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graphics card update
I started using Adobe CC (mainly for Premiere Pro) in February and I want to upgrade my graphics card to take advantage of the GPU acceleration. I am also going to install Avid Media Composer on my system and would like a card that is good for that as well.
I have a mac pro from 2009. 2×2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 32 GB of RAM, currently running Mavericks OS. My current graphics card is the NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512 MB.
The problem is that I’m having a hard time figuring out which cards will give me the best bang for the buck. There are lots of options for what will do the trick but I’m not really sure how to know which ones will do the job but not cost me a fortune. I’d rather not spend more than $1000 if I don’t have to.
It looks like Avid is recommending a card in the GeForce family.
These are the ones recommended by Adobe:
• Quadro CX, FX 4800, 4000, and K5000
• GeForce GT 650M and 750M; GTX 285, 675MX, 680,
and 680MXThe “M” is for a macbook so I’m guessing that the GTX 285 and 680 might be my best bet, but I’m just not sure. The 680 is available at B&H for $597 and it gets really good reviews
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks for reading my rambling message.
Mike
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3 Replies
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Hi Mike,
Not sure about the AVID compatibility with the NVIDIA cards, but I have upgraded a bunch of our suites with older Mac Pros with this combo: SSD’s for OS Mavericks and Media Cache, 2 raided 7200 internal spinning drives, and Nvidia K4000 cards to take advantage of CUDA in Adobe Products and minimum 32GB of ram. Most of the bays are hooked up to a SAN, so internal space is just for additional back up vs getting SSD’s for all drive slots. Currently most of the systems hum along fine and have seen faster export times with these smaller upgrade costs. There was a shortage of 680’s at the time I wanted to do the upgrades to multiple bays, so I went with the K4000. I did not test a K500, but it would most likely be faster, but the cost was an issue for all the bays that would need them. I found the K4000’s price range from $680 – $795. Your older mac pro will run hotter with a K4000 so make sure to ad fan control software to boost the fans when running long renders or exports. When the editors don’t boost it, I have seen crashing. Just a personal preference so test to see how your machine handles the heat if you get the K4000.
Andy Edwards
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Avid doesn’t care what card you use on a Mac. There is no GPU acceleration on a Mac for Avid.
It does provide minimal GPU acceleration on a PC (nothing like Adobe) and on that platform you should use their recommended cards and drivers. CUDA and Open CL are irrelevant with Avid. it does not currently use either.
Get the best card you can for Adobe and it will be fine with Avid. Just don’t expect any performance increase in Avid. -
Thanks, John and Andy.
Looks like I”m going to purchase the GeForce 680 since it gets solid reviews, is a reasonable price and seems to do exactly what I need.
I appreciate it!
Mike
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