Video cards in 2011-12 mac pro

[BigJohno]

What video cards do you think they will be putting in the upcoming Mac pro refresh? 6xxxx series or 7?

[Tanax]

Seeing as AMD haven't released 7xxx yet(and won't until 2012 since it's been delayed), I doubt we'll see the 7xxx-series in the Mac Pro-refresh -- unless the Mac Pro isn't released until like summer 2012, which I seriously hope not.

[BigJohno]

Originally Posted by Tanax

Seeing as AMD haven't released 7xxx yet(and won't until 2012 since it's been delayed), I doubt we'll see the 7xxx-series in the Mac Pro-refresh -- unless the Mac Pro isn't released until like summer 2012, which I seriously hope not.

I really hope its not delayed until then. Im in the market for a Mac pro but I don't really want to get the current gen for the price Apple wants. Im also going to be playing Battlefield 3 and I'm afraid of the 5870 not being powerful enough.

[ActionableMango]

Originally Posted by BigJohno

I really hope its not delayed until then. Im in the market for a Mac pro but I don't really want to get the current gen for the price Apple wants. Im also going to be playing Battlefield 3 and I'm afraid of the 5870 not being powerful enough.

The 5870 is powerful enough for Battlefield 3.

I'm currently playing the beta with a 5770.

[BigJohno]

Originally Posted by ActionableMango

The 5870 is powerful enough for Battlefield 3.

I'm currently playing the beta with a 5770.

Nativ res on 27" with highest settings?

[derbothaus]

Originally Posted by BigJohno

Nativ res on 27" with highest settings?

The beta does not have "highest settings". Confirmed medium on everything. People are getting 40-45fps on beta with 6970m iMac at 2560x1440. A 5870 is 50% faster than a 6970m. You will not be able to do the real "Ultra" at 2560x1440 on a HD5870. SLI'd GTX580's may not be able to do that. It'll be fine for 1920x1080 on Ultra most likely but no-one knows until it ships for real.

[ActionableMango]

Originally Posted by BigJohno

Nativ res on 27" with highest settings?

I don't know. At my native res I am running at 1920x1200. I do have the max settings, but as others have pointed out the settings in the beta aren't real. Also, many of the textures are obviously low-res in the beta. Painfully obvious.

5870 is as fast as your are going to get with a card that works 100% with OS X right now. We do know that partially working 6xxx drivers are showing up in Lion. There is also some progress with 6950 and 6970 hacks, but it's not there yet.

My guess is 6xxx series up to 6970. No 6990 and no 7xxx.

[derbothaus]

I would think new Mac Pro's will have 6870 (cheap) as default with a 6970 option.
Or, 6950 with 6970 option but that difference is really too close in performance.

[MacVidCards]

Anyone who has tried a 6870 would tell you that they work quite well.

In fact, an UNFLASHED 6870 is in many ways more useful than a flashed 5770/5870 in certain situations.

So my money is on 6850/70 as base, with 6950/70 as top end option.

6970 would require that they add an "8 pin" power outlet with ability to carry more juice. To do so would be tantamount to admitting that they made a mistake before, something they hate to do.

[BigJohno]

The 6970 would be a nice card in there. Are there any flashes to get it to to work on current hardware?

[Cindori]

yes.


http://netkas.org

[riverwater]

You guys have forgotten the thunderbolt port, as the new 27 Apple LED Thunderbolt display has released for several months. Anyone know how will ATI and Apple incorporate the thunderbolt port into the graphic card?

[goMac]

ATI 3D Rage IIc.

[BigJohno]

Originally Posted by riverwater

You guys have forgotten the thunderbolt port, as the new 27 Apple LED Thunderbolt display has released for several months. Anyone know how will ATI and Apple incorporate the thunderbolt port into the graphic card?

Thats the big question right now. How are they going to implement TB in the new Mac Pro. I have heard that the new display only works with thunderbolt enabled computers... What if you want to daisy chain an old 24" off the new 27" TB monitor? I would assume that AMD or Nvidia would be working with apple to develop a card that has a TB controller on it.

[Steelgrave]

Originally Posted by riverwater

You guys have forgotten the thunderbolt port, as the new 27 Apple LED Thunderbolt display has released for several months. Anyone know how will ATI and Apple incorporate the thunderbolt port into the graphic card?

Bigger question might be "If" they are. Other than the assumed naming schemes for the next gen cards from ATI/Nvidia I haven't seen anything about them.

