How long-term would a video card upgrade for my Mac Pro be?
September 24, 2011 7:21 AM Subscribe
If I upgrade the video card in my Mac Pro to allow me to upgrade Final Cut Pro X, can I be confident that I will be able to continue using the software with this computer for the foreseeable future?
I was one of those people who managed to buy Final Cut Pro X and Motion 5 despite the fact that the video cards of my Macs weren't OpenCL (a 2008 MacBook and 2007 Mac Pro - I didn't realise it was a problem at the time). However, now the first upgrades have come out when I try to upgrade I'm told "Your computer's video card does not meet the minimum system requirements". This appears to have been a mistake of Apple's by allowing me to buy the software in the first place, but now it's done. I know about the workaround of downloading to a compatible Mac and copying the application file, but that's not relevant here as I don't have a currently compatible Mac. There's no hope for the MacBook, but I can upgrade the Mac Pro (2 x 3GHz Dual-Core Xeon with 11GB of 667 MHz RAM) to an ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB Graphics card - which does have OpenCL and ought theoretically to allow me to upgrade FCP and Motion. Without any critique of Apple as a company, FCPX as professional video editing software or indeed any snark whatsoever:
1. If I buy and install the 5770, with how much confidence can I be sure that it will be recognised as compatible and that I will be able to upgrade the software?
2. Will this mean that I can be confident to follow the upgrade path of this major release of FCPX without needing to buy a new Mac (which I really can't afford)? I'm not necessarily keen on upgrading to Lion on this Mac right now, but that's a separate issue.
I was one of those people who managed to buy Final Cut Pro X and Motion 5 despite the fact that the video cards of my Macs weren't OpenCL (a 2008 MacBook and 2007 Mac Pro - I didn't realise it was a problem at the time). However, now the first upgrades have come out when I try to upgrade I'm told "Your computer's video card does not meet the minimum system requirements". This appears to have been a mistake of Apple's by allowing me to buy the software in the first place, but now it's done. I know about the workaround of downloading to a compatible Mac and copying the application file, but that's not relevant here as I don't have a currently compatible Mac. There's no hope for the MacBook, but I can upgrade the Mac Pro (2 x 3GHz Dual-Core Xeon with 11GB of 667 MHz RAM) to an ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB Graphics card - which does have OpenCL and ought theoretically to allow me to upgrade FCP and Motion. Without any critique of Apple as a company, FCPX as professional video editing software or indeed any snark whatsoever:
1. If I buy and install the 5770, with how much confidence can I be sure that it will be recognised as compatible and that I will be able to upgrade the software?
2. Will this mean that I can be confident to follow the upgrade path of this major release of FCPX without needing to buy a new Mac (which I really can't afford)? I'm not necessarily keen on upgrading to Lion on this Mac right now, but that's a separate issue.
Best answer: Even though Apple say that the newer mac 5770 is not compatible with the 2007 mac pro and may cause issues I would be confident that it nevertheless should work ok - looking around on forums and enthusiast sites everything I can find suggests that provided you get an apple branded / mac compatible verion of the 5770 it should work ok.
posted by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory at 7:54 AM on September 24, 2011
posted by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory at 7:54 AM on September 24, 2011
Best answer: As a further hint that the card is compatible with the machine, OWC/MacSales indicate that it is indeed compatible: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apple/6615718/
posted by krilli at 8:28 AM on September 24, 2011
posted by krilli at 8:28 AM on September 24, 2011
With that much RAM (and you can add more) you'll be fine for quite a while. If you really want to make things snappy, add an SSD for your boot volume.
I would put the card in and save yourself lots of money.
posted by rockindata at 8:57 AM on September 24, 2011
I would put the card in and save yourself lots of money.
posted by rockindata at 8:57 AM on September 24, 2011
If you can't get a working OpenCL setup, maybe you can ask for a refund? Apple was handing out refunds for FCP X at some point over the whole upgrade debacle.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:45 AM on September 24, 2011
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:45 AM on September 24, 2011
Response by poster: For completion's sake: it all ended happily - got the card - goodness, it's quiet compared to the old one! - and installed the new FCPX. So I'm happy, but poorer, obviously. Thanks, everyone!
posted by Grangousier at 2:47 PM on October 24, 2011
posted by Grangousier at 2:47 PM on October 24, 2011
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2) I can't imagine that a recent-ish Xeon is going to be outdated in terms of the ability to run Final Cut Pro X or its descendants in any reasonable timeframe. There just aren't that many hardware revolutions in sight; Most of the fundamental changes are going on in mobile devices. Desktop stuff is going to be stable for a while. Worst case, you'll be looking at something on the scale of upgrading to an OpenCL 2.0 card in 3 years for $100. As a hypothetical worst case. Given what we know today.
posted by krilli at 7:50 AM on September 24, 2011