The Right Video Card?

[Karmatiger]

Hi,

I am having trouble choosing a video card upgrade for two new '09 Mac Pro's we have just purchased. Both machines are 8 core 2.66Ghz with 6GB Ram and the standard issue NVidia cards. Each machine is hooked up to an Apple 30 inch display - we would like to connect a second monitor for colour correcting in time. The focus surrounds using FCS, Photoshop CS4, the Red system and two 4TB external drives. Pro Tools 8 is running on one machine. Various advice has come thick and fast into my little brain regarding which card would best suit our aims. One of our key aims is to produce feature length work at 1998 x 1080 and grow from there as our skills grow. Most of the advice has been to buy the BlackMagic DeckLink HD Extreme, some point to the AJA cards and some suggest nVidia, while Apple here in Sydney thought the newish ATI Radeon 4780. Clearly Apple are pushing ATI here at least. Coming from a writing and directing background my knowledge is only growing on the digital technologies themselves, but what concerns me most is the warnings about ensuring we get 10 bit colour display in the card. I also would not want to hire the Red One only to see some of the investment disappear at the point of the video cards. Cost, in Australian Dollar, is also a concern.

Any thoughts from some of the great knowledge banks out there?

Adrian

[James Press]

Try speaking with Olivier at Power Media in Surry Hills. Consider reposting this in the ANZRUG thread too.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

The ATI 4870 is a good card and the drivers work well. If you wish to add a second monitor, you will need to consider monitor sizes with the 4870 card. This card has one dual-link DVI port and one mini Displayport. The drivers perform well, but 10bit output is not currently supported on this card via Displayport or DVI as it is on some versions of this card with the Windows drivers. If you want to add one or more 30" displays, there are currently no 30" displays on the market with Displayport connector and Apple is the only company currently offering a Displayport to DVI-DL converter, however it doesn't work 100% and won't even properly drive their own 30" Cinema Display!!!

The nVidia GTX 285 is the superior video card, but current drivers are a little buggy and they will hopefully mature in the near future.

If you are primarily concerned about connecting a display for color correcting and want 10bit support, your best bet is an AJA or BMD card. Also be aware that these cards are not replacements for your system video card, but rather are monitoring and capture cards for video production work. Two different things.

[Karmatiger]

Thank you for this advice. Excellent information for someone with a steep learning curve!