Video Cards In FCP, do they matter?

Hi, I am going to be getting a new MacPro. Do video cards make any difference in FCP?
The MacPro product page only talks about video games Motion and some other apps. No mention of FCP, so does it matter if I have an ATI Radeon 4870 1GB or and Nvidia 980GT?
Thanks, Anil K Solanki

Hi I have a 2x2.66 Ghz Dual Core Intel Xeon
8GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM Mac Pro..
4 TB HDD
Final Cut Studio 3
Blackmagic HD Decklink
Snow Leopard
And I am looking for a Good Video Card to work with this Early Mac Pro I've searched the internet and all it shows is video cards for (early 2009 Mac Pros) 800 MHz or DDR3. Please advise which video card I can buy and where to buy it, I edit an one hour show and use Final Cut and Motion round trip for graphics. I know my MAC Pro is a little outdated but hey.. I can't afford to buy a new one (yet).
Thanks in advance!

Similar Messages

Multiple Video Cards and FCP

I'm looking at getting a mac pro, and I'm wondering if there is any point to getting multiple video cards (2x NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB).
I've been editing in FCP on a G5 for years now, and only had one video card.
Does the current version of FCP7 utilize them? Or does any of the other Studio software utilize them?
And if FCP7 does take advantage of multiple cards, where am I going to notice the difference if I add multiple cards... rendering? exporting? playback?
Any advice would be great!

We see this topic in various forms about weekly.
FCP does not use multiple cards. In fact, FCP really doesn't take advantage of a single card's GPU. But Motion does, which means if you have .motn files in your FCP project, you may see some kind of boost.
I don't know anything about the 120 but, personally, I will never buy another nvidia card. The minimum for Motion would be the Radeon 4870.
FCPv5 and v6 had issues with some FxPlug filters supplied with Motion if you had multiple monitors plugged into multiple cards but not of you had multiple monitors plugged into a single card. This got fixed in FCP7.
bogiesan

Video cards for 2008 Mac Pro with 4 20 inch Cinema Displays

I have an early 2008 Mac Pro Quad Core with 16GB RAM. I run a 4 (20 inch Mac Cinema Display) monitor configuration off of it. one of my video cards just failed. They were never very good at handling FX in FCP anyway. I want to upgrade and get good cards for 2 displays each and if possible, video cards that will facilitate FCP X as well. What should I get?

OS X has drivers in 10.6.5
It is the ROM firmware that makes it work though there is help there too now for PC cards and flashing.
OWC is over pricing.
100s of threads asking the same question for the last yr.
5870 also, but costs $200 more.
More about using 6870 and others:
netkas.org
PS: the 'short' url for the Apple ATI 5770 w/o any user/cid - Product /MC742ZM/A
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC742ZM/A
Radeon 5870 vs 5770 GTX 285 4870
ATI Radeon HD 5770 - specs etc

Video Card Memory

Is there much difference between an NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 128MB and the same card with 256MB when it comes to using FCS2's applications? A friend of mine seems to think the video card doesn't make a huge difference.
Is he right or misled? Can I expect obvious problems if I go with a 8600 with less memory?
Thanks!

It matters more with Motion and FCP's GFX filters - which render using in the graphics engine on the video card. It will also matter if you are driving a 2 monitor setup.
x

Inexpensive video cards

At work I have two Mac Pro's and both the video cards have died. They had ATI Radeon HD4870 512MB PCIE cards. With tight economy I need to find inexpensive replacements cards. The computers are used by our graphics department so no video editing or gaming refresh speed needs, they just do Photoshop all day.
The original cards are over $500 each to replace, can someone recommend a decent card around $200-$250 price?
Thanks.

That pretty much describes all Mac Pros regardless of production year. Open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. You should see a Machine ID that may look like, "MacPro 2,1." Those two numbers tell us which specific model you have.
If it's a 2007 model the following cards were provided by Apple: NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT, GeForce 8800 GT, Quadro FX 4500, or ATI Radeon X1900 XT.
If it's an Early 2008 model the cards were: ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, or NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600.
Skip the Quadro cards and the X1900 as they are the expensive ones. The 7300, 8800, and 2600 models all work provided you can find the Apple/Mac versions. Street versions will not work without flashing their ROMs which requires special knowledge.

Best PCI-X / PCI video card for Solaris 10?

