High End Graphics Card Upgrade

[Workingtitle]

Hi all,

I'm looking to upgrade the graphics card on one of our edit suites at work, so that we can run DaVinci Resolve 9 Lite.

It's a HP z400 Workstation with a Xeon quad-core processor and 18GB DDR3 RAM. The current graphics card is a Quadro FX 3800, which, according to the splash screen and subsequent error message on opening Davinci Resolve 9, does not have sufficient CUDA cores. This edit suite is primarily used for Avid MEdia Composer, so whatever happens I need to stick with a Quadro card.

The way I see it, I have two options. Either replace the GPU with a new one entirely, or keep the FX 3800 and utilize the second PCI-e 2.0 x16 slot for a second GPU which will be used as the processor in DaVinci.

So far I looked at a 3GB Quadro K4000. Price range ideally needs to be below £1000, which will need to include a PSU upgrade if neccessary too.

Thanks

 

[patonb]

Not exactly up on the Quadro cards and your software, but have you looked into the High end video cards like a gtx 780 or Titan?

Prices dropped big time last week with the 780s being uder $500 US, and having lots of Cuda cores.

The DaVinci Resolve 9 Lite faq state any Nvidia is best, so I'd get a gtx 780 with the most cuda cores for it
Avid MEdia Composer seems to run on gtx cards, though not officially supported.

What I would do is get a new Corsair power suply, I'd say 850W, a gtx 780 and try it out. Worse case you run dual cards, best cqase the 780 flies through ecverything.

 

[Workingtitle]

Thanks Patonb, I think that may be the way I go. Looked at the Titan, which looks as though i'tll be a better workstation GPU, might go for one of those unless there is a good reason not to?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Workingtitle]

Having done some further reading it appears that the z400 runs a proprietary PSU, which pretty much sucks the biggest ass possible!! Therefore as annoying as it is, looks like I'm gonna have to stick with a single GPU...

 

[patonb]

I can;'t think of any reason not too.

Titans an inbetween card so it is a great choice. You will need a new power supply.

If you want to run both cards you'll need an 850W and I really suggest a Corsair tx model.

Edit..

Just seen your post.

Edit #2

Yha you are right... It seems you can either rewire your psu... Not too easy, or run a 2nd power suply to power just the new card... Very easy.

 

[PP Mguire]

I'm not seeing the reason to keep the Quadro card in the machine honestly. If it's saying there isn't enough CUDA cores, then you just need a beefier card. That doesn't equate to needing a Quadro card.

That being said, if budget permits the best consumer card for the task IS the Titan, as they didn't nerf the DP performance on it unlike the 780. This will require a new PSU still, which is a problem. If possible, I would try and ghetto rig a new one in there.

 

[patonb]

As far as I understand it P, the other program is not officially supported for anything but Quardos.

Though a lot of people are using gtx cards with it.

And I agree,. use 2 psu cable setup for the new card.

 

[PP Mguire]

Yea it's the Avid program but I haven't really seen a program like that utilize GPU that much.