14 DAY TRIAL // Peter Cohen and James Galbraith from MacWorld tested the graphic card options on the Mac Pro and shared their ideas with us.
Apple offers three different graphics-card options for the Mac Pro, ranging from a general-purpose card to a high-end option intended for scientists and engineers, they stated.
The Mac Pro comes with an Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT as a default card. The GeForce 7300 GT has 256MB vRAM and two DVI connectors and its purpose is mainly to satisfy the needs of the average creative and business users. The first DVI port supports a 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display, while the second one supports a monitor as large as the 23-inch Cinema HD Display, according to the writers.
The second choice in terms of graphics cards is the ATI Radeon X1900 XT which Peter and James describe as being for the graphics hog. This option offers 512 MB of vRAM and its two dual-link DVI connections support two 30-inch Cinema HD Displays at once. This upgrade will raise the cost of the Mac Pro with $250 and - as the X1900 XT comes with its own built-in fan and ventilation system, (this meaning it's twice as wide as a standard PCIe card) - the Mac Pro has got a special double-wide slot on the motherboard.
The third graphics card provided by Apple for the Mac Pro is dedicated to the scientists. The Nvidia Quadro 4500 FX is the top-of-the-line upgrade option and although its performance is comparable with the Radeon X1900 XT's, this card represents a $1,650 upgrade. The reason it costs so much is because this card has a little interface that permits hooking up high-end (and expensive) 3-D glasses. These stereoscopic displays are essential in the work of scientists that need to visualize their models in three real dimensions.
The Nvidia Quadro 4500 FX also features 512MB vRAM, two dual-link DVI ports and is double wide compared to the Radeon; but if the Radeon is available as a separate upgrade kit, the Nvidia is not and has to be ordered with the Mac Pro.
The Mac Pro includes software that dynamically manages the way the PCIe interface divvies up its bandwidth. So if you add new graphics cards-say, multiple GeForce 7300 GT cards to drive additional monitors-the Mac Pro will automatically sense them and allocate its PCIe bandwidth accordingly. It'll even check with you to make sure it's set up optimally for what you'll be doing, according to the source.
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Related Links:
MacWorld's "Inside the Mac Pro" - Chapter II