Mac Pro upgrade strategy

[Mustard Chops]

Hey, after the disappointment with the MBP updates I am thinking of sinking some cash into my mac pro.

I was originally gonna sell my 17" MBP and score a new laptop but I think I'm gonna stick with it. The cash that I've got kicking around will go on some new bits and pieces.

This is what I'm planning;

Extra 4gb of ram for the mac pro
new video card for mac pro, ATI 3870?
4gb ram upgrade for the MBP
new lens

I mainly do a lot of aperture work on the mac pro, is the 3870 a decent enough card for this?

will i see the benefit over the x1900 that came with the mac pro?

are there any other cards that i should be considering?

 

[wheezy]

I'd shuffle some money towards more RAM and a new lens, running Aperture on 2GBs is very taxing on page in/page outs. I have 6GB and I never touch my system scratch disk... until I open Aperture. You can pickup 2x2GB for about $130 which isn't too big of a hit (compared to a lens)

 

[strikeinsilence]

Since Aperture is much more taxing on RAM than the graphics card, I'd put as much as possible in there. What lens are you looking at?

 

[Mustard Chops]

running Aperture on 2GBs is very taxing on page in/page outs. I have 6GB and I never touch my system scratch disk... until I open Aperture.

I've got 5GB at the moment, and you're right - page out city occurs when running aperture!

Undecided on the lens - I'm drawn towards the Sigma 30mm f1.4, or the Canon 85mm f/1.8...