Video cards for Lion

[hector66]

If I'm not mistaken, it sounded like there were less limitations to what video cards are supported under the Lion developer previews. I'm worried that now testing is over and Gold Master has been reached that Apple will again limit which cards are supported in a Mac Pro. Has anybody tried unsupported cards using the GM build of Lion?

I've been holding off investing in a new video card and SSD boot until after Lion ships.

 

[hammten]

If I'm not mistaken, it sounded like there were less limitations to what video cards are supported under the Lion developer previews. I'm worried that now testing is over and Gold Master has been reached that Apple will again limit which cards are supported in a Mac Pro. Has anybody tried unsupported cards using the GM build of Lion?

I've been holding off investing in a new video card and SSD boot until after Lion ships.

Why exactly are you holding off on the ssd until lion? Is it because of trim? Because if it is, then you should know that it looks like you need an apple ssd if you dont want to do the trim hack...

 

[goMac]

If I'm not mistaken, it sounded like there were less limitations to what video cards are supported under the Lion developer previews. I'm worried that now testing is over and Gold Master has been reached that Apple will again limit which cards are supported in a Mac Pro. Has anybody tried unsupported cards using the GM build of Lion?

My feeling was that the PC video card support was a decision made by ATI instead of Apple. So I don't think it's going to be removed.

Rather I think some people were tired of waiting for Apple to update the hardware.

 

[Wild-Bill]

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If I'm not mistaken, it sounded like there were less limitations to what video cards are supported under the Lion developer previews. I'm worried that now testing is over and Gold Master has been reached that Apple will again limit which cards are supported in a Mac Pro. Has anybody tried unsupported cards using the GM build of Lion?

My feeling was that the PC video card support was a decision made by ATI instead of Apple. So I don't think it's going to be removed.

Rather I think some people were tired of waiting for Apple to update the hardware.

Some people??? More like MOST people !!

Historically, Mac Pros have shipped with video cards that were close to obsolete.

It'd sure be nice to have a current gen card in my MP, like the Radron HD 6970, and then swap that out when ATI releases it's replacement, without having to hack it.

 

[TheStrudel]

At the time of release, if not for very long, the 5870 was absolutely current. They've been getting better, if not for very long.

 

[Cindori]

next mac pro will get 6000 series and AMD will ship 7000 series with 28nm by end of 2011 / early 2012, and then Mac Pro 2011 will spend all 2012 with an old piece of GPU.

 

[Wild-Bill]

next mac pro will get 6000 series and AMD will ship 7000 series with 28nm by end of 2011 / early 2012, and then Mac Pro 2011 will spend all 2012 with an old piece of GPU.

This man speaks the truth.

 

[goMac]

Some people??? More like MOST people !!

I was referring to a specific group of people.

 

[WardC]

What is it that all these people are trying to do that a video card like the 5870 can't "cut it?" Are they trying to play games at full high render settings with 300fps framerates on 2560x1600 resolution displays or something? I do not game, I do play alot of HD video though, and I find the 5770 is even enough for my needs, heck the 4870 on my last Mac Pro was more than enough video card as well. How much more GPU do people want and why in the hell do they require it?

That is something I have never understood about people on this forum, how they go ga-ga over GPUs and video cards, I am more concerned with processors and storage access speeds (like SSD and RAID) trying to speed up a machine. The current GPU offering are more than enough to power the highest resolution displays at millions of colors, which actually only requires about 128MB of video RAM. Get real people.

 

[goMac]

What is it that all these people are trying to do that a video card like the 5870 can't "cut it?"

Yeah, I noticed that. The 6970 is faster, but not by a considerable degree. When I saw benchmark scores I was like "people are freaking out over this?"

It matters when there is a new generation of GPUs though that have a bigger leap. The 6970 just isn't one of those GPUs though.

 

[WardC]

Well maybe it is just that I am not exposed to the environment where I would notice a lagging video card ever. If I was a serious 3D gamer and wanted 2560x1600 resolution gaming with all render settings maxed out, to never see a dropped frame of video, I guess I might demand something that would give me that. But then again, I am more concerned with fluid video rendering, video acceleration, color accuracy, color gamut, etc. I am not concerned with all of this crossfire stuff that the gaming enthusiasts drool over. I basically just want my video to look fluid and my colors to look good. That's the bottom line for me. If I was more of a serious 3D gamer I might care. Sorry.

 

[Cindori]

Well maybe it is just that I am not exposed to the environment where I would notice a lagging video card ever. If I was a serious 3D gamer and wanted 2560x1600 resolution gaming with all render settings maxed out, to never see a dropped frame of video, I guess I might demand something that would give me that. But then again, I am more concerned with fluid video rendering, video acceleration, color accuracy, color gamut, etc. I am not concerned with all of this crossfire stuff that the gaming enthusiasts drool over. I basically just want my video to look fluid and my colors to look good. That's the bottom line for me. If I was more of a serious 3D gamer I might care. Sorry.

good for you that you'll gladly pay twice as much for last years tech.
rest of us probably disagree. gamers or not.

