Will this work in a mac pro?

[Chimera Prod]

Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 Video Card - 1GB GDDR5, PCI Express 2.0 x16, CrossFireX Ready

Would it be possible to crossfire this card if I got another 1 down the road?
The x2 is pretty expensive..

**I will be using vista**

Just some specs of my comp:
Model Identifier: MacPro1,1
Processor: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Memory: 2 GB

http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4148848&CatId=3585

takes 550W I believe.

[Tallest Skil]

Windows only.

[Chimera Prod]

oops forgot to mention I will be using bootcamp and vista of course. Who wants to game on osx anyway?

[drichards]

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=465792 - #17 and on have good information.

[Chimera Prod]

yea but he is using an external power supply forget that.
correct me if I'm wrong

[Edit] adrianofmaia: The 9800gx2 is powered using the two six-pin power cords from the mac motherboard. I am using one 6-pin to 8pin adapter for that.

Anyone know where to buy these wires? I tried searching here but I don't wanna buy the wrong ones if the card comes with 1 dual 4-pin Molex to single 6-pin PCI-Express power adapter

[m1stake]

oops forgot to mention I will be using bootcamp and vista of course. Who wants to game on osx anyway?

Scrub baddies. ;p

[cured.not.dried]

if all you're going to be throwing in there is ONE 9800 then you shouldn't need the adapter cable, just an extra micro-six-pin to six-pin (i say extra because you'd need to take out the OS X card in order for the 9800 to work, least I did)

i called applecare cause my comp was still under warranty at the time and i believe they charged me about 20 bux with shipping (said something about how putting extra graphics cards in isn't under warranty), then a week later i got an extra one for free because it was "still covered" by my warranty.

in my opinion you'd be better off with a radeon 4850. about the same price (or cheaper if you know where to look) as the 9800 but waaaay more advanced graphics rendering technologies (edge detect anti-aliasing, for one). same processor die as the only card that can run crysis full settings, too, tho the ram and amount of processors differ.

[Chimera Prod]

ya I was thinkin the same thing but instead getting a 4870 1gb

http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4148848&CatId=3585

I looked at my mother board and it seems theres two 6 pins soo

would I need to buy two 4-pin to 6-pin or 6-pin to 6-pin wires for this?

[Tallest Skil]

bump for good luck?

Bad luck, rather.

11. Bumps. Posts that bring a thread to the top of the New Posts list but add no content to the thread (bumps) are not permitted. This applies not only to posts that say "bump" but to those with the intent to bump.

[Chimera Prod]

[Edit] sry just frustrated cuz mac hates gamers

[Tallest Skil]

thnx I appreciate your reply. really helps man. n thnx for wishing bad luck on me.

Now would anyone wish to post something useful?

What more information do you need? You need to run your case open, exposing it to dust, have a bunch of cables everywhere, hooking a card that has a terrible price/performance ratio into an external-internal PSU and the Mac Pro's second PCIe 2.0 slot, and realizing that your fans will spin to 100% in OS X without proper control.

That's pretty much it.

Oh, but get a Radeon 4870 x2 if you can. Blows the nVidia 9xxx series away. If not, a standard 4870 would do nicely.

[m1stake]

The stock 4870 is fine, but I'd go with Visiontek over Sapphire any day.

That'd be a great ban message "BANNED FOR INTENT TO BUMP."

For the trouble, you may as well build an $800 computer from scratch instead. Or you could wait until Mac World, on the off chance that the next Mac Pro is released around then, the regular 4870 may get a mac version and save you some trouble, since it seems like you don't really know what you're doing - no offense.

[Chimera Prod]

kk now ur talkin. Would it be stupid to get a 4870x2 now instead of waiting for the 290/260s to come out? heard nvidia were going to drop its prices especially on the 280? not sure

I have a 3rd gen mac pro so its a crappy dedicated 7200 gt im using atm. Really need an upgrade. Dont wanna wait for nothing though

it seems like you don't really know what you're doing - no offense.

well I DO know that I have 2 6 pins on my board. so I just have to find out what the 4870 1gb / x2 2gb has. Just wanted to make sure I get the correct cables sry.

And telling someone to build a completely new pc just because I need a new video card is pretty stupid Lol. Especially when 'I dont know what im doing' - no offense

Forgive me if this thread is pretty similar to others, I'm in need of a card bad as I'm only getting 15 fps on WoW.

[m1stake]

It'd be a smarter move to buy a 3870 Mac edition if you want a quick upgrade without the trouble.

