Best OOTB Nvidia w/ CUDA for Snow Leopard?

[weaksauce12]

My aging 8800GTX card is heading toward an overheating-related death and I need to replace it. I have 10.6.8 Snow Leopard on my hack right now, with no plans to upgrade the OS for a couple years (it's my main production machine - so no Lion for a long time). I am in the market for a new Nvidia GPU with CUDA support. What I want is an OOTB the experience - same as my 8800GTX. Specifically OOTB with Snow Leopard support - just GraphicsEnabler=y for example.

So, the requirements:

1. Snow Leopard support
2. Nvidia-based
3. CUDA support
4. Stable (no Fermi Freeze etc.)
5. Dual-DVI capable (native or via adapters is fine)
6. OOTB support (GraphicsEnabler=y)
7. No budget cap

Right now I'm eyeing the 460/470/480 series based on the threads I've read for stability and the wiki entries:

wiki/index.php/Graphics_Card_Database

Suggestions appreciated, thank you!

 

[ar13]

I have a 240 [ i know is not that powerfull ] but works OOB ! I had a 450 and can't change resolution No matter what [ only in 10.7.2] but i use 10.6.8 , the one i can recommend is XFX 6870 1 gig, i just got that card and worked OOB, no frame buffer needed !

 

[weaksauce12]

I have a 240 [ i know is not that powerfull ] but works OOB ! I had a 450 and can't change resolution No matter what [ only in 10.7.2] but i use 10.6.8 , the one i can recommend is XFX 6870 1 gig, i just got that card and worked OOB, no frame buffer needed !

Yeah, I have a 280 on my other rig and it works like a champ, very happy with it. My only complaint is that the cost of used 100% working cards (ones that aren't sold widely anymore) is typically equal to or more than currently-available cards. What a pain, haha.

I've been reading really good things about the 6870, actually. I am not a big fan of ATI cards and would prefer CUDA, but if it's going to work better...maybe I'll try one. Does your 6870 work under Snow just fine? Again I am not migrating to Lion for a couple years due to my system requirements, so Snow compatibility is key.

 

[ar13]

I have a 240 [ i know is not that powerfull ] but works OOB ! I had a 450 and can't change resolution No matter what [ only in 10.7.2] but i use 10.6.8 , the one i can recommend is XFX 6870 1 gig, i just got that card and worked OOB, no frame buffer needed !

Yeah, I have a 280 on my other rig and it works like a champ, very happy with it. My only complaint is that the cost of used 100% working cards (ones that aren't sold widely anymore) is typically equal to or more than currently-available cards. What a pain, haha.

I've been reading really good things about the 6870, actually. I am not a big fan of ATI cards and would prefer CUDA, but if it's going to work better...maybe I'll try one. Does your 6870 work under Snow just fine? Again I am not migrating to Lion for a couple years due to my system requirements, so Snow compatibility is key.

Yeap, XFX 6870 1 gig ddr5, is working really good in 10.6.8 which is the one that i prefer by far, and also works in 10.7.2 OOB, as i said before No FrameBuffers , just GE=Yes !