Upgrade MacPro GT 120 to what? And why? (Video Editing Station)

[spencers]

At work we have a 2009 Mac Pro 2.93 QC Xeon for our video team to utilize. Originally purchased, it was outfitted with (3) THREE GT 120 graphics cards. Not even sure why. We only have one 30" Cinema Display connected.

Sidenote: Almost all of our video team members have Mid 2012 Macbook Pros (GTX 650M, 1GB). So they have quite decent machines.

We're in the midst of moving from FCP 7 to CS6. I'm trying to figure out if upgrading the GT 120 to a new graphics card would benefit our video team.

Software used:
Creative Suite 6 (Premiere and After Effects)
Final Cut Pro 7
Compressor
PluralEyes
Flip4Mac
Quicktime 7

Thanks!
-Spencer

 

[deconstruct60]

... Originally purchased, it was outfitted with (3) THREE GT 120 graphics cards. Not even sure why. We only have one 30" Cinema Display connected.

Either there was some intent to hook up multiple monitors ( one each on the cards). Another possibility that this was nice priced refurb that happened to have those three. It was at least one of the BTO configs in the Online store at one time. If not a refurb something offered at some discount as part of some larger hardware deal ( a config someone wanted to unload. )

Sidenote: Almost all of our video team members have Mid 2012 Macbook Pros (GTX 650M, 1GB). So they have quite decent machines.


We're in the midst of moving from FCP 7 to CS6. I'm trying to figure out if upgrading the GT 120 to a new graphics card would benefit our video team.

With 2012 MBP seems likely targeting OS X 10.8 for all computers in question. 10.8.3 opens up the range of cards that can be leveraged with built in OS support. If trying to keep the Mac Pro in the pre-Lion era on Snow Leopard it is a different story.

 

[Mac Hammer Fan]

I have upgraded my Mac Pro Nehalem 2009 with a video card (ATI Radeon 5870) that is much faster than the GT 120.
But I noticed much more speed increases with an SSD and the new Westmere 3.33 GHz (6 cores) processor.

 

[Macsonic]

Hi Spencer. I think the EVGA GTX570 would be good for video work.

 

[Mac Hammer Fan]

Some comparison tests here:
http://www.barefeats.com/gpu7950b.html

 

[spencers]

With 2012 MBP seems likely targeting OS X 10.8 for all computers in question. 10.8.3 opens up the range of cards that can be leveraged with built in OS support. If trying to keep the Mac Pro in the pre-Lion era on Snow Leopard it is a different story.

I actually have it pulled from service right now. I'm swapping the WD 1TB 7.2k drives for some 146GB 15K Dell server pulls. Keeping it set up as RAID 5. Also upgrading the machine to 10.8, so finally ditching Snow Leopard.

Some comparison tests here:
http://www.barefeats.com/gpu7950b.html

Thanks. I'm not sure what to make of most of those comparisons. They seem to only differ by a few seconds. And not all of the comparisons take the GT 120 into account.