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Julien_deka
Known Participant
May 28, 2012
Question

Best graphic card for Mac Pro + CS6

  • May 28, 2012
  • 1 reply
  • 30320 views

Hi everyone,

I'm sorry if this question has been asked several times... But it seems technology moves so fast... And also I found lots of cards that seem to me being PC only... That's why I'm having this question for Mac only.

I'm on a Mac Pro, Snow Leopard CS5.5 , and I want to re-instal a clean new system with Lion and CS6... mostly to edit 5K footage from the Epic (+ VFX and grading)... So it is mostly about PPro and AE (not quite sure about Speed Grad, still have to try it out).

What are my best options, as of today, in terms of graphic cards... ? I'm talking about boosting the Mercury Playback Engine through CUDA, as well as supporting the softwares as much as it can in term of OpenCL and OpenGL...

In this chart from nVidia's website, I only see the quadro 4000 and 4800 being available for Mac...

http://www.nvidia.com/content/PDF/product-comparison/product-comparison-master-revised.pdf

But we do have a GTX 285 in one of our computer at the office, and it works too...

Then I know some CS6 users are referring to other cards, like the GTX 570... and there is probably more to the list.

I'd like to to be able to compare what card gives you the best performances, at which price point.

Thanks in advance for sharing

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    R
    RjL190365
    Legend
    May 28, 2012

    Unfortunately, with a Mac Pro, your choice of GPUs is extremely limited. None of the GTX 570 cards are compatible with any official Apple Mac Pro at all (or put it this way, the card will require major modifications that will completely break compatibility with Windows if you want it to be Mac-compatible). With NVidia you are limited strictly to a GeForce GTX 285 or a Quadro 4000 or FX 4800 (but both the GTX 285 and FX 4800 are old-generation GPUs). You see, a Mac-compatible graphics card absolutely requires a BIOS that's fully compatible with the Mac Pro's EFI in order to even access the EFI or see the boot screen. None of the Windows-compatible graphics cards are compatible at all with the Mac's EFI.

    In other words, all of the users that you have noticed that are running a GTX 570 are all using Windows, not Mac.

    J
    Julien_dekaAuthor
    Known Participant
    May 29, 2012

    Thanks for this very detailed answer...

    So the GTX570 for Mac that we find online are only for Mac Pro running Windows on Boot Camp? Or have they been "re-configure" to fully work on Mac?

    I found this on eBay, and it's my understanding that it work on Mac... hoppefully as well on both Snow Leopard and Lion

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nvidia-GTX-570-Apple-Mac-Pro-2-5-GB-CUDA-DaVinci-Resolve-Adobe-Premiere-570-/230797067695?_trksid=p4340.m263&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%252BC%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D15%26pmod%3D330727171344%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D8746718267608062183#ht_1793wt_1398

    Thanks again for the answer...

    lasvideo
    lasvideo
    Inspiring
    June 15, 2012

    Julien_deka wrote:

    First think strange... I used to run my Wacom Cintiq from a second graphic card - NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 - through mini-dispaly port, and this stoped to work... I have to use another port (DVI) from this same card to have a display on my Cintiq.

    Second thing: I have 4 ports on the GTX570 (2 DVI, 1 HDMI, 1 Dipslay Port)... I plugged my 2 main screens for UI into each DVI but only one worked (the bottom one). For my second screen I had to use the Display Port and use a bunch of adaptors.

    I can't really help you out regarding the GT120 and why the DP went dead.  I suspect it has something to do with the Mac not wanting to power more than 1 DP, but I'm not 100% sure of that.  With the GTX570, only 2 of the ports are going to be active, as you found out: the first DVI and the DP.  It has to do with the EFI on the card and the driver, I believe.  The MacVidCards guy can explain it more thoroughly.  He's fairly responsive via email and PMs on the MacRumors forum.

    I actually bought this card for CUDA performances inside of CS6, so it would be disapointed to realise it's not working...

    EDIT: I think I need to change something in a file to add the name of the card in order to get Premiere use its CUDA technology... I will dig into that a bit more

    Right, you need to edit the CUDA text file and add it in as:

    GeForce GTX 570

    mrfreeze$ cat /Applications/Adobe\ Premiere\ Pro\ CS6/Adobe\ Premiere\ Pro\ CS6.app/Contents/cuda_supported_cards.txt

    GeForce GTX 285

    Quadro CX

    Quadro FX 4800

    Quadro 4000

    GeForce GTX 570

    jas


    I think benchmarks are very relevant when choosing a graphics cards for an editing business situation. But so is performance over time. Failures due to overheating or frugal system design is harder to measure but just as important to evaluate. We are told that the Quadro line is better built and ventilated than the GTX line. It would be nice to see some hard statistics on performance over life in products as well. If a GTX craps out from constant use, its speed is not enough of a good reason to buy it.

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