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Experience

BigJohno

BigJohno

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 1, 2007
1,489
627
San Francisco
Please post your experience with mac pro + 5870 + 27" LED + Sketchbook pro... Do you get brush lag when rotating canvas? Do you get slowdown anywhere during the use of the program?

Need help with this. Tried to have the apple store install sketchbook pro but they couldn't get anyone to reflash the pro there so I could install it. Please help me with any info you have. Thanks!
 
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So I went down to the apple store Hester day to test out sketchbook pro on their Mac pro and I also tested it on the new iMac. I was getting the same performance on the Mac pro as I do on my iMac which is weird because I thought the 5770 would be faster than my iMacs 4850. Would the 5870 be a lot faster than the 5770?

I then tested it on the iMac. Did see an improvement from the pro and my iMac. I just don't know if I want to go down the iMac road again. I like the expandibility of the pro but I'm not sure the graphics cards are powerfull enough.
 
BigJohno said:
So I went down to the apple store Hester day to test out sketchbook pro on their Mac pro and I also tested it on the new iMac. I was getting the same performance on the Mac pro as I do on my iMac which is weird because I thought the 5770 would be faster than my iMacs 4850. Would the 5870 be a lot faster than the 5770?

I then tested it on the iMac. Did see an improvement from the pro and my iMac. I just don't know if I want to go down the iMac road again. I like the expandibility of the pro but I'm not sure the graphics cards are powerfull enough.
Click to expand...

You may want to consider waiting. If the new ones come out, then they will come with newer GPUs. If we see the MPs discontinued, then you will have to make a decision based on that. And by the time the new MPs come out (or are officially discontinued), new iMacs may be out with faster GPUs.
 
strausd said:
You may want to consider waiting. If the new ones come out, then they will come with newer GPUs. If we see the MPs discontinued, then you will have to make a decision based on that. And by the time the new MPs come out (or are officially discontinued), new iMacs may be out with faster GPUs.
Click to expand...

that's true, or you could upgrade the MP with the newer GPU if they do upgrade them
 
Mac Pro with 5870 will give you great performance and is more powerful than the 5770, and way more powerful than anything in the iMac. No buyers remorse here.
 
Zwhaler said:
Mac Pro with 5870 will give you great performance and is more powerful than the 5770, and way more powerful than anything in the iMac. No buyers remorse here.
Click to expand...

But how much more powerful than the 6970m? I am thinking of getting the base Mac pro and just upgrading the ram and video card. A new processor and ssd will come later.
 
Im sure I could just Google this but is SketchBook Pro 64bit or 32bit?
I know in some cases high-end apps act differently in both CPU and GPU when not used in the right mode.
I could be way off base here.
 
BigJohno said:
But how much more powerful than the 6970m? I am thinking of getting the base Mac pro and just upgrading the ram and video card. A new processor and ssd will come later.
Click to expand...

It's almost twice as fast. The only thing truly faster on all things is the 6970 desktop card NOT the 6790m in the iMac. It is a toss up between the 6950 and the 5870 and the 5870 is faster than the 6870. If the 5870 can't do a sketch up pro action something else is going on.
 
BigJohno said:
But how much more powerful than the 6970m? I am thinking of getting the base Mac pro and just upgrading the ram and video card. A new processor and ssd will come later.
Click to expand...

Which mac pro and which iMac are you comparing?
 
derbothaus said:
It's almost twice as fast. The only thing truly faster on all things is the 6970 desktop card NOT the 6790m in the iMac. It is a toss up between the 6950 and the 5870 and the 5870 is faster than the 6870. If the 5870 can't do a sketch up pro action something else is going on.
Click to expand...

What he said


BigJohno said:
my current imac is an 09 27" i7 like in my sig.

The one im looking at is the new 27" with the 6970m 2gb or the mac pro with the 5870.
Click to expand...

If the computer is for work then you will feel a huge improvement with the Mac Pro config. The iMac will function but it is not designed to be as much as a powerhouse as the pro and will feel sluggish next to it, especially in GPU power.
 
Zwhaler said:
What he said




If the computer is for work then you will feel a huge improvement with the Mac Pro config. The iMac will function but it is not designed to be as much as a powerhouse as the pro and will feel sluggish next to it, especially in GPU power.
Click to expand...