It has two six pins. :/ (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102810) (Click the Specifications tab, it's under General).

In the future if you want to save yourself some time, you can check out the other threads where this has already been discussed to death and you won't look silly when you snap at people who are trying to help. :o

[Chimera Prod]

Ok if I were to get a single DIAMOND 4870 1gb card and then decided to get another when the prices drop would it be possible to crossfire them in the mac pro running vista? external psu or not, doesnt make a difference.

Just cause 500$ is a little much rite now for the x2

[sporadicMotion]

are you solely going to be running Vista? I just don't understand the concept of buying a Mac just to run Vista... forgive me if I missed something here...

[Chimera Prod]

well I baught this mac a year ago but why would they make boot camp if people 'didnt understand' why you would run windows? ask a better question please! The only thing you missed I guess is that vista runs just as good on a mac? some people must not think before they post...

Anyways since I already have the comp I was just wondering if crossfire / sli is possible. (under bootcamp) thnx

[Pressure]

You can find the Radeon HD 4870 512MB at Newegg for $199 or $239 for the 1GB version.

Cables can be bought here (http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=3280778).

[Chimera Prod]

Finally. Ty! Those are 6-pin to 6-pins? And do I need 1 or 2? Got two 6's on my mother board

[sporadicMotion]

well I baught this mac a year ago but why would they make boot camp if people 'didnt understand' why you would run windows? ask a better question please! The only thing you missed I guess is that vista runs just as good on a mac? some people must not think before they post...

Anyways since I already have the comp I was just wondering if crossfire / sli is possible. (under bootcamp) thnx

The question was just fine. I was inquiring if it's the only OS you're running. Judging by the snippy little boy response, I have my answer. My god I need to get into marketing... it must be wonderful to be able to control peoples minds to the point where they'll spend extra money just to have a logo on the side of their machine. You are a silly little one... we buy Apple products to use the OS and pay a premium to do it (at least with the high end products). Forgive me for not understanding why you would exclusively use Windows on a Mac Pro, anyhow, I'm done. Have fun... but please let me know when the next money burning party is... it must be a lot of fun.

[Trip.Tucker]

<snip> Who wants to game on osx anyway?

Are you being facetious?

[Chimera Prod]

The question was just fine. I was inquiring if it's the only OS you're running. Judging by the snippy little boy response, I have my answer. My god I need to get into marketing... it must be wonderful to be able to control peoples minds to the point where they'll spend extra money just to have a logo on the side of their machine. You are a silly little one... we buy Apple products to use the OS and pay a premium to do it (at least with the high end products). Forgive me for not understanding why you would exclusively use Windows on a Mac Pro, anyhow, I'm done. Have fun... but please let me know when the next money burning party is... it must be a lot of fun.

control who's mind? you are so full of yourself LoL
Just because someone has a few questions doesn't mean their completely computer illiterate.
And I'm not snippy. I just don't like people coming into threads without contributing anything more than stupidity.
You will not be getting into marketing by asking such stupid questions.
Money burning party? If that was the case I would go buy a pc for the games. L2 flame

At the time I purchased the mac pro I was using it solely for pro tools and final cut, but now I wish to run some games on a budget. Why not use windows so I can use a card that apple will never make? You really made yourself seem even more ignorant with this post. But good try

Of course I will be using osx (and more than likely having to switch out my card to do so) but why not have the pleasure of operating windows with a cheaper card than apple sells? You are trying to prove something here and I'm not sure what it is.
And who the hell said I will be using windows ONLY?

As for the whole point of the thread:

Is it possible to crossfire or use SLI in the mac pro? Thnx to anyone who can actually answer this.

[Trip.Tucker]

control who's mind? you are so full of yourself LoL
Just because someone has a few questions doesn't mean their completely computer illiterate.
And I'm not snippy. I just don't like people coming into threads without contributing anything more than stupidity.
You will not be getting into marketing by asking such stupid questions.
Money burning party? If that was the case I would go buy a pc for the games. L2 flame

At the time I purchased the mac pro I was using it solely for pro tools and final cut, but now I wish to run some games on a budget. Why not use windows so I can use a card that apple will never make? You really made yourself seem even more ignorant with this post. But good try

Of course I will be using osx (and more than likely having to switch out my card to do so) but why not have the pleasure of operating windows with a cheaper card than apple sells? You are trying to prove something here and I'm not sure what it is.
And who the hell said I will be using windows ONLY?
PPL ARE SO STUPID SOMETIMES!!!