 

[ActionableMango]

I basically just want my video to look fluid.

That's basically what gamers want too.

3D real-time rendering with lots of special effects at high resolution higher than HD requires a lot more muscle than displaying a simple video. If your GPU isn't up the task you're not so much playing a game as you are watching a slideshow of screen shots.

The current GPU offering are more than enough to power the highest resolution displays at millions of colors, which actually only requires about 128MB of video RAM.

Video card RAM is not just used to store the current screen image. Extra RAM is required in order to support multiple monitors, anti-aliasing, mapping, hold textures, vertex buffers, Z-buffer information, and probably other stuff too.

It's not just a game thing either, newer versions of Photoshop use acceleration and benefit from extra video RAM. 3D acceleration is used for CGI, animation, and these days even certain elements in the GUI of modern operating systems.

Get real people.

Different people have different wants and needs than you do. It doesn't mean they aren't real.

BY FAR the most popular threads in this forum are about getting PC video cards to work.

 

[dreamersofeden]

That's basically what gamers want too.

3D real-time rendering with lots of special effects at high resolution higher than HD requires a lot more muscle than displaying a simple video. If your GPU isn't up the task you're not so much playing a game as you are watching a slideshow of screen shots.



Video card RAM is not just used to store the current screen image. Extra RAM is required in order to support multiple monitors, anti-aliasing, mapping, hold textures, vertex buffers, Z-buffer information, and probably other stuff too.

It's not just a game thing either, newer versions of Photoshop use acceleration and benefit from extra video RAM. 3D acceleration is used for CGI, animation, and these days even certain elements in the GUI of modern operating systems.



Different people have different wants and needs than you do. It doesn't mean they aren't real.

BY FAR the most popular threads in this forum are about getting PC video cards to work.

Call Apple, that's their fault, LOL.

If they put better cards, there wont be any complains about this, but well... seems that Apple loves "old-tech".

 

[bluesteel]

What is it that all these people are trying to do that a video card like the 5870 can't "cut it?" Are they trying to play games at full high render settings with 300fps framerates on 2560x1600 resolution displays or something? I do not game, I do play alot of HD video though, and I find the 5770 is even enough for my needs, heck the 4870 on my last Mac Pro was more than enough video card as well. How much more GPU do people want and why in the hell do they require it?

That is something I have never understood about people on this forum, how they go ga-ga over GPUs and video cards, I am more concerned with processors and storage access speeds (like SSD and RAID) trying to speed up a machine. The current GPU offering are more than enough to power the highest resolution displays at millions of colors, which actually only requires about 128MB of video RAM. Get real people.

3D visual effects work.

don't forget that GPUs aren't only good for powering a display. in some fields of work, the GPU is more important than CPU and storage speeds, and in other fields all of it is important. working with Autodesk Maya 2012 and its various modules (modeling, animating, fluid dynamics, fur, Muscle, rendering, etc..) requires fast CPU, GPU, and storage in order to meet production demands and time frames. for example, Maya viewport performance is directly tied to the GPU, and Maya rendering and fluid dynamics performance is directly tied to the CPU. Maya can max out all your hardware very fast. in 3D, there's never enough power....depending on the scale of 3D project your working on, current Apple hardware isn't enough a lot of the time. i'm one of those people thats furious because i can't use a Quadro 5000 or 6000, or crossfire/SLI in my Mac Pro to speed things up. i love Macs and really do not like Windows very much, but because of what's not offered for the Mac Pro, for the first time in my life, i'm probably going to build a PC workstation for 3D work....i need more GPU power, period.

 

[Topper]

next mac pro will get 6000 series and AMD will ship 7000 series with 28nm by end of 2011 / early 2012, and then Mac Pro 2011 will spend all 2012 with an old piece of GPU.

I still don't think we'll see the new Mac Pro until Q4/2011 or Q1/2012.
.

 

[IceMacMac]

My feeling was that the PC video card support was a decision made by ATI instead of Apple.

goMac...are you trying to get Apple to hire you? In every single thread you seem to defend every single Apple product/strategy/business practice. It's never Apple's fault...it's Adobe...or it's the GPU vendors. No Apple product is buggy or too expensive...and Steve Jobs walks on water...or air..or on a cloud of MacBook Airs.

What's up with that?

Its one thing to be pro-Apple. It's another thing to have a tattoo of this on one's backside:

 

[IceMacMac]

i love Macs and really do not like Windows very much, but because of what's not offered for the Mac Pro, for the first time in my life, i'm probably going to build a PC workstation for 3D work....i need more GPU power, period.

