[Gary Taylor]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for sharing your insight. Since Resolve uses CUDA for almost all processing what is there to keep the MacPRo 3.1 from running Resolve?

Does the 4800 provide any CUDA benefit over the 285 and will you guys support an Nvidia 285/285 configuration in lieu of the 120/4800 configuration?

Thanks!

Gary

[Gary Taylor]

Actually that $4,999 price is that bad considering that the price of the HP’s Z600 workstation starts at $5,699. Those hexacore chips don’t come cheap.

Gary

[Gary Taylor]

Hi Ronald,

Thanks for sharing your experience!

Are you using one of the HD-SDI boards? Can you also share your configuration for the 50″ Panny?

Thanks again,

Gary

[Gary Taylor]

Agreed!

[Gary Taylor]

I am also bummed that the new systems only support 4 GB of RAM. Hopefully this is just a statement of support instead of a true limitation of the platform. Intel’s latest mobile chipset support up to 8 GB of RAM. My new HP DV7 supports 8GB, has fireware, eSata and has a bunch of great new features. Looks like I am also going to looking in the refurb section of the Apple store.
Gary

[Gary Taylor]

Hi Sean,
Sorry about that; I misread your statement about the x32 slot. I didn’t realize you were answering someone else question and I read your two sentences together.

It will be interesting to see how these PCI-e cards perform. I guess it depends on whether on not the cards are bandwidth constrained.

I am pretty psyched about the idea of the x4 slots being as fast a x8 card. It makes for some interesting RAID and capture options once vendors start to release new cards.

Gary

[Gary Taylor]

Hi Sean,
Actually both chipsets and graphics cards are available. Intel and Nvidia both have PCI Express 2.0 compatible chipsets with Apple using on of Intel’s chipsets. The 8800 GT is PCI Express 2.0 compatible today.

PCI Express 2.0 has a theoretically doubled bandwidth for each slot not double the number of slots. Not sure how this will factor into real world performance though.

That NForce 780i Chipset looks like it might rock for a DIY system.

Gary

https://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_780i_sli.html

https://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/x38/index.htm

https://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_8800gt_faq.html

[Gary Taylor]

Hi Nicolas,
You are the first person I have heard talk about successfully installing 32 gig of RAM in a Mac Pro. Apple officially says it only supports 16 gig but I have often thought that was artifically low considering what others have done with the chipset. Especially since even Apple supports 32 gig with the Xserve.

Do you mind sharing your experience including where you purchased your memory? How long have you been running 32 gig and has your experience been completely positive?
Thanks in advance!
Gary

[Gary Taylor]

Hi Sean,
I am not mistaken you are referring to the Windows driver for the 4500. Apple uses their own driver for the Mac so what we can assume about the PC might not apply the Mac.

There is always BootCamp if want to run Windows. As cool as the new octacore Mac Pro is I was a little dissapointed that Apple didn’t update the video card. Maybe after the iPhone is released we will see some more activity there.
Gary

[Gary Taylor]

Hey guys,
In this white paper Apple claims that ProRes uses all the cores a system has. On page 7 of this white paper they give some evidence. Can’t wait to see if anyone can confirm this with their shiny new copy of Final Cut 6.
Gary

https://images.apple.com/finalcutstudio/resources/white_papers/L342568A_ProRes_WP.pdf