Graphics Card on Mac Pro for CS5

Hi all,
I was just wondering if anybody is using Premiere Pro CS5 on one of the latest Mac Pros (4,1 dual quad core Intel Xeon 16GB RAM) with any of the Mercury engine supported NVidia cards? The Mac I have currently has the ATI Radeon HD 4870.
I know the GTX 285 is supported but I since read on one of the Adobe forums that Apple had discontinued it?? Is this correct? I can't seem to find it in stock anywhere.
Will I have to go up to the Quadro FX4800 which is over $2,000AUD?
Just trying to get some user experience from anyone in a similar situation/setup.
Thanks for all help/knowledge,
Alex Hawkins
Canberra, Australia

....Apple switched from nVidia to ATI in the latest Mac Pro,...
Wonder what a conspiracy theorist would make of that.
Maybe Apple is feeling the heat of the Adobe blow torch on FCP

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Hi all,
I'm interested in upgrading my current graphics card NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512 MB to something with more memory.
I'm having a hard time trying to figure out which brand to go with that'll be compatible with my Mac Pro 2009 model and will work well under OSX Mavericks.
I really dont want to break the bank. Need a good amount of GDDR5 ram for Adobe Creative Cloud mostly. Would also like to run some gaming on PC Bootcamp drive under Windows 7 (Titanfall, Crysis, Battlefield, etc). However that's all secondary, thanks for your help.

LOTS of choices, depends if you want ones that will work without fuss (ATI 5770 & 5870 plus Mac edition EVGA 680 and Sapphire 7950) still give you boot screens if you option boot.
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Can I use two graphics card in Mac Pro

In order to use the CUDA advantage in Adobe Premiere Pro I bought an NVIDA Quadro FX4800. The original graphics processor in my Mac Pro (mid2010) is a ATI Radeon HD 5770. Can I use both cards? How do I ensure that Premiere is using the CUDA architecture if both cards are installed? Does a graphics card work if no monitor is attached to it?

Newer cards have minidisplay port and then use MDP to DVI (active dual link for higher resolution).
Yes you can have an ATI and Quadro or GTX.
Most people, based on cost/performance go with newest Nvidia instead.
You can run up against the limits of having two 6-pin aux power connections available.

HT2848 2 graphics cards in MAC pro, 5,1 - GTX680

I am trying to run 2 graphics cards in my mac pro 5,1 - I have 2 GTX680 that I lined up to run Davinci Resolve and After Effects.
I need CUDA core processing power.
Has any one done this? What do I for power? I need 4 power sources, and the mobo only has 2. I bought a molex to 6 pin, that converts from a SATA to molex, but I am not sure that the mobo can handel the power.
Thanks for any help.
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It can be mounted in optcal drive bay, and then deal with how to route the cables, or outside and maybe route the cables in through an open PCI slot.
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http://forums.macrumors.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1

Graphics Card Question Mac Pro

So I have one NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 with 512MB in my mac pro and I wanted to add one more card to my comp just wondering how this works.. For example, could I add the ATI Radeon HD 4870 and would the two work compatibly?
Or would I have to just grab another NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 with 512MB and double up on that?
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So okay, what does that mean would I have to just buy another hard drive and put it in Bay 2 of my tower? Designating that just for what Larry Jordan was talking about?
Okay well thanks sorry this post is getting a little big -Nick

Nick Holmes wrote:
Final Cut Pro is not compatible with multiple graphic cards.
Well, to be precise: the current version of FCP on tiger and Leopard has some issues with some FxPlugs if you have more than one graphics card with monitors plugged into them. You can have a graphics card in all four slots, you just can't have monitors on them. I had the horsepower to drive 8 30" displays from 4 dual-head graphics cards. I took three of them out since they were fundamentally useless.
No one knows what the next rev of FCP on Snow Leopard will be capable of doing with more than one card and more than two monitors.
You want a drive in each bay if you're going to be doing video seriously and not as a hobby. If you can afford FCP for a hobby, you can afford the drives so get them anyway.
You want the 4870 card.
You want all the RAM you can afford.
bogiesan

