Buying Advice much appreciated

[Fujau]

Hi

Im on a 3.06 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo I Mac with 16 gb ram

I am finding now it passed its sell by date on After Effects with the plugins etc can render as i dont have a strong enough Graphics Card

So My question is

What do i upgrade to

3.7GHz quad-core with 10MB of L3 cache

3.5GHz 6-core with 12MB of L3 cache [Add $500.00]

3.0GHz 8-core with 25MB of L3 cache [Add $2,000.00]

2.7GHz 12-core with 30MB of L3 cache [Add $3,500.00]


3.5GHz 6-core with 12MB of L3 cache

3.0GHz 8-core with 25MB of L3 cache [Add $1,500.00]

2.7GHz 12-core with 30MB of L3 cache [Add $3,000.00]


The money is limited but adding 3k on top of the machine list price I have to raise an eyebrow I have phoned apple they didn't know Doh!!

I have highlighted in bold would it make much difference also thinking getting a strong graphics card apposed to apples high priced ones

Any ideas

 

[Naimfan]

I'd probably go with the hex core.

Do note you can't change the graphics cards (assuming you mean a nMP).

 

[Fujau]

I'd probably go with the hex core.

Do note you can't change the graphics cards (assuming you mean a nMP).

hex core meaning 6 core?

Graphics cards meaning these

Dual AMD FirePro D300 GPUs with 2GB of GDDR5 VRAM each

Dual AMD FirePro D500 GPUs with 3GB of GDDR5 VRAM each [Add $400.00]

Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM each [Add $1,000.00]


can't you change them

 

[Naimfan]

Yes, the 6 core.

And while you can have any of Apple's graphics cards installed at the factory, you cannot remove them yourself and install a different one.

 

[Fujau]

Yes, the 6 core.

And while you can have any of Apple's graphics cards installed at the factory, you cannot remove them yourself and install a different one.

So they got you buy the short and curlies when it comes to graphic card why do you recommend

 

[Naimfan]

So they got you buy the short and curlies when it comes to graphic card why do you recommend

Yes they do re graphics cards.

I'm not sure which graphics card to suggest - others here have a lot more experience and knowledge, so please be aware of that. My personal inclination would be to go for the D500s on the theory that the added cost isn't too exorbitant and I generally prefer to take at least one step up from the base.

If you search here there are some very informative discussions on the three options for graphics.

 

[MartinAppleGuy]

Hi

Im on a 3.06 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo I Mac with 16 gb ram

I am finding now it passed its sell by date on After Effects with the plugins etc can render as i dont have a strong enough Graphics Card

So My question is

What do i upgrade to

3.7GHz quad-core with 10MB of L3 cache

3.5GHz 6-core with 12MB of L3 cache [Add $500.00]

3.0GHz 8-core with 25MB of L3 cache [Add $2,000.00]

2.7GHz 12-core with 30MB of L3 cache [Add $3,500.00]


3.5GHz 6-core with 12MB of L3 cache

3.0GHz 8-core with 25MB of L3 cache [Add $1,500.00]

2.7GHz 12-core with 30MB of L3 cache [Add $3,000.00]


The money is limited but adding 3k on top of the machine list price I have to raise an eyebrow I have phoned apple they didn't know Doh!!

I have highlighted in bold would it make much difference also thinking getting a strong graphics card apposed to apples high priced ones

Any ideas

I highly recommend getting the base Mac Pro (4 core, D300, 12Gb of RAM), then on Apples website when adding the extra's, add the D500 and 6 core. This means you are not paying apple for the extra 4Gb of RAM (that you would have been doing if you bought the base 6 core). I'm guessing you would be upgrading the RAM anyway so paying more for something you are going to throw out it pointless.

 

[flowrider]

My recommendation would be the base 4 core with an upgrade to the D500 GPU. It's a $400 option, and would have the firepower you need. As has been suggested, stick with the base RAM and upgrade with third party RAM after purchase.

Lou

 

[Stephent]

I agree with Flowrider. Did exactly that other than getting the D700. Upgraded to 64Gb of RAM after I got it.

 

[Fujau]

Thank you for your advice

can i upgrade the hard drive later to a bigger drive

 

[Riwam]

Presently not...

Thank you for your advice

can i upgrade the hard drive later to a bigger drive

................................
At present the hard drives in new MacPros have very special connections and nobody offers any kind of replacement.
Apple will of course replace a faulty drive, but at least at the moment they do not offer any kind of "upgrade" to a larger drive.

Therefore it is wise to order from the beginning an internal drive as large as you need and can afford, the present limit being 1 TB.

Most probably in the future Apple will sell MacPros with even larger capacity internal drives, but if and when nobody knows.
The only NOW user upgradable part according to Apple is the RAM.
What future may bring, is a question mark.

 

[Fujau]

so its not really an investment as of yet as it seems to be more hype and controlling

I love macs but it comes to the point when things are expensive for expensive sake

 

[jasonvp]

I am finding now it passed its sell by date on After Effects with the plugins etc can render as i dont have a strong enough Graphics Card

Ae is a CPU hog, and can only use nVidia GPU processing (for the time being) for certain tasks. It's not like Pr, which can use OpenCL for any and everything it can also do with CUDA. Ae's a lot different in that regard.

At this point in the time, the new Mac Pro is a bad investment for Ae specifically. I haven't a clue as to whether Adobe plans to overhaul Ae to support OpenCL for (more) stuff. Right now, no dice. Todd wrote a blog entry at the end of last year here that sort of summarizes what I was trying to say (in a much more verbose manner.. ;-))

If you insist on sticking with OS X and a Mac for Ae, then you need CPU horsepower. The 6-core is a good compromise because you'll have 12 vcores humming along at a decent rate. But, until Adobe overhauls Ae, you'll never be able to take advantage of those AMD video cards.

As much as I despise Windows for anything other than playing games, for Ae, it makes a much better platform at this time. :-(

 

[bearcatrp]

As much as I despise Windows for anything other than playing games, for Ae, it makes a much better platform at this time. :-(

Windows 7 isn't as bad as folks make it out to be. Pretty solid OS. As was posted earlier, you want nvidia cards that support AE.