Nvidia GTX 680 in 12 Core MacPro

I've recently gotten into video editing with FCP X, and I do so on a 12 Core Mac Pro, 64GB Ram, SSD Drives, with a Nvidia GTX 680 Video Card.

I've used this machine for years for my Protools HD Studio for years and now adding video editing.

I'm on Mojave.

The card is on the list of approved GPU's, but I have no idea if its adequate in 2019.

Thoughts????

If you are editing 4k H.264, the old Xeon-powered Mac Pro does not have any video decode/encode acceleration. Thus the main issue will be CPU overhead for H.264 decode/encode, which GPUs will not generally help.

If you transcode everything to proxies that will help but the transcode process itself will be slow because of no hardware acceleration for decode.

Re GPU I'm not sure nVidia drivers are supported in recent macOS versions. If you are on an old version of MacOS, that will keep working but that entails other complications. E.g, the Chrome bug that recently corrupted Mac hard drives of older versions of MacOS which lack integrity protection.

In general I'd suggest considering a refurbished or newer iMac.

I'd recommend you to get an AMD graphic card . I installed a RX 580 in my old Mac Pro 5,1 computer and FCPX performance was significantly improved. New Metal features are included in last Mojave updates and AMD graphics have better full support than Nvidia cards.
I also suggest you a newer Mac computer. I bought a couple of month an iMac 27" i9 and the difference is awesome

That card is outdated.

joema wrote: If you are editing 4k H.264, the old Xeon-powered Mac Pro does not have any video decode/encode acceleration.

No Mac Pro ever made has any hardware H.264 accelleration.

EDIT: Nevermind it appears the new Mac Pro kind of does, but not in its Xeon CPU.

arc wrote: That card is outdated.

Yes! And Mac Pro 5.1 are also outdated. But it doesn’t mean that you have to throw it away. These computers (imo 4.1 and 5.1 were a great Apple design) are very useful If are updated appropriately. In the case of graphic card a RX580 is a good choice : cheap, nice FCPX metal support, you can connect it to mac pro internal power supply.
About editing 4K H264. If I am not mistaken only Macs with T2 processor are able to hardware acceleration... Am I wrong?
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Buhardilla wrote: .If I am not mistaken only Macs with T2 processor are able to hardware acceleration... Am I wrong?
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The Intel consumer CPUs have Intels Quick Sync to help with h.264 video files. Having said that the video below might be helpful.

I just bought a Canon EOS R with the new price drop to $1500, so I'll almost do all of my work in 1080p for Youtube, so will I be ok with this computer and only have to upgrade the GPU or is it ok for 1080P?

I've recently gotten into video editing with FCP X, and I do so on a 12 Core Mac Pro, 64GB Ram, SSD Drives, with a Nvidia GTX 680 Video Card.

It should work OK for HD but all video codecs are different. I say try it and see what happens.

barry.johns wrote: I've recently gotten into video editing with FCP X, and I do so on a 12 Core Mac Pro, 64GB Ram, SSD Drives, with a Nvidia GTX 680 Video Card.

I've used this machine for years for my Protools HD Studio for years and now adding video editing. I'm on Mojave. The card is on the list of approved GPU's, but I have no idea if its adequate in 2019. Thoughts????

You are asking about FCPX video editing, so this is the right forum.

You are on Mojave which implies you have 2010 Mac Pro model 5,1 - earlier models were not compatible. eshop.macsales.com/guides/Mac_OS_X_Compatibility

FCPX on that machine might do the job for 1080p H.264 material, but it would be better if you had H.264 hardware acceleration. Xeon doesn't have this. On the iMac Pro and new Mac Pro it appears this is handled by Apple's custom T2 chip.

However - based on a test Max Yuryev ran, there is some limited evidence that FCPX might also use the similar video acceleration hardware on AMD Vega-series GPUs. Note this is a separate hardware block unrelated to the GPU which is packaged on the GPU. AMD's term for this is Universal Video Decoder / Video Coding Engine (UVD/VCE).

