HD video performance on Mac Pro 4

I have a new Mac Pro 4 core. It has 1.5TB of disk in a raid 0 configuration and 5GB of RAM. It also uses the ATI x1900 video card. The display is an Apple Cinema 23".
It has done all of the software updates.
The only software loaded onto the machine so far is FCS.
Now when I try to watch The BBC HD video at 1920x1080 that I download to my local hard drive (vide from here http://www.apple.com/quicktime/guide/hd/bbc-blue.html ), it is very choppy.
IMHO, this machine should be able to play this video back in real time with NO issue. What do I need to do to correct this issue?

To tell the truth, sending folks off to read a blog or another site when asking for help troubleshooting. And you fail to mention you have the X1900 in a non-supported or alternate slot.
Mixing 7300 GT and Radeon doesn't work. And having two Radeons???
There are lots of threads here on using the Expansion Slot Utility and video card configurations.

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ATI 5770 1GB Video Card For Mac Pro dvi hdmi cable

I am sending video signal over a 50FT HDMI To DVI from my Mac Pro (3,1) via ATI 5770 1GB Video Card For Mac Pro (5.0 GT/s) (181062917108) and I cannot get a constant signal to my TV. The signal stays on for a few seconds or several hours or my TV (Samsung) says there is no signal or I get just a gray static screen.
I never had a problem before with my previous video card the 512MB nVidia GeForce 8800GT with a 25ft long cable. Any ideas people?

A cable of about 5 meters (16 ft) can be manufactured to Category 1 specifications easily and inexpensively by using 28 AWG (0.081 mm²) conductors.[114] With better quality construction and materials, including 24 AWG (0.205 mm²) conductors, an HDMI cable can reach lengths of up to 15 meters (49 ft).[114]
from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI
You may need a higher-quality cable or a lower resolution for your display to make this work without an HDMI Repeater.

How can I do Streaming Video from a Mac Pro

I want to set up a small family web site and run streaming video off my Mac Pro. Do I need to have OS X server to do this? Can I run OS X applications like Final Cut Express on OS X server?

You can run all the same apps on OS X server as on the client. for streaming video you may want to upgrade QuickTime to QT Streaming Server.

Video software cause Mac Pro to lose power

My Mac Pro has begun doing something very strange. On Mac OSX Snow Leopord or Lion, when using video conversion software (HandBrake or MacX Video Covnerter) My Mac Pro acts like it los power from the outlet as my UPS connected via USB starts alarming. If I let the software continue to run my Mac shuts down. It never did this before and I recently did a clean install of both OS versions and the software.I have tried disconneting the UPS and my Mac stills shuts down. I have also reinstalled the two video conversion softwares with the latest version and get the same results.
I could use some serious help here.

...and the overheading may be caused by dust. So when was the last time you blew the dust out?
Also, would go get the same overloading problem if you bypassed the UPS?

How is the performance of Mac Pro if i use it as host for windows and linux virtual machines.

How is the performance of Mac Pro if i use it as host for windows and linux virtual machines.
I am planning to buy a high performance PC to run my Windows and Linux servers as vitrual machines for my testing purposes.
Initially i planned to build my own computer with recommended configurations but considering space constaints and cooling factors i think Mac Pro can be a choice. But need some inputs if Mac pro (Intel Xeon E5, 12 GB RAM) is good for running virtual Machines.

You could even run Windows natively and still run your VM servers.
I have seen reports and such on MacRumors and elsewhere - run Windows natively as well as VMs (can also do testing and run Mavericks in a VM under Mavericks)
The fast internal PCIe-SSD, plus 6 or 8 cores, and 32-64GB RAM. Of course for $5,000 for 8-core, some Thunderbolt storage and 32GB/64GB RAM you can buy some serious hardware.

DVI to Component Video Output YpBr- Mac Pro NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT Card

Hello-
I am trying to use my Mac Pro as a media machine, but to do this I need to convert the DVI signal to Component video. The video switch I am using is Component only, so that is the reason why I cannot go HDMI.
What is the best solution? Do they make an adapter that will convert? Is there a graphics card issue?
On a sidenote, will the computer be able to operate with two video cards? I was thinking of having one HDMI output to my main television monitor, and having component video going to my switch for the other monitors located around the house.

What about upgrading to this video card?
<http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-mac/hd3870-mac-pc/Pag es/ati-radeon-hd-3800-mac-specs.aspx>
It will give more graphics performance, but you don't need it for just displaying video. If you do want extra performance, get the ATI Radeon HD 4870
<http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB999ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA5OQ&mco=MTA4MzU2NTc>

Which dual DVI video card for Mac Pro?