Multiple GeForce GT 120 Graphics cards on Mac Pro

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VGA (monitor) - VGA/MiniDisplayPort Adapter (card)
DVI (Monitor) - DVI (card
DVI (monitor) - DVI/MiniDisplayPort Adapter (card)
None of these have worked.
Any advice on using more than 1 GeForce GT 120 graphics card in the Mac Pro, and/or the best connection configuration?
Many thanks in advance!
Na1dacra

The hatter is right that at one point, multiple NVIDIA cards caused a problem. But that problem was Kernel Panics, not failure to operate.
You need to be certain the new card works by itself. To do that, install it in slot 1 as the only card, and be certain all the old functions work as you expect. Then you have known-good parts going forward into more complex testing.
When using multiple display, you must be certain you have completely eliminated Mirroring, which will limit resolutions to those that seem to be possible for both displays. You should have a separate blue box for each display, and none should overlap.

Advantage/disadvantage two graphics cards in Mac Pro?

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All ears,
Ben

Hi guys,
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Display Ports : Adding NVidia GT-120 Graphics Card to Mac Pro

Hi
Just installed the Base NV GT-120 graphics card in order to use the new Mac Cinema Display 24".
Also still running the original ATI HD 2600 card.
Installation was easy.....
The ATI card runs a 20" Cinema Display and the 24" is on the new NV card.
GREAT picture on the 24" Display!
Just to let you know....The MDP cannot be the primary port for the display. That is all the dock/menus are all on the "smaller" or display on the DVI port.
UNLESS you re-write the code in terminal....which Apple support advised me not to....
Any thoughts/ advice?
Lenny

1. open your "System Preferences" and click on "Displays".
2. select the tab "Arrange", you will see two blue rectangles which represent your two displays. you can drag those rectanglea to change the arrangement of your screens.
3. in one rectangle you see a small white rectangle on top. this is representing your menu bar. just drag the menubar to your desired primary screen. close the preferences and that's it.

Which graphics card in Mac Pro?

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Makes sense, Jerry. The only (minor) glitch is that they aren't offering a 2x2GB option on the Mac Pro, only 4x1GB, which means that if I later need to go to 8GB, I'd fill the remaining four slots, right? Can't easily imagine this being a problem; it's hard to conceive of ever needing 16GB. And if I stick to 4GB, maybe I can afford Shake.
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Updating your older Mac Pro for a few more years of good use...

