Nvidia have released new drivers for OSX 10.8.4

Nvidia have released new graphics drivers for OSX 10.8.4 which includes a new driver preferences panel, performance improvements and bug fixes.

The update includes support for the following cards:

GeForce 600 series:
GTX 680 for Mac

GeForce 200 series:
GTX 285 for Mac

GeForce 100 series:
GT 120

GeForce 8 series:
8800 GT

Quadro series:
K5000 for Mac, 4000 for Mac

Quadro FX series:
FX 5600, FX 4800 for Mac

You can download the drivers here:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/macosx-313.01.02f01-driver.html

and the latest version of CUDA for the Mac is here:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/macosx-cuda-5.0.61-driver.html

It should also work with PC Nvidia cards, let me know your experiences in the comments.

Thanks,

Neil

No room for upgradable graphics in the new Mac Pro :-(

Apples New Mac Pro

At the WWDC in California Apple have shown a sneak peek of their new Mac Pro desktop computer.

To say it is a radical design is an understatement, it moves away from all of the typical properties of a workstation, particularly in terms of upgradability.

Apples decision is to fix the CPU and GPU options whilst providing six Thunderbolt 2 ports for expansion.

Thunderbolt 2 will allow for storage, monitors, Video I/O and coprocessors to be easily attached but unless there is a change from Thunderbolt 1 there will not be the option to add external GPUs.

Apple have chosen two of AMDs Firepro GPUs to power the graphics. Although these are very high performance chips I'm surprised that Apple didn't go with Nvidia, I'd have loved to see a pair of Titans in there. This means there is no support for CUDA, only OpenGL and OpenCL.

Some software has been rewritten to use the AMD chips instead of CUDA, Blackmagic Resolve 10 apparently screams on the new Mac Pro, but I'm curious to see what will happen with Adobes software which relies heavily on CUDA.

I'm also sad to see the end of the old Mac Pro tower, still one of the most beautiful workstations ever made in my opinion. At least this should bring down the second hand prices :-)

I would love to get my hands on a new Mac Pro and try it out, even if it does look like it escaped from the Death Star. :-)

Let me know if you've managed to get your hands on one,

All the best,

Neil

Apple have released Mountain Lion 10.8.4

Apple have released Mountain Lion 10.8.4 including the following updates:

The OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.4 Update is recommended for all OS X Mountain Lion users and includes features and fixes that improve the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including the following:

• Compatibility improvements when connecting to certain enterprise Wi-Fi networks
• Microsoft Exchange compatibility improvements in Calendar
• A fix for an issue that prevented FaceTime calls to non-U.S. phone numbers
• A fix for an issue that may prevent scheduled sleep after using Boot Camp
• Improves VoiceOver compatibility with text in PDF documents
• Includes Safari 6.0.5, which improves stability for some websites with chat features and games
• A fix for an issue that may cause iMessages to display out of order in Messages
• Resolves an issue in which Calendars Birthdays may appear incorrectly in certain time zones
• A fix for an issue that may prevent the desktop background picture from being preserved after restart
• A fix for an issue that may prevent documents from being saved to a server using SMB
• Addresses an issue that may prevent certain files from opening after copied to a volume named “Home"
• A fix for an issue that may prevent changes to files made over NFS from displaying
• Resolves an issue saving files to an Xsan volume from certain applications
• Improves Active Directory log-in performance, especially for cached accounts or when using a .local domain
• Improves OpenDirectory data replication
• Improves 802.1X compatibility with ActiveDirectory networks
• Improves compatibility when using mobile accounts

New mention of new graphics drivers but apparently there are new AMD drivers and people running the beta reported support for the Nvidia Titan, the GTX780 and the GTX770 

Let me know if you install it on a system with a PC graphics card.

Cheers

Neil