I don't mean "best" in the "latest, greatest, fastest" sense, I mean best to denote visual properties and rendering, support, basically. My current machine (Compaq SR5250NX) has a PCI bus ATI Radeon 9250 (256MB RAM) that XSun detects and uses as an ATI 9200 Pro AGP. There are all sorts of performance/visual issues...when I minimize a window, it takes a second or two (literally) to minimize and you can watch it "draw down." Or sometimes when I minimize a window, it minimizes from the top down, and the desktop is redrawn vertically, very slowly. (So you can watch the window disappear top down.) This is *extremely frustrating and makes the entire desktop experience unpleasant. This is unfortunate because I really like JDS.
So, which card has the best Solaris 10 (XSun) support? It can be either PCI or PCI-X. All I do is write text documents, program, and other general tasks. No graphics work or anything of that sort. I don't care if it's old and I have to get it used...it just has to have awesome support and enough power to handle JDS and normal apps (Sun Studio, SO 8, FF3, etc). I'm on a bit of a budget, so if it's possible to get this card for around $100..that'd be great.
*Yes, I've read the HCL, and I know which cards are on there as supported, but it doesn't say anything about which card has the best support.
Thanks,
~Slow
Edited by: SlowToady on Nov 18, 2008 6:43 PM
reason: typo
Edited by: SlowToady on Nov 18, 2008 6:44 PM

Although I prefer ATI for personal use on other OSes, my last two Solaris workstations have had Nvidia Quadro video cards in them, and they've both worked very well. My previous workstation (A Sun w2100z that died a couple months ago) had a Quadro NVS 280, my new workstation has a Quadro Fx 1700, which performs extremely well even at 1920 x 1280. The Fx 1700 isn't what you would
call cheap, though.
You might want to try pick up a used Quadro NVS (at least something in the 2xx series), or one of the lower models in the Quadro Fx series.
Tim
PS: I'm going to be asking nearly an indentical question to this one in a minute, except about audio cards rather than video. :-|

Best video card for my mac

Hey,
I just need help finding the best video card for my Powermac g4 fw800. One that my system can use fully. I currently have a Radeon 9000Pro with 64MB. Thanks
~R

Hi
The ATI 9800-256MB is currently the best card for your system. Actually, there are no other NEW video cards available.
BTW, xlr8yourmac hasn't done a video card review in years, they are just a bulletin board/newsletter now. If you are interested in seeing current testing of available video cards, check out:
http://www.barefeats.com/rad98pro.html
Regards,
Dave

What (cheap) video cards to steer clear of?

Hi,
I've got an onboard Intel video card which isn't really good.
Suppose I decide to buy something cheap, and I don't care to waste another $30, say. What kind of keywords I should steer clear of? I've got good impression of my old Nvidia 6800 onboard chip, but it's gone. Some research shows that Nvidia can be a problem, to.
The world of video cards is huge, and they are usually good. But not always. I hope my question is put reasonably. What are the most known problems, in keywords?

So the idea of collecting some info on the bad ones didn't turn out to be popular . Meanwhile, I bought this:
$ lspci -v -s `lspci | awk '/VGA/{print $1}'`
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT218 [GeForce 210] (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 83e8
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Memory at fa000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
I/O ports at e000 [size=128]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at fb000000 [disabled] [size=512K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: nvidia
It's probably OK, though the fonts look just a shade different. As a movie player it's quite good.
Last edited by Llama (2012-11-17 11:23:47)

Multiple video cards on a powermac g5?????????????

I have heard that you can connect more than one video cards as long as they are pci. Does this fully work/ what do you recommend?

Hi-
I have heard that you can connect more than one video cards as long as they are pci.
Yes, one may.
Does this fully work/
No, not for all apps or all OS versions.
what do you recommend?
Choices are limited to Radeon 9200 Mac Edition, Radeon 7000 (Mac) , Geforce 5200 (Flashed) and Geforce 6200 (Flashed).
Support for multiple monitors in pro apps will be hit and miss, primarily the latter.
Quartz Extreme support is of concern, with only the flashed 6200 providing such (from other reports).
PCI graphics cards do not provide graphics acceleration as AGP cards do, so they are not for gaming or any graphics/video intensive applications.

Need video card compareable to 9700 pro

I've got an msi 865pe neo fisr2 mobo. ati radeon 9700 pro has problems and is not compatible with my board. so, what from nvidia will be fully 100% compatible and compare in performance to the ati radeon 9700 pro or be slightly better? I'm thinking for price, $150-$200 at most.

