Arstechnica on new NVIDIA 700M GPUs

Arstechnica has an article on the NVIDIA 700M GPU’s, which NVIDIA announced yesterday.

And basically it sounds like the the new NVIDIA GPU’s are the same as the 600M series, but with some slightly higher clock speeds, and a new GPU Boost 2.0, though these are all the lower end versions, and they haven’t talked about the higher end versions as of yet.

More speed is always good, and faster CUDA even better, but I would rather see a new series be a new architecture than just a speed bump.

Renderosity Reviews the NVIDIA QUADRO K5000

Renderosity has a great review of the NVIDIA QUADRO K5000 from a graphics perspective. The only thing I would like to see is something like a Geforce 670, 680 or 690 instead of a GTX 480 as the comparison to a standard card, as I would like to see it’s performance against another Kepler card, one for gaming and one for workstation graphics and see the difference there.

I Am Film Guy on Moving from Mac to HP

I AM FILM GUY has a good article on moving from Mac to HP.

I still worry about articles like this as it seems like they may be payed or getting gear for free (you can never tell), and they never go into the OS differences of moving from Mac to Windows, but you never know. I have been seriously considering the switch because Windows machines are so much newer and CUDA support so much better.

I thought about a Puget Systems custom system though.

Who knows, maybe the next MacPro will change my mind, if it ever comes out.

StudioDaily on Dells over MacPros

StudioDaily has an article on editors picking Dell Computers over MacPro’s for editing, which may in fact be true (though the article is written by someone working for Dell), as the MacPro has basically stagnated for years now, but I also hate how they never bother upgrading a MacPro with more modern technology for speed tests. Like putting in a PC NVIDIA Geforce 675 GTX with 4GB of RAM. That will make a huge difference in speed, especially with CUDA compliant software like Premiere Pro or Black Magic’s DaVinci Resolve! It may not be a TESLA, but it also doesn’t come with the price, which could set you back well over $6000 for a QUADRO and a TESLA, vs under $500 for a GTX 675 which works with the Mac’s current power supply and can really upgrade your existing MacPro.

Now of course their is still the question of what Apple’s next MacPro will be like and if it will be a worthy and powerful successor to the current MacPro, but we won’t know till it comes out, hopefully at this years WWDC.

Review of NVIDIA Geforce GTX 680m Graphics Card

I have been interested in the new top of the line Graphics Card for the new 2012 iMac, which is an NVIDIA Geforce GTX 680mx, and was wondering how it faired against my Desktop GTX 670. Everyone has been claiming it makes the iMac the most powerful Mac Editing machine out there, but I doubted it, as I have not seen any speed test against equivalent graphics cards. The 680m is actually a 680 slowed down.

I found a EuroGamer review of the GTX 680m, which tells me what I wanted to know about a 680M, but not a 680MX, but I found a review of that at Notebook Check.

Here is some of what they have to say:

Compared to the GeForce GTX 680M, the GTX 680MX features 1536 instead of 1344 CUDA cores and higher memory clocks (720/2500MHz vs 720/1800 MHz)


the graphics performance of the GeForce GTX 680MX should be 15 – 25 percent above the GTX 680M and similar to the Desktop GTX 580.

And specs on the GTX 680mx from NVIDIA’s site.

CUDA Cores – 1536
Core Speed – 720 Mhz
Memory Speed – 2500 Mhz
Texture Fill Rate (Billions per second) – 92.2
Max RAM – 2GB



And as for the GTX 670 from NVIDIA’s site.

CUDA Cores – 1344
Core Speed – 915 Mhz
Memory Speed – 2500 Mhz
Texture Fill Rate (Billions per second) – 102.5
Max RAM – 4GB

So the iMac has more CUDA cores, but it’s speed is not as fast, and it’s memory speed is less than half the speed.

So basically the 680MX it is a really powerful mobile graphics chip, but not as powerful as it’s equivalent Desktop GPU the GTX 670, and is more in line to a last generation GTX 580.

And yes it is not the easiest thing in the world getting a new generation NVIDIA card running in your MacPro, but it is not that hard, but should put your speed above that of the top of the line iMac GPU, and have more processing power, making it still champion, even though it is such dated technology at this point. Have to love expandability though as an old machine can still hold a performance edge, which is something the iMac will never have.

Lets just hope Apple makes a really good new MacPro this year.

13″ MacBook Pro with Retina, not for Editing

Apple today released the 13″ MacBookPro with Retina Display. And unlike it’s 15″ Cousing which sports an NVIDIA Geforce GT 650m and a Intel HD Graphics 4000, the 13 model only has the Intel HD Graphics 4000, which means no CUDA support for Premiere Pro editing, and certainly not as good graphics.

It is still an impressive little machine, but not really a solution for editors.

It starts at $1699 and is shipping today.

I wouldn’t want one, as the 15″ would be much more conducive to editing.

The new iMac

Apple has updated it’s iMac and it is thinner and more powerful, and now sans a CD rom drive.

Most impressive for editing are NVIDIA Mobile processors across the line, so they should all be great for CUDA in Premiere Pro. The low end has a GT 640M with 512MB of RAM, the second has a GT 650M with 512MB, the 3rd has a GTX 660m with 512MB and the high end has a GTX 675 with 1GB of RAM (best for editing right there). Even better the high end is configurable to a Geforce GTX 680MX with 2GB of RAM!

Too bad ll the stock models have i5 processors, but you can upgrade to an i7 that is 3.4Ghz. The high end also has user addable RAM, though the smaller model is soldered, but comes with 8GB to start.

Another exciting upgrade is the Fusion Drive you can get in BTO. It has 128GB of Flash Ram tied to 1 or 3 TB of regular hard drive, so your system can be on the fast Fusion, but you seamlessly get FLASH speeds for your system.

Starting at $1299-$1999 and available in November to December.

You have to configure it, but it really could be a great editing machine, especially with Thunderbolt, though I would prefer a non-mobile video card personally.