We just got a Mac Pro at work with a single DVI port video card. Want to use 2 monitors, but don't want to order an incompatible card. Don't need screaming performance, just a stable setup for a sprawling desktop with some applications running low-res/low-frame-rate animation.
One Evga card that looked like about the right specs was shown on MacMall's site as 'platform: universal' but the manufacturer's site specifed Windows and Vista. Called MacMall and tech support said it wasn't supported. So, now I'm suspicious.
Anyone have a list of decent cards that will work? Would like to keep it at or under $100.

You could just add an adapter, though not everyone is happy with that, for your 2nd port on the GT120.
Could wait for Nvidia eVGA GTX 285 Mac Edition next month.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/EGVA/01GP31080TR/
There is/was and should be 8800GT with nice specs and dual monitor support.
Barefeats is a great resource of tests and benchmarks.
This gives a good idea of what cards and what to expect:
http://barefeats.com/nehal10.html
Some discussions of 4870, GTX285 etc.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=705291
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=7546575#post7546575
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=694042
And some comments on the FX 4800 and using in Windows vs OS X:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=705457

Need help with video on older Mac Pro

I have a 2008 Mac Pro that more than meets all of the specs for FCP X, except the Mac App store won't let me buy and download because the video card in the system doesn't meet specs. I've found an apple support page that lists the compatible video cards for FCP X. Here's my issues:
1. Most of the cards on the list are older and not easily obtainable anymore.
2. Even with models that are newer, it's had to find one labeled for Mac - so can I just use any old model of, say, a Radeon HD 5670 or do I need one specificlaly made for Macs?
3. Bottom line is what card can I use in a 2008 Mac Pro that will meet the specs and that I can actually purchase?
Thanx...Jon

jhyiesla wrote:
I've found an apple support page that lists the compatible video cards for FCP X.
. . . . . . . . . so can I just use any old model of, say, a Radeon HD 5670 or do I need one specificlaly made for Macs?
A Radeon HD 5670 is a Radeon HD 5670 - if it's on the compatible list, it will work in your Mac.
This is my pet checklist for questions regarding FCP X performance - you may have already addressed some of the items but it's worth checking.
Make sure you're using the latest version of the application - FCP X 10.0.5 runs very well on my 2009 MacPro 2 x 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 16 GB RAM and ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024 MB. I run it with Lion 10.7.5.
First, check that you have at least 20% free space on your system drive.
For smooth playback without dropping frames, make sure 'Better Performance' is selected in the FCP X Preferences - Playback Tab.
If you have not already done so, move your Projects and Events to a fast (Firewire 800 or faster) external HD. Make sure the drive's formatted OS Extended (journalling's not required for video). You should always keep at least 20% free space on the Hard Drives that your Media, Projects and Events are on.
Check the spec of your Mac against the system requirements:
http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/specs/
Check the spec of your graphics card. If it's listed here, it's not suitable:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4664
If you are getting crashes, there is some conflict on the OS. Create a new (admin) user account on your system and use FCP X from there - if it runs a lot better, there's a conflict and a clean install would be recommended.
Keep projects to 20 mins or less. If you have a long project, work on 20 min sections then paste these into a final project for export.
If you ever experience dropped frames, I strongly recommend you use ProRes 422 Proxy - it edits and plays back like silk because the files are small but lightly compressed (not much packing and unpacking to do) - but remember to select 'Original or Optimised Media' (FCP X Preferences > Playback) just before you export your movie, otherwise it will be exported at low resolution.
If you have plenty of processor power, for the ultimate editing experience, create Optimised Media - most camera native files are highly compressed and need a great deal of processor power to play back - particularly if you add titles, filters or effects. ProRes 422 takes up much more hard drive space but is very lightly compressed. It edits and plays back superbly.
Hide Audio Waveforms at all times when you don't need them (both in Browser and Storyline / Timeline). They take up a lot of processor power. (Use the switch icon at the bottom-right of your timeline to select a format without waveforms if you don't need them at the moment, then switch back when you do).
Create folders in the Project and Events libraries and put any projects you are not working on currently, in those folders. This will help a lot. There's a great application for this, called Event Manager X - for the tiny cost it's an invaluable application.
http://assistedediting.intelligentassistance.com/EventManagerX/
Unless you cannot edit and playback without it, turn off Background Rendering in Preferences (under Playback) - this will help general performance and you can always render when you need to by selecting the clip (or clips) and pressing Ctrl+R.
The biggest single improvement I saw in performance was when I upgraded the RAM from 8 GB to 16.
Andy

