Graphic card solution for effects rendering

[djjaes]

I have read the many threads on graphics cards and seem to be more confused; or perhaps it has all become white noise.

Now to my question, or better said, my quest for recommendations.

I am a light gamer (STO, Simcity etc, not sure these qualify the title gamer but I digress). I do video editing mainly with rendering of special effects, heavy at times.

I use Hitfilm but will be using FCP soon with some work migrating to AE.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Cards I have looked into are:
GTX 780/970
AMD 7950/70 or r9280/x/285

 

[h9826790]

What's your current spec?

Do you prefer to use internal power only?

Do you mind if the graphic card may draw more power than the Mac Pro official limit (e.g. TDP>225W)?

Are you happy to deal with the driver installation / update (e.g. Nvidia web driver)?

Any budget?

Do you need a boot screen?

 

[djjaes]

No, the boot screen is not a "have to have." I currently have original HD 5770 1GB. Budget, trying to keep it under 400 USD.

I am trying to keep within the power draw of the system (as I do not want to use a booster or external at this time). Web drivers will be fine.

 

[MacVidCards]

Barefeats.com just posted recent tests.

He may soon update with EFI Mac Edition GTX970, can't say for sure.

FCP doesn't use GPU much while FCPX does via Open Cl. NVIDIA cards have finally caught up on OpenCL, while they still are only game in town on CUDA.

 

[Machines]

No, the boot screen is not a "have to have." I currently have original HD 5770 1GB. Budget, trying to keep it under 400 USD.

I am trying to keep within the power draw of the system (as I do not want to use a booster or external at this time). Web drivers will be fine.

a single GTX 970 covers all the bases . it's a beefy GPU that sips power . Uses both 6 pin PCIe booster power motherboard connectors (no way around that .)

costs around 350 USD .

Has respectable Cuda and Open CL hardware acceleration for rendering .

Web and Cuda Drivers need to be downloaded from nVidia .

Only shortcomings are the drivers are not mature yet and no EFI (Apple bootscreen, etc.)

 

[MacVidCards]

a single GTX 970 covers all the bases . it's a beefy GPU that sips power .
Only shortcomings are the drivers are not mature yet and no EFI (Apple bootscreen, etc.)

Not true anymore.

Will soon be launching Blog to discuss GTX970 Mac Edition with EFI and full PCIE 2.0 in all OSs.

 

[Machines]

Not true anymore.

Will soon be launching Blog to discuss GTX970 Mac Edition with EFI and full PCIE 2.0 in all OSs.

I've got clients who want that Apple logo at boot or their knees tremble at the thought of upgrading Guys stuck with GTX 680s and 7950s, Mac Editions all . It's like a security blanket .

full PCIe Rev 2 bumps up compute, what , 20 percent from Rev 1 speeds ?

You would be wise to include some benchmark charts covering it .

 

[djjaes]

a single GTX 970 covers all the bases . it's a beefy GPU that sips power . Uses both 6 pin PCIe booster power motherboard connectors (no way around that .)

costs around 350 USD .

Has respectable Cuda and Open CL hardware acceleration for rendering .

Web and Cuda Drivers need to be downloaded from nVidia .

Only shortcomings are the drivers are not mature yet and no EFI (Apple bootscreen, etc.)

I do like the specs on the 970, and support for boot screen would be a nice edition.

Macvid, are you referring to the work you do with graphic card support for macs or an official licensed product? Either would be welcomed.

 

[MacVidCards]

I do like the specs on the 970, and support for boot screen would be a nice edition.

Macvid, are you referring to the work you do with graphic card support for macs or an official licensed product? Either would be welcomed.

I can confirm that such an EFI GTX970 exists. However, despite being a registered vendor I have been informed that I am not supposed to talk about anything I vend. I had specs and tests of 970 up last night but they vanished.

So, if you would like to discuss the weather or religion or something, I can. Otherwise you'll have to PM me or wait for our blog to go live.

 

[crjackson2134]

I can confirm that such an EFI GTX970 exists. However, despite being a registered vendor I have been informed that I am not supposed to talk about anything I vend. I had specs and tests of 970 up last night but they vanished.

So, if you would like to discuss the weather or religion or something, I can. Otherwise you'll have to PM me or wait for our blog to go live.

PM sent