Which Gfx Card For A Mac Pro??

portomar

Currently "pimping" as the kids say, my mac pro, i bought it with the bog standard ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics card, looking to spend €100-200 on a new gfx card. my main reason for buying the mac is for video editing and motion graphics. any advice much appreciated.

K.O.Kiki

portomar wrote: »

Currently "pimping" as the kids say, my mac pro, i bought it with the bog standard ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics card, looking to spend €100-200 on a new gfx card. my main reason for buying the mac is for video editing and motion graphics. any advice much appreciated.

Wouldn't more RAM or a VelociRaptor 10k drive be a better investment?

forbairt

I would have thought similar ... a ram upgrade or disk upgrade would greatly improve performance ... the graphics card won't actually be doing that much in terms of video editing will it ?

babypink

there have been 2 threads on this recently I believe....

Personally i'd plump for the Geforce 8800GT card....a touch pricey @ €230 but its the biz! note that there are are 2 versions of the card - a specific one for Gen 1 & Gen 2 MacPro.

If you're doing live 3D animation etc. then its worth it. One thing to bear in mind is that it looks like the next version of Adobe CS is going to include GPU processing....and was just demo'd on machines using NVidia GPUs. http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/37611/140/

I would echo the RAM advice too.

portomar

thanks for response and links guys. i am going to expand the ram by 4 gigs to 6 (was looking at these guys because im not sure i can bring myself to pay apples prices) and i also have an external lacie 300gig drive that just needs to be formatted for mac and im away!regarding the 3d animation, my most intensive graphic use will be motion and after effects so want to have a fairly good gfx card to cut down render time, anyone have any experience of how either cards perform in this regard? in hindsight, the gfx card may be put onb long finger after ram and stuff.

forbairt

babypink wrote: »

One thing to bear in mind is that it looks like the next version of Adobe CS is going to include GPU processing....and was just demo'd on machines using NVidia GPUs.

wow didn't know that cheers for the link

portomar wrote: »

(was looking at these guys because

I bought the min with my MBP ... and plan on going to http://www.crucial.com/eu/mac/index.aspx to get the max out of it (no idea what to do with the left over 2 gbs though) I've used them in the past ... you'll hear others recommend shop4memory in the UK I believe ... and a few others.

portomar

forbairt wrote: »

wow didn't know that cheers for the link



I bought the min with my MBP ... and plan on going to http://www.crucial.com/eu/mac/index.aspx to get the max out of it (no idea what to do with the left over 2 gbs though) I've used them in the past ... you'll hear others recommend shop4memory in the UK I believe ... and a few others.

hmmmmm.... "apperance may vary as we use a number of different types of memory"

whereas the lads on ebay at least CLAIM they only use the memory that comes with the mac pro. they have near spotless feedback too.

forbairt

portomar wrote: »

hmmmmm.... "apperance may vary as we use a number of different types of memory"

I think that just means .. the images they are showing may not be the memory you are getting .. (they don't take pictures of every different memory module they sell)

ZENER

Some stranger on eBay - a site renowned for permitting the selling knock-off (without their knowledge obviously) and facilitating scams - has more cred than a company world renowned for quality *new* products . . . . mmm! **

:rolleyes:

I know who I'd choose . . .

AFAIK Shop4memory are in Kildare by the way.

GoBeyond Ltd.
Upper Main Street
Celbridge
Co. Kildare
Ireland

Tel: +353 1 6275611

ZEN

** These comments are based on MY personal experiences and are not indicative of eBay in general nor are these comments meant to reflect the opinions of boards.ie or its agents in any way !!

portomar

forbairt wrote: »

I think that just means .. the images they are showing may not be the memory you are getting .. (they don't take pictures of every different memory module they sell)

my problem exactly. mac pros come with ONE type of memory.

forbairt

portomar wrote: »

my problem exactly. mac pros come with ONE type of memory.

*sighs* ... meaning the image is not the image of the end product. I normally don't buy things cus the image is nice :P in this case its Mac Memory .. read the PDF at the bottom of the page