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ipoppy

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 12, 2006
423
9
UK
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

macrumors 6502a
Jan 7, 2009
972
15
Paris, France
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

macrumors 65816
Apr 29, 2007
1,244
3
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.
 

ipoppy

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 12, 2006
423
9
UK
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

macrumors 65816
Jan 8, 2009
1,181
2
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)
 
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