Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

2008 MacPro with ATI 5770

nepfotos

nepfotos

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 9, 2008
46
0
Switzerland
Yesterday I received the MacPro Graphic Card Upgrade Kit from Apple and installed the ATI 5770 in my 2008 2.8 Octo MacPro. It took only a few minutes and it was a great upgrade (especially for the price) - it works perfect, fast and so silent and speeds up Aperture.
The best upgrade since I installed a SSD as a boot drive, highly recomended.
 
What did you have before?

I want a 5870 because it's 4X the speed of my 3870. But the 5770 is 2X, which is still pretty good...
 
had a ATI Radeon 2600XT before, which was not the fastest (especially using Aperture), so for me a big advantage now, didn't want to wait for the 5870 ;)
 
Really appreciate your feedback, because I own a 2008 too and was thinking of upgrading my graphic board :)
 
I'm encountering some odd with the 5770 and HP monitor on the 2008. The monitor was running fine for a week using DVI. Until I started to use a MDP>DP cable. Twice in the past week my monitor stop getting signal from the 5770 while I was working on the Mac (not from sleep). I can leave my Mac on for days without problem and then it just happens. I'll switch to a different DP port to see if that helps or go back to DVI.
 
nepfotos said:
Yesterday I received the MacPro Graphic Card Upgrade Kit from Apple and installed the ATI 5770 in my 2008 2.8 Octo MacPro. It took only a few minutes and it was a great upgrade (especially for the price) - it works perfect, fast and so silent and speeds up Aperture.
The best upgrade since I installed a SSD as a boot drive, highly recomended.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the post. Any tips while installing the card or is it straightforward?
 
theBigD23 said:
Thanks for the post. Any tips while installing the card or is it straightforward?
Click to expand...

Well, you definitely want to avoid my experience.

The card is a very tight fit, and I somehow manage to knock a cap right off of the motherboard while installing the card!

To add insult to injury, I didn't realize I needed a pci-e power cable (and still don't know which one to order ... help anyone!??) so I don't even get to use my new card for a few days.

In particular related to the power cable, it's clear that it's a 6-pin (molex?) on the card itself. There are 2 similar (identical?) receptacles on the motherboard. I think I need a straight, 6-pin to 6-pin cable, can anyone confirm (or better, provide links?)

My old 2600XT is (apparently) working fine even w/the missing cap. I don't trust it long term, though I suspect the cap was a filtering cap for the pci bus and since I have no cards other than the video card maybe the slightly less filtered power will still work ok.

otoh, my machine could be toast by morning.


Hope this helps, the main thing is to get the power cable in advance and then be careful installing the card itself.
 
glowrocks said:
Well, you definitely want to avoid my experience.

The card is a very tight fit, and I somehow manage to knock a cap right off of the motherboard while installing the card!

To add insult to injury, I didn't realize I needed a pci-e power cable (and still don't know which one to order ... help anyone!??) so I don't even get to use my new card for a few days.

In particular related to the power cable, it's clear that it's a 6-pin (molex?) on the card itself. There are 2 similar (identical?) receptacles on the motherboard. I think I need a straight, 6-pin to 6-pin cable, can anyone confirm (or better, provide links?)

My old 2600XT is (apparently) working fine even w/the missing cap. I don't trust it long term, though I suspect the cap was a filtering cap for the pci bus and since I have no cards other than the video card maybe the slightly less filtered power will still work ok.

otoh, my machine could be toast by morning.


Hope this helps, the main thing is to get the power cable in advance and then be careful installing the card itself.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, but everything I've read indicates that the power cable should come in the box. Did yours not have it?
 
glowrocks said:
Well, you definitely want to avoid my experience.

The card is a very tight fit, and I somehow manage to knock a cap right off of the motherboard while installing the card!

To add insult to injury, I didn't realize I needed a pci-e power cable (and still don't know which one to order ... help anyone!??) so I don't even get to use my new card for a few days.

In particular related to the power cable, it's clear that it's a 6-pin (molex?) on the card itself. There are 2 similar (identical?) receptacles on the motherboard. I think I need a straight, 6-pin to 6-pin cable, can anyone confirm (or better, provide links?)

My old 2600XT is (apparently) working fine even w/the missing cap. I don't trust it long term, though I suspect the cap was a filtering cap for the pci bus and since I have no cards other than the video card maybe the slightly less filtered power will still work ok.

otoh, my machine could be toast by morning.


Hope this helps, the main thing is to get the power cable in advance and then be careful installing the card itself.
Click to expand...

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=21236

This should work. Cheers.
 
