NVIDIA's new Quadro K5000 GPU is coming to Mac Pros, according to a recent company press release. The next generation Quadro provide 4K display compatibility and allow up to four displays, as well as being two times faster than its predecessor, the Fermi-based Quadro 4000, and boasts 4GB graphics memory. This brings powerful, smooth graphics to Mac professionals

The Quadro K5000 is purported to be the most efficient GPU in terms of design, and the fastest on the market for Macintosh in the world, thanks to its NVIDIA Kepler architecture. This brings a level of visualization and computation power previously unheard of in a Mac for those who rely on their systems to create digital content professionally.

Features

Those who create digital content will love the cinema 4K display support (4096X2160) which allows quick viewing and processing of high resolution video content. The new display engine supports up to four displays seamlessly, and the provided 4GB of graphics memory allows faster interactivity for any design and content creation application.

NVIDIA Kepler architecture on the Quadro K5000 GPU allows Mac to run content creation applications two times faster using less power than the Quadro 4000 for Mac, which is Fermi-based. You can also run up to two Quadro K5000 GPUs for Mac in a single Mac Pro system. It includes support for OpenGL, OpenCL, and NIVIDIA CUDATM. This makes it perfect for use as a shared GUI and image processing GPU for applications such as DaVinci Resolve 9. Users of DaVinci Resolve are looking for the best performance possible in terms of their systems, and one of the Kepler GPUs allow artists to manipulate 4K imagery on the Mac Pro in real time.

Uses/Advantages

The NVIDIA Quadro K5000 for Mac is the best choice for a wide range of professional applications like color correction, video editing, design visualization, compositing, and GPU-accelerated ray-traced 3D rendering. The Quadro K5000 for Mac offers full features and performance when using Apple Boot Camp and Microsoft Windows-based applications.

The Quadro K5000 will provide Mac Pro users the most powerful professional GPU ever offered for the Mac and brings features and a level of performance to work more efficiently due to the speeds at which digital content can be created.

Engadget took a look at the Quadro K5000 for Mac using Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro CS6 on a Mac Pro featuring dual K5000 GPUs. 11 streams of 1080p video at 30 fps in Premiere Pro proved seamless workload handling thanks to the GPU acceleration, allowing effects to be added in real time with zero processing delay. When changing gears to software rendering mode within the editing program, there is a noticeable difference in quality: playback is choppy, and processing is extremely slow. Premiere Pro relies on only one of the two K5000 GPUs, but After Effects puts them both to work. Ray-tracing, a 3D imaging feature that relies heavily on computation, is featured in this application, and with the super fast chips, images are smooth and edits happen in real time.

Availability

Although it is being demoed to increase interest, the Quadro K500 GPU will be available later this year at select Apple resellers and authorized distribution partners such as PNY Technologies in Europe and the Americas, Leadtek in Asia Pacific, and ELSA in Japan. Its estimated starting price is $2,249.