Like many others, I've pretty much given up on a Mac Pro update from Apple in the near future and am looking to upgrade a mostly stock (has a 2.5" SSD) 4,1 single CPU 2.66 Mac Pro with the nVidia GeForce GT 120.
I've been reading threads related to GPUs and CPUs and my head is spinning.
My main uses are Photoshop, Lightroom, and VMWare Fusion (Windows 7 instance running 100% of the time) with the occasional Handbrake conversion thrown in. I'd like to experiment with video (Premiere, not FCPX) but that's not going to happen for awhile. The machine is not used for any gaming.
I already plan on doing a 4,1 -> 5,1 firmware update and installing a W3690 cpu.
But, I'm lost as to what I should do for the graphics card.
I have no preference between AMD and Nvidia. I'm just looking to take advantage of the GPU utilization in Lightroom/Photoshop, have a quiet card, and stay around $200 or less.
I'm also hoping for something that isn't going to require constant babysitting with regards to drivers. I'm OK, with updating the driver alongside OS upgrades, but would like to avoid opening binaries in a text editor and tweaking a couple of bits (though it sounds like those days are mostly in the past).
I'm currently looking at the two below; but, only because they fall in the budget and have a few good reviews:
Thanks for your help,
John
I've been reading threads related to GPUs and CPUs and my head is spinning.
My main uses are Photoshop, Lightroom, and VMWare Fusion (Windows 7 instance running 100% of the time) with the occasional Handbrake conversion thrown in. I'd like to experiment with video (Premiere, not FCPX) but that's not going to happen for awhile. The machine is not used for any gaming.
I already plan on doing a 4,1 -> 5,1 firmware update and installing a W3690 cpu.
But, I'm lost as to what I should do for the graphics card.
I have no preference between AMD and Nvidia. I'm just looking to take advantage of the GPU utilization in Lightroom/Photoshop, have a quiet card, and stay around $200 or less.
I'm also hoping for something that isn't going to require constant babysitting with regards to drivers. I'm OK, with updating the driver alongside OS upgrades, but would like to avoid opening binaries in a text editor and tweaking a couple of bits (though it sounds like those days are mostly in the past).
I'm currently looking at the two below; but, only because they fall in the budget and have a few good reviews:
- MSI GAMING Radeon RX 470 GDDR5 4GB CrossFire FinFET DirectX 12 Graphics Card (RX 470 GAMING X 4G)
- MSI Computer Corp. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti Gaming OC 2GB GDDR5 VGA/DVI/HDMI PCI-Express Video Card N750TI TF 2GD5/OC
Thanks for your help,
John