OT: Jit and Mac Pro 08 video cards?
Hello Learned People
I am considering getting a new 2008 octo-core Mac Pro 2.8. There is a choice between the standard ATI 2006 video card and the 512Mb Nvidia 880GT card. The ATI is better at "pro" apps like Motion and FCP while the 8800 seems faster at OpenGL stuff like games (see http://www.barefeats.com/harper10.html). I don’t play games and want to get the best card for Jitter so I’m looking for any experiences using a new MP with Jitter. Which card do you use?
Thanks for any advice,
John
Wow – those numbers are interesting.
I haven’t been terribly scientific in my testing, but I found my jitter stuff significantly faster on my 2008 with 8800 GT than on another with the 2600XT. I’d also tried earlier versions of my patch on an older Mac Pro with the x1900 and found that a bit faster than the 8800. My patch does texture processing through a series of slabs at 1280×720, then outputs to a videoplane in a 1280×720 window. It does about 50fps on the Nvidia. I was pretty disappointed with the stock ATI – I think it was half of that.
So, I’d take the Nvidia over the stock ATI, but if you can find the older x1900, the same patch was doing closer to 60fps with that.
Kinda sucks for me, as I do a fair amount of FCP work. Wonder what the performance gains are for After Effects.
Dan
Just wanted to update this – I had an opportunity to test the same patch with an Nvidia 8800GT and an ATI x1900.
My patch is mostly texture processing though shaders, so users with complex geometry stuff might find things weighted differently. The ATI generally has a 2-6fps edge over the Nvidia. I guess not as dramatic as I thought – though the x1900 is an older card and has half the VRAM, so ATI’s current offerings might have higher gains.