What GPU for a 4,1 for Photoshop & Lightroom?

[rainmakr]

Like many others, I've pretty much given up on a Mac Pro update from Apple in the near future and am looking to upgrade a mostly stock (has a 2.5" SSD) 4,1 single CPU 2.66 Mac Pro with the nVidia GeForce GT 120.

I've been reading threads related to GPUs and CPUs and my head is spinning.

My main uses are Photoshop, Lightroom, and VMWare Fusion (Windows 7 instance running 100% of the time) with the occasional Handbrake conversion thrown in. I'd like to experiment with video (Premiere, not FCPX) but that's not going to happen for awhile. The machine is not used for any gaming.

I already plan on doing a 4,1 -> 5,1 firmware update and installing a W3690 cpu.

But, I'm lost as to what I should do for the graphics card.

I have no preference between AMD and Nvidia. I'm just looking to take advantage of the GPU utilization in Lightroom/Photoshop, have a quiet card, and stay around $200 or less.

I'm also hoping for something that isn't going to require constant babysitting with regards to drivers. I'm OK, with updating the driver alongside OS upgrades, but would like to avoid opening binaries in a text editor and tweaking a couple of bits (though it sounds like those days are mostly in the past).

I'm currently looking at the two below; but, only because they fall in the budget and have a few good reviews:

• MSI GAMING Radeon RX 470 GDDR5 4GB CrossFire FinFET DirectX 12 Graphics Card (RX 470 GAMING X 4G)
• MSI Computer Corp. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti Gaming OC 2GB GDDR5 VGA/DVI/HDMI PCI-Express Video Card N750TI TF 2GD5/OC

Can someone help point me in the right direction?

Thanks for your help,
John

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

No matter which newest GPU you get, Mac drivers make these apps a little laggy compared to Windows versions. A GTX 980 feels not much faster than a GT120 on the Mac side.

 

[chriz_r]

The adobe apps you're using are mostly CUDA accelerated, so Nvidia cards would work best.

 

[Synchro3]

Something supported from OS X native drivers: e.g. GTX 680, GTX 770

GTX 680 you can flash yourself (for EFI boot screen), GTX 770 you can get from MVC: http://www.macvidcards.com

 

[h9826790]

RX470 is not natively supported yet, kext edit may be required after OS update.

750Ti even worse, black screen only until Nvidia web driver install and activated after almost every update (including security update). And yes, you have to install the driver with back screen only. You cannot pre-install the driver before the OS update.

Since both PS and LR are not that GPU intensive. A RX460 may be better than RX470, the 460 has native support now, zero action required after OS update (as long as the card still supported).

On Nvidia side, the last trouble free card is the GTX680, some 7xx card also natively supported by OSX, but 680 is guarantee.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

The adobe apps you're using are mostly CUDA accelerated, so Nvidia cards would work best.

No they are not. Let's stop this myth completely. Adobe uses the Mercury Engine, which is based on OpenGL and OpenCL. Cuda is only used for a couple of trivial filters. There is no CUDA support in Mercury.

 

[Igorexxaa]

I used quadro 2000 in Mac Pro 4.1 and had a lot of problems with Photoshop and Illustrator. Now I bought a rx 480 and my problems are over. I advise you to use Amd graphics cards, because nvidia drivers have a lot of errors in the programs from Adobe on os x.

 

[rainmakr]

Thanks for the replies. I forgot to mention that most of the time I'm only running a 27" monitor (NEC PA272W) at 2560 x 1440 with the occasional second monitor (1366×768).

Also, I'm OK with no boot screen until the drivers load. But don't want to install drivers in the dark as h9826790 mentioned.

Also is brand important with regards to drivers and getting it working, or will the Web Nvidia drivers work with any Nvidia card and the standard OS X drivers work with any compatible Radeon?

In other words, can I go out and grab "any" RX 470 or GTX 680 (EVGA, Sapphire, MSI, ASUS, Gigabyte, etc), or should I stick with specific manufacturers?

Thanks

 

[chriz_r]

No they are not. Let's stop this myth completely. Adobe uses the Mercury Engine, which is based on OpenGL and OpenCL. Cuda is only used for a couple of trivial filters. There is no CUDA support in Mercury.

I stand corrected, I was basing my answer on previous work that I did with adobe on windows so I'm sure I'm already behind on system requirements knowledge base but I know a lot of the effects I used were pretty heavy and benefited on CUDA.

 

[DB10]

I'm looking to do the same thing & leaning towards getting a new unused NVIDIA card.

Looks like these are accelerated in PS but I'm not sure if it's for both Mac & Win:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cc-gpu-card-faq.html

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