New Computer Does the video card matter for maya?

# 1 12-08-2009 , 03:33 AM

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New Computer Does the video card matter for maya?

Hi I am in the process of selling my 2008 mac pro quad core and getting a 2009 mac pro 8 core(nehelem). My question is this...Does maya use video card power? I have the option to go with the standard Nvidia card which I hear is not the greatest, or upgrading to the ATI Radeon HD 4870 w 512 GDDR5 ram.

It just never occured to me that Maya uses strictly processor and RAM, or the video card.
thanks
for any help, here is a link to apple site on the video cards:
https://www.apple.com/macpro/features/graphics.html

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# 2 12-08-2009 , 03:56 AM

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Ram matters more, usually.
they suggest 2 GB..
I only have 1 gb, and it gets laggy quick.

Unless you use high-quality render view often, the graphics card doesn't matter THAT much...
At least in my experience

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# 3 12-08-2009 , 04:22 AM

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yea I kinda figured that, the system will come with 6 gigs of DDR3, probably wil upgrade to 12.

thanks for the help...I think Im going to go with the better card because its only an additional 180.00 upgrade for a 450.00 card, and I know it will help in after effects, color and final final cut.
thanks

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# 4 12-08-2009 , 06:40 AM

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A $450 card??? Thats a rip off for a 4850. There about £150 ($200-250) at the most, when they were new yes but not now.

For maya they will work but there not "pro" cards in any way both of em. Depending on the ATI you may have some graphical glitches, I would check out the Maya qualification charts and see what problems you may have as even qualified cards have known glitches.

Think that the only ones that work "fully" are quadros.

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 5 12-08-2009 , 10:28 AM

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Why buy a MAC?
I have nothing against them but there are things that annoy me with MAC the biggest thing is that you can't put any videocard in your MAC there is no support for Quadro cards in those things there are only one or 2 cards per supplier(ATI/NVIDIA) that is supported, why not a windows machine;

https://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en...4-3937778.html

You Can insert any card you like
Play every game that is available
More software supported.

It's your choice off course, just wanted to point it out. user added image

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# 6 12-08-2009 , 12:38 PM

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Sorry....Wrong. Mac Pros support nVIDIA Quadro 5600 and Quadro FX 4800. I wouldn't buy one though, way overpriced for the little benefits you get.

Don't automatically assume you have to buy a ATI 4870 as the better option. Whay not get a 285 GTX from nVIDIA from Newegg for $440?

-J

Poly-pushing on a '96 SGI O2

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# 7 12-08-2009 , 03:06 PM

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Originally posted by halfloaf
Sorry....Wrong. Mac Pros support nVIDIA Quadro 5600 and Quadro FX 4800. I wouldn't buy one though, way overpriced for the little benefits you get.

-J

Originally Posted by

In fact the latest issue of 3D world has a feature on it (september isssue, page 32)

https://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/as28g11/

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# 8 12-08-2009 , 03:38 PM

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Originally posted by halfloaf
I wouldn't buy one though, way overpriced for the little benefits you get.

Originally Posted by

Dunno on that one, the more I use a quadro the more I get a feeling that they are a great card. I mean little glitches with Gforces and ATI's you dont get and that just makes for a better feeling when using it.

I would have previously said just get a Gforce but there are differences that are better, HQ display, texture display and lighting.

You can pick up ones that are quite cheap (370, 5XX's, 1XXX's), but possibly not for a mac.

I still wouldent get a mac though, style over substance. BUT its your cash.

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

Last edited by gster123; 12-08-2009 at 03:42 PM.

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# 9 12-08-2009 , 04:10 PM

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You can get a quadro fx 4800 off the mac store for ~$1800... but it doesn't come as an option, so you'd have to buy the default card and swap out I guess... which makes it even more expensive.

It was stuff like that that made me decide to get a pc instead of a mac pro... the specs I priced out for mac and pc put the mac at over $2000 more expensive than the pc for the "same" components...(xeon vs. i7, but with same clock speed)... over $5000, and that wasn't even with a quadro!!

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# 10 12-08-2009 , 04:52 PM

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" ........Sorry....Wrong. Mac Pros support nVIDIA........"

-Sorry my bad, but still you don't have much choice i mean no FX 1800?, i had a MAC at work a while ago which had a defect videocard so i browsed the net and searched for a card and found one for a Macpro so i ordered the damn thing and placed inside the macpro and fired it up shortly after that i get this nice gradient fall over which means your ****ed so i thought motherboard and called MAC support(nice people btw) so what was it?
I had to order the same card but with a different firmware version or something, because the Macpro i had was from early 2008 and the card i ordered was only suitable for a late 2008 MacPro ....Bollocks.
If a MAC works it's brilliant but if something goes wrong you're f*cked (if you are not some Unix expert).

So my advice still is buy a PC install Linux if you are not happy with windows and you have a lot more flexibility with both hard and software

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# 11 12-08-2009 , 05:09 PM

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Originally posted by mastone

... install Linux if you are not happy with windows and you have a lot more flexibility with both hard and software

Originally Posted by

Now that I can agree with. I don't mind PC hardware at all (Hell, most Mac's nowadays are just PC's with pretty boxes and a different OS + something for Steve Jobs' retirement fund) but I do have a HUGE hangup with Windows.

The other downside with Quadro's for Mac's are lack of good drivers. I don't know about the FX 4800 but the 5600 ran off Apple's drivers... user added image

At the end of the day, get what works for you and just enjoy it!

Poly-pushing on a '96 SGI O2

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# 12 12-08-2009 , 05:28 PM

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thanks for all the input, but here is the thing. My major at the Academy of Art is actually not3d...it new media design. And for what I orimarilly do in front of a computer is not 3d...However I love using maya and want to make sure that my new computer will run it the best way possible. I agree they are Waay over priced pretty pc's. But To be honest I hate windows and to me its worth paying the exta $$....I just have one question I was trying to find this "compatibility chart" where is this thing at?
thanks

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# 13 12-08-2009 , 05:30 PM

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https://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...12&id=13583898

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# 14 12-08-2009 , 05:42 PM

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thanks unfortunately the latest info on Mac compatibility is from maya 7...But whatever...Basically I can not afford a quadro, and in my current mac pro I have an ATI card and maya had 0 problems so I think Im going that route thanks again

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# 15 12-08-2009 , 10:24 PM

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i have a 4870 or is it a 4850... one of the two

it works fine, haven't had any issues yet.. i think... (or i might have but i just dont know about it)

with 8gb (was 4) ddr2 ram

it was about $450NZ last year, i think it's about 200 now

also i thought all of adobe's products use processor and ram other than photoshop... but then i could be wrong

i don't think people who use AE or FCP as a job care too much for the graphics card

that's a "Ch" pronounced as a "K"

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