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FCPX graphics card decisions/debate
Looking for advice from someone using a Mac Pro Mid 2010 tower and either one of these non-flashed, Mac Edition graphic cards:
EVGA GeForce GTX680
Sapphire Radeon HD 7950I like both but hate the loss of a PCIe slot since I use several external RAID enclosures and looking to add more. I guess I could stand to lose one out of the four but I’d like to have two slots left for a blackmagic card and a USB 3.0 card.
In terms of performance and rendering, which is really the best investment to keep this Mac Pro going for a few more years? I”m mainly a ENG and documentary editor with some Motion 5 animated opens. So, I don’t need an After Effects beast but definitely something that will reduce rendering speeds and FCPX uses the graphics cards.
Ted Irving
ENG Cinematographer
http://www.tedtv.tv
tedirving@tedtv.tv -
7 Replies
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I’m unsure about which of those two cards would be the best solution head to head, but from what I’ve read FCPX and Motion perform better with the AMD cards…
I recently upgraded the 1gig Nvidia 8800GT card in my ’08 Mac Pro tower to a 3gig AMD Radeon HD 7970 and wow! I am blown away at the huge rendering speed improvement. It blows away my newer top end MBP as well. Before the GFX card upgrade the MBP was faster.
Next upgrade will be a solid state boot drive – With that and the GFX card I should be good to go until the second or third generation of the new tower (Never like jumping in with the first version of anything!)
Colin McQuillan
Vancouver, B.C. -
Thanks for responding. I’m currently running the ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB and I’m hurting. LOL Even with my Mid 2010 Mac Pro RAM maxed out at 32GB FCPX just chokes. I just viewed the HD 7970 but do you have the Black Edition? Sapphire customer support is non existent so I’ve dropped them and the GTX680 is a bit out of my price range. So, I’m going to read up on the HD 7970 and if all is well I’ll go for that. Thanks again.
Ted Irving
ENG Cinematographer
http://www.tedtv.tv
tedirving@tedtv.tv -
Thanks for responding. I’m currently running the ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB and I’m hurting. LOL Even with my Mid 2010 Mac Pro RAM maxed out at 32GB FCPX just chokes. I just viewed the HD 7970 but do you have the Black Edition and where did you buy yours? I”m having no luck on Amazon. All the Radeons are PC based. I’m not into flashing cards.
Ted Irving
ENG Cinematographer
http://www.tedtv.tv
tedirving@tedtv.tv -
This is the card I bought:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/141058814279?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649You do need to be on OSX 10.8.3 or newer for it to work properly. That is when apple included the drivers for this card with the OS. I was on 10.7.x when my old card crapped out on me. When this one arrived I was able to boot while on 10.7.x with this card, but performance was choppy and awful – installed 10.8.x and it woke right up. Just upgraded my tower to Mavericks yesterday and all is still whizzing among just right!
Colin McQuillan
Vancouver, B.C. -
ok thanks. Amazon.com just doesn’t have this card listed as mac. All PC. Going to Ebay now.
Ted Irving
ENG Cinematographer
http://www.tedtv.tv
tedirving@tedtv.tv -
hey Collin thanks for your help. At the post office now picking up my 7970. any tips before installing? jumper settings, installs, etc?
Ted Irving
ENG Cinematographer
http://www.tedtv.tv
tedirving@tedtv.tv -
is this card still working for you? i’m having huge issues with the drivers
Ted Irving
ENG Cinematographer
http://www.tedtv.tv
tedirving@tedtv.tv
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