Discussion in 'Mac Pro' started by smchan, Jul 26, 2011.
I noticed a number of refurbished Mac edition GTX 285's on ebay recently for anywhere from $160 to $300+. Figuring that must mean the ebay flippers were at work, I checked out EVGA's b-stock store and - indeed - they have the GTX 285 Mac edition for $129 with free shipping.
Seems some of our members are choosing to profit off our communityrather than adding value to our community. The cat is out of the bag on this one.
So... if you've been wanting one for your Mac Pro, there you go.
Well, that's not necessarily the case. This is the first time I've seen B-stock GTX 285s available from EVGA. In the past, the official Apple cards have demanded a price premium because they were discontinued and therefore rare. When the card was still in production, it cost $449 - not exactly an easy pill to swallow for many. Firmware hacked versions of the PC cards aren't exactly easy to do, either because it requires swapping the surface-mounted ROM chip for a bigger one.
Just FYI, those cards are DVI-only. No MiniDisplayPort. Not an issue for most people.
First I've seen refurbished GTX 285's as well but the evidence for blatant spamming on the MacRumors forums is plain as day. One poster has posted several times that he found GTX 285's on ebay for $160. It's in his signature, as well. The poster's MacRumors id matches the ebay seller's id perfectly and based on a count of completed auctions, it seems he's sold at least 5-10 of them.
When something is generally available (but not well known) to the public for a given price, I think it's ethically wrong to hoard the supply and sell it for a higher price unless you're providing some value like certain modifications or services. The right thing to do is to give back to the community - not profit from it.
Anyways, the link is above, and I am in no way profiting or otherwise associated with EVGA. I figured out EVGA was selling these this morning and ordered one for myself.
Where were these prices a year ago? Sigh. Although this is great news for Adobe CS5/5.5 users looking for cheap CUDA support.
My sediments exactly. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be ordering one tomorrow.
yeah, if i was a heavy cuda user, i'd be freaking out about this. great deal for them!
come to think of it, i need to post this at work. when i sold my 285 last year on our work forums, people were fighting over it.
This is card is very old; it's power hungry, takes up a two slots and only offers 2 display outputs. I guess if you need CUDA, is the probably the only practical choice, but other people, I think the 5770 is a better investment (thought the 5xxx series of cards are also old).
If you think someone is unfairly cheating other members, you should have reported it; that would clearly count as spam and commercial advertising.
This price is awfully tempting for us adobe cs5.5 users. The idea of adding CUDA support to my workflow is a thought I like. A few quick questions though for those that may know.
1) will the mac versions of graphics cards (such as this and the ati 5870) work in a windows machine just fine as well. I ask because I have a windows box and I currently have an ati 5870 in my mac pro.
2) can a single mac pro support both of these cards at the same time and if so, in order to take advantage of CUDA do I need the video running out of the 285 or can I just have it plugged in for its computing power with the ati 5870 actually powering my monitors.
Thanks for any help on these questions!
I've run multiple combinations of cards in my Mac Pro. Initially, the stock ATI card that came with my '08 octo-core + a GT8800. At the moment, I'm running a GT8800 + the PC edition GTX 285.
I can't recall whether I was able to drive video with 1 card and CUDA with the other. I'll try it when I have an opportunity.
PS Ordered my b-stock GTX 285 yesterday morning and it shipped last night. I'm excited to finally have a "real" one that doesn't have the hassle of driver injectors and helper cards.
I tried to order one, but they won't ship to the UPS store, and I'm not paying tax, duty, plus an additional $40 and wait 3 more weeks to have them ship it half an hour farther north.
CUDA isn't its only use. NVidia is still better than ATI/AMD for certain things, such as CAD. I switched from a GTX 285 to a 5770 because the 5770 cost less (I could sell the 285, buy a 5770, and make a profit), used less power, and theoretically would give similar performance. my software doesn't support CUDA, so that wasn't a consideration.
my 3D renders went from 2 minutes to 10, and the graphics overall when making parts became choppy.
So this is a good buy, then?
Does anyone know if the ati 5870 and the gtx 285 will fit into the same mac (mine is the 2010 6core). Are there enough power connectors, etc?
Also still hoping for an answer on if the gfx cards for mac work on PCs. Thanks again for any info.
Both cards have two power connectors. You would need to supplement the power somehow.
My favorite is someone on eBay selling an iPod Classic 120 GB 6G for $799.
MP can supply 300W , while 2 gtx 285 needs MORE than that. Although theres a work around.
I actually have 2 GTX 285 on my 3,1 MP and to power it up I have a PC next to it that powers both the PC and the 2 GTX 285's (nothing power connected to the MP) hope it helps.
Is the 285 still there? On the product list page I only see one labeled "Classified." Is that the Mac version? Thanks.
I received mine from EVGA about a week ago and installed it this weekend. Booted right up with SL 10.6.8. Installed the latest video and CUDA drivers from Nvidia, rebooted and performed a quick test with Premiere Pro. No issues at all. Well worth $129 for the Premiere speed bump.
Hopefully more will come available soon.
Is there only a speed bump on effects or would it render a sequence faster that had nothing more than basic cuts. Trying to decide if the CUDA card would actually help me as I rarely use any built in premiere effects at all.