Hello everyone, I wanted to share my tips for getting your aging Mac Pro running better for Mavericks and the FCPX 10.1.
Please note your Mac Pro's specs before doing what did..I am an editor and use the 3 big A's to get my work done. Adobe, Apple, Avid (not so much Avid)
I got a great deal on it for only $1300. I did a bunch of research and decided my upgrade options were best for my machine and the way I use it so your upgrade options my differ slightly. (do your research!!!)
I have 2009 Nehelem Mac Pro 2x 2.66 Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon. Installed was 6GBs of factory RAM, an upgraded ATI 512 GPU, and 1, 1TB WD Black system drive. (this was a nice upgrade compared to my 4 core Mac Pro)
I was running 10.8 and all my apps were installed and running. I installed 3 more 7200rpm drives to fill the drive bays. Momentus XT's 2TB each.
(I upgraded to Mavericks, as you know it overwirtes the old OS, I wanted the new FCPX...) more on this later.
1- RAM,
I removed the puny 6GBs of RAM it came with and installed 32GBs of 1066 Mhz DDR3 from OWC. I decided 32 would be enough for my needs looking into the App requirments and of course the cost. I noticed a slight difference in some performance. (to my dissapointment) fcpx beachballs!!
However now you will have more RAM to allocate RAM for programs that can read it. After Effects anyone...
link- http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory#1066-memory
2-GPU,
I had a 5770 sitting in the closet, and put that in and bascilly it sucked! I never like the 5770. fcpx beachballs!!
I contacted apple they informed me FCPX is written for GPUs and that a large card (while they didnt suppport it at the time) would be the best upgrade to better performance. So I installed the AMD Sappire 7950 3GB GPU from OWC. This is a monster card! and right away I noticed a huge difference in the perfromace of FCPX and AE! Not only that but the card supports up to 2K I believe... and is a great price... and for you gear heads it looks bad *** and the fan is super quiet!
less fcpx beachballs
link-http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sapphire/100352MAC/
3- Hardrive,
Ok so now I'm thinking my machine is a beast! I have all this RAM and a huge GPU and the top ESATA drives you can buy, butI was still getting beachballs and FCPX was painfully slow at times..needless to say I felt Apple backing my in a corner to drink more coolaid a get the new small round black can...What to do???
As I mentioned before I did not do a clean install....Most folks dont like going through the pain of 2 days to do a clean install but I knew deep down it would have ot be done. Before I did that I decided to do some research on those new SSD cards everyone is raging about. Remeber your Mac Pro's bus speed is only so big...remember this when doing this last and most important upgrade!!
The market has all kinds of SSD drives for sale and OWC has a PCIe option (too much money for me) they have 3G drives 6G drives and so on. I could be wrong but buying a more expensive 6G card is a waste of money with bus speed of the Nehelem (this my differ with Westmere) I bought an of the self Kingston Hyper X 120GB (get at least 240GB if you can) and the OWC Mac Pro Drive Sled.
This by far was the best upgrade! Before installation please go through the pain of the clean install...For Mavericks you need to create a bootable drive on a USB stick first. You then need to monut SSD in an empty enclosure in order to get it to mount for the OS to be installed
OSX install Instructions-http://www.macworld.com/article/2056561/how-to-make-a-bootable-mavericks-install -drive.html
link- Drive Sled http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MMP35T25/?utm_source=go ogle&utm_medium=shoppingengine&utm_campaign=googlebase&gclid=COyxzMyOub0CFcqUfgo d8xUAPQ
kin
link-SSD http://www.kingston.com/en/ssd/hyperx
PCIe Expansions
H.264 Encoding-
Matrox Compress HD PCIe card, This card is amazing however it does not support Compressor 4.1 but it does support legecy Compressor 3 and I did successfully install both Apps in Mavericks. (You must hide legecy versions in a folder in applications)
ESATA CARD- 4 Port 6G Caldigit esata card.
USB 3.0- Newertech 2 port USB3.0 Mac Pro Card. I dont recommend buying this card. Mac Pro Nehelem, was not made for USB3.0 and the drives I plug into it rarely mount...if ever mount... restart...when they do its a little faster than firewire and close to my Esata options. Dont bother....
I have setup my drive structure as follow.
Drive Bay 1 All System Apps run on the SSD drive.
Drive bay 2 hold the contents of all the Media for my projects.
Drive bay 3 hold all the AutoSaves and the FCPX Libaries and daily Project backups and renders.
Drive bay 4 Is Special Effects drive.
Dual Samsung 27 inch HD displays
M_Audio Monitors
1-3TB Caldigit RAID
12-TBs of drives attached to every port on the back.
2_USB docking ports voyager s3 for archive drives.
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Many of us are not ready to upgrade to the new Mac Pro, and as we all know the legecy Mac Pro was built like a tank with military grade proccessors and endless upgrade options. It wont ever be as fast as that new black can but I know I will be working faster with my trusty Mac!
Good luck!
basementape films

SSD Killer-fast Mac Pro
Upgrade RAM to 16GB (4 x 4GB)
Upgrade all the hard drives to 2TB
Upgrade to 10.6.8 and CS5.5
Replace graphic card with ATI 5770
Upgrade the processors with X5355s, which is what many are doing now with theirs.
Forget Lion. Dropped PowerPC and Rosetta code support
Clone your drives.
Keep 40% or more free space on any drive.
Move any non-OS or applications off the boot drive to a data drive.
Move system and apps to SSD
Use SSD(s) for Aperture Library or stripe RAID.
None of the above, sell yours and pick up a 2010 2.8GHz $2100 (people that want or need to run Tiger and PowerPC will likely pay $700 range for MacPro1,1). Upgrade the processor in 2010, with 6-core 3.33GHz $590.
Apple Special Refurbished Mac Pro 2.8GHz Quad
Intel Xeon W3680 3.33 GHz, SLBV2
Intel Xeon UP W3680 3.33 GHz Processor - Hexa-core
W3670 Upgrade photos
At some point, it doesn't make sense to pour money into older system.
But you can, and do it gradually one step at a time.

