Graphics Card for CS4

[unistage]

My graphics designer keeps complaining that he needs a new graphics card because his Mac is slow when using CS4. I'm not convinced because he's currently got an ATI radeon HD 2600, which I would've thought would be fine.

I know very little about graphics work or indeed Macs but he seems to create unnecessarily large files, for example 200MB for a simple A4 leaflet.

Can someone give me some ideas if we really do need a new graphics card or is there another approach that could be recommended.

Spec:

Mac Pro
2 x Intel Quad Core Xeon Processor 2.8GHz
6GB Memory
ATI Radeon HD 2600

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[darkvine]

A new work station card or even a higher end gaming card would in fact speed things up, though weather or not that is what is actually causing the slow down is another question. He could just have a ton of crap on his hard drive slowing it down or even a virus (yes believe it or not there are in fact viruses for mac)


It strikes me very odd he has a HD 2600 in a mac pro rather then a actual work station card, esp. given how much those damn things cost.

 

[jyjjy]

If I remember properly some Nvidia 8 and 9 series cards can be soft modded into workstation cards for a small fraction of what they would cost otherwise. I haven't looked into that stuff in a while though.

 

[unistage]

Thanks guys. The HD 2600 came with the machine so I have always assumed that it would be up to the job.

His hard drive is indeed full of all sorts of rubbish as well. Might it be beneficial to get him a new hard drive which he can work off day-to-day and when he's completed a piece of work simply save it to a larger hard drive?

 

[darkvine]

Yes that is a good idea, it would be best if it was as well, then he can also carry it with him places.

A very good choice would be this.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VZCEUI

And the HD 2600 is showing it's age I think.