Graphics card upgrade

I have a Mac Pro 4,1 that I purchased in 2009. I currently have a 512 mb ATI card but was considering upgrading to 1 GB or larger for Motion and After Effects. Is ATI/AMD recommended over Nvidia or vice versa? What is more compatible with FCP 7/X, Avid and CS5. I own all three but primarily use FCP 5.

If you are using After Effects a lot. Look at a Nvidia card with CUDA.

Which version of the OS are your running and which version of After Effects?

For Apple ProApps then ATI

For Adobe products then as Russ says Nvidia especially the GTX285 (if you can find one!) or Quadro 4000 or in my case under Lion you can hack a PC Nvidia card such as the GTX580.

Both are compatible and the faster cards are great for both but the current version CS5.5 of After Effects is still heavily reliant on loads of RAM and lots of processors to speed it up not so much the GPU.



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Yes, Nvidia is where i would go. However, the hack on the newer GTX 5-series only works on post 2008 machines. The gtx 285, Quadro 4000, and i believe the GT120.

4,1 would be about 2008 so i would check to see if that fit.

You know I tried the hack for the GTX570 on my 2,1 and there was no go so i have it sitting here waiting for the mac pro update so i can get this card in. Sadly i am using AE and PP without cuda. ( not bad but no bells and whistles either )

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> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"