Most powerful Nvidia Graphics card?

[mitch_549]

What would be the most powerful Nvidia card which would be easily supported in my Hackintosh? I was looking at the Leadtek nVidia Quadro 4000 PCI Express 2/0 or somethnig similar, not any more that $1000....

Thanks

 

[cliffg]

Are you doing work in something like Solid Works or some 3-D modeling? I am only asking because unless you use a program that needs those specialized set of instructions the quadro uses it is a waste of money.

 

[mitch_549]

I may do some work with Solid Works down the track, but for now it will mainly be Adobe after effects, Premier Pro and Photoshop. So if the quadro will not make these programs run any faster, what would be the next best option? (and easiest)

Thanks again

 

[cliffg]

If you are going to do work with Solid Works, the Quadro is basically the only way to go. I am unsure of the other programs. I know some of the Adobe programs are accelerated by nVidia but I think that would work with any GeForce card. If that is the case, it would be he GTX570 or 580 are fully working under Lion. Stick with a reference design card.

 

[mitch_549]

hmmmm any brand/ model you suggest? The 580 sounds great, but I would like to know an exact model which works, ive checked the wiki, but find it a bit confusing...

 

[jasonvp]

but for now it will mainly be Adobe after effects, Premier Pro and Photoshop.

I edit in Premiere Pro quite a bit on my Mac Pro, and the Quadro 4K provides PPro with the required CUDA processors for hardware accelerated rendering. Premiere only recognizes 3 nVidia cards with CUDA processors: the old GTX285, the Quadro 4K, and the older Quadro 4800.

On Windows, there's a text file you can edit to get PPro to recognize different nVidia cards and use them for hardware accelerated stuff. I'm not sure if that same text file exists on the Mac version, nor where in the PPro installation it sits. So if you can't find it or it doesn't exist, then you're stuck with the 3 aforementioned cards as your only options.

FWIW, I think all of the same things apply to the Mac version of After Effects. But I don't think Photoshop will take any advantage of the cards at all. I could be wrong there.

 

[mitch_549]

Thanks for all the help, I was under the impression that any Nvidia card would accelerate PPr. I think I might go with a Quadro, to save upgrades in the future, any brand/ model you suggest? And I would get PC version correct?

 

[jasonvp]

Thanks for all the help, I was under the impression that any Nvidia card would accelerate PPr. I think I might go with a Quadro, to save upgrades in the future, any brand/ model you suggest? And I would get PC version correct?

So again: the Windows version of Premiere Pro has a simple text file that lists all of the allowed nVidia cards (by chip number, not by specific manufacturer) that it will enable hardware acceleration with. I don't know if the Mac version has that same text file because I haven't looked. If it does have that same text file, then you'll need to find it and edit it, and add whatever nVidia card you get to the list. Otherwise, you'll need to buy one of the 3 approved Mac video cards:

• GTX285[/*:m:1xmc6x4m]
• Quadro 4800[/*:m:1xmc6x4m]
• Quadro 4000[/*:m:1xmc6x4m]

I suspect the PC version of those cards will work just fine. Since I already have the Mac version of the Quadro 4K, I'm going to move that one over to my Hack when I build it.

 

[jasonvp]

I went looking through the Premiere Pro installation on my Mac Pro. I found the text file in question.

mrfreeze# pwd
/Applications/Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5/Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5.app/Contents
mrfreeze# cat cuda_supported_cards.txt 
GeForce GTX 285
GeForce GTX 470
GeForce GTX 570
GeForce GTX 580
Quadro CX
Quadro FX 3700M
Quadro FX 3800
Quadro FX 3800M
Quadro FX 4800
Quadro FX 5800
Quadro 2000
Quadro 2000D
Quadro 2000M
Quadro 3000M
Quadro 4000
Quadro 4000M
Quadro 5000
Quadro 5000M
Quadro 5010M
Quadro 6000

If you buy a card that isn't on that list, all you need to do is edit the text file and add it in. This assumes of course that the card you purchase has the CUDA processors on it. And it most likely will.

Good luck.

 

[Flexigem]

BTW this edit enables the Mercury engine. Thats the magic and it works with every Cuda card. The faster your GPU the faster will be the rendering with Mercury.

Here is a supporting thread over at insanely http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index. ... omsearch=1