Sean Oneil
Forum Replies Created
-
[Gary Taylor] “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.”
I never said anything about doubling the amount of slots. I said the combined bandwidth was doubled, which is correct.
I think I was wrong though about “PCI 2.0 compatible cards”. It does seem some newer cards are claiming PCI 2.0 compatibility. But I’m not sure what that’s about since cards and buses are supposed to be backward compatible. From Wikipedia again:
“PCIe 2.0 is completely backwards compatible with PCIe v1.x. Graphic cards and motherboards designed for v2.0 will be able to work with v1.1 and v1.0, and vice versa.”So maybe it just means that these new cards have been tested and certified to work w/o problems. Even though any card theoretically should still work.
-
[Ben Holmes] “Perhaps someone can shed light on how ‘bleeding edge’ this card is”
It’s not bleeding edge at all. Apple is basically the opposite of bleeding edge when it comes to graphics cards.
-
I just did some more research. There’s no such thing as a “PCIe 2.0 card”. No cards or motherboards use a x32-lane slot at this time.
PCIe 2.0 on the new Mac Pro just means more combined bandwidth on the bus, which is great. But that’s all it means.
The language on the Apple site is misleading. The new cards are x16, just like the old cards.
-
[Jeremy Garchow] “I figured it would be. You don’t think these cards are PCIe2? “
From Wikipedia:
“PCI Express 2.0
PCI-SIG announced the availability of the PCI Express Base 2.0 specification on 15 January 2007.[4] PCIe 2.0 doubles the bus standard’s bandwidth from 2.5 Gbit/s to 5 Gbit/s, meaning a x32 connector can transfer data at up to 16 GB/s in each direction.”
Cards are referred to by the lane-size connector. So the question is, does the Apple card use a 32x lane connector? I don’t know the answer, but I highly doubt it.
The main thing here is the increased bus bandwidth. So you could probably now run all four slots at 16x each.
-
PCIe 2.0 is backward compatible. So yeah the graphics card will work in the “old” Mac Pro even if it’s PCIe 2 (which I’m not so sure the card is).
-
I’ve used it on a PC. There’s nothing wrong with it at all. The problem is selling yourself to clients. “Adobe Premiere” has been known as THE cheesy amateur-hour video editing program for the better part of 15 years. While that’s no longer the case (maybe it never was) I’d still have a hard time asking certain clients for $xxx per hour and they sit down and see Adobe Premiere.
FCP suffers from the same problem but not nearly the same extent that Premiere does. FCP still doesn’t sound as glamorous as Avid or Combustion. But it’s rep is always improving and more and more people realize it’s just as powerful. I think the existence of Final Cut Express has helped a lot.
Unfortunately most clients are not technical at all. Some just see these things in terms of Ford, BMW, and Ferrari, etc. Some might see Premiere as a Hyundai while they see Final Cut as an Acura.
-
They screwed up. I’d make them fix it.
-
The Mac Pro will soon be updated with the new Intel Penryn chip. Not a question of if, but when.
I would think if this rumor is true, it would be something a bit more exciting than that. But who knows.
-
System Preferences -> Display
Not all “1080p” televisions accept a 1080p signal. Some only accept a 1080i signal and deinterlace it. If that’s the case, then your TV is not suitable to be used as a computer monitor. You could do 1080i or 720p, but it won’t look very good.
If it really is a true 1080p set, and you don’t see it available in the System Prefs, then then your TV is not properly identifying itself to the computer (this is called EDID). Check with the manufacturer and tell them you’re simply trying to connect a computer to it. There may be a firmware update.
You also need to make sure your TV has a “Just Scan” option. It can be called many different names, but they do the same thing which is to map 1920×1080 to the screen natively. 1080p televisions by default will actually not do this. Instead they blow up the picture by 5% or so in order to hide the overscan area. Switching to the “Just Scan” mode will fix this.
FYI, my main desktop monitor here is a 37″ 1080p Westinghouse television. Works great.