Best Graphics Card for Latest Mac Pro ?
 

I'm planning to upgrade my old Mac 5,1 to the recently released Mac Pro. I had an gigantic nightmare with the graphics card that came with that computer until I finally figured out it was a major part of the problem and replaced it. I don't want to repeat that experience but Avid doesn't seem to list any approved graphics cards in their compatibility section anymore.

Does anyone know what graphic card(s) would work well with a current ProTools HDX system ?

Thanks in advance !

Re: Best Graphics Card for Latest Mac Pro ?
 

The 580x mpx module for 71 macpro works well.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

Re: Best Graphics Card for Latest Mac Pro ?
 

The W5700X does have four extra TB3 ports which can be handy, though :)

Re: Best Graphics Card for Latest Mac Pro ?
 

In my opinion, you don't need a super fancy graphics card for what we do. I think that is a waste of money. Last fall I was looking at the Radeon Pro 580X with 8GB of GDDR5 memory. It can easily run two 4k displays at 60hz and has two HDMI ports on the back. You can even run a 3rd 4k display on thru and Thunderbolt dock if needed. More than adequate for what we need to do in ProTools and it only takes up a single PCIe slot. Anything bigger, they take up a lot more space, withe their massive heat syncs on them. The only advantage on the larger cards, is that they have 4 additional Thunderbolt 3 ports on the back of them like the Radeon W5700X with 16GB of GDDR6 memory.

G

Re: Best Graphics Card for Latest Mac Pro ?
 

The W5700X does increase the number of TB3 busses by two, not just the number of ports. Out of the box, the Mac 7.1 isn’t particularly well spec’d with USB/TB3 ports. I’ve found the extra ports useful.

I agreed the W5700x card is over the top for just PT/DAW use but well worth it if you also use video/photo/3D apps. The 580x is very low spec here.

Re: Best Graphics Card for Latest Mac Pro ?
 

Hey Marsdy ! How ya doin' ??

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm coming to the same conclusion that the default 580x is fine. But it's not just an issue of power. The card that came with my 5,1 a million years ago didn't play nice with PT from the very first day back in 2010. It took forever to figure out what was going on (endless trouble tickets with avid over many years helped not at all) but it ended up the graphics card was the root of the problem (along with ancient graphics routines avid finally re-wrote for the real world). The problem was ONLY with ProTools, nothing else. Just want to be sure whatever I get this time IS playing well with ProTools and it looks like the 580x does. Thanks !

Re: Best Graphics Card for Latest Mac Pro ?
 

I been using the stock 580 with my HDX 1 rig without a hitch in the Mac Pro 2019.
I preferred the slim 580 to be able to put more PCIe cards in the Mac. Also the usb slots that come with the Mac have sufficient power to handle all my dongles and usb peripherals. But you can put a usb dock or usb powered hub to extend your needs as you power grows.
All the graphic hungry plugins will work just fine with the 580 and when you need to transcode some QuickTimes for use with protools video engine, it really get them render fast enough (if you come from a Mac Pro 5.1), even if they are lengthy.

Cheers


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: Best Graphics Card for Latest Mac Pro ?
 

I was going to start a new thread on this, but about to buy a new 2019 Macpro 16 core and was only considering the stock Radeon W5500X, but one of the MAIN reasons I am upgrading is speed of rendering NR plugs, freezing tracks and making Quicktime ref for clients. I heard that it's worth getting the +$400 W5700X 16G since it can help speed up making quicktimes in Protools?

Is there much truth to this and if so, how tangible is the speed of offline QT bounce?