Hi,
Thank you for your answers.
I don’t think the Mac Pro is the bottleneck. It’s old for sure, but I have 8 cores and 16 Gb of RAM that DaVinci doesn’t even use. DaVinci is the bottleneck, because it only uses GPUs, barley the CPU and RAM.
In comparaison, when Premiere Pro CS6 (which is really an optimized software), can play a Red R3D in real time (1/2 resolution), with color correction filters applied to it, DaVinci comes and can barely play 1080p ProRes in real time without filters.
Apple limits the software to make us think we need to upgrade. In my case, with a 2.1 Mac Pro, I can’t use the latest GPUs on my system because 10.6.8 doesn’t support them, and if I need the drivers I need Mountain Lion but then, I can’t install Mountain Lion on my computer (because for some obscure reason, the latest version of OSX that is compatible with the 2.1 is Lion). Purely software limitation. I spent $$$ on processors and memory that are not even used, the latest graphics card can work perfectly on my computer but I can’t use them, and then I am told to upgrade my hardware whereas DaVinci doesn’t even use 30% of my computer’s actual processing power.
Bottom line: I ever upgrade, it will be to a PC.
Anyway guys, I’m glad to know the GTX570 will not work well. For now, I found that the combination of a GTX285 and a GT120 apparently gives the best results for a 2.1 Mac Pro computer, as seen here :
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/277/11244
But these two cards need a flashed ROM and that’s hard to find as hell!
Best,
G.C.