Graphics Card Upgrade for 2008 Mac Pro

[Andrew Stone]

Thanks for that Chris. Brings a lot of clarity to the matter of GPU utilization. I was only vaguely informed on CUDA. This clears it up.

At this point if I am going to get yet another video card it will be in a new machine. It will probably be a PC though and not so much out of spite from the events of this past week but a realization that came about from reassessing my workflow a few days ago. I quickly realized that all my apps with exception of Logic work well in a PC environment. Some in fact work a lot better on a PC.

I still have to think this through but I will need to upgrade my machine relatively soon and of course there will be costs associated with shifting software licensing. I will also be watching closely how the industry responds to what appears to be a tectonic shift in video post production workflow if Premiere and AVID became accepted editing environments going forward in place of FCP & AVID.

Almost certainly Resolve will become the grading tool of choice for most in the industry who were using Apple Color unless Colorista takes off while everything is in flux.

No one really knows how things will shake down but what we do know is it won’t be the status quo.

—
Steadicam & Camera Operator

[David Burch]

Also don’t forget Sorensen Squeeze. It uses CUDA as well.

[Dennis Radeke]

For those in this thread that want to get an understanding of Mac performance with Premiere and possibly a nvidia GPU, this article might help.

Premiere Pro on a Mac

[Ryan Walker]

Looking at this graphics card here:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161338&cm_re=radeon_hd_5770-_-14-161-338-_-Product

Thoughts anyone?

[Owen Wexler]

I’m looking to upgrade the vid card on my 2008 3,1 Mac Pro soon… leaning toward the 5770 since I’ve heard that it works on any Mac Pro despite Apple’s assertion to the contrary. Was looking at the Quadro 4000 but I’ve heard very bad things about it, everything from no 10-bit support with FCP7/Color to kernel panics and it seems to break everytime there’s an update. How is the GTX 285? Can anyone comment on how it works in 2008 3,1 Mac Pros?

Cinematographer – Editor – Motion Graphics Artist – Colorist

https://www.owenbwexler.com

[Tim Webb]

I upgraded to the 5770 from the standard 7300GT on my MacPro 1,1 and I’ve never looked back. I’m yet to get a mini-display port adapter so I’ve got my second monitor running off the 7300GT in the 4th PCI slot…I’m under the impression I could be getting performance hits with the 2 cards installed. Just about to take the 7300 out to find out….

[Tim Webb]

After I pulled my 7300GT, the 5770 absolutely rockets in my MacPro1,1 – I’m sure it’ll be a great addition to your MacPro 3,1