This thread is the most helpful I've found so far, but I can't find the answer to my specific question. I bought my 5770 card yesterday to replace my old one in my 2008 mac pro. I'm replacing it because I believe it's the reason my display will not wake up, despite being properly connected to my functioning mac. I was hoping to just plug and play, but as I undeestand it, I need the latest drivers from the ati website...
How can I get these drivers with no possibility of physically viewing the website?
I'm writing this on my ipod touch and getting frustrated, can someone point me in the right direction?
 
Windows has generic VGA drivers which can run the card, albeit at a low resolution and without any other bells and whistles. It'll be enough to get you to AMD's site.
 
nepfotos said:
Yesterday I received the MacPro Graphic Card Upgrade Kit from Apple and installed the ATI 5770 in my 2008 2.8 Octo MacPro. It took only a few minutes and it was a great upgrade (especially for the price) - it works perfect, fast and so silent and speeds up Aperture.
The best upgrade since I installed a SSD as a boot drive, highly recomended.
Click to expand...

nepfotos,
I just did the same install. However, I'm not seeing any benefit. My machine's specs are almost identical to yours, except I have 14GB of RAM.

Aperture 3 seems to be about the same as it was before with the 2600XT. I ran Xbench as well, and the score is about the same.

Glenn
 
Wish I could say the same. The ATI HD 5770 has no business in a 2010 Mac Pro, it's extremely under powered and the performance is on par, or in my real world opinion, slightly slower than the HD 4870. It might speed up your UI, but put it under any kind of stress and it fails all over the place.

Glad you like yours though, it IS an improvement over a 120 or older. Just not XEON grade.
 
vogelhausdesign said:
Wish I could say the same. The ATI HD 5770 has no business in a 2010 Mac Pro, it's extremely under powered and the performance is on par, or in my real world opinion, slightly slower than the HD 4870. It might speed up your UI, but put it under any kind of stress and it fails all over the place.

Glad you like yours though, it IS an improvement over a 120 or older. Just not XEON grade.
Click to expand...

Please bear in mind that not everyone who uses a Mac Pro is working with graphics!
 
vogelhausdesign said:
Wish I could say the same. The ATI HD 5770 has no business in a 2010 Mac Pro, it's extremely under powered and the performance is on par, or in my real world opinion, slightly slower than the HD 4870. It might speed up your UI, but put it under any kind of stress and it fails all over the place.

Glad you like yours though, it IS an improvement over a 120 or older. Just not XEON grade.
Click to expand...

OMG
 
I replaced the 2600XT with a 5770 in my 2008 8-core MacPro. According to tomshardware.com's "Graphics Card Hierarchy" it's 11 steps above a 2600XT, which should be a noticeable improvement.

I got it mainly because I was often using 98% of my VRAM with Aperture 3. Plus, I plan to eventually get the 27" Cinema Display and wanted real display ports vs. having to buy an expensive DVI-MDP adapter.

There's lots of anecdotes online about how the 5770 has improved performance of their machine, but I'm not seeing it, not even in benchmark testing. Perhaps the OP can comment on what's faster?

Thanks in advance for any help.
Glenn
 
Has anyone noticed that if you're doing something that uses some processing power, like using FTP or watching a video with Flash that Expose does also stutter when activating it?
 
MacProGlenn said:
I replaced the 2600XT with a 5770 in my 2008 8-core MacPro. According to tomshardware.com's "Graphics Card Hierarchy" it's 11 steps above a 2600XT, which should be a noticeable improvement.

I got it mainly because I was often using 98% of my VRAM with Aperture 3. Plus, I plan to eventually get the 27" Cinema Display and wanted real display ports vs. having to buy an expensive DVI-MDP adapter.

There's lots of anecdotes online about how the 5770 has improved performance of their machine, but I'm not seeing it, not even in benchmark testing. Perhaps the OP can comment on what's faster?

Thanks in advance for any help.
Glenn
Click to expand...

I recently got an Apple 27" LED Cinema Display, it's well worth upgrading the gfx card for, best screen I've ever bought!
 
Old Card?

biglobotomy said:
This thread is the most helpful I've found so far, but I can't find the answer to my specific question. I bought my 5770 card yesterday to replace my old one in my 2008 mac pro. I'm replacing it because I believe it's the reason my display will not wake up, despite being properly connected to my functioning mac. I was hoping to just plug and play, but as I undeestand it, I need the latest drivers from the ati website...
How can I get these drivers with no possibility of physically viewing the website?
I'm writing this on my ipod touch and getting frustrated, can someone point me in the right direction?
Click to expand...

What was your old card model?:confused: Thanks!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back