Which current Mac Pro for Aperture/Photoshop

After much research and what seems to be chasing my tail, I though I'd ask the forum for some advice on which machine will best suit my needs. I am currently running Aperture and Photoshop CS3 and looking for a fast machine for the job. I sort through around 2500-3000 raw files per week and hope the new Intel Xeons will speed up my workflow. It's the question of "How many cores are better?" that's confusing me as I am unclear on how many Aperture and Photoshop can actually make use of.
I'm looking to upgrade from my 3.06 iMac to a Mac Pro but having trouble choosing between a new 2.66 quad or a refurbished 2.26 8-core. I understand the drop in processor speed might be noticeable in some instances but the from what I have gathered an upgrade to the ATI HD 4870 is a must as is 6GB ram on the 2.66 and 8GB ram on the 2.26. It's not so much the price difference of the two machines (£2200 for the upgraded 2.66 and roughly £2700 for a refurbished 2.26 plus upgrades) it's will my workflow see any great benefits from the 8-core over the quad. The program I use most is Aperture, followed by Photoshop then FotoMagico, iDVD and Toast Titanium. Does Snow Leopard affect the use of cores in these programs?
Any feedback is much appreciated or pointing in the direction of some real world tests as all the bench tests of the 8-core are so impressive but I'll not be using it for 3D/Video at all.
Thanks in advance for your help.

According to the Adobe blog the delay in offering a 64-bit suite for Mac is because the entire suite has to be rewritten in Cocoa (both previous and current offerings are written in Carbon) CS5 will be written in Cocoa and will utilise the full functionality of the Snow Leopard OS (OpenGL, GCD etc) so memory addressing will be a huge step forward on Photoshop (which I use).
I used Photoshop CS4 on a 2008 Mac Pro 2 x 2.8GHz 8 core (dual Xeon 5400 series Quad core CPUs) and just recently switched to a 2009 Mac Pro 2 x 2.26GHz 8 core (Xeon 5500 series Quad core CPUs). I used CS3 on the original Mac Pro 2 x 2.66Ghz (Dual Xeon Dual Core CPUs = 4 cores total). It's not a fair reflection as CS3 ran under Rosetta on the original Mac Pro and CS4 has better integration on the Intel based Macs, but in general, I noticed a much better rate of workflow on the 8 core machines over the 4 core machine.
More importantly, I would point out that running batch process of RAW files in CaptureOne Pro was significantly performing the batch process on the 8 core machines than on the 4 core machine. (250 RAW files {with no corrections] from a Canon EOS 1D MKII into 16-bitt TIFF files). I can't remember the exact figures but the 8 core machines were @ 23 - 25 minutes quicker than the 4 core machine.
I know it's not scientific and software versions were different which could add to the different results in part, but the 8 core machines both out performed the 4 core machine substantially.
However, the 2009 Mac Pro Quad Core is capable of running 2 threads per core (in effect a virtual 8 core machine and as many reviewers have pointed out, perform faster than the 8 core Mac Pro in certain applications (which have not been written to utilise the full multi-CPU-multi-core environment.
The Memory limitation on the Quad Core is 16GB RAM (Apple state 8GB but reviewers have installed 4 x 4GB DIMMs into the Quad Core without issue). Unless you are doing 3D or HD rendering etc you probably won't really need over 16GBs of RAM, however the cost of 4GB memory sticks is expensive. Crucial only offer a 12GB kit for the Quad Core Mac Pro 2009 to make full use of the triple channel memory speeds (DDR3 best performance in multiples of 3) and 12GBs from Crucial is @£771.00 (prices correct at time of writing this. This equates to @ £257 per 4GB.
Total for Quad Mac Pro with 12GB (3 x 4GB RAM) = £2670
Total for Octo Core Mac Pro with 12GB (6 x 2GB RAM) =£2731 (New price not refurb)
Graphics card upgrade etc will be the same on both machines. Memory based on Crucial Memory prices.
So, for a 2009 Mac Pro with 12GB RAM, it is £61 dearer for an 8 core (virtual 16 cores) machine over the Quad Core Mac Pro. The 8 core system will give you further memory expansion once prices of the 4GB memory sticks come down significantly. The Quad Core will only be able to be upgraded with 8GB RAM sticks over the 4GB sticks available now and will cost a huge amount at time of launch.
Buying a refurbishment 2.26 GHz with similar memory upgrade would in my opinion be the way to go. I know the CPU clock speed is lower, but in real time non memory intensive applications the difference will be hardly noticeable.
I went through the same dilemma as you. I opted for the 8 core system with 12GB RAM and the ATI HD4870 graphics (bought as an upgrade kit so was dearer than the build to order option). I am very happy with my purchase.
The other option is to check out eBay there may be a very well spec'd 2008 Mac Pro for sale with warranty, 16GB RAM and the 8800GT graphics card for less than either of the new systems.
Over the long term, the 8 core offers more affordable customisation options over the Quad Core, but it depends on how long you plan to use the machine

