QUADRO or GEFORCE?

Hi at all,
i need to chose the best graphics card for my Mac, in order to use Adobe suite (After Effects, Premiere, etc.)

i have see 2 cards with CUDA supports:

QUADRO 4800 for Mac:
[url=“http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_quadro_fx_4800_for_mac_us.html”]http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_quadr...for_mac_us.html[/url]

Geforce 285 for Mac
[url=“http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gtx_285_for_mac_us.html”]http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_gefor...for_mac_us.html[/url]

1 - In order to use Adobe After Effects, and Premiere, what is the best choise?
2 - I see that quadro have 192 core, geforce 285 have 240 Core: so it’s better choise?
3 - Mercury playback work only for quadro or is available with Geforce 295?

darez

Darez,

Both the Quadro FX 4800 for Mac and the GTX 285 will both work with the new Mercury Playback Engine which allows for realtime playback in future Adobe video products. However, the Quadro FX 4800 will allow you to work with multiple layers of GPU accelerated video, while with the GTX 285, only the first 3 video layers are accelerated on the GPU. Additional video layers will be processed using the software rendering engine. So depending on your usage, (ie if you only utilize 3 or less video layers), the GTX 285 may be the proper card for your workflow. If you regularly use more than 3 layers, or think that your future projects may use more than 3 layers, then you will find that purchasing a Quadro FX 4800 will be the better solution to accelerate your workflow. I hope this helps answer your question.

Sean Kilbride
Technical Marketing Manager, Quadro Products
NVIDIA

Ok, it’s clear. I have last question:

  1. If a buy 2 GTX 285 and install it into my Mac Pro, the layers that the GPU will process will be 6 (3+3) ? :-)

  2. I use After Effects. “video layer” you mind layer that have Video, or any layer in After Effects (image, vector, etc.)?

    Because it’s difficult that i have 3 video layer, but I’ll use 1 video and 3-4-5 other layer (vector, image, etc.).

Darez

Darez,

Adobe Mercury Playback Engine is not Multi-GPU aware, so adding additional cards will not net you additional performance within the applications. With a GTX 285 you will be limited to 3 Layers regardless of how many GTX 285’s are installed.

It is my understanding that any layer that is rendered to be applied to the final output would be considered a “video layer” when discussing how many layers are supported. However, since these types of assets are significantly easier for the system to process you may find the resulting performance (even if not necessarily “real-time” will still meet your needs. However, combining these types of assets with the CUDA accelerated effects which are now available, or using them as masks, etc, may impact your playback performance on a Geforce card.

Sean

Sean Kilbride

Technical Marketing Manager, Quadro Products

NVIDIA

I’ve got a few questions conerning the same matter, as well.

We’re (a media company) are heavily working with Premiere and After Effects. Currently we’re working with a GT120 (which was the standard card back then when we bought our Mac Pros). Now we’re planning on upgrading to buy better nvidia cards, especially because they have more CUDA Cores and therefore higher Mercury Engine support. The thing is now. Is the performance gain in using the 285 over our legacy 120 very much noticeable? Moreover, both the 285 and Quadro 4800 are the only CUDA cards for Macs, right? For Windows there’s already newer cards (5xxx and 6xxx). Any chance on making them (or even newer ones) available for Macs? Another question: Most of our videos are MPEG2 GOP encoded videos (Sony XDCAM EX3) and AVCHD (Panasonic HDC-SD300). How much does the (or a general) graphics card affect the workflow and playback with these two formats?

I’m looking forward to your answers. :)

Sincerely, Stefan

/edit: Two more questions: Which (AE) plugins are supported by the GPU? And why can’t we just get a Windows card for Mac? Will the driver not recognize the card?

I’ve got a few questions conerning the same matter, as well.

We’re (a media company) are heavily working with Premiere and After Effects. Currently we’re working with a GT120 (which was the standard card back then when we bought our Mac Pros). Now we’re planning on upgrading to buy better nvidia cards, especially because they have more CUDA Cores and therefore higher Mercury Engine support. The thing is now. Is the performance gain in using the 285 over our legacy 120 very much noticeable? Moreover, both the 285 and Quadro 4800 are the only CUDA cards for Macs, right? For Windows there’s already newer cards (5xxx and 6xxx). Any chance on making them (or even newer ones) available for Macs? Another question: Most of our videos are MPEG2 GOP encoded videos (Sony XDCAM EX3) and AVCHD (Panasonic HDC-SD300). How much does the (or a general) graphics card affect the workflow and playback with these two formats?

I’m looking forward to your answers. :)

Sincerely, Stefan

/edit: Two more questions: Which (AE) plugins are supported by the GPU? And why can’t we just get a Windows card for Mac? Will the driver not recognize the card?

First, for After Effects, you will see no gain by updating your GPU - AE only uses GPU for OpenGL and for SOME plugins - it does NOT use the Mercury Playback Engine like Premiere does.

In Premiere, the GPU part of the acceleration ONLY helps you with effects applied to video clips. The Mercury Playback Engine works with OR without a qualified GPU - so even with a lower end GPU your system will still be using the CPU to playback footage using the MPE. Having the GPU will accelerate your use of applied effects. This is the info I got from Adobe directly, after a couple months of poking around for info.

So, if you are using a lot of h264 or RED or other “accelerated” footage, and using effects/plugins inside Premiere, then by all means, get the best GPU you can. But if, like me, you do only the edit in Premiere and then go to AE to do effects/color correction/finishing save your money and spring for more RAM and a faster processor!

First, for After Effects, you will see no gain by updating your GPU - AE only uses GPU for OpenGL and for SOME plugins - it does NOT use the Mercury Playback Engine like Premiere does.

In Premiere, the GPU part of the acceleration ONLY helps you with effects applied to video clips. The Mercury Playback Engine works with OR without a qualified GPU - so even with a lower end GPU your system will still be using the CPU to playback footage using the MPE. Having the GPU will accelerate your use of applied effects. This is the info I got from Adobe directly, after a couple months of poking around for info.

So, if you are using a lot of h264 or RED or other “accelerated” footage, and using effects/plugins inside Premiere, then by all means, get the best GPU you can. But if, like me, you do only the edit in Premiere and then go to AE to do effects/color correction/finishing save your money and spring for more RAM and a faster processor!

Cheers for the response!

Cheers for the response!