[SOLVED] Looking For The Most Powerful Video Card

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zacc

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Aug 26, 2013
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Looking for most powerful performance video card available to run Motion 5.0.7
which runs on a Mac Pro (2008) 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon, with present video card, Radeon 5870 ( 1 gig vram ) and system ram is 14 gig 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM. When bottle necking occurs, system ram is not even being touched, but rests in the megabits. Question: can this machine take a better video card that will help boost performance for Motion alone,,,, no input to it ? It is already understood about most all the setting necessary in Motion for better performance during usage. Thank you for your responses.
 
Solution
If I looked at the specs correctly it appears as though it will accept PCI Express 2.0 x16 graphics cards. For around $400 you might consider the NVidia GTX680 (PCI Express 3.0 but backwards compatible). Comparison between the Radeon 5870 and NVidia GTX680: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/511?vs=555
If you want to consider a $1000 card then you could consider the NVidia GTX590. Comparison between the 680 and 690: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/555?vs=586
The AMD Radeon 7990 HD comes in at about $700 and up.

If I looked at the specs correctly it appears as though it will accept PCI Express 2.0 x16 graphics cards. For around $400 you might consider the NVidia GTX680 (PCI Express 3.0 but backwards compatible). Comparison between the Radeon 5870 and NVidia GTX680: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/511?vs=555
If you want to consider a $1000 card then you could consider the NVidia GTX590. Comparison between the 680 and 690: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/555?vs=586
The AMD Radeon 7990 HD comes in at about $700 and up.

 
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zacc

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Aug 26, 2013
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10,510

Thank you Ken for your time and knowledge, and sending me to the bench marks. Loved the bench marks. If you have time to continue in this, will the fact that system ram in this Mac is DDR2, and these cards have DDR5, Questions: Can it still utilize the upgrade fully? Can it still utilize the through put streams fully ? Apple says not ? They also steer one away from NVidia Cards in this machine ?
 
If it is recommended you steer away from NVidia cards then an AMD card should be fine. As far as the upgrade goes you won't be able to take full advantage of the speed of a PCI Express 3.0 card since all you have available is PCI Express 2.0. According to the posts below the DDR5 card should not be a problem with the system's DDR2 RAM.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/296668-33-ddr2-bottleneck-ddr5-video-card
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/358463-33-does-graphics-card-depend-system-memory
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/314004-33-ddr5-graphics-cards-compatible-ddr2
 

zacc

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Aug 26, 2013
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10,510


Understood.....Got it,,,,,,,,,. Thank you Ken for your time again and council. It is much appreciated. You've helped me decide the right next move,,,,,,,,,,,,thanks again
 

zacc

Honorable
Aug 26, 2013
5
0
10,510
Understood.....Got it,,,,,,,,,. Thank you Ken for your time again and council. It is much appreciated. You've helped me decide the right next move,,,,,,,,,,,,thanks again
 
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