Video Card for Mac Pro...

B

blando3

Well-known member
I posted about this a while back, but a few months have passed since then - is the Radeon HD 3870 still the video card of choice for the Mac pro?

Thanks,
Andrew
 
barefeats.com is a good resource for this type of thing.

ATI 4870 seems to be the best value. Check for compatibility with your specific MacPro
 
i noticed awhile back that it would be cheaper to purchase the ATI 4870 aftermarket than paying for the upgrade of $200 from apple.

if your using adobe premiere you might want to consider one of the NVidia cards that will work with the new "mercury" technology thats supposed to get killer real time performance t in CS5.

david
www.davidprobst.com
 
david_p said:
if your using adobe premiere you might want to consider one of the NVidia cards that will work with the new "mercury" technology thats supposed to get killer real time performance t in CS5.
Click to expand...

Don't forget to hang onto your wallet though. Those recommended quadro's don't come cheap. The card was more than my home PC!
 
PerroneFord said:
Don't forget to hang onto your wallet though. Those recommended quadro's don't come cheap. The card was more than my home PC!
Click to expand...

according to the guy that made this demo video, the smaller nVidia that is slightly under $400 will work with the Mercury thing also.

this is a quote in the comments on that video...
"Yes - we will support OSX 10.6 as well. I'm currently testing it with a FX4800 card. The GeForce GTX285 will also work."

video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sylAonfVp9k&feature=email

like you said perrone most of the cards are horribly expensive. i wonder how much less of a performer the smaller card would be. im curious to see how this pans out.

david
www.davidprobst.com
 
Yea, I have that FX4800. Let's just say it added extensively to my unit cost of purchase on the latest editing server at the office!
 
PerroneFord said:
Yea, I have that FX4800. Let's just say it added extensively to my unit cost of purchase on the latest editing server at the office!
Click to expand...

the 4800 is quite a chunk of change. are you using that with a Macpro or on a pc? since apple doesnt yet seem to me making much use of all the processor cores or GPU's im wondering if you feel much of a difference between the more typical cards like the 4870 or the stock card in the macpro?

do you use FCP or premiere?

david
www.davidprobst.com
 
I'm on FCS 2. I was working with Motion a while back and it was lagging horribly and a few people on this board recommended the 3870 to increase Motion performance.

I'll compare it to the 4870. Thanks.
 
david_p said:
the 4800 is quite a chunk of change. are you using that with a Macpro or on a pc? since apple doesnt yet seem to me making much use of all the processor cores or GPU's im wondering if you feel much of a difference between the more typical cards like the 4870 or the stock card in the macpro?

do you use FCP or premiere?

david
www.davidprobst.com
Click to expand...

I'm on PC, using Vegas, but putting an Avid trial through it's paces. Avid leverages the card fully. Vegas doesn't know it's installed.
 
You can save some $$ (probably around $200) by getting the PC version of the 4870 and flashing. I didn't want to mess around (even though it's been streamlined and is pretty straight forward) so I just got it from the Apple store. 5 minute install in my MP and works great!!

Check this out of you want to try the flash route. Works for the 4870 and 4890 under SL......

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=811768
 
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