# Trashcan Mac Pro- how important is video GPU for film scoring?



## Christopher Drake (Jan 22, 2019)

Looking into refurb 2013 mac pros as an interim solution until the next MP comes out (and even then..I'm letting other brave souls beta test for a couple of months or year!).

Im looking for informed opinions about how important the trash cans GPU is for film scoring work.. (at the moment) i'm not running 4k monitors, or getting 4K video from production. But that could change soon, and i'd like to be able to handle that if need be.

Im working in the "all in one box" method.. no VSL farms.. 50-100 Kontakt loaded per cue in Cubase. So that takes some CPU power to video.. although Im looking at the Charlie Clouser video slave mac mini concept (thanks Charlie for all the insightful feedback and opinions here on the forums.. much appreciated!)

So the question is.. Would the Dual AMD FirePro D500 GPUs with 3GB of GDDR5 VRAM Do the job.. Or would it be best to go Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM? If I where to get one through OWC, would they be QC tested? I've read about the D500's and 700's failing in machines built in 2015.

What's everyone running in their systems??


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## samphony (Jan 23, 2019)

I have the 12 core with D300 and it’s plenty of power for music to picture.


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## samphony (Jan 23, 2019)

It never had issues regarding the graphics performance.


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## Wunderhorn (Jan 23, 2019)

In case you are looking into utilizing HDMI for perhaps a second screen (cheaper monitor options as you can use TVs) you need to know that the trashcan only has HDMI 1.4 which does not allow for 60Hz. You will have to run monitors on the displayport. The HDMI port on the trashcan cannot be upgraded.


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## EvilDragon (Jan 23, 2019)

Wunderhorn said:


> you need to know that the trashcan only has HDMI 1.4 which does not allow for 60Hz.



Only at 4K. For lower resolutions it's fine with 60 Hz.

Thankfully lots of monitors these days have DisplayPort, so...


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## Wunderhorn (Jan 23, 2019)

EvilDragon said:


> Only at 4K.



Of course 4K... I would never again consider or recommend anything lower.
And thing is that large monitors (40" and up) with display port are much more rare and more expensive than the ones without.


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## JohnG (Jan 23, 2019)

I don't know how relevant it is to you but, usually, the video files I get are pretty raw and fairly pixilated down -- they are obviously not final.

So really, although I have a pretty high resolution flat screen to play the video back, it usually looks pretty rotten compared with the final-final. In fact, I sometimes think it looks better when it's on a screen with less resolution.


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## floydian05 (Jan 24, 2019)

The top line 2013 pro will handle any video needs i can imagine for music to video work. unless you want to run many 4k monitors. 

If you are only going to run 1 4k screen and depending on what you are going to pay for the refurbished pro you might consider instead getting the recent mac mini. It benchmarks as well as the top of the line 2013 trashcan on CPU. If you are a bit handy you can put in the RAM yourself (and avoid apple tax). I did it and it was tricky but doable if you are comfortable with hardware. The integrated GPU is terrible but DAWs to my knowledge do not utilize GPU beyond for the video and the mini can export well to one 4k screen. I have had no issues with that at all. Might be cheaper than 2013 used 12 core pro.


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## Christopher Drake (Jan 24, 2019)

JohnG said:


> I don't know how relevant it is to you but, usually, the video files I get are pretty raw and fairly pixilated down -- they are obviously not final.
> 
> So really, although I have a pretty high resolution flat screen to play the video back, it usually looks pretty rotten compared with the final-final. In fact, I sometimes think it looks better when it's on a screen with less resolution.


True.. I’m currently working on an animated feature which is usually in a rough animatic, or unfinished stage while I’m working on it.. I usually only see it fully rendered for the first time, on the day before print master on the dub stage. The other show is a series with a lot of rough or unfinished VFX. So yeah.. good point. The production video I’m working with is generally not the highest quality output. The only time that I would maybe want 4K is for a “show and tell” demo presentation with the big producers and network people in the room..


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