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5870 Upgrade Card Unboxing Pics!

D

DualShock

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 29, 2008
570
124
Thanks to FedEx Home Delivery, which delivers on Saturdays, my 5870 has arrived!

I posted a few unboxing pics to my MobileMe Flickr gallery. Installation pics to come, still have a few other things to do today so it may take a while.

Of note, the label on the box says it requires 10.6.5, which partially explains the long delay for this card. (Apologies for the blurriness of the label pic, my camera has a poor macro. :()

EDIT: Gallery moved to Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/psx1510/sets/72157625277406323/detail/
 
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DualShock said:
Thanks to FedEx Home Delivery, which delivers on Saturdays, my 5870 has arrived!

I posted a few unboxing pics to my MobileMe gallery. Installation pics to come, still have a few other things to do today so it may take a while.

Of note, the label on the box says it requires 10.6.5, which partially explains the long delay for this card. (Apologies for the blurriness of the label pic, my camera has a poor macro. :()

http://gallery.me.com/psx1510/100043
Click to expand...

Hurry up! haha I wanna SEE the actual card! Congrats btw, that's awesome.
 
What did you upgrade from and why?

DualShock said:
Thanks to FedEx Home Delivery, which delivers on Saturdays, my 5870 has arrived!

I posted a few unboxing pics to my MobileMe gallery. Installation pics to come, still have a few other things to do today so it may take a while.

Of note, the label on the box says it requires 10.6.5, which partially explains the long delay for this card. (Apologies for the blurriness of the label pic, my camera has a poor macro. :()

http://gallery.me.com/psx1510/100043
Click to expand...
 
Howdy folks,

I am posting this from my 2008 Mac Pro, after just installing the 5870! :D :D

I've just uploaded a few more pics of the unboxing and installation.

EDIT: Gallery moved to Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/psx1510/sets/72157625277406323/detail/

Few points to note:

1. The card won't fit straight into the case. Angle it about 45 degrees counterclockwise as you insert it so the back plate clears the back of the case.

2. The head spreader on the back of the card sits right up against (what appears to be) the thermal pad on top of the RAM cage. Hopefully this doesn't cause a melting problem when the card is under stress.

3. After the initial fan spin-up right when the power is turned on, the fan becomes DEAD SILENT. I was one of the lucky ones to get a 3870 Mac/PC Edition with a quiet fan, and the 5870 is just as quiet at idle.

Haven't tried out anything to stress the card yet. Will be booting into Windows 7 x64 in a bit to install drivers, test out a few games, and post a GPU-Z screenshot.
 
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Windows 7 x64 + Catalyst 10.10 seems A-OK.

I tried out a little Dirt 2. Everything maxed out @ 1920 x 1200. OMG DirectX 11 looks gorgeous! The fan hardly spun up while racing.

GPU-Z screenshot attached.

BTW forgot to mention, I'm using a 23" Cinema Display connected via DVI. Unfortunately I am unable to test out anything using MDP, nor anything related to HDMI or HDMI audio out.
 

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Oh and there also appears to be a CrossFire connector, for those of you adventurous enough to hack together some extra power connectors for a dual GPU setup.
 
DualShock said:
Oh and there also appears to be a CrossFire connector, for those of you adventurous enough to hack together some extra power connectors for a dual GPU setup.
Click to expand...
oh sweet mother of mercy!!

i've wanted to get my hands on an OEM of the PSU that apple uses in the MP so i could hack away at it to see which rails have the capacity (if any) to sustain a split like that.
 
Surprisingly poor relative to the 4870 score also shown. :(

I wonder if this is similar to the score in a 2010 Mac Pro with a 5870?
 

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DualShock said:
Surprisingly poor relative to the 4870 score also shown. :(

I wonder if this is similar to the score in a 2010 Mac Pro with a 5870?
Click to expand...

I got 31.31 fps w/ 12C 2.93 and 5770. It would seem there is not much reason for 5770 users to upgrade, unless Apple can release better OpenGL drivers.
 
While I always enjoy unboxings do we have an Apple 5870 rom yet? I mean a real Apple 5870 rom dump, not just the EFI part from the iMac.
 
Can someone with a MacPro 2008/2009 post the Xbench results of the Radeon 5870? How does the card perform in the finder versus the stock card? (snappier?)
http://www.xbench.com/
Anyway, the Cinebench results were disappointing.

TIA
 
Mac Hammer Fan said:
How does the card perform in the finder versus the stock card? (snappier?)
Click to expand...

The finder itself won't change with another graphics card since it doesn't require much graphics power. Exposé, however, will be much smoother than on a stock card (2600 for 2008 machines, respectively GT120 for 2009 machines), especially if you're running high res displays.

I'd say that even if you don't play games or don't have any graphics related work, upgrading from one of the stock cards is definitely worth it. The 5770, however, would be more than enough for such tasks (I use the the 4870, amongst others, which is basically the same card as the 5770 and even with a total real estate of 6MP connected to it, OS X is absolutely smooth).
 
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