I know it is not compatible cus i tried a GF 3 card with no issues. my brother in law has the same mobo and same card yet had the same problems. so that is incompatible. his card works fine on his older pc with different mobo, same for me. so i bought an nvidia card from leadtek. i dont trust ati and might not ever.
back when i first got the system built, i had the same problems. just i wasn't as upset because it was new. after time the same issues started getting on my nerves. i never not had issues. i always have, just at first it didn't bother me as much cus it was new, then after it got old i was poed at the issue. my brother in law same issues, got a new card for his pc and no problems. i tried an nvidia from my own pc and no problems. so the problem is the ati 9700 pro is not compatible with my motherboard nor my brother in laws. and my card is under warranty, it's already sent back to zipzoomfly, but since they have to wait 6 weeks or so from the date i sent it to them and will not exchange and i pay the difference on a new card or something, i am without a video card in this pc. they had to send back to ati, wait for ati to send them the thing, then send me the card. they said 2-3 weeks 3 weeks ago, and now tell me another 2 weeks or so. lol. but i can't wait this long, so i got a new card, should be here tomorrow, will never open the radeon 9700 pro once i get it back and i will just sell it. also i know for fact this is fact cus an ati rep said this as well as someone else on these forums long time ago. with cerain radeon 9700 pro, it was not compatible and never would work reliably.

Need compatible video card advice

I've got an msi 865pe neo fisr2 mobo. ati radeon 9700 pro has problems and is not compatible with my board. so, what from nvidia will be fully 100% compatible and compare in performance to the ati radeon 9700 pro or be slightly better? I'm thinking for price, $150-$200 at most.

I know it is not compatible cus i tried a GF 3 card with no issues. my brother in law has the same mobo and same card yet had the same problems. so that is incompatible. his card works fine on his older pc with different mobo, same for me. so i bought an nvidia card from leadtek. i dont trust ati and might not ever.
back when i first got the system built, i had the same problems. just i wasn't as upset because it was new. after time the same issues started getting on my nerves. i never not had issues. i always have, just at first it didn't bother me as much cus it was new, then after it got old i was poed at the issue. my brother in law same issues, got a new card for his pc and no problems. i tried an nvidia from my own pc and no problems. so the problem is the ati 9700 pro is not compatible with my motherboard nor my brother in laws. and my card is under warranty, it's already sent back to zipzoomfly, but since they have to wait 6 weeks or so from the date i sent it to them and will not exchange and i pay the difference on a new card or something, i am without a video card in this pc. they had to send back to ati, wait for ati to send them the thing, then send me the card. they said 2-3 weeks 3 weeks ago, and now tell me another 2 weeks or so. screw them. but i can't wait this long, so i got a new card, should be here tomorrow, will never open the radeon 9700 pro once i get it back and i will just sell it. also i know for fact this is fact cus an ati rep said this as well as someone else on these forums long time ago. with cerain radeon 9700 pro, it was not compatible and never would work reliably.
the problems are that the monitor would go black, the pc running still, frozen totally. had to reset the pc with the reset button on the case. also some other issues as well. reinstalling windows never fixed it, drivers never fixed it, only fix was a diff card. same issues on my brother in laws pc.

How do I export FCP project to DigiBeta -- what video card?

How can I export my 90 minute movie edited in FCP to a rented DigiBeta deck, so it will be broadcast quality? What video card do I need to buy? I can't afford an HD, so an SD card is fine for now. Where do I get one? And how much? Are they easy to install? Is it as easy as transferring to mini-DV, but to digibeta? Are there controls while transferring, or does it automatically make a perfect clone of the FCP project onto DigiBeta? I can't find info on video cards in SD anywhere for the MAC. Thank you.
g5 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

See if this helps.
In the analog world, every generation - copying from one tape to the next - loses quality. A generation of BetaSP doesn't destroy the material, but a generation on VHS pretty much does.
If you have something important that is already on VHS, it will still lose some quality going to BetaSP. Probably not enough to matter, but the best quality will still come from that VHS tape.
The analogy to digital video:
Contrary to what everybody thought in the early days, digital video often works the same way. As soon as you commit images to DV compression you have compressed it and lost a lot of the quality of the otiginal camera signal.
As soon as you apply transitions, filters, CC, etc. in editing, you are recompressing and losing more quality. Sometimes these two compressions create visible problems.
Fortunately, outputting that product to DV tape is a digital clone of the date and loses no quality. So there is nothing gained by going to DigiBeta from your system as compared to taking a tape out for transfer.
But when you take that DV edit from DV format to DigiBeta, it is being compressed again. It will lose quality. Not as much as another DV recompression, but enough to make any visible artifacting worse.
The best thing, in my oopinion, for you to do is to move your bits into a DigiBeta-equivalent sequence (is that the same as DVCPro50?) and render. Then find a way to get that into DigiBeta - most likely from hard drive at a service bureau or dub house.
The second best thing you can do is to tell the dub house that your deliverable is going to be DV. If it makes them feel any better you can provide it as a QT file.
In the end DigiBeta will not add to your quality but decrease it. Probably not a enough to matter, but enough to be a ridiculous requirement under the corcumstances.
Also consider whether they are working for you, or you are working for them.

