Computer: mac pro 2013 and W8 - 10 bit video output

[babel]

Hi everyone,

can a mac pro 2013 owner help me to find out if, when running windows 8, it performs like a normal w8 workstation and can work 10bit?
[i.e. in photoshop does the file ramp.psd appear without banding and color shifting?]

thanks for your help,

sam

[John Wheeler]

Re: mac pro 2013 and W8 - 10 bit video output

Hi babel - I am pretty sure 10 bit (30 bit for 3 channels) is not supported on Macs. Here is a quote from the following link from Adobe:

"30-bit Display (Windows only) Allows Photoshop to display 30-bit data directly to screen on video cards that support it"

http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cs6-gpu-faq1.html

The entire dataflow has to support 30 bit from OS, Application, Video Card, video cable path, and monitor.

[babel]

Re: mac pro 2013 and W8 - 10 bit video output

Thanks John,

I confirm that mac OS [X.9 and X.X as well] cannot manage 10 bit, and my question had this statement as a starting point.
So, if I run Windows8 via bootcamp there won't be anymore the SO limitation, and for what I know D700 (maybe D500 and D300 as well) cards should have 10bit windows drivers.
So theoretically running w8 on a macpro should grant a flawless 10bit workflow, but I'd prefer to have a practical feedback by a user that has actually implemented the 10bit on w8 in his macpro [since there might be a bios limitation I'm not aware of, i.e.]

thanks again,
best regards

sam

[John Wheeler]

Re: mac pro 2013 and W8 - 10 bit video output

Hi Babel - If you don't get an answer here, I would contact Apple Support for Mac Pros using Boot Camp with your questions. If you don't have Apple Care for the Mac Pro or if you are outside the 90 purchase window, the Apple Support may have a fee to work with them. Hope you get a definitive answer.

[klev]

Re: mac pro 2013 and W8 - 10 bit video output

Thanks John,

I confirm that mac OS [X.9 and X.X as well] cannot manage 10 bit, and my question had this statement as a starting point.
So, if I run Windows8 via bootcamp there won't be anymore the SO limitation, and for what I know D700 (maybe D500 and D300 as well) cards should have 10bit windows drivers.
So theoretically running w8 on a macpro should grant a flawless 10bit workflow, but I'd prefer to have a practical feedback by a user that has actually implemented the 10bit on w8 in his macpro [since there might be a bios limitation I'm not aware of, i.e.]

thanks again,
best regards

sam

It's not always a matter of hardware limitations. If you use whatever drivers Apple installs with bootcamp, it won't happen. Apple won't support that feature. Now if the cards show up under Windows as gpu models that have 10 bit out RGBA drivers, and those models are also on Adobe's supported list, you can try to install those drivers rather than the default bootcamp ones. That should work, but it would be an unsupported workflow. In cases of unsupported workflows, you should always maintain incremental backups of the system prior to applying updates, as it's always possible that they will break unsupported features.

That is really the best you can do. Apple won't help you. MS won't help you. The reason is that you want a solution that lacks official support, so you are basically on your own. You can try some of the hackintosh forums, but that may be a time consuming read.

Hi Babel - If you don't get an answer here, I would contact Apple Support for Mac Pros using Boot Camp with your questions. If you don't have Apple Care for the Mac Pro or if you are outside the 90 purchase window, the Apple Support may have a fee to work with them. Hope you get a definitive answer.

That wouldn't help because Apple doesn't offer official support for such a feature.

[babel]

Re: mac pro 2013 and W8 - 10 bit video output

Hi again,

thank you both; I know that is really hard / impossible to find official support.
For what I know 10 bit hackintosh are hard to build due the lack of 10 bit graphic card to use, and I'd prefer to have a fully working osX workstation
[like the mac pro could be] and use windows only for the 10 bit goal.

It wouldn't be a problem for me to run drivers not directly implemented inside the bootcamp set up, but I'm not going to spend + 4k€ for an 8 bit hardware, only for the benefit to use a simple os like mav or yosemite.

Hope someone here owns a macpro and is (was I hope) after a 10 bit workflow
so to ensure me it actually works

thanks, best regards
sam

[klev]

Re: mac pro 2013 and W8 - 10 bit video output

Hi again,

thank you both; I know that is really hard / impossible to find official support.
For what I know 10 bit hackintosh are hard to build due the lack of 10 bit graphic card to use, and I'd prefer to have a fully working osX workstation
[like the mac pro could be] and use windows only for the 10 bit goal.

Hard is still inaccurate. It is impossible to obtain official support, because they don't support it. In the past they have claimed they have no plans to do so, so you're out of luck there. The hackintosh community could come up with something, but I doubt 10 bit drivers are a high priority for them. The new mac pro is really aimed at being a FCPX machine more than anything else. If you just need photoshop, you would be fine with pretty much anything as long as it has enough ram.

It wouldn't be a problem for me to run drivers not directly implemented inside the bootcamp set up, but I'm not going to spend + 4k€ for an 8 bit hardware, only for the benefit to use a simple os like mav or yosemite.

Hope someone here owns a macpro and is (was I hope) after a 10 bit workflow
so to ensure me it actually works

thanks, best regards
sam

It wouldn't be problematic to do that if Windows recognizes the card as one that both has 10 bit drivers and is supported by the software you intend to run. For example if it's photoshop, the list is still limited. There aren't many cards with that support. You might be able to hack some of them into working, but I'm once again referring to officially supported solutions, not things with patched kernel extensions. Yosemite is still too new. I would suggest against it with any demanding software package for the next several months.