Second GPU for Bootcamp Questions

[strausd]

Hello, I am currently looking for a temporary solution to run a professional card, either Quadro or Firepro, in my Mac Pro to be used in Windows 7.

The first question I have is would a Quadro 600 provide better performance inside of Maya and After Effects than a 5870? Would a Firepro V4900 be better than both?

If one would be better, I will most likely be buying one fairly soon. However, would I need to do anything special when running OS X? Like disable a PCIe slot so OS X doesn't get confused or something like that?

Also, would running one of these professional cards in addition to the 5870 under Windows 7 cause any problems?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[toxic]

I seriously doubt the Quadro 600 can boost performance, the 5870 can just overpower whatever optimizations there are. all you'll be doing is "unlocking" certain features.

I also doubt a Quadro 600 is powerful enough to help much in AE. does AE even recommend Quadros? I thought it just uses CUDA, which any decent NVIDIA card can use.

you could try selling the 5870 and grabbing a GTX 470 or 480 from MacVidCards and use that as a one-card solution, if you don't want to pay that much for a second video card.

 

[strausd]

I seriously doubt the Quadro 600 can boost performance, the 5870 can just overpower whatever optimizations there are. all you'll be doing is "unlocking" certain features.

I am not trying to be rude or anything, I just want to make sure I make the right choice. But do you have anything to backup this statement? I have read on other forums that nearly any professional grade card will outperform any consumer grade card.

Optimizations or more than a little driver tweak, they are more complicated. That is why this article shows a Firepro card absolutely murdering a 5870 inside of Maya even though the 5870 looks much better on paper.

So based off of that, my gut is telling me differently from what you said. But I welcome all opinions so that I can make the best decision possible.

I also doubt a Quadro 600 is powerful enough to help much in AE. does AE even recommend Quadros? I thought it just uses CUDA, which any decent NVIDIA card can use.

The Mercury Playback Engine inside of AE and Premiere was basically written for CUDA enabled GPUs. And considering those are professional applications, I would bet that a professional card would outperform a consumer grade card.

you could try selling the 5870 and grabbing a GTX 470 or 480 from MacVidCards and use that as a one-card solution, if you don't want to pay that much for a second video card.

Yes I could, but like I mentioned I am just looking for a temporary solution. So I am leaning towards a simple and easy temporary solution that is just a quick and easy buy.

I mainly posted on this forum to find out if I need to do anything special when running OS X. Like disable a PCIe slot so OS X doesn't get confused or something like that. So if anybody can answer either of those, that would be great.

I will try finding a Firepro or Quadro forum. I will probably have better luck there in regards to which GPU would provide better performance.

 

[toxic]

I am not trying to be rude or anything, I just want to make sure I make the right choice. But do you have anything to backup this statement? I have read on other forums that nearly any professional grade card will outperform any consumer grade card.

off the top of my head, ArsTechnica has a review of the Mac Quadro 4000 vs the 5770, 5870, and GTX 285. the 5870 is powerful enough to keep up (overall), and the author recommended the 5870 over the 4000 for Maya, at least in OS 10.6. admittedly, Quadro Mac drivers suck, but I think you can still infer results from that for a 5870 vs lower end Quadros in Windows.

I've done a lot of reading around since I was considering a Quadro for 3D CAD awhile ago. what I got was that a powerful consumer card and a lot of VRAM (for complex assemblies/scenes) is much better in terms of productivity/$. Quadros just enabled certain features, like RealView in SolidWorks...which doesn't really increase productivity.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/review...idias-sole-mac-offering-a-promising-start.ars

The Mercury Playback Engine inside of AE and Premiere was basically written for CUDA enabled GPUs. And considering those are professional applications, I would bet that a professional card would outperform a consumer grade card.

CUDA is CUDA. professional graphics cards just have fewer CUDA cores for the same price.

I don't know much about FirePro cards, but I think you might as well rule them out if you want CUDA support in AE.