    As I mentioned this is most probably an isolated issue, however I have found forums discussing this issue online. I have fix it since as I mentioned above by isolating completely the Traveler from the analog stage of the audio signal.

    RME is a great brand and has some amazing products! I am sure that they wouldn't have the same issue. My traveler although it has fantastic specs is sometimes lacking in the analogue department. (shielding etc.).

    Its an issue to be aware of, so if it does happen don't freak out. :-D

    YMMV

  • andrevanberloandrevanberlo

    @alcomposer bizarre! never thought processing power of a GPU would be audible over a sound system. Good to know because this would be the last thing i would think of should it happen to me...

  • dtrdtr

    Guys, this is a ground loop issue. Try taping off the ground contact in the power plug of your speakers and/or interface.

  • konjowkonjow

    @dtr There's something wrong with this Luxmark test. My GTX670 has 680 on room test not 280 but if 7970 card 1080 result is true-that is good :)

  • dtrdtr

    check this http://www.tonymacx86.com/343-os-x-10-8-3-nvidia-6xx-opencl-benchmarks.html

  • alcomposeralcomposer

    Hmmm @dtr. GTX670 v's 7970 OpenCL- single card... you can be the judge...

    GTX 670 10.8.3.png
    480 x 422 - 32K
    Screen Shot 2013-06-23 at 2.35.45 PM.png
    539 x 443 - 28K
  • alcomposeralcomposer

    As for the squealing- the GPU has stopped the noise now... don't know why? Maybe the PSU was burning in or something... Horrid sound.

  • dtrdtr

    @alcomposer I said all along that AMD is way ahead in openCL, didn't I?

  • alcomposeralcomposer

    @dtr not really saying anything except posting my bench mark... Also it looks like 7xxx support is stable (for z77x gigabyte motherboards anyway).

    I also own a GTX670 which is a fantastic card. Don't take what anything the wrong way. We are all in this for the performance... ;-)

    FCPX is a beast with the 7xxx series. Thank you Apple and AMD! (What next? Apple to move to AMD processors to?)

    But I must say that when I spent more the $500 on the GTX670 I was a bit shocked at how low the score was.

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