2-NVIDIA GeForce GT 120's or 1 ATI Radeon HD 4870?

[mlyon]

I realize that 1 GT 120 will run 2 monitors, but is it faster if you have a dedicated video card per display, or just get the faster 4870 for dual monitors?

No bootcamp use, or games just Adobe CS4 and Aperture.

Thanks for any input.

[J the Ninja]

No. Well, maybe an indiscernable amount.

In any case, for games, CS4 and Aperture w/2 or fewer screens, you definately want the 4870, not the GT120.

[Peterjk]

Hi

I'm in kinda the same dilemma.

Since I have had two different but identical Mac Pro's (2009) with two different 4870 graphic cards - both were frezzing up the usb bus! - and Apple could not / would not help!!! I now need to find an alternative.

The fault only shows when my two Samsung Syncmaster 931C are connected via DIV and NOT showing when they are connected via VGA.

Anyway - I need to go the Nvidia 120 route - and I am wondering if my gaming experience would improve if I have two? I only play on one screen.

In other words - what do I gain by having two cards?


Peter

[Mackilroy]

The ability to add two more monitors. Little else that's worth it under OS X, really.

[Genghis Khan]

I realize that 1 GT 120 will run 2 monitors, but is it faster if you have a dedicated video card per display, or just get the faster 4870 for dual monitors?

No bootcamp use, or games just Adobe CS4 and Aperture.

Thanks for any input.

neither of the programs you mentioned are particularly harsh on the graphics card, so a 4870 should be able to handle dual monitors no problem (however, i'm not sure about the mini-displayport adapter)


Hi

I'm in kinda the same dilemma.

Since I have had two different but identical Mac Pro's (2009) with two different 4870 graphic cards - both were frezzing up the usb bus! - and Apple could not / would not help!!! I now need to find an alternative.

The fault only shows when my two Samsung Syncmaster 931C are connected via DIV and NOT showing when they are connected via VGA.

Anyway - I need to go the Nvidia 120 route - and I am wondering if my gaming experience would improve if I have two? I only play on one screen.

In other words - what do I gain by having two cards?


Peter

unless you do stuff on the second monitor while playing games, you only need one...

and have you thought of the GTX285?


-Michael

[stormtroopar]

No. Well, maybe an indiscernable amount.

In any case, for games, CS4 and Aperture w/2 or fewer screens, you definately want the 4870, not the GT120.

I think in terms of just running these 2 apps in a dual monitor setup, the 1 GT120 should be fine. I have tried it and didn't find any issue with it on a quad 2.66 macpro 2009. But Aperture does take advantage of the GPU for various computations instead of the cpu so the ATI will give you a bit of an edge there when you are using those features... I forgot which ones, but unlike lightroom, certain things are GPU accelerated with Aperture.

Bottom line though, either single card setup, ATI 4870 or GT120will run your dual monitor setup fine without much slow down. And also, in OSX, SLI is not supported unlike windows, so you can't combine the power of 2 gpu cards to run a single app anyway.

[Peterjk]

The EVGA GeForce GTX 285 does look like the right choice - just a shame that:

1) I can't find it in the european branch of Apple store (only US)
2) That I can't put it in the Mac Pro from the get go.

I'm hoping the frezzing problems I've seen with the ATI Radeon 4870 wont be an issue with a (any) Nvidia card.

Are there any users using two Samsung Syncmaster monitors with Nividia here, by any chance?


Peter

[netkas]

why not to use 4870 and gt120 at same time.

[Dr.Pants]

1) I can't find it in the european branch of Apple store (only US)
2) That I can't put it in the Mac Pro from the get go.
....
Are there any users using two Samsung Syncmaster monitors with Nividia here, by any chance?


Plug it into any DVI connector, your monitors should be good to go. And what's wrong with not putting the card in right away?

[Peterjk]

Well, the thing is: the 4870 is causing me a lot of problems.

I have 2 (actually 3) Samsung Syncmaster 931C which for my purpose is more than efficient - but Apple forgot to state anywhere, that those (and from what I've seen in forums later - also other screens) wont work with that particular card. The screen looks fine, but the usb action (at least keyboard and mouse) freezes every 3 senconds.

Once I shift to VGA - no problems. Other than it dosent look very good, and I can't seem to run more than one monitor per card.

BTW I take that it's possible to run three monitors on two Nvidia 120 cards -right?


Peter

[Dr.Pants]

Yep. Use a MiniDisplayPort to DVI connector.

Also, can you link to these forums? The only thing I haven't seen play nice with the MacPro is the earliest batch of LP2475s, and HP was quick to update the firmware.

[Peterjk]

Here one...

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1975884&start=15&tstart=0


Peter

[Dr.Pants]

Ah! Okay, sorry about that... Brain fart. Well, if using only one connector works, then maybe you should consider the Matrox TripleHead2Go (http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/). Works with OSX as far as I know, just read up on the specifications.

[Peterjk]

The Matrox thingie looks fine, but why bother when there's room in the Mac Pro and in my budget for two GT 120's.

Or am I missing something here.

Anyone running three (Samsung) screens on two GT 120's on Mac Pro?



Peter