Mac Pro Graphics card options
As a relatively new Mac owner, I am looking to upgrade my Mac Pro (early 2009) graphics card. However, the choices are few and far between (i.e., low end or stratospheric cost).
I was considering an EVGA GTX 285, but after much searching and calls to EVGA and the Mac Care support line, have found out this card/chipset is no longer being manufactured by Nvidia and virtually all of the e-tailers indicate the card is out of stock/discontinued.
Other than the GTX 120 that came in the Mac Pro, the only other Nvidia option is the Quadro FX4800, which at $1,800 from the Apple Store (cheaper at other on-line vendors, but still @ $1,300-1,400), is way too expensive.
The ATI cards have not been released yet and unfortunately, they are not supported by the new Adobe CS5 software's significantly enhanced graphics capabilities.
This is really disappointing and I am considering abandoning the Mac now and going back to my HP Workstation, which has virtually unlimited graphics card support and capability.
Any thoughts?
I was considering an EVGA GTX 285, but after much searching and calls to EVGA and the Mac Care support line, have found out this card/chipset is no longer being manufactured by Nvidia and virtually all of the e-tailers indicate the card is out of stock/discontinued.
Other than the GTX 120 that came in the Mac Pro, the only other Nvidia option is the Quadro FX4800, which at $1,800 from the Apple Store (cheaper at other on-line vendors, but still @ $1,300-1,400), is way too expensive.
The ATI cards have not been released yet and unfortunately, they are not supported by the new Adobe CS5 software's significantly enhanced graphics capabilities.
This is really disappointing and I am considering abandoning the Mac now and going back to my HP Workstation, which has virtually unlimited graphics card support and capability.
Any thoughts?
Comments
What're these "significantly enhanced" capabilities of which you speak?
Get what works best for you. We really don't care if a Mac doesn't suit your needs, and I'm sure most of us would tell you to definitely get that other workstation if a Mac Pro doesn't cut it. Your work shouldn't be hindered by your OS preference.
What're these "significantly enhanced" capabilities of which you speak?
From the brief review in VideoMaker
For most of us, the most exciting news is Premiere Pro's significant performance increase. At the heart of this speed improvement is the new 64-bit architecture, memory addressing, CPU optimization and the new Adobe Mercury Playback Engine that leverages the power of the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) of a compatible nVidia graphics card. This means that for processor intensive operations, such as using highly encoded video formats, you'll get real-time performance even after stacking on layer after layer, each with effects and color correction.
For a quick speed test, we compared the frame rates of an identical project on the same computer in CS5 with GPU acceleration enabled and in CS4. We stacked six layers of various HD video formats that included two HDV, a DLSR and graphics MOV, AVI and, just for fun, an F4V. Each had at least three different effects, and four had additional motion and scaling. After hesitating for 10 seconds before starting, the playback in CS4 slowly climbed to 2.5 FPS. After a two second delay, the playback in CS5 was real-time without any dropped frames. Be sure to look for our next review where we'll have more benchmarking results.
From the Nvidia web site -
Unleash the creativity in your editing suite
Blockbuster films are not made overnight, but with Adobe Premiere® Pro CS5 and NVIDIA® Quadro® graphics solutions, editing time can be drastically reduced. At the heart of Premiere Pro CS5 is the Adobe Mercury Playback Engine ? built using the NVIDIA® CUDA? parallel processing architecture ? so Quadro GPUs deliver real-time previewing and editing of native, high-resolution footage, including multiple layers of RED 4K video.
From Adobe -
Supported NVIDIA graphics cards for GPU acceleration
* Quadro CX (Windows)
* Quadro FX 3800 (Windows)
* Quadro FX 4800 (Windows and Mac OS)
* Quadro FX 5800 (Windows)
* GeForce GTX 285 (Windows and Mac OS)