For video work, which of these cards is better?
FCP, motion and compressor are what I am talking about
FCP, motion and compressor are what I am talking about
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GTX 285 vs 4870
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ATi cards are better suited to the Pro Apps. Only Motion and Color make real use of the GPU, however.
Compressor is entirely CPU-based. FCP itself is mostly CPU, save for certain plugins (like FxPlug and 3rd-party ones) that use the GPU.
And although the tests were achieved on 2009 (Nehalem-based) Mac Pros, the newer drivers that shipped with OS 10.5.7 and above have turned tables in Core Image performance towards NVIDIA cards - the 8800GT (a slower card than the GTX285) outscored the 4870 marginally on both of their tests. The benchmarks posted by the 2008 models in the same graphs were crippled by the older drivers present in 10.5.6 (which at the time, was the latest OS X build available for older Mac Pros).
ATI once held a significant advantage in this area, due to inferior NVIDIA drivers. But this is starting to no longer be the case.
And although the tests were achieved on 2009 (Nehalem-based) Mac Pros, the newer drivers that shipped with OS 10.5.7 and above have turned tables in Core Image performance towards NVIDIA cards - the 8800GT (a slower card than the GTX285) outscored the 4870 marginally on both of their tests. The benchmarks posted by the 2008 models in the same graphs were crippled by the older drivers present in 10.5.6 (which at the time, was the latest OS X build available for older Mac Pros).
ATI once held a significant advantage in this area, due to inferior NVIDIA drivers. But this is starting to no longer be the case.
Wondered if that might happen when NVIDIA took charge of driver development. Anyone know if the bit-depth limitations in Color with NVIDIA cards have changed?
Only kinda-sorta. In Color 1.0.2, they added floating point output support for NVIDIA cards, which is a okay alternative (albeit very render and space intensive) to the missing 10- and 12-bit output options. But to my knowledge, nothing has changed since then. The biggest problem has been that FinalTouch (the originating software) was written specifically for ATI cards from the beginning.
Again, Color in particular is very biased to ATI GPUs. So, that's no surprise. Optimization for NVIDIA GPUs in Color is very minimal at best.
4870 is good but...
this might seem like a silly reason to switch, but there is a very known and BAD issue with the 4870 when you use two screens. It causes the mouse to "tear" and "lag" when you are running your courser on the screens.
The apparently can be fixed by using on of the screens with a VGA adapter, but that kind of defeats the whole purpose of having a dual screen set up for your high definition video editting suite...
follow?
I dont know if there are any better video cards out there for mac pros that will allow you to have dual screens.
this might seem like a silly reason to switch, but there is a very known and BAD issue with the 4870 when you use two screens. It causes the mouse to "tear" and "lag" when you are running your courser on the screens.
The apparently can be fixed by using on of the screens with a VGA adapter, but that kind of defeats the whole purpose of having a dual screen set up for your high definition video editting suite...
follow?
I dont know if there are any better video cards out there for mac pros that will allow you to have dual screens.
I've got a 4870 running two 23" ACDs and it works perfectly. I used to have an 8800GT and my second screen had a lot of redraw problems.
Lethal
could i have a 2nd video card
yeah, lethal... about that.
Funny how apple products work with the 4870 fine. Alot of people report their ACD's work fine with it, but I dont have that kind of coin.
SO... could i just install a 2nd cheapo card to have my 2nd display?
yeah, lethal... about that.
Funny how apple products work with the 4870 fine. Alot of people report their ACD's work fine with it, but I dont have that kind of coin.
SO... could i just install a 2nd cheapo card to have my 2nd display?
You don't want to put a 2nd video card in your Mac. Color won't work and some aspects of Motion and certain filters in FCP also don't like more than one GPU to be in the machine.
Lethal
Lethal
Oh, it gets weirder
thanks for everyone's input.
just to clarify a few things (I'm running 10.5.8)
1. Thank you leathal. You are awesome!
2. "I have 2 ACD's and it works fine" - this is common and seems to cheese people even more. Why is it that it will work with apple hardware, especially something as simple as monitors.
3. tried the wired mouse only... no go
4. tried unplugging all USB's... no go
5. tried 3&4 with a reboot... no go
Here's where it gets weird. My 2nd monitor works on DVI and VGA on it's own. But then when I plug in the 2nd monitor with a DVI>VGA and it's doesn't show any signal BUT it is recognized in the display settings and in system profiler. I have nothing but a black screen on the 2nd monitor....
HUH?
thanks for everyone's input.
just to clarify a few things (I'm running 10.5.8)
1. Thank you leathal. You are awesome!
2. "I have 2 ACD's and it works fine" - this is common and seems to cheese people even more. Why is it that it will work with apple hardware, especially something as simple as monitors.
3. tried the wired mouse only... no go
4. tried unplugging all USB's... no go
5. tried 3&4 with a reboot... no go
Here's where it gets weird. My 2nd monitor works on DVI and VGA on it's own. But then when I plug in the 2nd monitor with a DVI>VGA and it's doesn't show any signal BUT it is recognized in the display settings and in system profiler. I have nothing but a black screen on the 2nd monitor....
HUH?
USB video card?
could something like this work?
http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-To-VGA-DVI-...ltDomain_0?hash=item5ad6d953c2#ht_3040wt_1167
could something like this work?
http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-To-VGA-DVI-...ltDomain_0?hash=item5ad6d953c2#ht_3040wt_1167
100+ bucks is defeating the purpose
Thanks leathal.
I am really just looking for a second monitor solution that kills the mouse lag problem. At this point, for the extra $100+, I would just sell the 4870 and buy a card that would be equally good for Color that can handle dual screens.
Any suggestions on that? Is there a 5870?
Thanks leathal.
I am really just looking for a second monitor solution that kills the mouse lag problem. At this point, for the extra $100+, I would just sell the 4870 and buy a card that would be equally good for Color that can handle dual screens.
Any suggestions on that? Is there a 5870?