Alrighty. Thanks for your guys input. I will be selling the iMac this week and get ready to buy the pro.
 
BigJohno said:
Alrighty. Thanks for your guys input. I will be selling the iMac this week and get ready to buy the pro.
Click to expand...

John please keep in mind it may not solve your sketchup problem as a 4850 should be able to do what you want. If memory serves me Sketch-up was always pretty light on a computer at least prior to Google obtaining it.
 
derbothaus said:
John please keep in mind it may not solve your sketchup problem as a 4850 should be able to do what you want. If memory serves me Sketch-up was always pretty light on a computer at least prior to Google obtaining it.
Click to expand...

Well its sketchbook pro by autodesk.
 
BigJohno said:
Well its sketchbook pro by autodesk.
Click to expand...

Oh. You on 10.7 or 10.6? 10.7 has known lag on rotate. But supposedly they have released a patch that deals with it. The most recent one in Mac App store. Autodesk was pointing at ATI as culprit as Nvidia was OK.
 
derbothaus said:
Oh. You on 10.7 or 10.6? 10.7 has known lag on rotate. But supposedly they have released a patch that deals with it. The most recent one in Mac App store. Autodesk was pointing at ATI as culprit as Nvidia was OK.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I have 10.7 and have all the latest updates for both the program and osx. I do get brush lag in bootcamp with my iMac with the same card. I will look into the ati vs nvidia thing.
 
strausd said:
Ya, generally NVIDIA performs better with Autodesk and Adobe products. That is actually what is sort of pushing me towards building my own workstation with a Quadro card.
Click to expand...

I didn't know that.. however, I don't really want to drop 1300 on a video card. :/ Are there any Nvidia cards that perform like the 5870 that work with the pro? Or is the quadro 4000 the best there is now.

The only way Apple will let me test the 5870 with the pro is if I buy it and try it in the store and if it doesn't work I can't return it on the spot.
 
BigJohno said:
Are there any Nvidia cards that perform like the 5870 that work with the pro? Or is the quadro 4000 the best there is now.
Click to expand...

Nope. Not out of the box. Some have the GTX570 working with a bit of manipulation. GTX285 was available from eVGA for a time but is discontinued. It is also a fair bit slower than 5870. GTX285 was the fastest consumer card for Mac Pro. Since then no Nvidia for Mac outside of the laptops and pro Quadro cards.:(
 
derbothaus said:
Nope. Not out of the box. Some have the GTX570 working with a bit of manipulation. GTX285 was available from eVGA for a time but is discontinued. It is also a fair bit slower than 5870. GTX285 was the fastest consumer card for Mac Pro. Since then no Nvidia for Mac outside of the laptops and pro Quadro cards.:(
Click to expand...

You can get a quadro 4000 from the Apple store so surely you could get one from elsewhere and force it to work?
 
Hopefully next year we can see some choices. I would have wanted eVGA to continue Mac releases if Apple continues the need to scold Nvidia. But they have made no further steps towards this that I know of.
 
Yes I would like to see some more choices as well. However, I'm sure the pro form factor won't change so if there are any new cards then they will hopefully work.
 
strausd said:
Ya, generally NVIDIA performs better with Autodesk and Adobe products. That is actually what is sort of pushing me towards building my own workstation with a Quadro card.
Click to expand...

I think you are right.

So I went down to the Apple store tonight and basically bought a new mac pro and put the 5870 in it. I set it up in the store and tested it with my intous tablet. Well it didn't improve anything. I was getting the same performance. I tested it on their iMac i5 27" with 1 gig 6970 and it was a little better but not as smooth as I would have liked it.

I have been testing sketchbook pro on my gf's 2010 i7 macbook pro and it runs pretty smooth and that has the nvidia card in it. Now I was just running it on the laptop screen but I could see a difference.

My school has nvidia cards and now I'm coming to the conclusion that its an nvidia ati thing like derbothaus said. Do you guys think the nvidia quadro fx4800 would perform better? Does anyone have that card to test?

I also saw the quadro 4000 which looks like its faster than the 4800.
 
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