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Graphic Cards
I am looking for a new graphics card for my Mac Pro Quad-Core 2.66 mid 2010 computer (MacPro 4,1) – I primarily use this machine for After Effects work along with some FCP and other graphics work. I want to connect two monitors one running at 2560×1440 and the other at 1920×1080. I am leaning toward the ATI RADEON 5870 kit that mac sells. Can someone recommend wether that will be suitable or should I spend more $$$ on other options. BTW – what are the other options? I can’t seem to make any sense of all this? Basically I am willing to spend some $$$ on a great graphics card for this machine. Thanks.
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7 Replies
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After Effects can do some things with the graphics card, but RAM, CPUs, and hard disks are far more important—and whatever GPU you get for other applications will be plenty for After Effects.
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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Technical Support for professional video software
After Effects Help & Support
Premiere Pro Help & Support
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Todd is right when it comes to AE and most 3rd party plugins.
If however, you want to use the next generation 3d plugins for AE like FreeForm Pro or ShapeShifter AE you will benefit from a good graphics card since these plugins do make use of the GPU.Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist -
Thank you both for the reply. Can one of you or someone please recommend a graphics card for the machine i mentioned. I understand that AE uses the CPU and all that. I was just mentioning what I mostly do on it. I need to be able to run two large monitors as mentioned and watch video playback and also some gaming and the card that comes with it does not handle these basic needs. I basically need to upgrade my video card and there is not much help out there when determining which one to get for my model. There are also hundreds of cards and there is very little information as to what works with my model. Does anyone have experience with the radeon 5770 or 5780 kits mac sells? I have a budget of $500-$800.
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You only have a handful of supported options for the Mac Pro.
Get the ATI if you intend to use FCPX/Motion.
Get the NVIDIA Quadro 4000 if you intend to use Premiere Pro or Resolve.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
Thanks walter – Any suggestion between the 5770 or the 5870 ATI solution from mac?
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I would prefer the 5870 over the 5770 if I were going to use FCPX, as its OpenCL performance is significantly higher. See these Barefeats 5870/5770 Mac Pro 2010 benchmarks [link] for more.
I’m using Premiere Pro more, myself, so I went with the Quadro 4000.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
George. `Not too familiar with the ATI models. If you choose the ATI route then get one with more VRAM – more VRAM helps with a multi monitor set-up.
Regarding NVIDIA – from what I have seen the GTX series and the Quadro Series are pretty much neck and neck performance wise. The Quadro series buys you longevity not better performance necessarily.
Our products perform much better on NVIDIA cards on the Mac. On windows it is a completely different story. GPU drivers for both companies are better on Windows right now – so Win GPU’s generally outperform Mac GPU’s – this may change in the future.
Sad to say but I have some $100.00 Win cards that outperform Mac cards that cost thousands. Go figure.
HTH
Cheers,
Chris
mettle.com
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