Suggestions for a reasonable video card for a Mac Pro?

[svpribyl]

The entry http://www.archicadwiki.com/VideoCardsForArchiCAD15 has recommended video cards based on testing in Windows machines. Is there a recommendation for a Mac? My current card is an Nvidia GeForce 7300 gt w/ 256 megs of ram. Apparently that is not enough ram, as my ground mesh is not visible (it is visible on a windows machine). I would like to purchase a reasonably priced video card w/ 1 Meg (±) of ram. Does anyone have a suggestion?

ArchiCAD 14 & 15
MacOS 10.6, soon to be 10.7 on a Mac Pro.

Thank you!

[Karl Ottenstein]

Hi Steve,

As the Wiki says "You can be confident that all of the current Macs come with a video card that is compatible with ArchiCAD." One of the many reasons that Apple products are great is that Apple delivers the entire package - so it just works.

That said, your card is kind of ancient. For a question like this, we need to know the model number of your Mac Pro and/or the year. Apple Menu > About this Mac then click More Info to get to the System Report. For example, my Early 2008 Mac Pro has model number 3,1.

I upgraded my Mac Pro to the Radeon HD 5770 for $249 via Apple here:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC742ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA5OQ
last year and have been completely satisfied. One of the reasons, besides performance, for my upgrade was to get a mini displayport so that I could use the 27" Apple LED display. I've still got my old monitor plugged into the DVI port.

This card has excellent performance and supports OpenCL for the Apple Pro apps that use the graphics card chip accelerator.

There is also a 5870, but I don't know that the extra $200 buys you anything for ArchiCAD: peak performance on games might be better, but it consumes a whole lot more power and these benchmarks don't make a convincing argument for the extra cost:

http://www.barefeats.com/wst10g7.html

Apple's page says that the 5770 is for Mid 2010 Mac Pro's and later - but you can read in the Q/A and on various sites that the card in fact works for old Mac Pros from 2006 onwards.

If your Mac Pro is indeed that old (pre 2008) you might also consider purchasing a SSD for your boot drive if you want to up your performance.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/

On the other hand, if your Mac Pro is 2006/2007 era - your money might be better spent on a new quad-core iMac which will have much faster memory and processors/etc...and the kernel will run at 64 bit...

Cheers,
Karl

[svpribyl]

Hi Karl,
I appreciate your speedy response. My Mac is apparently quite old: MacPro1,1, Dual core Intel Xeon, 2.66 GHz, 4G Ram. I'm not sure what year that makes it, but it's pre-2008.

I forgot to mention that I am running a 30" Apple Cinema Display and a secondary vga type monitor from the same card. There are two connectors, so I run one to each monitor.

I'm not in a hurry to buy a new computer, or an SSD. Everything else seems relatively stable and adequately speedy, although I haven't loaded Lion onto it yet. I am not a gamer, so I will look at your suggestion, unless you have any other ideas given this additional information.

Thank you!

[Karl Ottenstein]

Hi Steve,

You're welcome. Yes, that sounds like a 2006 model. The $249 card is probably the best bet. The 30" Cinema can go to the DVI connector. Your other monitor would connect through an inexpensive VGA-to-mini DisplayPort adapter.

Being a Xeon, Lion should run on your 1,1. Many other Intel macs from 2006 will not run Lion (which is 64 bit). Just a reminder since your machine is so old ... and probably has older software ... that Lion will not run any of the PPC apps that you have. All depending, you might want to stay with Snow Leopard for that machine...

Cheers,
Karl

[Anonymous]

I've got the same problem i think. Same graphics card. Already put in lots of RAM.

My 15K polygon model slowed to a crawl. Here' my machine specs.

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro1,1
Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 10 GB
Bus Speed: 1.33 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MP11.005C.B08
SMC Version (system): 1.7f10
Serial Number (system): G86470EFUPZ
Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-0017F2042B7A


Wish it said the model year.

I open to recommendations to give to my boss.

Thanks.