Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

awcopus · Jun 25, 2009, 01:35 PM

I have a dual Quad Core 2.8GHz Mac Pro and am looking to upgrade my stock GPU. Wondering if any video editors on here have noticed a speed improvement when working with 1920x1080 AppleProRes files (which is the editable format I end up in after running the 5Dmarkii's files through Compressor) after upgrading to a particular GPU. Recommendations are welcome.

mr. burns · Jun 25, 2009, 03:45 PM

radeon 4870. ati cards have better mac drivers and do better in pro apps.

bearcatrp · Jun 27, 2009, 02:19 PM

http://store.apple.com/us/product/TW...mco=NjcxMjczOQ

Simon · Jun 28, 2009, 03:41 AM

This card is $100 less and will be faster at h.264.

tooki · Jun 28, 2009, 05:24 PM

Uhhh... since Leopard doesn't offload H.264 decoding or encoding to the GPU, it's not exactly relevant what graphics card you use.

The GPU helps with Core Video accelerated functions like some Final Cut transitions. It won't help with anything else.

Snow Leopard might offload H.264 decoding to some GPUs, but we don't yet know for which. And encoding is likely not offloaded at all.

tooki · Jun 28, 2009, 05:25 PM

Originally Posted by Simon

This card is $100 less and will be faster at h.264.

How do you arrive at this, given that H.264 encoding/decoding is done in the CPU, not in the GPU?

mr. burns · Jun 28, 2009, 05:31 PM

he's still better off with the 4870 unless he wants the absolute best card for gaming in windows.

Simon · 02:58 AM

Originally Posted by tooki

How do you arrive at this, given that H.264 encoding/decoding is done in the CPU, not in the GPU?

Because you don't buy a $400 GPU for today, but for tomorrow.

With stuff like SL and GC on the horizon, those are exactly the kind of things that will change very soon. I would no doubt go for the card with the best Mac support and that is definitely the Radeon HD4870. Or maybe even a PC version 4890 (which will work). Had the OP asked for a GPU for games it would have been the GTX 285. But for the OP's work the ATI will be the better choice.

awcopus · Jun 29, 2009, 04:25 PM

It's true, I have little to no interest in gaming. Mostly I'm looking to accelerate video rendering in Motion and FCP and Color.

My only problem with ATI cards is that I've had horrible experiences with them f-ing up previously owned Mac towers. Not sure I have the heart to go down that road again.

Probably makes sense to wait for Snow Leopard to come out and then see how the performance of these cards compares at that point. I would hope that the 285's 1gb of memory would give it an advantage by being fully taken advantage of by the OS.

tooki · Jun 29, 2009, 06:07 PM

Originally Posted by Simon

Because you don't buy a $400 GPU for today, but for tomorrow.

Well that's just silly, since today's $400 GPU is tomorrow's $200 model, so if you're not going to use it until tomorrow, wait till then to buy it and save the $200! (Or buy whatever the new $400 model is.)

It makes no sense to stock up on computer components you're not using immediately, they do nothing but depreciate.

So if you need faster rendering today, buy the ATI 4870 -- it really is the best for those applications. But don't buy a GPU with the expectation that it will accelerate H.264, and don't buy one just for the future.

Simon · 05:25 AM

I understand what you're saying, but I don't follow why anybody should buy short-sighted when the immediate future is quite clear. SL/GC arrive in three months. By that time the price of these GPUs will not have changed a cent. Look at the past. The Mac Pro version of the X1900 for example...

For anything but games the 4870 is the right choice. Now and in three months from now. I'm ready to bet on that.

tooki · Jul 4, 2009, 03:34 AM

You do realize that, as great as those technologies are, they require massive re-engineering of an app to benefit? It's gonna be a while before GC makes a meaningful difference.

Simon · Jul 4, 2009, 05:09 AM

I'm fairly confident we'll see many apps updated for GC fairly soon if GC really turns out to be as great as we are led to believe. Of course large commercial apps will likely take longer (Adobe, anyone?) than smaller FOSS projects. How long till Handbrake sees a boost? 2 months maybe?

Let's just say I'm very optimistic. Of course I could turn out to be wrong about that. I hope not though.

SSharon · Jul 5, 2009, 12:06 PM

Would something like this help?
Turbo264HD overview

mduell · Jul 5, 2009, 05:24 PM

Wait until the OS and apps that you're going to use come out and are benchmarked to decide on GPUs. The only GPU that supports H.264 acceleration (decode only) under OS X is the 9400M. It's likely that individual apps will implement H.264 acceleration (one or both ways) with OpenCL, which has it's own supported GPU list (notably absent from that list are the 4890 and GTX285).

Originally Posted by Simon

I'm fairly confident we'll see many apps updated for GC fairly soon if GC really turns out to be as great as we are led to believe. Of course large commercial apps will likely take longer (Adobe, anyone?) than smaller FOSS projects. How long till Handbrake sees a boost? 2 months maybe?

GC won't help Handbrake (and by that I mean x264, who does most of the heavy lifting for them) since it's already well threaded. OpenCL would certainly help and all it takes is one avid hacker to make it happen, but it has a pretty limited userbase for that one avid hacker to come from.

Originally Posted by SSharon

Would something like this help?
Turbo264HD overview

No.

Simon · Jul 6, 2009, 02:50 AM

The 4890 is not on that list because there is no officially OS X compatible version.

Of course SL/GC/OpenCL will help Handbrake. I'd be surprised if it isn't one of the first FOSS projects to take advantage of this technology.

mr. burns · Jul 6, 2009, 03:59 AM

Originally Posted by Simon

The 4890 is not on that list because there is no officially OS X compatible version.

not officially, but it works if you want it to. that's what i'll be getting to replace my x1900xt.

Simon · Jul 6, 2009, 05:20 AM

Oh, I know it works. In fact we had a PC version in one of our MPs here. It ran just fine under OS X.

But officially there is no such thing as a 4890 Mac version.

mduell · Jul 6, 2009, 05:25 PM

Originally Posted by Simon

Of course SL/GC/OpenCL will help Handbrake. I'd be surprised if it isn't one of the first FOSS projects to take advantage of this technology.

How is GC going to help Handbrake? Their encoder is already well threaded.
OpenCL has a lot of potential to help x264, but it's not going to be in a Handbrake release soon (like the 2 months you mentioned).

Simon · Jul 6, 2009, 11:23 PM

You just wait and see.

mduell · Jul 7, 2009, 08:28 PM

Asked the Handbrake team today... they expect 1-2 years before usable OpenCL support in x264 (and thus Handbrake).
Of course they don't represent the x264 core team, but they're pretty familiar with x264.

Simon · Jul 8, 2009, 02:14 AM

Well that's about an order of magnitude away from what I've heard. We'll see.