If so it might be worth considering putting an AMD Radeon Vega 64 GPU in there (if compatible). It would greatly accelerate traditional GPU functions plus also might provide hardware acceleration for H.264 encode/decode. You would have to test that yourself.

Apple has done lots of work to improve FCPX using the new Metal2 API for GPUs, but only certain cards and machines are compatible with this. Your current GTX-680 is not. More info: www.macrumors.com/2018/09/24/mojave-2010...etal-graphics-cards/

OTOH that is making yet another investment in a 10-yr-old machine. You can find a used or refurbished 2017 iMac 27 which is probably faster on most FCPX workflows for around $1,500 to $2,000. Just don't get one with a 1TB "Fusion" drive, and get the top GPU for that model year which was Radeon Pro 580. This would also enable new interface methods like Thunderbolt, USB-C, etc.

An even better choice would be a 2019 six or eight-core iMac 27. Some of those are available refurbished: www.apple.com/shop/refurbished/mac/2019-27-inch-imac

Joema's advice is really good, as usual. I can attest that on our Mac Pro 12 core mid 2010, 5.1 version that HD 1080 with XAVC-I, Prores 422 HQ and H.264 all run and edit very good. We have been doing this for a long time and the latest FCPX 10.4.8 seemed to improve the performance on this machine. We have upgraded the GPU to an AMD Sapphire Radeon 7950 Mac Edition card with 3GB VRAM (which isn't much by todays standards but more than the stock 1GB). This made a big difference and was required to support Metal when transitioning from a non Metal OS. There are only a couple other cards that will work in this machine, but you'll loose the Apple boot screen with them, as the Sapphire Mac Edition card retains that functionality. Probably not a big deal. We are limited now to Mojave only on this machine, but with using fast SSD's, large Raid 5 systems and even good quality Enterprise spinning drives, we can easily get the job done. Lately we have been editing 4K material in both prores and h.264, and while the h.264 files are more demanding and the system is a bit sluggish with that, it still works ok. I'm sure the newer iMacs would be a huge improvement. We're planning to get through one more year before jumping to the new Mac Pro at which point the pricing may be a bit more attractive. We also have newer MacBook Pros that can help out in the meantime.

I appreciate everyone’s input thus far.

I did want to clarify my computer, It’s originally a 2009 eight core 4.1 Mac Pro. I upgraded to a 5.1 twelve core Mac Pro. It was my understanding in this whole process, that once my 4.1 macro was updated to a 5.1, it was virtually identical to the 2010 Mac Pro.

Does anyone know if this is a case or not?

The reason I ask, is now after all the feedback that I received in this thread, it makes me wonder if the architecture of my 2009 Mac Pro is the reason I’m having some issues editing 1080 P content.

barry.johns wrote: ...it makes me wonder if the architecture of my 2009 Mac Pro is the reason I’m having some issues editing 1080 P content.

What issues? Can you elaborate?

barry.johns wrote: I appreciate everyone’s input thus far.

I did want to clarify my computer, It’s originally a 2009 eight core 4.1 Mac Pro. I upgraded to a 5.1 twelve core Mac Pro. It was my understanding in this whole process, that once my 4.1 macro was updated to a 5.1, it was virtually identical to the 2010 Mac Pro.

.

Same specs that my Mac Pro 5.1. And as Mr Joema wrote this computer must enough to edit 1080 FHD video .

barry.johns wrote: I appreciate everyone’s input thus far.

The reason I ask, is now after all the feedback that I received in this thread, it makes me wonder if the architecture of my 2009 Mac Pro is the reason I’m having some issues editing 1080 P content.

Is important to upgrade your graphic card plus hard drive subsystem. Install an AMD graphic card metal compatible and at least a couple of SSD in RAID0 (very easy to fix in MacPro 5.1) You'll see a great performance
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