Upgrading a Video Card for Mac Pro (Early 2008)

I have little experience upgrading systems hardware and I was hoping to get some input as I try to figure out a cost effective card for my 2008 mac.
What I have:
* 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel
* ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
* with OSX 10.10.2 Yosemite
. . . so far I am looking at the 5770 HD to be a likely replacement if I buy the right one (some, if I'm understanding correctly, aren't compatible because they were flashed for older systems or are simply defective and so require selective shopping— hence, they were not officially supported). Also, I am unsure if OS Yosemite runs the older cards.
I work with Photoshop, Illustrator, and play games like Starcraft2 and WoW.
My question is:
Which video cards are compatible with my system and what would be the best replacement? . . . and will I have to downgrade from OS Yosemite to run certain cards?
Thanks in advance!

Hi there, welcome to the community.
My advice to you, to achieve cost effective performance, would be to use any vanilla NVIDIA graphics card. Newer versions of Mac OS X have drivers that should be compatible with the card out of the box. The only downside to using a non-mac specific card is that you wont see the boot up process, as the graphics card wont be initialized until the system is completely loaded. If this concerns you, leave your old card in one of the slower, unused slots if possible.
If you are worried about compatibility, I would recommend purchasing at Best Buy, where you can take advantage of their return policy.
For more info, check out:
How to breathe new life into a dying Mac Pro | iMore

Best video card for mac pro

Mac Pro Info:2x2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
MacPro1, 1
It says my mac pro (2006-2007) model had PCIe slots, but it doesn't mention PCI 2.0 slots. i'm looking to upgrade my video card to one of the better ones for this computer. currently i have a radeon x1900 XT 512 card. it can get clunky at times. I've been reading a lot about the Radeon HD5770, but it says it works with PCI 2.0. i've been reading that a lot of people that currently have the x1900 XT upgrade to the HD5770. but I don't want to buy an incompatible one. I just did that on my RAM and had to return it.
Does anyone know if this card will work? and will both mini display ports work as well?
or do you have a better suggestion for an upgrade?
i don't do a whole lot of gaming, but i like having a junky desktop with 30 browser windows open and 10 other programs open at the same time. i would like a card that is good for that. thanks again!

OpenGL 3.2 support15
Image quality enhancement technology
Up to 24x multi-sample and super-sample anti-aliasing modes
Adaptive anti-aliasing
16x angle independent anisotropic texture filtering
128-bit floating point HDR rendering
http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-5000/hd-5770/Pages /ati-radeon-hd-5770-overview.aspx#5
X1900 http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/other/Pages/x1900-specifications .aspx
not all ATI Radeon graphics cards are HDCP ready.
Complete feature set also supported in OpenGL® 2.0
Barefeats: adding the Radeon HD 5870 or 5770 to your 2006 Mac Pro won't cause it to "leap tall buildings in a single bound." But these new cards will help you "clear low buildings with a running start."
OpenGL 2.1 Released on July 2, 2006. Where is the 4.2 support, or even 3.2 support??
Apple lags by over half a decade and has not done much to modernize graphic driver support to current available standards.
OpenGL 4.2 Released on 8 August 2011[33]
Supported Cards: Nvidia GeForce 400 series, Nvidia GeForce 500 series, Nvidia GeForce 600 series, ATI Radeon HD 5000 series, AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series, AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series
Support for shaders with atomic counters and load/store/atomic read-modify-write operations to a single level of a texture.
Capturing GPU-tessellated geometry and drawing multiple instances of the result of a transform feedback to enable complex objects to be efficiently repositioned and replicated.
Support for modifying an arbitrary subset of a compressed texture, without having to re-download the whole texture to the GPU for significant performance improvements.
Support for packing multiple 8 and 16 bit values into a single 32-bit value for efficient shader processing with significantly reduced memory storage and bandwidth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL
OpenCL 1.1 was ratified by the Khronos Group on 14 June 2010 - "Hello, that is full two years ago." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCL#cite_note-11
OpenCL 1.2 On 15 November 2011, the Khronos Group announced the OpenCL 1.2 specification,[13] which added significant functionality over the previous versions in terms of performance and features for parallel programming. Most notable features include:
Device partitioning: the ability to partition a device into sub-devices so that work assignments can be allocated to individual compute units. This is useful for reserving areas of the device to reduce latency for time-critical tasks.
Separate compilation and linking of objects: the functionality to compile OpenCL into external libraries for inclusion into other programs.
Enhanced image support: 1.2 adds support for 1D images and 1D/2D image arrays. Furthermore, the OpenGL sharing extensions now allow for OpenGL 1D textures and 1D/2D texture arrays to be used to create OpenCL images.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCL
OpenCL is a trademark of Apple Inc.

