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Graphic Cards????
Hi Guys,
I purchased a Mac Pro 8 core 3.2ghz refurbished one from Apple about 4 weeks ago and after some sound advice I put 3 1tb hardrives and raided them 0 to handle hdv converted to prores in fcp. Whilst I was ordering this I remember that people were saying that the ATI Radeon 3870 would be a good purchased and since I was told from Apple that this refurbish machine had the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256M, so thought it would be a much needed upgrade. After receiving the hardrives and graphics card I decided yesterday to install them. Very easy installation, but I notice the graphics card that was in the machine was HUGE ! When i took it out I thought this is not the ATI 2600 that they said was installed, it was in fact a Nvidia Quadro FX 5600. COnfused why it had two power cables attached I thought Ill still go ahead and install the new ati 3870.
I didnt think much of the Nvida card that was originally in the machine and almost went to throw it away till I looked up on the web and saw that new its around $2700 dollars and that its 1.5gb….
Shocked Im wondering 1.) how could Apple make this mistake and 2.) is it worth keeping this in the machine or should I sell it and use the money to by more video stuff?
Your advice is much appreciated
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6 Replies
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Dunno if it’s still true, but back in the day when you bought from the refurbished store the listed spec represented the minimum spec.
Over the years I’ve had several machines from the refurb store that didn’t match the description 100%. Usually they either had more memory, or bigger HD’s…
-Simmie
6 MacPros – Kona 3 & Kona LH
1 G5s – Kona LH
xbox360, Wii, PSP, PS3
https://www.speak.co.uk -
wow. sounds like it was your lucky day. I think I would do some research on the NVIDIA card and decide which one is better.
Then I would sell the left-over card. Or, just keep it. I’m guessing it supports 2 monitors. With the NVIDIA and ATI, you could have 4 monitors…if for some reason you needed that many.
Robert J. Grauert, Jr.
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“Then I would sell the left-over card. Or, just keep it. I’m guessing it supports 2 monitors. With the NVIDIA and ATI, you could have 4 monitors…if for some reason you needed that many. ”
Keeping in mind that Final Cut doesn’t like 3 displays (so it’d be fine for your other applications), and also assuming that the drivers between the two different video card manufacturers don’t conflict with each other.
Richard Sanchez
North Hollywood, CA“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks
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So is the Nvidia 5600 far superior to the ATI Radeon HD 3870? Will I need it or is it overkill for FCP editing? Tried googling info but cant figure it out
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Ive heard the quadro cards are more for 3d type of work,like CAD or stuff like that they come with built in hardware that only certain 3d aplications will use ( i think )and also if your a gamer i dont think the quadro cards support the type of stuff the new hi-end games will ask for, if you dont use profesional 3d aplications i would sell it keep the ATI that is not bad at all and go on olidays with the money 😉
Dave.
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cheers dave, okay will put up for sale and with the money buy loads of lotto tickets lol
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