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Video card
Hello everyone,
I am in need of a new graphics card, my AE 7.0 is TREMENDOUSLY slow when it comes down to RAM render and render. I have a dual PPC G5 and 4.5Gb of ram. My current card is a stock one that came with the mac.
Does anyone have any suggestions for something that is cost effective as well as performance effective? and something that won’t mess with FCP?Thanks
Paolo
FCP 5.1.4 – PowerMac 2.2 Dual – 4.5 Gb Ram
1Tb G-Raid2 – 2 1Tb Lacies- CUBASE SX3 -
7 Replies
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You can check the specifications at Adobe…no, wait, you can’t. The only stuff that’s readily available is all about CS4.
You didn’t tell us what card you really have but I’d start with that manufacturer. See what they have available now. But you really don’t gain much with After Effects when it comes to rendering unless your composition depends on OpenGL textures and shaders and your card can actually do that and none of them can. OpenGL remains a cruel joke on the Macintosh.
If rendering is an issue for you, and it for everyone, you simply have to learn how to cope or you have to figure out how to increase your processing power and at the moment that means a new Macintosh. If you expect AE to make money for you, you must update. Otherwise you revamp your workflow to minimize your downtime and wait times. Those of us who have been using AE for 10 years already know how to do this and you can find lots of pointers if you search this forum. You will, of course, need to disregard my rants about “you impatient kids.”
bogiesan
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David B.’s advice is spot on so I’m certainly not contradicting anything he said … I would just add a couple things …
It might be cheaper and more effective to increase your RAM, rather than replace your video card. But, if you want to replace the video card, you might consider cross referencing the FCP5 and AE7 lists for compatible video cards and only choosing one that appears on both. As David mentioned, all software makers make the specs for their newest products most easily available, but the others are can be had if you try.
I also felt compelled two comment on 2 things that David said:
I work in AE on both Macs and PCs and OpenGL is a cruel joke on both platforms so Mac users shouldn’t feel slighted in the least. I prefer it’s default position to be off on both platforms and only use it when it can’t be avoided.
As far as rants about “impatient kids”, I try sooo hard not to say anything so I’m glad it’s not just me thinking evil thoughts when I see post after post asking why AE takes sooo long to render, only to read on and discover that the person was referring to a 20-minute render. Even though render times are far faster than in the AE3/Cosa days, I and other AE designers I know still make a point to finish projects days before the true deadline because we know we have 12+ hours of pre-rendering and rendering ahead of us (on well-maintained top-line systems) … if all goes well, that is. So, if anyone does ever find that rendering “easy button” in AE, please enlighten the rest of us. :~)
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Thanks!
Paolo
FCP 5.1.4 – PowerMac 2.2 Dual – 4.5 Gb Ram
1Tb G-Raid2 – 2 1Tb Lacies- CUBASE SX3 -
Dave,
I totally understand.
My card is an ATI one of very basic ones…I am not at home and can’t remember the exact model.
As far as increasing my ram…..that has been a thought to bring it up to 10Gb but why does AE only uses 33% of my total ram power? my main issue is with the preview on my system I can even move an object without AE freezing and taking its sweet time to move it, amking the cretiveprocess very frustrating.At work I have a new mac pro 8 core and so far the anims I created fly either in preview and render, but when I look at the usage it still says it’s only using 33%. Am I looking at the wrong thing?
Thanks
p
FCP 5.1.4 – PowerMac 2.2 Dual – 4.5 Gb Ram
1Tb G-Raid2 – 2 1Tb Lacies- CUBASE SX3 -
RAM usage in AE is a question of old code trying to run on modern systems.
CS4 and OS10.5+ are helping to use more RAM but only on Intels, AFAIK.
Working at home, you have only a few choices. Reduce your expectations or reduce yor demands.
bogiesan
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Well said.
Thanks
PFCP 5.1.4 – PowerMac 2.2 Dual – 4.5 Gb Ram
1Tb G-Raid2 – 2 1Tb Lacies- CUBASE SX3 -
You could try Gridiron Nucleo on your old PPC/AE7 system…that will allow AE to use both of your cores and give 3GB RAM to each. This probably won’t help the lag on moving layers in a single frame (you need faster clock speeds – Mac Pro Xeons – to help that) but Nucleo + 6-8GB RAM will help preview and render speeds. That extra 2GB RAM should let you keep other apps open too while you wait for renders…Though you could probably do with a quad to use other apps effectively while you render.
Forget GFX cards. In my experience open GL does nothing but slow down or crash AE!
AE7 Pro – Nucleo – Mocha v1.2.3 – PS CS3 – FCP 5.1.4
MacPro Quad 3GHz / ATI 1900XT / 8GB RAM / OSX 10.4.11
30″ ACD / Decklink SP / SONY PVM-20M4E/ Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / XServe / United Digital RAID
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Production Studio CS2 – Combustion 3 – Mocha v1.0.1
Win XP Pro 32 / Intel Core2Quad Q6600 / 2GB RAM / NVidia Quadro570 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 320GB boot/800GB RAID-0
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