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Is anyone out there aware of any high-end graphics card for Mac that has Open GL Hardware acceleration????????????????? I want to get a G5 running CB 3.0Â…
any other recommendation?
VFXGEEK wrote:Is anyone out there aware of any high-end graphics card for Mac that has Open GL Hardware acceleration????????????????? I want to get a G5 running CB 3.0Â…any other recommendation?
Is there any particular reason you want to use a G5 to run combustion? I have a dual 2GHz G5, which I use with Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, and combustion 3. I absolutely love the G5, so I’m not biased against Macs. But believe me when I say that if your main application is going to be combustion, I would strongly recommend that you don’t get a Mac to run it.
Combustion’s performance is not as good on a Mac as it is on a PC, and the Mac version doesn’t have backburner, the distributed rendering client/server application. It’s painfully obvious that this performance disparity is a coding issue, not a hardware issue. The G5 is a great machine, and there are applicataions that fully exploit its performance–Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, After Effects, etc. Combustion is not among these. For whatever reason, discreet continues to treat the Mac platform like a bastard stepchild.
Discreet has made it abundantly clear that the Macintosh version of combustion is simply not a priority. I have read that the future of the Mac version was in question just prior to the release of version 3. When the Mac version was finally released, albeit several months after the Windows version, it was still lacking performance/feature parity with its Windows counterpart. It’s interesting to note that this performance disparity between Mac/PC versions does not exist with other software, such as After Effects or Photoshop. Also take note that discreet has not indicated any plans to release a Mac version of 3ds max, and max/combustion interoperability has clearly taken center stage in discreet’s most recent promotions. Add to this the fact that Cleaner for the Mac lags a full version behind the Windows version, and it would seem that discreet’s interest in the Mac platform is minimal.
As far as OpenGL acceleration goes, it’s really not all that important for most tasks in combustion. If you’re using a lot of particles or doing a lot of work setting up 3D composites, a fast card will speed up onscreen interactivity, but not all compositing features are supported in hardware–certain transfer modes are not available, for example. For this reason it is strongly recommended that all final output rendering is done in software, not with OpenGL hardware.
Regarding high end OpenGL cards on the Mac, there are none. Apple has made no public efforts to support professional-level graphics cards/drivers. The main difference between gaming cards and pro cards is the drivers and the breadth of supported OpenGL features. Nvidia has stated that they are very interested in providing Mac versions of their high end graphics solutions, but incredibly, Apple has expressed no interest in writing drivers for them. This is mind boggling, especially in light of (A) the recent release of Maya Unlimited for OS X, and (B) the fact that Apple’s own Motion is so dependent on OpenGL hardware for its performance. Perhaps there is something big in the works at Apple, but I’m not holding my breath.
Unless there are major code revisions planned for the next Mac version of combustion (assuming there will be one), you would be much better off using a PC if you plan to exploit combustion’s full potential.
-zolo
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