I am thinking of using a Mac pro for share trading. Can anyone share their experience and suggest specs for 30 -40 monitors etc

Hi
I am thinking of using a Mac Pro for share trading.
I am proposing to start small but want to be able to expand up to 30+ monitors.
It must be super quick.
Any help with hardware would be appreciated.
Software is secondary at this point , but open to advice.
I have an iphone and ipad so feel it will better intergrate usung Apple
regards
David

There is no desktop machine that I know of that will support 30+ monitors as is.
Fill the 3 or 4 PCIe slots of any logic board with three port graphics cards and you have the physical cap without additional hardware.
Software is secondary at this point
No, without software, how can you control more than the monitor limit of the OS?
How can you set up the monitors to display the various programs that you will wish to use simultaneously?
Software is a major consideration.
Matrox (and others) have solutions for additional monitors beyond the physical capabilities of generally offered graphics cards.
The caveat here, however, is support software is typically reserved for Windows and Linux systems.
Matrox has a single 8 display card:
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/graphics_cards/m_series/m9188pciex16/
Matrox has solutions specifically targeting the finance market:
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/solutions/trading_analyst/
Though the Mac Pro has more than adequate processing power, I think that you will find (through research) that building a solid machine capable of using several multi monitor cards is going to be what you will need to support more than 8-10 monitors with conventionally offered hardware.
Fun stuff:
http://www.digitaltigers.com/zenview.asp

Early 2008 Mac Pro for home use

Hello guys,
I've been using usual Windows PCs at home (watching movies through HDMI, playing a few games - Counter Strike and random racing games), browsing internet, working in PS and Light room etc, but mostly for watching HD movies. But I was able to get myself Early 2008 Mac Pro - 10gb memory, two dual core intel xeon processors, 256 Ati Radeon graphics cards and 1tb ssd hard drive. Now I wanted to know how good is Mac Pro for home use? As I said I don't do many things with my windows based PC and wanted to switch to faster, quieter mac pro. Any opinions? How good it is as a home entertainment center?
P.S. Counter strike is available now for Mac, so I don't really care about other games.

dump the 2600XT and there I would pay for a Mac Edition AMD 7950, else PC card
1TB SSD is unusual gift
even though 8 cores it is 6 yrs old and most things don't use 8 cores that much, it predates the i7-920,
USB3 has to be added if you want it or put USB3 on your LAN router is what I do.
It does not get the official nod of support from Apple for Windows 8/8.1 but it does if you want run 7 or 7 Pro (dual cpu support)
FBDIMMs have gotten better and cheaper if you want or need to, many do, often due to early death.

Graphics Card on Mac Pro for CS5

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