Why do you love your NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500?

looks like nobody was dumb enough to buy one, dude

patrick0brien said:

-slughead

Apparently.

Dumb how? Seems like a good machine.

Click to expand...

Have you seen the price? It JUST out performs the x1900. But not worth the money. In some things the x1900 is faster. Unless you need the extra port for something.....

http://www.lostcircuits.com/video/quadro_fx1400/9.shtml

That link compares an X1900XTX (only a fraction better than the XT) to an FX4500 using SPECviewperf which is a set of benchmarks that test graphical power. You can read more about it here. As you can see from the link, professional cards are much better suited to these tasks and for someone working with one all day long it offers vast benefits.

I work in Visual Effects for film and TV. Aside for the apps we use almost nothing people regularly use on a mac will push you to need a 4500, but I am very glad that apple offer them as it shows a commitment to high-end workstation graphics. About the only thing I can think of that I have used a mac pro with a fx4500 was Maya 8, this in itself is mildly spurious as it was runs under rosetta. Apple have bought Silicon Colour and some other apps which is a very good sign. Most high end Discreet systems such as Flame/Inferno and Lustre now rely on the same hardware as the top specc'ed mac pro. That is Dual Woodcrest, FB Ram and Quadro 4500's

For creating a finishing station such as a Flame or Smoke a 4500 is essential as it provides the necessary openGL throughput. if Apple chooses to evolve their Pro apps into this market (which many of us have been begging for !) then the 4500 is a necessary piece of hardware.

Similarly now that Maya is offering 8.5 as Universal Binary, I think that Maya on a Mac is potentially a viable option. Similarly for things like Shake, After Effects and Motion, Cinema 4d and whatever else you really learn to appreciate workstation class graphics cards. It's not really about performance anyway, it's MUCH MORE about stability, features and qualified drivers.

I didn't buy a 4500 for my Mac Pro at home but one of the machines I work on has one !

Just looking at the qual charts for Maya 8.5 on osx, and was surprised to see that the Quadro appears to have more issues than the much less expensive x1900xt for the Mac Pro?

Shadows do not render properly in the Hardware Renderer or the High Quality Viewport. CV's do not show up on NURBS objects.

http://www.alias.com/eng/support/maya/qualified_hardware/QUAL/maya_85_osx.html

I think the drivers for the Quadro on the MacPro are handled by Apple, and not by nVidia?

well they really aren't that affordable and don't give that much more umph. On the AGP side of things it and the 7800gs are very close to the same card. Only differences The 4500 has a faster gpu, a stereo-3D port, and SLOWER memory speed. My 7800gs cost me 250 and will perform very close to it in most cases.

Rokem said:

well they really aren't that affordable and don't give that much more umph. On the AGP side of things it and the 7800gs are very close to the same card. Only differences The 4500 has a faster gpu, a stereo-3D port, and SLOWER memory speed. My 7800gs cost me 250 and will perform very close to it in most cases.

Click to expand...

In games yes, but the FX cards while using the same chipset are very different in other features. Look at the link I provided earlier, for applications that are suited to the different design of the FX and FireGL cards, they can't be touched by the gaming cards they are based off.

I almost got one, but in the end splurged the money on 3GHz CPUs and lots of memory and stuck with the stock card

As the project I could use the better card on is still 3 months down the line the investment in other things has worked out quite well. May upgrade the video card if something new shows up whenever the next update roles past.

Meanwhile I get on with my projects and laugh at al the loosers who have been putting off their purchase in the vain hope that the Octo-Mac will be released "next Tuesday" for the last four months

By the time an updated Mac Pro rolls out, we will start getting details on 8-core CPUs - so you just can't possibly buy a Mac Pro now because two 4-core CPUs will "just not be enough" with the promise of a 16-core Mac Pro on the horizon

that qualchart is fairly silly, I have seen lots of folks running Maya 7 and 8 on Mac Pro either under OSX or bootcamp and really there is no major issues with display other than the Typical Maya on OSx crapiness.

Spent most of yesterday on a System with Maya 8.5 on osX running on geforce 7300 and it was fine. Much better performance and stability now using the UB. Actually quite bareable !

I need help!!!!

I'm offered a new FX 4500 for a really good price. Problem is nobody can tell me that this card will work on my MacPro, even Apple tells me that only a card purchased from apple will work on the MacPro. Could somebody please answer the following questions:

Are there different versions of the FX4500?
What is the part no. of the card for a MacPro? (The card I'm offered is a HP EA762 AA)
If there is only one FX4500 card (I'm made believe there are 4 or 5 for different uses) how do I know it has the right firmware or driver?
And if the firmware or driver are wrong where can I get the right ones and how do I install them?
Lots of questions. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

I alreadyhave an fx 4500. Its brilliant. It think its a dell one but all have the same stuff on them built to nvidia specs. However sicne I have not yet bought a mac. Does anyone know if firmware can be updated so I can use my current fx card instead of having to sell it and then buy a new one when i purchase a mac.