Which GPU?

[sadVamp]

Hi Guys!

This year I'm planing to assembly my first "customac" mainly for FCPX. I would like to use SIERRA.

But as I gone through the buyers guide I see that the GPU list is somehow old... So I peak into the local shops and found out, it possibly will be very hard to buy an appropriate card.
So my question is, which is best/most compatible GPU option which should be still available around 150-300€ ?

which is locally available are here (as you see mostly last pieces or used):
www.alza.sk/geforce-gtx970-graphics-cards/18855278.htm

I've read something about dual card option, is it possible to put this
www.alza.sk/EN/gigabyte-n740d5oc-2gi-d1638229.htm?catid=18854531
into dual mode? how hard would be that? and how would the performance be against the GTX970?
meanwhile I discovered that the 740 does not works with SLI.

I'm also afriad to ask what about the AMD cards, because I found thread somewhere around which says there are problems with sleep/awake and also with boot. All of them are problematic on SIERRA or there are some exceptions?

So what would you do? Buy one of the "last mohicans" now? If yes which option or what alternative? Or wait when I got all the money for the build and hope that the newer cards will be supported properly?

 

[nobodynose]

Hi Guys!

This year I'm planing to assembly my first "customac" mainly for FCPX. I would like to use SIERRA.

But as I gone through the buyers guide I see that the GPU list is somehow old... So I peak into the local shops and found out, it possibly will be very hard to buy an appropriate card.
So my question is, which is best/most compatible GPU option which should be still available around 150-300€ ?

which is locally available are here (as you see mostly last pieces or used):
www.alza.sk/geforce-gtx970-graphics-cards/18855278.htm

Yes, that's the state of things right now. Buy a GTX 970 while u can; it doesn't look like the newer Pascal-based Nvidia cards (GTX 10x0) will ever be supported.

meanwhile I discovered that the 740 does not works with SLI.

No graphics card works in SLI mode in macOS, because SLI isn't supported.

 

[sadVamp]

Yes, that's the state of things right now. Buy a GTX 970 while u can; it doesn't look like the newer Pascal-based Nvidia cards (GTX 10x0) will ever be supported.

No graphics card works in SLI mode in macOS, because SLI isn't supported.

Man, thanks for the response.

what about this card?
https://www.alza.sk/gainward-gtx970-4gb-ddr5-d2261190.htm?catid=18855278

looks lot like the reference card from NV
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-970/specifications

Would it be good? Or should I stick to the slightly more expensive gigabyte's mini version?
https://www.alza.sk/gigabyte-gtx-970-mini-gaming-4gb-d3860280.htm?catid=18855278


So if I get it right, only the radeons can be "chained" together?

 

[nobodynose]

Man, thanks for the response.

what about this card?
https://www.alza.sk/gainward-gtx970-4gb-ddr5-d2261190.htm?catid=18855278

looks lot like the reference card from NV
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-970/specifications

Would it be good? Or should I stick to the slightly more expensive gigabyte's mini version?
https://www.alza.sk/gigabyte-gtx-970-mini-gaming-4gb-d3860280.htm?catid=18855278

You're right, it does look a lot like the reference card. My guess is it will work fine. Still, I personally would spend the extra few euros and get the Gigabyte card, I think it's probably better quality.

So if I get it right, only the radeons can be "chained" together?

No, AMD CrossFire isn't supported in macOS either. You can use two graphics cards, but they will operate as two separate cards.

 

[sadVamp]

Still, I personally would spend the extra few euros and get the Gigabyte card, I think it's probably better quality.

Can I ask you what make you to think this? (I haven't owned any of these brands... in fact any brand of discrete GPU for a long time) And what do you exactly mean with word "quality" in this context (I mean it is faster, better components or longer lifetime)?

 

[nobodynose]

Can I ask you what make you to think this? (I haven't owned any of these brands... in fact any brand of discrete GPU for a long time) And what do you exactly mean with word "quality" in this context (I mean it is faster, better components or longer lifetime)?

I must admit I don't have personal experience with the Gainward brand. It's a "sub brand" of Palit. I just think the Gigabyte card is more likely to last longer because it appears to have a better cooling solution than the Nvidia reference design (such as the Gainward card). Also, since the Gigabyte card is much shorter, there's less chance of it impeding air flow within your case so your other components will probably stay cooler as well.

 

[newtype]

For FCPX, Nvidia are not the best cards. AMD based cards better, heck even an old HD7970 does FCPX better than most of newer Nvidia cards. The more video ram the better too.

 

[sadVamp]

For FCPX, Nvidia are not the best cards. AMD based cards better, heck even an old HD7970 does FCPX better than most of newer Nvidia cards. The more video ram the better too.

Hmm... but I assume it will be better than the CPU's IGP, or not?

I thought about the Radeons too, but this will be my first built, how much it would be harder to make it work with a Radeon???

As I already said since I got SIERRA on my MBP i want SIERRA on the customac too.

And one of the threads here says that from ElCapitan all of the Radeons suffers from "sleep-awake" problem and also some kind of black boot screen (this I do not know what exactly means).

So Could you enlighten me with the Radeons too? Which models are the most compatible, which are the best (even for windows gaming) and which are still available?

 

[newtype]

http://www.fcp.co/forum/hardware/18250-brucex-try-this-new-final-cut-pro-x-benchmark?start=440

Take a look at this and see the most recent messages. You can buy AMD R9 280X that beats Nvidia 980GTX Ti.

 

[rwillett]

Hmm... but I assume it will be better than the CPU's IGP, or not?

I thought about the Radeons too, but this will be my first built, how much it would be harder to make it work with a Radeon???

As I already said since I got SIERRA on my MBP i want SIERRA on the customac too.

And one of the threads here says that from ElCapitan all of the Radeons suffers from "sleep-awake" problem and also some kind of black boot screen (this I do not know what exactly means).

So Could you enlighten me with the Radeons too? Which models are the most compatible, which are the best (even for windows gaming) and which are still available?

If you get the right Radeon card its simple to get a 280X card working more or less out of the box. Many 280X work out of the box, the main ones to avoid are XFX as they seem to have different BIOS versions on what should be identical cards. Some XFX cards work out of the box, some don't.

There's no such thing as best (cost? speed? performance? RAM? cooling? price?). The Sapphire range works well. I have dual Vapor X cards and they work very well. FCP X is significantly faster with dual cards, especially AMD ones.

You can't get sleep to work with the 280X cards. Since my machine is on 24/7 this is no big deal. Since I'd don't sleep the machine, wake isn't a problem

Its a very well documented path to getting a recognised 280X card working on a Hack using Clover. You will need to do the EFI mod after you install to get the Hack to boot. (15 mins max and its a cut and paste operation).

I use Windows as well (for playing BF4) and dual AMD cards work very well. The latest nVidia cards work even better for Windows, but I don't care. I drive three HD monitors for development off my dual 280X cards and it's been almost bomb proof. Not quite as reliable as my old Sun Sparcstation but pretty good.