I have been interested in the new top of the line Graphics Card for the new 2012 iMac, which is an NVIDIA Geforce GTX 680mx, and was wondering how it faired against my Desktop GTX 670. Everyone has been claiming it makes the iMac the most powerful Mac Editing machine out there, but I doubted it, as I have not seen any speed test against equivalent graphics cards. The 680m is actually a 680 slowed down.
I found a EuroGamer review of the GTX 680m, which tells me what I wanted to know about a 680M, but not a 680MX, but I found a review of that at Notebook Check.
Here is some of what they have to say:
Compared to the GeForce GTX 680M, the GTX 680MX features 1536 instead of 1344 CUDA cores and higher memory clocks (720/2500MHz vs 720/1800 MHz)
the graphics performance of the GeForce GTX 680MX should be 15 – 25 percent above the GTX 680M and similar to the Desktop GTX 580.
And specs on the GTX 680mx from NVIDIA’s site.
CUDA Cores – 1536
Core Speed – 720 Mhz
Memory Speed – 2500 Mhz
Texture Fill Rate (Billions per second) – 92.2
Max RAM – 2GB
And as for the GTX 670 from NVIDIA’s site.
CUDA Cores – 1344
Core Speed – 915 Mhz
Memory Speed – 2500 Mhz
Texture Fill Rate (Billions per second) – 102.5
Max RAM – 4GB
So the iMac has more CUDA cores, but it’s speed is not as fast, and it’s memory speed is less than half the speed.
So basically the 680MX it is a really powerful mobile graphics chip, but not as powerful as it’s equivalent Desktop GPU the GTX 670, and is more in line to a last generation GTX 580.
And yes it is not the easiest thing in the world getting a new generation NVIDIA card running in your MacPro, but it is not that hard, but should put your speed above that of the top of the line iMac GPU, and have more processing power, making it still champion, even though it is such dated technology at this point. Have to love expandability though as an old machine can still hold a performance edge, which is something the iMac will never have.
Lets just hope Apple makes a really good new MacPro this year.
Hi, Two points:
1. The 570 GTX for Mac Pro's is as fast (If not faster) than the 670 in some cases due to having bigger memory bandwidth, which is disappointing to me because I would assume a card with 3 times as many CUDA cores would be 3 times faster. Nope. But either of these cards is the best choice for your mac pro being compatible with the MP's built in 6 Pin connectors and the power supply.
2. I have a 570 in my Mac Pro and it works very well. Under ML 10.8 it is plug and play (No extra drivers needed to work initially) which makes this statement you made invalid:
"And yes it is not the easiest thing in the world getting a new generation NVIDIA card running in your MacPro"
It is actually quite easy. Just remember to download the CUDA drivers if your working in Adobe AE and Premiere.
In this video the nVidia rep claims the Mac Pro uses ALL the CUDA cores from both cards but I thought Macs couldn't manage multiple cards CUDA multithreading. : http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/07/nvidia-quadro-k5000-for-mac-hands-on/
Don't agree on it being so easy, especially with a 6 series card as it is certainly not plug and play (and you still have to add your 5 series to Premiere Pro and After Effects right). The process of adding the cards to AE is simple, but check out my post on getting a GTX 675 with 4GB of RAM running on my MacPro http://www.jonahlee.com/?id=2188170045823008886 . Certainly not as simple as downloading the latest CUDA drivers. Easier with the 5 series, but not the 6 series, especially if you have more than 2GB of RAM.
I am just hoping the news of the release of the Quadro K5000 with 4GB of RAM (http://www.jonahlee.com/?id=3964217566004490941) will do something to alleviate this issue with Kepler cards.
Thanks for the post and for reading!