Advice needed for choosing Mac Pro please

[ipoppy]

Hi,
I wonder if someone could give me a bit of advice and tell me what sort of graphic card I should search for gaming on Mac Pro. I am thinking to buy used Mac Pro and display and I want something fast enough for different applications including gaming for next four years. I believe something like quad core 2.66 or 2.8 with at least 6 gb RAM and 512 mb graphic card will do.
What is difference in speed between RAM of DDR2 and DDR3? Can I say that 10GB DDR2 is equivalent of 6GB DDR3? And which graphic card is better; Nvidia or ATI and whats the difference between those two?
Also about displays; should I go for brand new LED cinema or previous generation one? As far I see the difference is only with iSight built in and better contrast ratio. Is it worth it then?
Excuse my knowledge but being with mac few years I should know more than that however it doesn't make any harm to ask experienced folks up here.

Thanks in advance.

[Angelo95210]

Hi,
Hi

What is difference in speed between RAM of DDR2 and DDR3? Can I say that 10GB DDR2 is equivalent of 6GB DDR3?
DDR3 is faster. If your app really requires 10GB than yeah I think it's better to get them as DDR2 than to use the 4GB harddrive as swap memory. But do you really have the choice for memory type on Mac ? I don't think so...

And which graphic card is better; Nvidia or ATI and whats the difference between those two?
Two brands... look at the GPU there are benchmarks available. They are more important than the video RAM.

Also about displays; should I go for brand new LED cinema or previous generation one? As far I see the difference is only with iSight built in and better contrast ratio. Is it worth it then?
LED are awesome for colors and visibility angle... I would go for them.


Thanks in advance.
You are welcome lol

[Igantius]

Hi,
I wonder if someone could give me a bit of advice and tell me what sort of graphic card I should search for gaming on Mac Pro. I am thinking to buy used Mac Pro and display and I want something fast enough for different applications including gaming for next four years...

The nVidia 285 gives the best performance - barefeats.com have quite a few benchmarks like http://barefeats.com/nehal14.html that are worth a look.

[cluthz]

The iMac 27 inch with i5 could be a better alternative and cheaper too

[Angelo95210]

The iMac 27 inch with i5 could be a better alternative and cheaper too

Yeah my advice too. Probably the best buy at this time. Until they update the MacPros...

[ipoppy]

Thanks a lot all. I prefer Mac Pro because I am not keen fan of all in one iMac. I need spend more time on these benchmark results;)

[Dr.Pants]

What is difference in speed between RAM of DDR2 and DDR3? Can I say that 10GB DDR2 is equivalent of 6GB DDR3?

No. 10 GB is 10 GB. DDR3 RAM can be run in triple channel and generally has a higher access speed then DDR2. There's more, but it is defiantly NOT the equivalent volumetrically.

Also about displays; should I go for brand new LED cinema or previous generation one?

Third party if your main intent is gaming. What else will you be using it for? The only Apple displays priced reasonable are the older aluminum displays and the refurbished ones in comparison with what a third party provides. You really don't need an Apple display or a *VA/*IPS display if you don't do anything with colour... (minus 2209WA)