As for the whole point of the thread:

Is it possible to crossfire or use SLI in the mac pro? Thnx to anyone who can actually answer this.


No. ...thank god. SLI is an overrated piece of marketing hype that offers very little performance return for the hardware investment. SLI is a very poor ROI example. Forget SLI, it's next to useless.

[sporadicMotion]

control who's mind? you are so full of yourself LoL
Just because someone has a few questions doesn't mean their completely computer illiterate.
And I'm not snippy. I just don't like people coming into threads without contributing anything more than stupidity.
You will not be getting into marketing by asking such stupid questions.
Money burning party? If that was the case I would go buy a pc for the games. L2 flame

At the time I purchased the mac pro I was using it solely for pro tools and final cut, but now I wish to run some games on a budget. Why not use windows so I can use a card that apple will never make? You really made yourself seem even more ignorant with this post. But good try

Of course I will be using osx (and more than likely having to switch out my card to do so) but why not have the pleasure of operating windows with a cheaper card than apple sells? You are trying to prove something here and I'm not sure what it is.
And who the hell said I will be using windows ONLY?

As for the whole point of the thread:

Is it possible to crossfire or use SLI in the mac pro? Thnx to anyone who can actually answer this.

You PM'ed me to get me to respond to that dribble?

EDIT: L2 Flame? WTF

[m1stake]

Do a google search for SLI and Crossfire, and the rest of your questions as well; they've been discussed literally hundreds of times before. It's pretty obvious that you're not willing to find it yourself, so why should other people help you especially when you're so rude?

What ever you search, just add (space)site:forums.macrumors.com

[The Rominator]

Some people just like attention, enjoy being spoon fed, and feeling special. Web's full of them.

[Chimera Prod]

Some people just like attention, enjoy being spoon fed, and feeling special. Web's full of them.

I already mentioned that I have been searching for someone who has crossfired 2 radions in a mac pro but I could not find anything. I only found someone who attempted SLI in osx which didn't seem like it worked out. Plz stop telling ppl to search for stuff that doesnt exist. And I'm not rude. I speak TRUTH

[The Rominator]

I already mentioned that I have been searching for someone who has crossfired 2 radions in a mac pro but I could not find anything. I only found someone who attempted SLI in osx which didn't seem like it worked out. Plz stop telling ppl to search for stuff that doesnt exist. And I'm not rude. I speak TRUTH


I just typed "3870" and "Crossfire" into the search bar and got LOTS of info on how those work.

Perhaps your difficulty is with spelling?

For instance, "Radeon" is spelled like that. If you searched for "Radion", no wonder you "could not find anything"

[Chimera Prod]

Well I was searching for '3870' '4870' 'crossfire' terms like that. I don't suppose too many people would type radeon because everyone knows its a freakin radeon.

[sporadicMotion]

Well I was searching for '3870' '4870' 'crossfire' terms like that. I don't suppose too many people would type radeon because everyone knows its a freakin radeon.

People may understand that, but that's not the way search engines work. I could understand the desire to get crossfire working with 2 cards from an enthusiast's perspective, but realistically... for stability sake, just save the extra cash and get an x2 card. It'll save you the headache and hassle of doing a hack job. The X2 cards can be had for a couple hundred more and will work well in Vista. Oh yeah, don't assume just because people know about computers, doesn't mean they're "geeks"... especially in this day and age.

[Winni]

are you solely going to be running Vista? I just don't understand the concept of buying a Mac just to run Vista... forgive me if I missed something here...

The concept is very simple: Macs are good PCs with a very nice design. OS X is not necessarily their strongest selling point anymore. For most new buyers, their ability to (also) run Windows is more important than the great cats. They just want to run it on a beautiful and relatively quiet machine.

In the workstation league, it even looks better for Apple. The pricing of the Mac Pro is very competitive, and from my own experience I can say that it certainly feels like a higher quality system than a Dell Precision workstation with a similar configuration. And although the Mac Pro is rather loud, it is not nearly as noisy as the Dell.

I know that in Italy, for example, they have been selling iMacs with Vista or XP pre-installed right from the day when the first Boot Camp beta was released.

Oh, and Vista performs extremely well on Apple hardware and there are no compatibility issues at all - almost as if Apple specifically designs their hardware for Vista. But then again, most of the motherboard design is done by Intel anyway, and Intel knows how to build a compatible PC...