Isnt the ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB graphics card a little old to be in the new mac pros? Isnt that card almost a year old?
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Isnt the ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB graphics card a little old to be in the new mac pros?
- Thread starter davelanger
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Well the higher end offering is the 5970, which is ridiculously expensive, or going crossfire (which is un-apple-like). The 5970 isn't even a single GPU anyhow. The 5870 is a good card!
Yes, they're almost a year old (58xx first released September), but there's nothing newer from ATI - the upcoming Southern Islands GPU family isn't due out tilll later this year. No idea if the SI family will be much of an improvement anyway at the start of launch - it's believed to be a hybrid of the Evergreen (5xxx) series and Northern Island, a stopgap till NI is released 2011...
So... what can you do when there's nothing else.
So... what can you do when there's nothing else.
jav6454
macrumors Core
It's the best card out there of the ATI generation of Cypress GPUs. What's wrong with it?
Well if you are going to spend at least $3000 on a computer why would you want the graphics card to be almost a year old?
Cynicalone
macrumors 68040
It's always like this with Apple.
Offering the 5870 is actually a step in the right direction for Apple. Much better than in years past.
Offering the 5870 is actually a step in the right direction for Apple. Much better than in years past.
jav6454
macrumors Core
Probably not, I just dont want to buy a 3k computer then in a year have the card be obsolete and have to fork over $400 for a better card.
At least if I bought the computer a year ago I would have gotten two years out of the card or three if im lucky.
I could just buy a pc but I know I would really miss osx.
Well HTFU and be thankful it is only 12mths old. Previous incarnations have always come out with previous gen cards, rejoice, it's got ample power for any situation (minus 3x30' screen).
They could have gone with an Nvidia 470 or 480 solution, which is half a year old now. Would that have made you happier? But wait, the 5870 is just as fast.
The problem with saying you want a "better" card is that better means nothing. When you say "better" you should say what you want it to do.
I just read of review of a very high end Eizo monitor. The reviewer stated that the 5870 was one of the very few GPUs that had a 10bit data path (I assume per channel) through the Display Port, and so was using it in his Mac Pro.
For him, "better" meant more colours. For others "better" may mean more more FPS, or more output ports.
Also, IMO if you are building a workstation for doing work, the majority of people would rather use technology that will not crash because the vendor is still ironing out the bugs. Bleeding edge stuff can tend to fall down go poof. Not good for deadlines.
Update: Ignore that bit about the 5870 being 10bit. It may be still, but it was pointed out to me that I was thinking of the 4870 for that review. Although that reinforces my point about "better" being entirely subjective. Sorry about that.
I just read of review of a very high end Eizo monitor. The reviewer stated that the 5870 was one of the very few GPUs that had a 10bit data path (I assume per channel) through the Display Port, and so was using it in his Mac Pro.
For him, "better" meant more colours. For others "better" may mean more more FPS, or more output ports.
Also, IMO if you are building a workstation for doing work, the majority of people would rather use technology that will not crash because the vendor is still ironing out the bugs. Bleeding edge stuff can tend to fall down go poof. Not good for deadlines.
Update: Ignore that bit about the 5870 being 10bit. It may be still, but it was pointed out to me that I was thinking of the 4870 for that review. Although that reinforces my point about "better" being entirely subjective. Sorry about that.
reel2reel
macrumors 6502a
Define "obsolete."
It will stop working?
You won't be able to do the work then that you're doing now?
The tech race is bad for the brain, man. It poisons. I'm ecstatic to get my new 6-core with the 5870 because it's going to worlds better than what I'm using now and serve me well for at least four or five years to come. My core2 duo iMac served me for over four years, for crying out loud. Even though I'm sick of my iMac limitations after four years, I wouldn't even call it "obsolete" because it could still serve someone else just fine.
So why will this graphics card be "obsolete?" What won't it let you do four years down the road?
If you check videocardbenchmark.net you will see that there are nothing else to choose from, atleast not talking ATI. I think there are some cards not listed (eyefinity?) but those aren't realistic anyhow. I can't say how accurate those results are cus I wouldn't know but they should give a good estimate anyway.
Maybe you'd rather apple had put off the MP update for another half year or how ever long in waiting for new cards to come out? 🙄
Apple decided 9 months ago what they were going to use. They pick their components when they are announced, and then when they finally decide to produce their machines its old tech. Just the way Apple is.
One thing I did not expect people to think Apple made a wrong choice about is 5870 - being the best overall choice possible TODAY.
I'm assuming the OP means "newer" in the case of "better."
I'm pretty sure the 10' Mac Pros can handle the newer GPUs next year unless Sandy Bridge is something insane.
Pressure
macrumors 603
Actually, now that you mention it..... I think it was the 4870. Drat. Gotta go, I need to edit my 1st post.
jav6454
macrumors Core
Well reviewers do. They managed to cook an egg on the heat sink of the GTX480.
Yes, people, that's how hot it can get.
How am I a troll? And yes I don't know what I am talking about, that is why I asked the question. The answer seems to be, it doesn't matter how old the card is, its still one of the best cards out there. And most people said this, are you a little bit old for name calling?
Isn't a forum like this here to ask questions that people are not too familiar with the answers?
I just like to get all my info before deciding what to do with esp when its buying a 3k computer.
Thanks everyone for your help