Need some help with Mac Pro, Apple is making no sense

[Anastasia72]

I currently have a late 2009 iMac that is no longer meeting my needs. I was looking the last 2 days at a Mac pro tower and Apple is making me crazy, so I really need some help deciding what my options are.

I am a 3d hobbyist that is starting to make some side money and need to upgrade my system. I currently use Blender (and render textures), Zbrush, and also looking to move up to Photoshop CS6 extended from CS4 extended. Obviously my iMac is not going to cut it for dealing with larger scenes and higher poly count models.

So first question being..I talked to both the Apple store in my area and to Apple online. Both places are telling me I can never upgrade the Mac pro from the ATI 5870 card, how can this be?

I was looking at the Nvidia K5000 (which is a mac card) and they tell me I can not use this card? This makes no sense at all. I am not 100% sure this is the card I will end up wanting, but just a card I am looking at as a possibility, but I do know I will not want to stick with an ATI card that is not even the newest gen card, probably not now and definitely not in the future.

2nd question...for the programs I mentioned above that I am using (also hopefully Maya when I have a bit more money after the new rig) what kind of pro tower set up should I be looking at to get work done the fastest and handle things without any hiccups?

I would like zbrush to be able to handle at least 4 mil poly count, which is def can not now, but even higher poly count would be great. I am really tired of not being able to take my current programs to their max with an iMac and think I am ready to throw this iMac out the window! Also, I need to be able to have large scenes in blender and batch bake out textures overnight, currently my textures take at least 5 min a texture and this is DEFINITELY not cutting it.

Any advice would be great!

 

[ActionableMango]

Apple does not have good GPU upgrade solutions right now. The Apple rep is only discussion official solutions.

There are aftermarket solutions that are both more powerful and more cost effective, although there can be some slight incompatibility issues.

It would probably serve you well to read this thread.

 

[Anastasia72]

thanks! this is just as I thought. I knew Apple reps had to be crazy telling me I can not put a good Nvidia card in the pro. I even asked them if a Nvidia can be put into the 2009, why not in the current model and the response was 'Well because this model does not have that option' and I said well what about if I buy one to put in and the answer was still 'no that will not work'

Gotta love Apple reps, I was ready to go to PC lol

 

[OS6-OSX]

As listed below I have the Q4000 (mac). It is an older card that works with what I do. The price drop along with rebates made the difference. With Maya the question may be "Quadro vs. GTX?" Check out the Autodesk forums. Which ever you decide make sure you have the correct driver!

MacPro 2008 3.1 | 14GB Ram | Quadro 4000 | MC6.0 | OS 10.6.8 | MOTU HDX-SDI | ATTO R644| LaCie 324

 

[PowerPCMacMan]

Wanna hear something else? How many times have people asked if the 5870 will work in the 3,1 Mac Pro? Apple still flat out denies that their 5770/5870 can't be used in anything other than a 2010 Mac Pro. Oh wait a minute... on Apple's website the 5770's requirement is a 2010 Mac Pro.. No mention of 2009 Mac Pro?

I challenge all the time the Apple store reps about video card compatibilities.. Someone has to make money and thats AMD. Their firmware is a universal firmware where it will work on all of the Mac Pro models since AMD's RADEON cards are not 64-BIT EFI only.

Yes, this burns me up also! They even told me a GT120 won't work in a 3,1 Mac Pro! They are paid to deceive.

thanks! this is just as I thought. I knew Apple reps had to be crazy telling me I can not put a good Nvidia card in the pro. I even asked them if a Nvidia can be put into the 2009, why not in the current model and the response was 'Well because this model does not have that option' and I said well what about if I buy one to put in and the answer was still 'no that will not work'

Gotta love Apple reps, I was ready to go to PC lol