Motion 3 and Mac Pro

OK, I am (almost) ready to invest in a new Mac Pro. I use Motion 3 intensively on my MBP and I do know that the graphic card is THE key part of the hardware (much more then the RAM).
BUT comments about the graphic cards proposed by Apple are so negative (when using MOTION 3) that I am still hezitating. If I well understood what I read , the solution seems to buy the Mac Pro with the stock card (2600 XT) and replace it with the ATI RADEON HD 3870 (not proposed by APPLE, by the way)

Question (as I am not at all at ease with hardware ), is it just a "plug and play" matter or are there some "tricky" things to know to do that ?

Thanks a lot for your answer

Christian

www.pixxl.eu
MacBook Pro 17, 2.4 GHz IC2Duo, 4 Go Ram, graphics card GeForce 8600M GT

The 3870 is the way to go. We just installed 3 of them at DvGarage last week. The only tricky part is that the power cord is a little bit difficult to connect to the motherboard.

You should also beef up your RAM - we went from the stock 2GB to 10GB and, although you are correct that the card matters most, the combination of the better card and more RAM has a huge overall impact on Motion's performance. Btw, the way you install the extra RAM is a bit tricky - you need to move the two existing sticks to one of the "cards" and put the two 4GB sticks on the other card - and which card you do matters, but I can't remember which one.

Mark,

Thanks so much for your quick answer, (as usual). I will invest for sure now !

Any new Motion 3 DVD "sur le gaz" ? as we say in french ;-)

Could this video card be installed on a Power PC G5 Dual 2.5Ghz Mac?

I find the stock one to be kind of slow


markspencer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The 3870 is the way to go. We just installed 3 of
> them at DvGarage last week. The only tricky part
> is that the power cord is a little bit difficult
> to connect to the motherboard.
>
> You should also beef up your RAM - we went from
> the stock 2GB to 10GB and, although you are
> correct that the card matters most, the
> combination of the better card and more RAM has a
> huge overall impact on Motion's performance. Btw,
> the way you install the extra RAM is a bit tricky
> - you need to move the two existing sticks to one
> of the "cards" and put the two 4GB sticks on the
> other card - and which card you do matters, but I
> can't remember which one.

Mark,

About RAM installation I found this on [guides.macrumors.com].
Is it what you tried to remember ?

"Mac Pro FB-DIMMs

The Mac Pro Xeon machines use FB-DIMMs. They are installed in pairs. The machine has 2 riser cards that take the RAM, each card has 4 sockets. You populate the RAM in pairs, with the largest RAM in the numerically lowest slots -- in this order:

A1 A2

B1 B2

A3 A4

B3 B4


The sockets 3 and 4 have a higher latency than sockets 1 and 2, so put your largest RAM in the 1 and 2 sockets.

There is a small speed benefit to installing 4 identical modules across both risers: A1 A2 B1 B2 which permits 256-bit access mode. However, do not buy smaller RAM modules just to match an existing pair.

There is a diagram on the inside of 2007 Mac Pros to help identify installation order. Newer Mac Pros have a diagram inside directing you to see the User Manual for installation instructions, instead.

The 2008 Penryn MacPros deliver with RAM in A1 B1. This must be changed if you are adding RAM. If you are adding one pair, put the new RAM in A1 A2 and relocate the Apple RAM to B1 B2."

My understanding is that this card will work on a PPC G5 - but I haven't tried it myself.

interesting link here
[manuals.info.apple.com]

mark@avolution Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Could this video card be installed on a Power PC
> G5 Dual 2.5Ghz Mac?
>
> I find the stock one to be kind of slow


No, the Dual 2.5Ghz G5 does not have PCI-Express. The top card that you can put in that box is the ATi x800XT Mac and PC edition.

Yes, I was wrong, I'm sorry - the 3870 works in all versions of the Mac Pro, but not the G5.