Problems with FCP and Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT video card

Not sure if this should be in the MacBook Pro forum or this one...
I am having trouble with the GeForce 8600M GT video card while editing in final cut pro (and after effects). I have talked with numerous people at applecare, but they say that they are unaware of issues regarding the video card.
The problem: It's almost like the card is unable to keep up with professional video applications. Whenever there is movement in the video I'm editing, I get lines across the screen. Not sure to how better to explain it than to say it looks like the video card is having a tough time refreshing. (I can take the same video to a much older power book, and it plays perfectly, so its not the source file.)
At first I thought it was an FCP issue, but I just started using after effects, and I'm having the same problem in there. If I edit in after effects, when I play it back (in after effects), I get the lines. I can then export the project to a quicktime file. The quicktime file plays perfectly (no lines) when not involved with a professional application. Then if I import the same quicktime file into FCP and play it back in FCP, the lines happen again.
Is anyone esle having this problem? Any thoughts? Any solutions?
Thanks!
Michael
Message was edited by: mjaffe00
Message was edited by: mjaffe00

I had searched the macbook pro forum, but not this one. It seems that the "screen tearing" issue has been talked about a lot, so I apologize for the repetitive nature of the post. I will say that I am fairly shocked that given how many people have clearly called applecare, no one there seems to have a clue that there is a problem with this video card. I have talked with at least 4 different people in the FCP specialty group, and not one had any clue what I was talking about... 3 of the 4 were fairly insistent that it was a video source issue on my side.
Message was edited by: mjaffe00

Blackmagic Card into FCP is only capturing Black/White video .. need help

Hey all, I just bought a Blackmagic Decklink SP video card. Going into FCP when digitizing video only comes in Black and White.
Here's the setup:
OLD VHS player (RCA out) into the Blackmagic card (BNC).
We're just using the (Y-in from deck) cable that came with the breakout cables. This is plugged into the VHS deck with a BNC to RCA adapter.
Does anyone what might be causing this ?
Is there a setting that I'm missing.
Appreciate any replies

First off...show all of your students this tutorial:
http://library.creativecow.net/ross_shane/tapeless-workflow_fcp-7/1
It isn't long, and it shows the proper way to deal with tapeless footage in FCP. Step 1: BACKUP THE CARD! Never import directly from the card. You need a backup first. Unless you are in a hurry, then you can import and backup later...before you erase the card.
But this camera is tricky...it shoots SD to those cards. Standard Def. With the world moving to High Def, I'm not sure that was the wisest purchase. You really should be getting an HD camera.
As for the computers...do they all have the same OS version? QT version? FCP version? They all should be at least at Mac OS 10.6.8, QT 7.6.6, and FCP 7.0.3.
But yeah...get a different camera. And HD one. And show that video in class. Instill proper tapeless workflows while they are young!

2nd Graphic card displays white only if used for Video Preview in FCP

I just bought a Vavida 8800 graphics card, so that I could connect 3 monitors total. I have my main two monitors on my table connected to the Navida, and a flatscreen TV behind me in the living room connected to the original Redeaon graphics card. All 3 monitors display fine, but when I try to set the Video Preview in FCP, either on RAW or Full Screen, all I get is a white Image. This worked fine with only 2 monitors.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Christian

Does anyone know if Apple is working on the second graphic card issue in FCP?
I installed an ATI 3870 on top of the 2600 that came with my MacPro, assuming that it will work.
But I'm having all kinds of problems in FCP, random freezes, long waits for rendering and exporting, etc.
I have two Dell 24 inches monitors and a smaller 19 inches Acer, and I would love to have some extra real estate to leave the timeline in one Dell, the preview in another, and the canvas and viewer on the Acer.
I read I can get the Blackmagic Intensity to output HDMI/DVI (via an adapter, I guess, since the Blackmagic has no DVI output and my monitors have no HDMI), so my question is: if I get the Blackmagic can I use it's output for other programs (Photoshop, ProTools, and so on)? or it will only appear as a valid output in FCP? In other words, does the Blackmagic works as a graphic card when FCP is not active?
Sorry for the silly question, but I already bought a card that is actually useless for me, and I don't want to spend $250 in another.
Thanks

Video Cards In FCP, do they matter?

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