2nd graphics card for Mac Pro

[soundboy35]

I need to get a 2nd graphics card to work in a Mac Pro dual 3ghz tower. I took an NVIDIA card from a Quad G5, but can't seem
to get it to work together with the Mac Pro card. Anyone know the correct setting in the Expansion Slot Utility or what slot the second card has to go into? The final config will be 2 graphics cards and an HD2 setup.

Thanks,

Steve

[DigiTechSupt]

This will not work - you can only have 1 graphics card installed, otherwise you'll run into all kinds of PCI bus errors due to the graphics card and the HD cards fighting for control of the PCI bus...

[Noiz2]

This will not work - you can only have 1 graphics card installed, otherwise you'll run into all kinds of PCI bus errors due to the graphics card and the HD cards fighting for control of the PCI bus...

Is this something new? It is quite common to have a second graphics card and I haven't heard of the issues you mention. Certainly video cards, which should cause the same issue, were supported. The Fuse and Igniter cards were supported and that was on slower systems. On my G3 I had a Fuse and a SCSI card on the pci bus and that computer used a pci video card. That system was quite stable with my Mix.

So I guess my question is what changed and when?

[DigiTechSupt]

Is this something new? It is quite common to have a second graphics card and I haven't heard of the issues you mention. Certainly video cards, which should cause the same issue, were supported. The Fuse and Igniter cards were supported and that was on slower systems. On my G3 I had a Fuse and a SCSI card on the pci bus and that computer used a pci video card. That system was quite stable with my Mix.

So I guess my question is what changed and when?

Nothing new at all - it's been this way since the very beginning (back to PT 4.x...). The Fuse and Igniter cards are video capture cards and not specifically a 'graphics card' to drive another monitor, which is what the original poster is trying to do.

While some people have been able to use a 2nd graphics card successfully, the vast majority will see severe issues when doing so. If someone calls in with problems, the first thing we'll have them do is remove that 2nd graphics card since it's not supported, nor recommended.

[bad jitter]

some people have been able to use a 2nd graphics card successfully

I used two graphics cards with three Digi cards over five years in G4 without any problems. And now I've been using two graphics cards a couple of months in Mac Pro (with Magma chassis) without any problems. I've been pushing the track limit, but at 24 bit 48 kHz only.

[/QUOTE]

[soundboy35]

We installed a second NVIDIA graphics card, (slot 2) the Core and Accel PT cards (slots 3 & 4) and so far so good.
The system will be set up for 32 AES outputs. I'll have to add some audio tracks and see what happens.

Thanks...

[Noiz2]

I don't mean to be a pain but part of the reason folks just hate to call digi tech support is that the first thing they will ask you to do is rip apart the system. It doesn't mater what your problem is. You can be calling for what you later find out on the DUC (the best PT recourse anywhere) is a known issue with a straight forward workaround or fix, and tech support will have you pulling cards and yanking software.
It is just no plausible that a bus master card like the Fuse pumping a video stream is not at least as PCI hungry as a "video" card that has more memory and is working natively with a monitor.

I guess the jist is that ask your fellow users because digi will not talk to you if you use the card. But you will have a large group of folks who are doing the same thing and will talk to you.

The Igniter by the way even though "supported" would not allow me to run a full track count. I would be very surprised if a video card had more of an impact. You could go to the Mojo but Digi has an unfortunate history of orphaning their video options so that's sort of risky.

And I apologize for jumping on you but that was such a typical Digi company line, it pissed me off. I am grateful you guy's are monitoring and responding, even if I don't like some of the answers.

Nothing new at all - it's been this way since the very beginning (back to PT 4.x...). The Fuse and Igniter cards are video capture cards and not specifically a 'graphics card' to drive another monitor, which is what the original poster is trying to do.

While some people have been able to use a 2nd graphics card successfully, the vast majority will see severe issues when doing so. If someone calls in with problems, the first thing we'll have them do is remove that 2nd graphics card since it's not supported, nor recommended.