XAVC 4K playback performance on Mac Pro

2009 Nehalem 2.66GHz 8-core Mac Pro with 16GB RAM and GTX570, running OS X 10.8.5.
As part of my freelance post work, I've started tackling 4K XAVC-I footage from the Sony FS7. The footage loads alright, but is impossible to play without serious stuttering. Brand new project. I tried any playback resolutions between full and 1/8, same behavior. I can't play a single second without the drop frame indicator going orange and starting to rack up dropped frames.
CPU utilization during playback is steady at 70%, and drive reads are at 80MB/s (our SAN successfully delivers 350MB/s).
Tried both Premiere CC and CC(2014), same behavior.
Performance in DaVinci Resolve doesn't look much different.
It's going to be a week or so before I'm back at the machine, so I'm preparing my attack plan. "Gotta buy a new computer" is the easiest possible answer but also the most expensive (we can all predict the boss` reaction) and not necessarily accurate one. Maybe it is the right one, but part of my job is to eliminate other possible (and cheaper) causes first.
What is the current state of 4K playback in Premiere? Is it two camps of "always worked for me" and "never works for me"? Has anyone had playback issues that were fixed by updating CUDA drivers, Premiere patches, identifying odd bugs, etc.?
I'm going to play with the video output, Mercury settings, source drive, and transcode to 4K ProRes at different bitrates... any other suggestions?
We all know that the new black Mac Pro "can do 4K", but I haven't heard a statement that "no other Macs can". Surprisingly, I haven't found discussions (let alone official recommendations) of minimum hardware requirements for Premiere and 4K. I'd be happy to be pointed to any if they exist. The CPUs in this 2009 Mac Pro should still pack more punch than any iMac model in the market, and is 25% slower than the baseline 2013 MP. If it's the GPU, I'd be happy to hear at least one testimony like "never worked with my GTX570 but once I went GTX680 I finally set sailing".
Thanks!

I use a Sony Notebook with 4 K Display and a USB 3 disk 2TB with footage from the FS 7, sequence lenght 3 hours and I have no problems. All is working very well.

Best hard drive performance on mac pro for final cut express

This week I'll be setting up a basic 4 core mac pro with 16 gb ram and 2 internal- 2tb WD Caviar Black drives. I'm wondering what would give me the best performance for running final cut express, and I'm considering setting up software raid 0 or using one drive for boot and one for scratch. Or should I set up software raid 0 with boot and scratch partitions? Or other suggestions? Thanks.

My recommendations -
With 2 drives in your Mac Pro, use *one disk for OS X and all of your apps;* the *second disk for data* (including your FCE scratch disk location). Partition each drive as a *single partition,* which will maximize performance over time.
In addition, you should invest in at least 1 external drive to use for backup purposes; if you don't, the day will come when you wish you had.
I strongly recommend AGAINST doing software RAID. Certainly not for your situation with only 2 drives, one of which will be your system HD; but also because hardware RAID is faster, more reliable, and does not require CPU resources to run.
Your internal SATA drives will provide plenty of performance for most video editing needs. You also have the ability to put 4 drives in your Mac Pro, in which case you can utilize the extra drives to provide additional performance if/when you get into serious multi-multi track video compositing.

Slow Performance On Mac Pro 12-Core

Hello Everyone,
I just recently purchased a 2012 Mac pro 12-Core and i have been getting unbelievabley slow performance with it. I am using Premiere Pro CS6 and it seems that the footage can sometimes get a bit laggy at times and not play back smoothly, sometimes rendering can take a bit of time as well. However here are the specs of my system:
Mac Pro 12-Core 2.4GHz (2.67GHz Turbo Boost)
40GB of Ram
ATI 5770 Graphics Card
1TB scratch disk (with a user on the drive that i can boot into)
OCZ 120GB Vertex 3 SSD OS/APPS drive
First question i would like to get answered once and for all.. Did i make a bad decision by purchasing a computer with such a slow clock speed (2.4GHz)?? I figured since The new editing software is switching to 64bit it shouldn't depend on clock speed anymore? (i just want to be sure that i purchased a more than capable machine) However i will be buying a Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB SSD Drive for Scratch within the month. (I dont have the budget to buy a Raid controller yet to utilize 6GB/s transfer speeds, so 1 Fast SSD drive will have to do for now)
I should mention the current SSD drive im on right now only has 13GB remaining, would that affect performance? Also, my 1Tb media drive is filled up with CRAP from my previous computer (Migration transferred EVERYTHING to that drive, only 120GB remains) would that drive with the media im working with affect performance too? Also just as a test, i took some footage from my GoPro Hero 3 camera and put it on my SSD to see if that would eliminate the lag, but still lag was present in Premiere.. (the footage was in a crappy .M4P format, so that may have affected it, but I dont know)
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!
-Thanks in Advance!

