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MacPro 2008 editing 4k

Hi guys,
I joined to get some advice, specifically on whether I should purchase a Mac Pro 2008 and figured this thread will be able to give me your experienced perspectives:

SPECS:
Mac Pro 3,1 (2008) 2x2.8Ghz Quad-Core (Total - 8 Cores)
16GB Ram
1TB HD
Running OSX El-Capitan
ATI Radeon XT2600 256MB Video Card

PRICE:

$550 which includes a 23in Apple Cinema Display (the thicker, older, aluminum one)

USE:

I am considering it as my 2007 iMac died on me a week ago. Will be used as a family computer, mainly for music, Web, e-mail, and a little bit of Reason 4.

Do you guys think its a good-buy based on what I have posted above? All your comments are much appreciated!! Cheers!
[doublepost=1462688278][/doublepost]Sorry, I also wanted to ask whether running OSX El-Capitan would be a okay, or would a downgrade to Mavericks be recommended?
 
I think for that you need to do and for the price that the mac pro 2008 would take it immediately without thinking.
 
JimmyPainter said:
Please don't go PC.

I have a 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 with a 7970 inside and it rocks. The fact is like others have said here it depends on what kind of 4k and how fast do you want to go on a budget. If Money is NO Object thats different. The Barefeats website shows plenty of options to get well over a Gig/sec Transfer rate off of the PCIe slots. Raid on up to 4 7200 Drives is another good solution as the Most critical thing to consider when dealing with ANY Giant files. Next is Ram. Again ... the Budget is the key. Pack in there as much as you can afford 16Gig min. Then for Video ... Cheap used AMD 7970 or 280X Cards are best bang for buck. Then there is the Rendering. I suggest @ $500 a pop, stack up as many Mac Mini's as you can afford for render Farm just like the Big Dogs do and you can move those along with you to any machine you can afford in the future. Mac Pro 4,1 or 5,1 is preferred but a 3,1 is usually very cheap GREAT machine. My 3,1 w/ 10 gig ram, 8TB of 7200 Storage, and my 7970 is a $500 dream.
[doublepost=1462544631][/doublepost]

The 2008 will be a lot less headaches. My Hackintosh was always a pain from day 1. I would just bump the video card to a GTX960 or better if you can afford. If you Don't need Cuda ... AMD 7990 or 280X.
Click to expand...

JimmyPainter - Is this the card you would recommend? I have a 2008 2 x 2.8ghz Quad Core Xeon processors and 24g of ram. I have an Radeon 2600 right now and it's killing me. Here is the link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-Radeon-...sion-for-Apple-Mac-Pro-7950-680-/262964949638

If this is not right could you post a link to the one you have?
 
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You should pick a R9 280X, which is essentially the same card as the 7970 and flash it yourself - there are threads about doing it on this forum, best advice is get one of the ref design like MSi, and others. You can pick one on the Bay or CG for about $100 these days.
 
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Be careful there is a bug to run any 7xxx series card (including the R9 280 / 280X) on 3,1, which is a power management bug that cause a large performance degrade on these cards. Work around is available, but at least know what you may potentially need to encounter.
 
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Being unable to game at full speed on my 3,1 with 7970 accelerated its replacement. There were some temporary fixes, but they stopped working a long time ago to the best of my knowledge.

The issue faded due to the machine's age and the fact that for most people, the upgraded 79xx was still enough of an improvement...
 
pierrox said:
You should pick a R9 280X, which is essentially the same card as the 7970 and flash it yourself - there are threads about doing it on this forum, best advice is get one of the ref design like MSi, and others. You can pick one on the Bay or CG for about $100 these days.
Click to expand...

I got the card installed but the rendering is very slow....only doing a 3-5 frames every second. Any ideas?
[doublepost=1503724053][/doublepost]
h9826790 said:
Be careful there is a bug to run any 7xxx series card (including the R9 280 / 280X) on 3,1, which is a power management bug that cause a large performance degrade on these cards. Work around is available, but at least know what you may potentially need to encounter.
Click to expand...
What is the work around? Any links you could provide?
 
MNREBroker said:
Where do I find those files they mention removing?
Click to expand...
Screen Shot 2017-08-27 at 15.53.09.jpg
 
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@MNREBroker hay if you can give more info it will help

you say rendering is slow but what app are you using, what are you rendering? video? 4K? 1080p?
when you are rendering do you mean the final export in h264? are you cpu's maxed out?
is it just time line rendering?
etc..

if you clearly say your problem we can help a tad better.
for some things if your cpu is maxed out on all 8 cores then it might be time to think about a newer computer or live with it.

proxy work flows are worth a look (final cut x dose this in the background)

and 4K h264 is slow to render it's something like 4x the work of 1080p i think (is that correct?)
 
orph said:
@MNREBroker hay if you can give more info it will help

you say rendering is slow but what app are you using, what are you rendering? video? 4K? 1080p?
when you are rendering do you mean the final export in h264? are you cpu's maxed out?
is it just time line rendering?
etc..

if you clearly say your problem we can help a tad better.
for some things if your cpu is maxed out on all 8 cores then it might be time to think about a newer computer or live with it.

proxy work flows are worth a look (final cut x dose this in the background)

and 4K h264 is slow to render it's something like 4x the work of 1080p i think (is that correct?)
Click to expand...
 
if you can give more info i can try to help.
 
Last edited:
orph will get you on the correct path. The key words are work flow! In the Avid forums it's a well know fact the "engine" has been suspect for years! There are numerous work-a-rounds mentioned in the forum. I performed an h.264 test sometime ago with these results. (1) Exporting a 2:12 file to h.264 from Avid took 18:00! (2) Exporting the same file as an AAF took :02 (3) Importing the AAF into Resolve 14 :02 (4) Exporting the file to h.264 out of Resolve 14 using 980ti CUDA cores 3:52!
All this on the same 2008 MP with two different "work flows". :)
 
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