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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Final Word 8800 Or 3870

Mark, I assume you mean 3870. Just want to make sure we got our numbers straight. :-)

That's good to hear, seeing that mine will be here next week and I'm hoping to see some improvement over the stock ATI card in the machine now.
 
stevesherrick said:
Mark, I assume you mean 3870. Just want to make sure we got our numbers straight. :-)

That's good to hear, seeing that mine will be here next week and I'm hoping to see some improvement over the stock ATI card in the machine now.
Click to expand...

yeah 3870 - I have another system exact same specs with 1900 card - I do not have an 8800 in the house - so I can only compare those (1900 vs 3870) Monday (both of those machines are chewin' r3ds right now) -
 
Mark, just for reference what kind of output settings in Redcine are you using? Is it full quality debayering. I'm hoping to see a jump in render speed when I incorporate the new video card, and add a Raid system capable of 400-500mb/s sustained.
 
That was fast. I thought the 3870 wasnt shipping until today.
Anyway, hope to hear from your tests, specially in render time.
What apps are you using it for?
 
Hello,

You probably already saw this benchmark from Barefeats, but in case you missed it.

http://barefeats.com/harper16.html

I'm using the ATI 3870 on a first gen Quad core w/ 8 gigs on OS X 10.5.4 and it's working great.

If I was gaming on my Mac (for some odd reason; also I have the PC in the corner for that!), it would be a 8800 GT, but since this is the work machine, it's the ATI.

It seems that the drivers are just more optimized or perhaps the chipset is friendlier to the requirements of the core apps.

Running great!

They are supposed to be shipping first week of August from OWC or Small Dog Electronics. Like I said earlier, I had it on order for weeks and they kept pushing the order back. It was supposed to be out the first week of June.

I was lucky to acquire one from a fellow in Switzerland for a little below the cost of a new card. It was worth the shipping fee to get this machine up and running.

Hope this helps out. Good luck with your new machine!

Best,

ATF
 
I had seen the barefeats site, and I like their conclusion:
CONCLUSION
In our Core Image intensive tests, the ATI Radeon HD 3870 Mac & PC Edition provided 21% to 41% gains in performance over the GeForce 8800 GT. Though we have yet to discover GPU intensive benchmarks for FCP, Aperture and Color, we are confident the same gains will be seen in the use of those apps for Core Image intensive functions.

Soooo..... watcha say guys?
 
I say go for the 3870 and put the extra cash into some more RAM.
 
Benchmarking Core Image functions is showing the 3870 to be faster. So I would say it's a good choice. You won't see the 20% or more increase overall, just keep that in mind. But if your primary apps are Final Cut Studio or others that make use of Core Image (in FCS it's really just Motion3 with a few bits and pieces in the other apps), then go for it.

If you will be spending any significant amount of time in 3D applications like Modo or Maya, then the 8800GT would still be a great choice, maybe better.

What would I buy? Hard to say... I have been trying to answer this question for this thread before estebanred asked it of me. I seriously don't know. If I were buying a new Mac Pro today, I think I would order it with the 8800GT card and buy the 3870 to test, just because I can. But honestly, I would be comfortable with either card as I know the performance of the 3870 under Windows and I'm already familiar with the 8800GT.

Both video card options are cheap and that's good because I smell updates just around the corner (aren't they always?).

For REDCINE and R3D post workflow, you will get far more out of a fast 250MB/s or faster RAID system than you will out of your video card. I'd recommend a Mac Pro with the 3.2GHz CPUs and 16GB RAM. 16GB is overkill to some extent, but 8GB isn't always enough and you get the best performance out of the system if all RAM sockets are populated with modules of the same size and specs. Besides, good RAM is cheap if you don't buy it from Apple.

Steve said above, "I say go for the 3870 and put the extra cash into some more RAM." That may just be the best way to go.

Oh yeah, don't buy the Apple RAID card either. It is a complete PIECE OF CRAP! Look at CalDigit or Dulce Systems for your RAID solutions.
 
Well... thanks jeff. Will buy the ATI and comment on the results. Although I wont have the other card to test I will let you know my impressions so that we can make this forum richer in information, I dont care if its outdated!!! Hah
Take care and thank you all.
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
Oh yeah, don't buy the Apple RAID card either. It is a complete PIECE OF CRAP! Look at CalDigit or Dulce Systems for your RAID solutions.
Click to expand...

Or at Areca. I agree that Apple's card is overpriced and underpowered.
 
Not just overpriced and underpowered. Other issues with the Apple card are:

It takes over your internal drive bays, no external connectivity. You can get a third-party cable to retain connectivity to internal drive bays so you can mix and match drives between controllers But it's a real pain in the ass and I have yet to find one long enough to reach all 4, no luck acquiring a duplicate cable from Apple parts.

The cache backup battery likes to "refresh" itself from time to time. There is no warning that it will be doing this and no way to schedule it. When it does this process, you are without cache on your system for anywhere from 8 hours to 16 hours as it drains itself and recharges. This really sucks when you're in the middle of working on something and the system decides to f*ck you and no way to override it. This "feature" alone almost made pull the Apple RAID card from the system. I just use the RAID controller for a RAID-0 workspace drive. It's fast, actually I can't complain about the performance of the Apple RAID card. But if I had to do it again, I wouldn't buy this card in another system due to its shortcomings.

No arbitrary boot hooks in the EFI ROM for this card. By design, I assume. You can not boot any OS from the RAID card except for OSX. It does not work with BootCamp (no Windows drivers for the RAID card, anyway).
 
I am thinking of buying Kingston memory. Its fairly priced and gives money enough to spend on caldigit or duce systems. Still undecided.
 
Hello,

I bought 8 gigs of memory from OWC (http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory) and have had no problems whatsoever with them.

Looks like the 3870 I ordered months ago shipped from OWC! Haha.. oh well. I needed it for a second machine.

Definitely avoid the Apple raid card. A very poor and expensive release from them. A 3ware or Caldigit card are far better substitutes.

Best!

ATF
 
I recommend the OWC RAM as well.
 
I have 16GB of OWC RAM in my machine. Replaced the RAM that came with the system and filled up all of the slots.
 
Has anyone tried the Kingston memory?
Although I kind of like the sound of the OWC.
The only thing I dont like is the jump from 16 to 32gb. Almost 3 times the price. Maybe its too much. 16 will be enough.
 
Hello,

It's been great for me at 8 gigs. I'm doing a lot of FCP, Photoshop and editing with RED (now that I have a video card that doesn't crash the system).

Can't wait until they get "Snow Leopard" together sometime next year. It's an optimized version of OS X (probably dropping PPC support - poor G5 in the corner). Memory should be even more optimized with this version as well.

Never tried the Kingston memory. My only PC (gaming machine) has Corsair Extreme memory in it. OWC for all the Macs.

Hope this helps out.

Best,

ATF
 
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