The new editing software is switching to 64bit it shouldn't depend on clock speed anymore?
Wrong, clock speed is everything.
I should mention the current SSD drive im on right now only has 13GB remaining, would that affect performance?
No, not really.
Also, my 1Tb media drive is filled up with CRAP from my previous computer (Migration transferred EVERYTHING to that drive, only 120GB remains) would that drive with the media im working with affect performance too?
When fill rates go up, performance goes down. With almost 90% fill rate, the disk performs only at around 50% of a new disk.
Two disks is absolute bare minimum, and your cores will constantly be waiting for the disks to read or write data, sitting idle most of the time.
Also just as a test, i took some footage from my GoPro Hero 3 camera and put it on my SSD to see if that would eliminate the lag, but still lag was present in Premiere..
GoPro material requires a very fast computer, which yours is not with the low clock speed, outdated E5620 CPU's, only two disks, and a non-CUDA capable video card.
Take a look at the PPBM5 Benchmark and look at the system at rank # 854, which is a MacPro, very similar to your system, dual E5620, AMD video card, less memory but uses three disks.
So, your system would be around the same rank as the one above, among the slowest 25% of all systems and something like 10 - 15 times slower than a fast system. You tax your system to the extreme with the GoPro Hero3 material, and the consequence is the slow performance you see.
Sorry, not much you can do, other than get a new system. If you sell it now, it may get you a price, good enough to get a much faster Windows system and maybe even keep the change. Simply said, you bought a MacPro for € 3.5 K, sell it for € 3 K, buy a PC for € 2.5 K that is around 5-6 times faster and your loss is recovered.
However i will be buying a Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB SSD Drive for Scratch within the month
What a pity the MacPro does not have SATA 6G ports, only SATA 3G, because then that SSD will run at almost half speed.

7970 6gb Vapor video card in Mac Pro 1, 1

Hello, i recently ordered this card fo rmy Mac Pro (since it works on bootcamp side at least, and support for the Mac side may come soon due to new Mac edition of 7950 being released). My question is, how do i connect the power cables? It comes with 8-pin cables (8-pin to molex 4-pinx2 cables). My Mac has 6-pin connections. So what do i have to do to connect it?do I simnply connect the 6-pin cables into the 8-pin ports on the card? Do I use 6-pin to 8-pin cables? Do i use Molex 4-pin to Sata cables? I also cant figure out how many molex ports my Mac has. I have read of at elast one (for the second optical bay), but i need more than one. Does my Superdrive use a Molex? will i have to unplug my superdrive ? Please help. In the event taht i need to buy a PSU, can you recommend one that is under 70 bucks that would have the connections I need? Thanks
here is the card I ordered. http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1157&pid=1497 &psn=&lid=1&leg=0

The Mac Pro 1,1 can run 10.8
That is incorrect.
EFI emulation is an unstable and temporary option.
Also, the bandwidth limit is theoritical as current cards cannot max out the bandwidth on 1.0 or 1.1 pci-e.
Also incorrect.
It has been proven with a 1,1 that a 5870 provides minimal increases in performance over the 5770. Compared to 2008+ Mac Pros that see a significant (FAR more than your assumed 2%) increase in the same comparison because of their PCIe 2.0 bus. As you can see here: http://barefeats.com/wst10g3.html
And here you can see there is very little difference between the 2008-2009-2010 models in performance with the 5870: http://barefeats.com/wst10g2.html
Why? They have PCIe 2.0 and the 1,1-2,1 have PCIe 1.0 which limits performance. That means the 5770 is the fastest card avaialbe the 1,1 can take full advantage of.

S-Video from my Mac Pro?

I have this DVI to s-video adapter: http://store.apple.com/us/product/M9267G/A
My Mac Pro doesn't seem to support s-video. does anyone know if this is true? is there a solution?
Thanks!

What graphics bord do you have? That adapter works with ATI boards only (and with only one port on ATI boards).

HD video performance on Mac Pro 4

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