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D500 or D700 for HD Video

B

beerstine

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 18, 2002
42
5
I'm about the pull the trigger on the new Mac Pro. I'm set on getting the 6 core and 32GB RAM but the only thing holding me up is deciding between the D500 or D700.

I do HD video, mostly XDCAM and Prores in FCP/Motion and Adobe CS6 and will consider Resolve 11 when it's released. I'm not doing any 4K yet but would like to be solid for the next 3 years or so. Each card should handle 1080 HD without issue but will the D500 handle 4K formats well enough if I have to use them occasionally and would the D500 bog me down in any other way?
 
I don't work with video as much as you apparently do but I own the 6c 32gb with D500 cards. I'd be happy to run a test or two if you're interested in real results. I have Photoshop CC 2014 and FCPx but don't have Motion.

I debated the 500 vs. 700 for quite some time but ultimately decided that my usage didn't justify the price difference.

I can say that the D500, at least, has NO trouble slogging around 1080p content in ProRes 422. It can do that all day long without breaking a sweat in my experience.
 
The D500 should be fine for most tasks, especially if you're just working with 1080. You only need a D700 if you're dealing with RAW video or footage with resolutions above 4K (5K or 6K).
 
I was going the 3rd party RAM route anyway. Probably 2x16GB to leave room for further expansion.

Not really sure what kind of tests I'd have anybody run. I've seen the Barefeats tests and there doesn't seem to be much of a difference between the 2 cards in a lot of the tests, except for a few OpenCL benchmarks that show advantages for the D700. Not sure how those differences translate to real-world apps though.
 
beerstine said:
I was going the 3rd party RAM route anyway. Probably 2x16GB to leave room for further expansion.

Not really sure what kind of tests I'd have anybody run. I've seen the Barefeats tests and there doesn't seem to be much of a difference between the 2 cards in a lot of the tests, except for a few OpenCL benchmarks that show advantages for the D700. Not sure how those differences translate to real-world apps though.
Click to expand...

Most people that get the D700 and the ones that say things like "you HAVE to get the D700 or else your machine wont be future proof" are "power-users" i.e the extremely vocal online minority that have somewhat of a superiority complex. Not saying that it's an overrated card, but it's really only for pros and people that deal with heavy footage and data loads constantly every day and need it rendered out fast to keep up with client demands

You'll be fine with the D500.
 
Thanks for the feedback. Part of the problem in these decisions is finding hard information from people who've actually used the machines, rather than speculating about them.
 
beerstine said:
Thanks for the feedback. Part of the problem in these decisions is finding hard information from people who've actually used the machines, rather than speculating about them.
Click to expand...

D500's should be just fine. I would just part with that. What spec are you thinking of buying?
 
I'm going 6 core. The bump to 8 cores is just too much money even though the performance is better. Going with the D500 instead of the D700 would just about cover RAM and SSD upgrades from the stock config.
 
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