CS5/Quadro 4000, and Mac pro
 

I asked this question (sort of), and a few days later, someone else asked the same thing. I don't think either of us ever really go the answer (whether yes or no, or for or against) we were looking for. So let me ask this way, and see if anyone can help (maybe Kevin from Adobe).

I'm not trying to start a format debate. Just interested to know....

Since the Quadro 4000 (for Mac) is now a supported card for CS5, will performance on a Mac pro be comparable to CS5 on a similar PC? I was told (recently) that Mac didn't support 64bit and cuda? I'm interested in both premier and fcp, and as I've stated in another post, would love an all in 1 system, so fcp could utilize adobe programs and plug ins also. But not at the expense of CS5 not being able to preforme as well as on a PC.

Thank you, and any info would be appreciated.

Jeff

Best of Luck on Your Decision
 

I think that similarly equipped Macs and PCs are comparable in performance. However, on the PC side there are those that are custom building higher performance systems. PPBM5 Premiere Pro Benchmark for CS5 is the website that shows what these users are doing.

One thing to keep in mind is that PC users cannot run Final Cut Studio. If you wanted to have both suites on a single computer, get a Mac.

In the end, this is a personal decision that you have to make. Personally, I run a Mac. But then again, I grew up in Cupertino, CA so I've been biased since the Mac Plus.

Best of luck!

just to make sure that this is contradicted explicitly
 

> I was told (recently) that Mac didn't support 64bit and cuda

That's false.

CUDA is part of the architecture of newer NVIDIA graphics cards, and processing using this technology works in Mac computers and in applications running on Mac OS.

Mac OSX is capable of running 64-bit applications. There are minor differences in this regard between Leopard and Snow Leopard, but they are not important differences. For some geeky distinctions, see this blog post of mine in which I try to dispel a couple of myths:
64-bit kernels and After Effects CS5 After Effects region of interest
(I wrote that for After Effects, but the same applies to Premiere Pro.)