[mfranken]

Anyone know the correct setting in the Expansion Slot Utility or what slot the second card has to go into?

I've been running 2x 'Apple NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT' cards in my MacPro for the last 10 months, however I'm only running 7.3.1 LE with a MBox2Pro. Got them running in slots 1+4 with the main/original slot (slot4?) set to x16 and the other to x8. Well I think that's right - been a while since I've seen that page.

I have however had some firewire -6085 errors. Got them a lot more when my third display's res was set too high (guess it was dragging too much data down the bus) and this would throw the firewire buss. I would however one day like to try getting a PCI-e firewire card so that I can get the MBox2Pro off the main firewire buss (and allow FW800) but that's a different issue.

So coming back to your question, you might want to make sure the specific model of the second card you have is compatable with the MacPro - see Apple website?? Hope some of this helps.

Regards,

Mark

[DigiTechSupt]

I don't mean to be a pain but part of the reason folks just hate to call digi tech support is that the first thing they will ask you to do is rip apart the system. It doesn't mater what your problem is. You can be calling for what you later find out on the DUC (the best PT recourse anywhere) is a known issue with a straight forward workaround or fix, and tech support will have you pulling cards and yanking software.
It is just no plausible that a bus master card like the Fuse pumping a video stream is not at least as PCI hungry as a "video" card that has more memory and is working natively with a monitor.

I can say, unequivocally, that ripping apart a system is the last option we will take unless there is a very good reason to do so. We are very sensitive to the time it takes to pull apart a system, both for the customer and for us. It is in our best interest to get you back up and running as quickly as possible. We know that video cards on the PCI bus are problematic - while there are people out there using them successfully, they are a minority and we specifically don't qualify this configuration for the very reason that most people will not be successful with it.

Doing proper tech support is working with 'known quantities' and determining the source of the problem by process of elimination - you start with the obvious stuff first, in this case it would be the second video card - and I have a huge database of calls supporting that statement. Having a tech spend hours trying to get a system working that has an unsupported component and which could end up going nowhere is an unwise use of their time - and a disservice to those who follow the compatibility documents and are having a problem with a supported and compatible system who may be waiting to talk to someone. I've seen this situation time and time again and I'm only trying to make it clear how prevalent problems with second video cards are.

The situation with something like the Fuse is that Pro Tools is coded specifically for that card and to handle the PCI data in an efficient manner. For us to take the time to provide this capability with the hundreds of other graphics card out there - well, let's just say that not a whole lot else would get done.

I guess the jist is that ask your fellow users because digi will not talk to you if you use the card. But you will have a large group of folks who are doing the same thing and will talk to you.

The Igniter by the way even though "supported" would not allow me to run a full track count. I would be very surprised if a video card had more of an impact. You could go to the Mojo but Digi has an unfortunate history of orphaning their video options so that's sort of risky.

And I apologize for jumping on you but that was such a typical Digi company line, it pissed me off. I am grateful you guy's are monitoring and responding, even if I don't like some of the answers.

It's only a 'typical' Digi company line because it's true. I'm not trying to come out here and discourage someone from doing something because I am feeling peckish - it's because I have 20 years of call records and other information that supports my statements. We regularly get calls into tech support from people attempting to do this very thing and then they are having all sorts of problems. We have them pull the card and their problems go away and they say, almost invariably, 'why didn't anyone tell us before we bought this $300 video card that it wouldn't work?'.

So that's what I'm here to do. I'm sorry if you feel differently about it, but I have to at least make the attempt to warn people about what they may encounter.

[bad jitter]

while there are people out there using them successfully, they are a minority and we specifically don't qualify this configuration for the very reason that most people will not be successful with it.

It would be interesting to know why do you suppose so? Why would we users, who don't have any problems, be the minority? I mean, we don't call tech support just to tell you that our systems with two graphic cards work great. So you actually can't tell the real number of successful users of two graphic cards. I believe that you only or mostly hear from people who have had problems with their configurations. Maybe they are the real minority after all.