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ATI vs. NVIDIA – Does video card matter?
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[Marco Solorio] “I completely agree with Graeme (when don’t I?). FCP isn’t going to really see any gains right now, but I have to believe it will in due time. It makes a lot of sense for it to use help from the GPU. “
Isn’t this the route Blackmagic is going with thier Express cards? When they ship for the Mac? Mix codecs in the same timeline just like the others?
Michael Horton
lafcpug
https://www.lafcpug.org -
Well it’s just that PCI Express is faster than both PCI-X and AGP. So BMD wants to use the extra bandwidth to do more things. Mixed codecs on the same timeline (MCOTST) (!) isn’t really dependent on PCI-E or any other PCI/AGP variant since this can technically be done through RT Extreme via CPU processing, which we saw at NAB 2003 [GRRRRRRR].
Although Windows machines have already had PCI-E for a while now [sigh] and BMD developed the new MultiBridge with PCI-E in mind, it’s a good sign that the next G5s will finally have PCI-E as well but only a guess. I have to believe the last batch of G5s that came out a few days ago will be the last rev before we see a refreshingly new G5 with [hopefully/crossing fingers] dual-core CPUs and PCI-Extreme. My dream would be QUAD dual-core G5s with 6 PCI-E slots!… now THAT would be hot! Both figuratively and literally!
Marco Solorio | OneRiver Media
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I always thought MCOTST was a combination of software and hardware. Where the apps that that do this quite nicely like Edius use both software and hardware to achieve the result and apps like Liquid Edition start smoking and belching when attempting this.
Michael Horton
lafcpug
https://www.lafcpug.org -
It can be both hardware and software as was the case with Cinewave. But it can be performed solely on software and CPU power alone. Other software-only apps can already do this. I think Avid with a Mojo can do it. I’m not sure if Vegas can or not. Probably. But as I mentioned, this was shown to us as NAB 2003 from Apple. It left as quickly as it arrived. Where did it go? I think we need to ask the Oz.
Marco Solorio | OneRiver Media
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Yes – totally agreed! I’ve been on at anyone at 3dlabs who will listen for about 6 years now to do top end mac OpenGL card, and AFAIK, it’s something more to do with Apple than the card manufacturers. So if anyone at Apple is listening – listen to Marco and take his thoughts seriously and do something about it!!!
Graeme
– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects for FCP
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Surely it’s the codec the timeline is set to? If that codec reports back to FCP – “I can play the current video clip” then FCP takes off the red bar and gets the codec to play it. If the codec says “not mine” then FCP renders. Now this will only work if the codec can actually play the video it’s asked, but surely that’s the sort of thing that’s going on behind the scenes??
Graeme
– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects for FCP
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[walter biscardi] So Final Touch HD will NOT run period on the nVidia Ultra 6800?
Final Touch will not installif you are not running the 9800xt or x800 cards, I have not bothered to swap out the x800 to see if it will run with the 6800, but my thinking is that it will not.
gary adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation -
It won’t run on any nVidia card due, I think to driver issues. About to try it out now on the X800, but boy does it make a difference in Doom3!
Graeme
– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects for FCP
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Apple must have decided that it’s not in their interest to keep up with the PC world where graphics cards and expansion slots are concerned. Don’t even try to tell me they couldn’t compete if they really wanted to. Everyone’s been begging for true pro capabilities for YEARS and yet they haven’t bothered to keep up. Which is why, like Marco, I choose to do graphics on the PC side and probably will stay that way. Apple will continue to write and market software that’s good enough to sell hardware but never really lives up to it’s advertised capabilities (ex. I still can’t even do an accurate Cmode EDL from FCP for a telecine session – this has NEVER worked). And thus the love/hate cycle continues.
Joe Murray
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[Joe Murray] “Everyone’s been begging for true pro capabilities for YEARS and yet they haven’t bothered to keep up. Which is why, like Marco, I choose to do graphics on the PC side and probably will stay that way.”
Yes, I totally agree, but I do want to make it clear that it is only 3D animation that I do on Windows machines. All other motion/still graphics, be it compositing, chroma-keying, tracking, roto, film emulation, etc., is all done on Macs (although we do have one seat of LightWave in our main edit suite for those times we might need a quick and dirty 3D asset without having to go to one of the actual 3D workstations). I’d switch our LightWave Windows 3D seats over to Mac in heartbeat if…
A – There was 100% plugin availability compared to Windows (there’s just much more Windows plugin support).
B – Render farms were cheap to build on OSX (the Mac Mini makes this a hopeful prospect but it aint a G5)
C – ResPower.com created a 400-node Mac-based render farm akin to their Intel setup (these guys are AWESOME)
D – We get PCIe on the Mac and finally get support for *real* workstation OpenGL cards.Marco Solorio | OneRiver Media
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