GTX 680 Mac Edition or Sapphire HD 7950

[Edwin Street]

This is a great question but probably not the best place for it. Try the MacRumours forum under Mac Pro here: https://forums.macrumors.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1

I’m thinking about getting the 680 for my Mid2010 MacPro just because I’ve read in a lot of places it performs faster, but not by much.

At https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html you can see the Sapphire 7950 comes in at 4645 points whereas the GTX680 comes in at 5716 points.

Either way they’re both a great upgrade from the stock 5770/5870.

[Edwin Street]

Also take into account that the GTX680 is an extra $200 than the Sapphire HD 7950 on https://www.macsales.com
https://eshop.macsales.com/Search/Search.cfm?Ntk=Primary&Ns=P_Popularity%7c1&Ne=5000&N=7418&Ntt=video+cards

[Jim Murphy]

The price difference is quite a bit between the two and I’m wondering if the slight difference is speed is worth it. I mainly use FCPX, Motion and Compressor so the Cuda feature on the GTX680 won’t give me a lot of benefit based on the apps I use.

What I have decided to do is give the 7950 a shot, and I am adding a Matrox Compress HD card to help speed up my h.264 processing to try and keep my machine and as responsive as possible.

Jim

2010 Mac Pro 5,1 – 32g Ram
FCP 10.1, Mavericks

[Edwin Street]

What exactly does the Cuda feature on the GTX680 do?

If you buy it through https://www.macsales.com you can get a rebate if you send them your old 5770/5870.

Do you know of other ways of speeding up the FCP7 rendering and exporting time?

[Jim Murphy]

From what I understand, CUDA is a programming method that specifically uses the power of the GPU. Adobe apps are written to take advantage of Cuda enabled GPUs where Apple apps like Final cut and Motion are written using the OpenCl method. It’s not to say that OpenCl apps cannot harness the power of the GPU but Cuda is written specifically for that.

If I am incorret, please someone correct me.

Jim

2010 Mac Pro 5,1 – 32g Ram
FCP 10.1, Mavericks