What’s the best graphics card for Mac Pro?

[Thomas Alexander]

I have done quite extensive research about it but you might be right about the fact that it can be a cheap alternative. But the truth regarding graphics cards about how well they do their job, meaning in-depth about Geforce compared to Quadro is that only the ones who manufacture them know truly what’s going on or if someone has electronics engineering knowledge under their belt. I’ve read plenty of reviews about the specific graphic card because as we speak im also in the need of buying a Quadro K5000. Before i had no problem with my Mac processing speed but i want to be prepared and so far it just seems that is the right one for the job. Yes budget can be an issue for some people but i always believed that it is not always the toolset but the mindset.

Thomas Alexander
Independent Cinematographer
Lightman Films
Nicosia Cyprus

[Bernard Newnham]

Another reason not to buy a Quadro for a MacPro is that it’s a disproportionate buy. A bit like buying top class new tyres for a rusty broken down old Vauxhall. There is no graphics card of any kind which will make a computer running a Bloomfield processor from 2009 run as fast as a 2012 chip.

No matter how much Mac fans may yearn for an update, there isn’t one so far, and may never be. $2000 would be far better spent on a very (very) upmarket PC which could be configured as a Hackintosh if that’s what you want.

Bernie

[Bernard Newnham]

Find serious spec machinery here –
https://tonymacx86.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/CustoMac

Bernie

[Bernhard G.]

If You are in the CAD business or do 3D VFX,
the the Quadro card is justified also in a 2009 MacPro.
Quadros are optimized for processing huge amounts
of 3D geometry data. This is what they are built for.

A common misconception is that Quadros have necessarily
‘faster’ GPUs than GeForces.
What is ‘fast’ depends on the architecture and how well a task uses it.

A complex task could be faster on a GPU with slower cores but a wider
pipeline, than on a GPU with faster cores but a tighter pipeline – and vice versa.
So a GeForce could in fact be faster than a Quadro.
For Mercury acceleration I wouldn’t be surprised to get this result.

The best would be to wait for benchmarks. There are some testers at the
Resolve forum. Don’t find the link now.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,
Bernhard

[Jeremy Garchow]

Here’s an Ae centric benchmark: https://www.barefeats.com/aecs6.html

Also has CPU results.

[Thomas Alexander]

Good to know, thanks for the information. And what would you recommend also for me that i do video editing but i own a mac pro 2009? Because my major worry is the graphics cards in market are more compatible with workstations like HP Z800 than compatible with mac cause i’ve heard that the only graphic cards that utilizes the 4 cores and a mac’s processing power is Quadro. But if you say that is good for 3D which i do partly but rather editing mostly than 3D so what are my options?

Thomas Alexander
Independent Cinematographer
Lightman Films
Nicosia Cyprus

[Bernard Newnham]

“If You are in the CAD business or do 3D VFX,
the the Quadro card is justified also in a 2009 MacPro.”

I would imagine that if you are in the CAD business and can think of buying a Quadro, you long ago ditched any machine of any sort from 2009. A Core i7 3930K, with an SSD as boot drive plus a GTX 680 (or a Quadro if you must) will easily beat anything that old, and actually not be hughly expensive – see the link earlier.

Bernie

[Bernhard G.]

When You say You are editing 3D,
I assume you mean stereoscopic 3D.

When I told about 3D I meant 3D apps
like CADs or Cinema4D, Modo, Maya, 3DSMAX, XSI, Houdini, etc.

If You are editing HD, not 4K, and need CUDA,
an EVGA GTX570 with 2.5GB is very fast.

It is supported natively by OSX 10.8 !!!
At the moment, OpenCL doesn’t work without hack.
(tipp: get a modified board from MacVidCards on eBay)

Best regards,
Bernhard

[Dennis Radeke]

[Bernhard Grininger] “If price doesn’t matter, it will be the upcoming
Nvidia Quadro K5000.

If price really doesn’t matter:
Two Nvidia Quadro K5000 in one machine.”

I would argue that this may be overkill. While I haven’t received one yet to play with, one of the limitations with previous NVIDIA cards is a thing of the past. A single K5000 can support 4 monitors. If you’re using an Adobe workflow, we do not support multiple cards yet, so I would argue that there is little value at this point to having more than one K5000.

https://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro-k5000-mac.html#pdpContent=2

Dennis – Adobe guy

[Brian Keith]

I have been intently reading this thread. I am at the final stages of putting together a hackintosh. The big problem for me is getting the correct graphics card. I see after reading this thread, that I had good reason to be confused. 🙂 As it stands right now, I am going to push the buy button on a GTX 680. But there are several versions of the 680. Do I get the one with more ram (4 gig) or the one that can be over clocked? (MSI lightning) Anyway, thanks for all your comments.