Graphics Card Recommendation?

[Crystal Arciaga]

I need help with the best graphics card I can get for the system I'm using. Any recommendations? Here are the specs I have now:

Mac OS X 10.6.3
NVIDIA GeForce 7300GT (256MB)
Processor: 2 x 3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Memory: 12 GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM
FCP 7.0.3
Color 1.5.3

We use RED footage and edit in HD often and Color will not render out the clips correctly any longer (glitches, black frames, etc.), so I'm assuming it's the graphics card since it's only 256MB.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Ben Brainerd]

Color will not render out the clips correctly any longer (glitches, black frames, etc.), so I'm assuming it's the graphics card since it's only 256MB.

I guarantee you it's not *just* the graphics card's fault. Unless the card is going bad. And then you'd be seeing glitches all over the place, not just in Color renders, if that were the case.

That said, the *best* card available right now is the new Quadro4000. Whether that's the best option for you is up for debate, depending on your budget.

 

[Crystal Arciaga]

I guarantee you it's not *just* the graphics card's fault. Unless the card is going bad. And then you'd be seeing glitches all over the place, not just in Color renders, if that were the case.

Do you mean the system I'm using cannot keep up? I also have trouble playing HD footage out of Final Cut sometimes.

 

[Ben Brainerd]

Sorry, I was in a bit of a hurry last time.

There's a vast number of reasons why you might be getting corrupt Color renders and playback issues. While it's possible the video card is at least partially at fault, there are a lot of things I would consider before that.

The fact that you're having HD playback issues leads me to believe that the issue is more likely a function of disk access rather than a GPU issue. What kind of drives are you using? And are the Color rendering issues coming from R3Ds or transcoded files?

 

[Crystal Arciaga]

Thanks for the quick reply, Ben.

Using RAID drives and the Color rendering is coming from R3Ds (editing proxies in FCP then sending to Color).

 

[Ben Brainerd]

I would check the integrity of your proxies before anything else. Are the render errors consistently a particular set of clips? Or everything you feed through Color?

 

[Crystal Arciaga]

What do you mean by "integrity" of proxies? No, the render errors are not consistent. When trying to render out clips from Color, the glitches and black frames happen at different places on the same and/or different clips each time.