[BigJohno]

Originally Posted by Steelgrave

Bigger question might be "If" they are. Other than the assumed naming schemes for the next gen cards from ATI/Nvidia I haven't seen anything about them.

I would think that the pro is where thunderbolt is needed. I don't understand why its in the other products before it. Do you think the average user needs to back up to their time machine in 1 min instead of 15. I don't think they care. Even the iPhone and iPad don't have TB. I know the chip prob won't fit in the iPhone but it would in the iPad. hmmm

[Steelgrave]

Alot of folks would argue that USB 3.0 is needed, but it isn't gonna happen anytime soon heh.

If I had to guess I'd say ATI is working on their cards to have a T-bolt plug on it for the monitors, and there will be a 2nd t-bolt plug for other accessories.

[goMac]

Originally Posted by BigJohno

I would think that the pro is where thunderbolt is needed. I don't understand why its in the other products before it. Do you think the average user needs to back up to their time machine in 1 min instead of 15. I don't think they care. Even the iPhone and iPad don't have TB. I know the chip prob won't fit in the iPhone but it would in the iPad. hmmm

External RAID arrays would be nice on Thunderbolt.

[fotomiami]

What is the benefit of dual video cards?

Currently I have a Mac Pro 1,1 that I upgraded with a ATI 5770.
Wanted to get the 2011/12 mac pros but don't know how long I can hold out for.
If I buy a Mac Pro 5,1 that comes with a 5770 what benefit would I be getting by putting my current 5770 alongside it?

[goMac]

Originally Posted by fotomiami

What is the benefit of dual video cards?

Currently I have a Mac Pro 1,1 that I upgraded with a ATI 5770.
Wanted to get the 2011/12 mac pros but don't know how long I can hold out for.
If I buy a Mac Pro 5,1 that comes with a 5770 what benefit would I be getting by putting my current 5770 alongside it?

Run two different displays on two different cards each with their own dedicated VRAM.

I don't know if anyone has verified that FCPX can use dual cards. OpenCL apps can use dual cards, but that doesn't mean they do.

[fotomiami]

Originally Posted by goMac

Run two different displays on two different cards each with their own dedicated VRAM.

I don't know if anyone has verified that FCPX can use dual cards. OpenCL apps can use dual cards, but that doesn't mean they do.

Thanks for the quick answer.

How about for Aperture of Photoshop?

I see a lot of comparisons between the 5870 and 5770 for gaming and what not on sites like barefeats (example: http://barefeats.com/wst10g7.html) but never between a 5870 and dual 5770s.

[goMac]

Originally Posted by fotomiami

Thanks for the quick answer.

How about for Aperture of Photoshop?

I see a lot of comparisons between the 5870 and 5770 for gaming and what not on sites like barefeats (example: http://barefeats.com/wst10g7.html) but never between a 5870 and dual 5770s.

I don't think dual cards will give you an advantage in either Aperture or Photoshop.

Photoshop does not generally make heavy use of the GPU anyway.

[derbothaus]

Originally Posted by BigJohno

I would think that the pro is where thunderbolt is needed. I don't understand why its in the other products before it. Do you think the average user needs to back up to their time machine in 1 min instead of 15. I don't think they care. Even the iPhone and iPad don't have TB. I know the chip prob won't fit in the iPhone but it would in the iPad. hmmm

TB is no faster unless the user buys more HD's or use SSD's. Having all that bandwidth is useless for 1 HDD. It is for a 3-10 RAID set of HDD's or external SSD's that bring the speed. Looking over Lacie's BigDisk stuff they blur that and show you speeds with RAID0 SSD's through TB connection. The price listed at 400.00 is for 1 HD that can barely break 90MB/s. Misleading but then again users were all exited for SATAII for their laptop 5400RPM drives. Also a chuckle.
Apples Display is ridiculous at this point. No one should buy that thing. Especially not a pro. LED backlight with glossy glass and no connections? deltaE above 2.0 for an ISP display. Terrible. Then add the fact only 1 size. They almost don't want you buying their display's. Is the cable any longer this time around? That was a severe joke with the new screens.

[BigJohno]

Why I brought this up was because I am having significant issues with my current iMac. Its 09 i7 27". The video card kind of stinks. I use sketchbook pro a lot and I have significant brush lag when the canvas is rotated. I used it both on lion, snow leopard, and win 7 on the same machine and get the same crap performance. Do any of you guys use Sketchbook pro on a 27" screen? Do you get the same performance? What video card are you using.

[VanneDC]

Sketchbook pro here on a Cintiq 21UX.. on a gtx285.. no dramas what so ever..