Dual Display

Apple Motion

Dual Display

Posted by Max Kaiser on April 28, 2005 at 4:08 pm

Been trying to beef up my Dual G5 for motion and…

Just got a Pro 9800 SE AGP card. Then got another monitor (Apple 17″ ADC) to add to my original regular CRT. I am able to connect them both to the 9800, but I’ve read the ideal thing to do is get a 9200 PCI card to power the old monitor. Will this make a significant difference in motion display, or is it just a bit of extra power? Is there anything i can do with my OEM 9600 AGP card, like an inexpensive PCI to AGP adaptor?

Thanks in advance!
Max

Max Kaiser
Hand Crank Films
http://www.handcrankfilms.com

Dual G5, 1.5 GB
FCP 4.1, w/Render Plug-in
10.3.1

Max Kaiser replied 21 years ago 5 Members · 6 Replies
6 Replies

Jim Kanter
April 28, 2005 at 8:03 pm

There are no PCI to AGP adaptors that I know of.

Driving two monitors from the same video card will drop the performance of Motion. You will not be able to get the same frame rates when compositing many objects or layers since the video card RAM is split between the two monitors and can’t hold as much data as when driving a single monitor.

Jim Kanter,
Digital Film Institute
http://www.dfilminst.com
Winston A. cely
April 29, 2005 at 12:36 am

I had asked about this a few months ago….
So getting a card for each montior is what you want to do if your Motion intensive, right?
Scot Walker
April 29, 2005 at 9:37 pm

I’m hoping that this is resolved with Motion 2, because this is a bug, not normal behavior.

I have an old PCI Radeon card that I’m using for my second monitor, but now my Expos
Walter Biscardi
April 30, 2005 at 1:34 pm

I picked up the nVidia Ultra 6800 a few months ago and Motion screams even with the two monitors hooked up to it. I have the 23″ and 17″ Apple Displays which are both connected via Apple’s ADC – DVI Adapters. They’re about $89 each and I needed them since the 6800 only has DVI connections.

I don’t have enough room in either of my G5’s for two graphics cards so the 6800 fits the bill nicely, though I may try out one of the new ATI’s shortly.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
Scot Walker
April 30, 2005 at 5:58 pm

I have the same card on a dual 2.5 Ghz G5 and I noticed that it’s significantly slower when two monitors are connected to the 6800. I didn’t notice it until I started a project that has around 20 layers and has audio VO (which syncs fine for me, BTW). So it seems that Motion is only recognizing 128 megs of VRAM (256 split by two monitors) and you won’t notice a difference until you hit that 128 meg limit? A guess. Others have mentioned it splits your VRAM too.

PCIe would be nice since two cards in SLI combine your VRAM. How’s 512 megs of VRAM for you? 🙂
Max Kaiser
May 2, 2005 at 3:59 pm

Thanks for all the confirmations. Looks like I’ll be getting the 9200 PCI card!

Max Kaiser
Hand Crank Films
http://www.handcrankfilms.com

Dual G5, 1.5 GB
FCP 4.1, w/Render Plug-in
10.3.1

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