Having weighed up the pros and cons of getting an nMP or a 4,1/5.1 MP, I bit the bullet and bought a well-specced 3.33 hex core 5.1 on eBay, will be getting it at some point after the holidays once the money's gone through. Having been sniped on a couple of lower-spec ones, I think it's worked out nicely. 32GB of RAM, 240GB SSD on a Velocity Solo X2 card, 3TB & 1TB HDs, and USB 3.0 card. All for about £1k less than a hex nMP with the same memory & the 256GB SSD (but not including all the extras needed/wanted of course). Looking forward to a seriously worthwhile upgrade to the venerable 1.1 (2.66 quad, 11GB RAM, Radeon 4870, flashed thanks to the skilled people & good advice on here) which will be staying as backup.
Anyway, the video card on the new toy is a Radeon 5770. A match, in most respects at least, for the 4870 (an XFX 1GB XXX edition), but not exactly an upgrade. In terms of apps, I have a few CUDA-compatible apps (Toast 11 for one), a few modern (ish) games like F1 2012 (which run more than adequately on the 1,1), but nothing much as far as I can tell to pick definitively between ATI and nVidia. Machine will be dual Mavericks/Win booting. Full Mac support (boot screens etc) would be nice but not absolutely essential, I could always pull the 4870 from the 1,1 or reinstall the 5770 if need be. If I can get a flashable card in the UK/rest of the EU it's not a problem for me to do the ROM, I did the 4870 OK. Bang for the buck more important than absolute performance. If I import from outside the EU, I'll have to pay customs duty, hefty shipping fees and 20% VAT (sales tax) on the lot- though I'll still consider it if there's a performance advantage. Preferably new rather than used, which could make some of the nVidia options hard to find or pricey. A Mac GTX680 is about £470, the regular versions seem to be sliding from view but still available for the time being (would this one flash?). The 780s, I know from reading on here, have power draw issues in standard form, at least for some, but the non-Ti ones are still around. On the ATI side, 7950 Mac Editions seem fairly reasonably priced (just over £300), but the 7970 strikes me as a better bet for the long term.
Your thoughts please.
Anyway, the video card on the new toy is a Radeon 5770. A match, in most respects at least, for the 4870 (an XFX 1GB XXX edition), but not exactly an upgrade. In terms of apps, I have a few CUDA-compatible apps (Toast 11 for one), a few modern (ish) games like F1 2012 (which run more than adequately on the 1,1), but nothing much as far as I can tell to pick definitively between ATI and nVidia. Machine will be dual Mavericks/Win booting. Full Mac support (boot screens etc) would be nice but not absolutely essential, I could always pull the 4870 from the 1,1 or reinstall the 5770 if need be. If I can get a flashable card in the UK/rest of the EU it's not a problem for me to do the ROM, I did the 4870 OK. Bang for the buck more important than absolute performance. If I import from outside the EU, I'll have to pay customs duty, hefty shipping fees and 20% VAT (sales tax) on the lot- though I'll still consider it if there's a performance advantage. Preferably new rather than used, which could make some of the nVidia options hard to find or pricey. A Mac GTX680 is about £470, the regular versions seem to be sliding from view but still available for the time being (would this one flash?). The 780s, I know from reading on here, have power draw issues in standard form, at least for some, but the non-Ti ones are still around. On the ATI side, 7950 Mac Editions seem fairly reasonably priced (just over £300), but the 7970 strikes me as a better bet for the long term.
Your thoughts please.