Shake/FCP, Video Card Compatibility

[theresekim]

Hello,
I've been using Shake for my film. But I've run into snowballing display issues, and now the entire system locks up after starting up.

I took it to a mac repair shop that trouble-shooted the issue: a bad video card. Since I need a new card, I'd like to get a faster one (current is at 256 MB RAM).

The shop suggested a Radeon HD 3870, 512 MB RAM card, as it would be compatible with my system. But since Shake is
discontinued, I don't know how to check if the suggested card will be compatible with Shake 4.1 (and FCP 6).

Has anyone used this card with Shake or FCP 6? I'm especially concerned that the newer HD card will make Shake unstable, and may not work with FCP 6, which I don't think has HD compatibility?

(I have a Mac Pro, OS X (10.5.8), with a 2x2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor.)

If you have insight, I'd greatly appreciate it!
Thanks!
Therese

[aaronber]

Off the top of my head I would suggest replacing your video card with the same brand of card that came out of your machine. So if they pulled out an Nvidia card replace it with that.

FCP and Shake don't actually use the video card for much, so you are probably safe with an ATI card.

[theresekim]

Thanks, Aaron--appreciate the feedback...

[theresekim]

To anyone wondering what card works, the repair shop replaced my bad card with a Radeon HD 4870 w/ 512 GB of RAM March, 2012. I haven't had problems since then.

I have a Mac Pro, OS X (10.5.8) 2x2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor.