FCS and new Mac Pro with gt120 - rant

Noel Evans

Noel Evans

Mod V3 New and Improved
Staff member
Just wanted to drop this in here as I was passing by.

If your getting a new Mac Pro atm and wondering how to configure it, please do not go with the GT120 video card. Its a pile of dog poop. Save yourself the trouble and just get the 4870, good card.

Issues Ive had thus far and this applies to DVCProHD @ 1080.

Will not play clips with speed changes.
The clip browser when scrolled screws up, so it looks like the same file name is just repeated over and over.
The RT playback is rubbish. Wont take anything.

This is a brand new mac pro 8 core. My early 2007 quad core updated to the 3870 vid card runs much better than this. Just to give an idea of how crippled the system is with this rubbish vid card. Doesnt even come with dual DVI out :S

Honestly, how rediculous. The stats may be diff. to my personal experience, but Ive never seen a mac pro running single screen and or have a requirment for vid card that is utter rubbish.

Nice work Apple you tools. Youre embarassing me :P (YES! This is a tongue in cheek statement - said with a chortle or chuckle - so if youre a mac pro user (like me), there's no need to jump on a high horse and defend Mac. I simply question their decision to use the GT120 as a standard card as its (as I said) dog poop. Why Nvdia agreed to make this pile of poop also is beyond me.
 
Sorry to here this.

I have an 8 core with the 120 and don't have any of these issues.

Apple has one DVI and one Mini DisplayPort on all its current cards. You can buy a Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter from Apple or others, less expensively.
 
Hey folks

I'm sort of interested in which of these two experiences is the more common one. the Nvidia 120 sucks or does not suck.

I am contemplating an 8 core with the nvidia 120 or a 4 core with more ram and the ATI, ......and before someone suggest the 8 core with more ram and and the ATI GPU it's out of the budget.

where you guys running Snow leopard and FCS 3 (or whatever we are calling it) and does anyone have any thoughts on weather the GPU or more cores will be the wave of the future (making my purchase last longer)I'm finding little or no info on weather FCS3 can take advantage of Grand central and multi-threading and GPU acceleration and all the cool new stuff in Snow leopard or not.

I assume the quad with the ATI would have better RT effects rendering but if the Nvidia card is good enough, i have a feeling the 8 core will be faster in compressor and thats where i seam to be spending my time anyway.

any thoughts?

thanks
John

Also am i the only one who thinks that FCS3 was a bit premature. I would gladly have waited another 6 months to know it was 64 bit and Grad central compatible, or will we see an update soon to include these things?
 
John:

If I did this again, I would grab the ATI 4870.

But I don't have problems as noted above with the 120.
 
Well, right now I'm on a mid 2007 mac pro quad 2.66 with the nvidia GeForce 7300 GT with 256 mb of VRam and it's running OK.

Surely the new one is better.
 
john, upgrade your vid card and chuck in some ram, that machine will run fine for awhile yet. No need to upgrade unless your changing your workflow really. i.e. if youre editing DVCProHD on that machine an upgrade isnt going to offer you a HUGE gain, that will make your eyes pop.

I am just running a second machine now for an editor.
 
john deaver said:
Also am i the only one who thinks that FCS3 was a bit premature. I would gladly have waited another 6 months to know it was 64 bit and Grad central compatible, or will we see an update soon to include these things?
Click to expand...

don't plan on seeing it in an update. Why? Because apple would never put such a big change in the core of it's software via an update. Also, having it 64bit and such would've been a huge selling point. NO way would they release it as a simple update, and not market it within a brand new release along with their OS.

Ah well...FcP 8...
 
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