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.
Engadget has the announcement of 3 new QUADRO cards from NVIDIA based on Kepler to fill the space over the $2500+ K5000. They have the K4000 for $1300, the K2000 for $600 and the K600 for $200. Nice. Not for gaming, but great for 3D and architectural and video work.
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.
Kotaku has an article on the newly announced NVIDIA Geforce GTX Titan Video Card! With 2688 CUDA cores, 6 GB of Video RAM and the same processor as the NVIDIA Tesla G20X this would be a Premiere Pro dream card for $1000! Sure a MacPro couldn’t couldn’t power it, but we can always dream!
NVIDIA has a page on the Titan now. Damn I would love one!
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.
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.
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.
FCP.Co has an article on installing a PC GTX570 in a MacPro to get better OpenCL performance in FCP X, but it will also increase your CUDA power for Premiere Pro and After Effects CS6.
Still you can score over 1000 on Luxmark if you go for a GTX670 instead (which has a huge amount more of CUDA cores, and can still draw it’s power from the internal power supply instead of say a 680, which would require an external power source to run), but they are not as well supported on the Mac. Either way you will need to go to Netkas to get some instruction and some help (though some of the help can be rather surly, but it is worth it if can really beef up using your MacPro). Someone at Netkas has also figure out how to Firmware update recent MacPro’s to the latest firmware for the newest itineration, allowing beefier XEON’s into your old MacPro.
The instructions are pretty easy, but I have found that they don’t always work, so think about re-installing your NVIDIA drivers once you are done, as that did it for me.
You will also need to do some hacking to Premiere Pro and After Effects to get them working with the CUDA cores on a new video card.
If you have experienced crashes in Premiere Pro CS6 or later when using a qualified NVIDIA GPU, we strongly recommend you update to this new driver version, which should improve stability. The crashes were mostly seen when switching from OpenCL to CUDA or when tabbing from other applications back to Premiere Pro (most notably Safari).
It doesn’t mention all the crashes I was having for other reasons, and general premiere pro instability, but hopefully this will cover it. And hopefully I can move back to my GeForce GTX275 from my Quadro 4800 as the 4800 just isn’t fast.
Wonder if this improves Kepler card support? That would be awesome, though I doubt it.
You can download from NVIDIA here.
Bare Feats has a great speed test for DaVinci resolve on Mac. What I Find the most interesting is that last generation video cards from MacVidCards are beating out current generation GTX680 Fermi video cards, but that is likely a Mac Driver issue. They have some common drivers for the new cards thanks to the new MacBookPro, but don’t have full drivers of yet (still cool that many PC NVIDIA cards will run).