Mac....Solidworks....and Video Card ???

[Kurlee Daddee]

I am about to pull the trigger and buy myself a Mac Pro with dual 2.66 Intel processors and 2 gigs of ram. I am going to run Solidworks on this machine with Bootcamp. What do you think the is the best choice for video cards from the choices I have posted:

2 x NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB (running 2 of these cards)

or

ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI) (Running one single card)

I want the fastest and most reliable video card I can get between the two. What do you guys think?

I am not into gaming or anything of that nature. I will probably do some Photoshop stuff, as well as video editing and things of that nature.

Thanks in advance

 

[jsfine]

Why Bootcamp?

Hey Kurlee,
I don't have a suggestion on the video cards, but I do have a question about why Mac, and why bootcamp. First let me preface this with the statement that I am also researching the possibility of switching to a Mac (though I haven't ruled out Linux either).

Others on this and other boards have tried running SW on Macs using Parallels and some other VM (virtual machine) software, to disappointing results. I tried loading SW 2006 on a Macbook Pro using Parallels, and while SW would open and run, it was too slow to even think about any kind of assembly or realy complex geometry. I've been talking to a retailer near me about allowing me to try SW on a new dual processor Mac Pro using the new VMware product (which is supposed to be significantly faster).

My question stems from the fact that with Bootcamp, you will be running the Mac as a Windoze machine (with all the weaknesses and vulnerabilities associated with that platform), but without any SW technical support, or functionality of the Mac. I understand the desire to leave the Microsoft environment (Vista is the best marketing tool yet devised to sell more Apple computers), but the downsides seem to outweigh the advantages if you are not running in the Mac environment.

Jeff Fine P.E.
Carson City, NV