I'm another 3d user right widdya bro. At least I'm on the edge, waiting to see what shoe drops next.

It will be a major disruption switching platforms but I'm weighing it now. Seriously.

I don't write this with bitterness or hoping that Apple will be reading this forum. They have made the decision that users like us are not that relevant in their bottom line. Now its time for us to make our decisions.

It's just business for them...and just business for me.

 

[goMac]

goMac...are you trying to get Apple to hire you? In every single thread you seem to defend every single Apple product/strategy/business practice. It's never Apple's fault...it's Adobe...or it's the GPU vendors. No Apple product is buggy or too expensive...and Steve Jobs walks on water...or air..or on a cloud of MacBook Airs.

What's up with that?

Its one thing to be pro-Apple. It's another thing to have a tattoo of this on one's backside:

I wasn't defending Apple at all. In fact, I was doing the exact opposite. Apparently the subtext was missed... I was being intentionally subtle, so I'll leave it at that.

(I'm not entirely sure how this could be at all perceived as me defending Apple. Apple was getting tired of Apple not updating hardware? Huh?)

 

[IceMacMac]

Well maybe it is just that I am not exposed to the environment where I would notice a lagging video card ever. If I was a serious 3D gamer and wanted 2560x1600 resolution gaming with all render settings maxed out, to never see a dropped frame of video, I guess I might demand something that would give me that. But then again, I am more concerned with fluid video rendering, video acceleration, color accuracy, color gamut, etc. I am not concerned with all of this crossfire stuff that the gaming enthusiasts drool over. I basically just want my video to look fluid and my colors to look good. That's the bottom line for me. If I was more of a serious 3D gamer I might care. Sorry.

Ward...if I didn't use After Effects and several 3D apps...and utilize 3 large displays... I wouldn't care either.

But we all have different needs, and for many in this forum it isn't a matter of games. For me: I haven't played a computer game on my mac in years. But the GPU issue is huge.

 

[IceMacMac]

I wasn't defending Apple at all. In fact, I was doing the exact opposite. Apparently the subtext was missed... I was being intentionally subtle, so I'll leave it at that.

(I'm not entirely sure how this could be at all perceived as me defending Apple. Apple was getting tired of Apple not updating hardware? Huh?)

I must have misunderstood you then.

 

[bluesteel]

I'm another 3d user right widdya bro. At least I'm on the edge, waiting to see what shoe drops next.

It will be a major disruption switching platforms but I'm weighing it now. Seriously.

yeah brother, i'm doing the same thing....waiting for the next Mac Pro and also Lion to see what they offer. with all that past talk about Lion possibly allowing other non-apple compatible ATI video cards to work in the Mac Pro, i'm curious to see what happens....i'm especially curious to see if any non-apple compatible nVidia graphics cards will end up working with Lion. its gonna be interesting to see what apple does. the recent final cut pro x fiasco isn't making me feel all warm and fuzzy about the prospects though.

I don't write this with bitterness or hoping that Apple will be reading this forum. They have made the decision that users like us are not that relevant in their bottom line. Now its time for us to make our decisions.

It's just business for them...and just business for me.

yep, exactly. i feel the exact same way. apple made their decision that users like us are not relevant to their bottom line....i totally agree with you. i'm not looking forward to the windows world, but i'm definitely preparing for the adventure, thats for sure

 

[IceMacMac]

yeah brother, i'm doing the same thing....waiting for the next Mac Pro and also Lion to see what they offer. with all that past talk about Lion possibly allowing other non-apple compatible ATI video cards to work in the Mac Pro, i'm curious to see what happens....i'm especially curious to see if any non-apple compatible nVidia graphics cards will end up working with Lion. its gonna be interesting to see what apple does. the recent final cut pro x fiasco isn't making me feel all warm and fuzzy about the prospects though.



yep, exactly. i feel the exact same way. apple made their decision that users like us are not relevant to their bottom line....i totally agree with you. i'm not looking forward to the windows world, but i'm definitely preparing for the adventure, thats for sure

Yes, curious about Lion and the next MP.

The other factor that's playing into my waiting is my year long investment in major Canon gear. And now I'm looking at a Red video camera. So funds for my next big system might get stalled for awhile.

But I'd sure like to at least upgrade the GPU on my Mac Pro 4,1.

 

[nekton1]

To run Auto Smoke, I need a new nVidia card for my Mac Pro 2,1 (old but still good 8-core 2.66 GHz from 2009) because my current flashed 4890 cannot run Smoke according to Autocad. Has anyone got a suggestion for a bonafide nVidia card that will run in this MPro, do the job with FCP, AE, Smoke, etc., and not require a second mortgage?