4870 + Windows GPU?

[tintifax3k]

Hi,

i have a '09 MacPro that came with a 4870 and since Apple seems to never get the 5870s out of the door, i was thinking about putting a dedicated Windows Card in for gaming - in addition to the 4870.

Can i do this? Can the Apple 4870 and a generic 5870 run side-by-side in a Mac Pro or is this too much for the Power Supply?

 

[goMac]

Hi,

i have a '09 MacPro that came with a 4870 and since Apple seems to never get the 5870s out of the door, i was thinking about putting a dedicated Windows Card in for gaming - in addition to the 4870.

Can i do this? Can the Apple 4870 and a generic 5870 run side-by-side in a Mac Pro or is this too much for the Power Supply?

More than likely too much, at the very least you don't have enough power cables coming off the board to power those cards.

You could probably pull it off with a second power supply, but it's probably not worth it.

Apple 5870's are starting to pop up some places. If it's urgent you can probably get your hands on one now (for a little markup.)

 

[toxic]

you could flash a 5870 to support EFI without any problems, so that's another option.

 

[tintifax3k]

i thought about flashing too, but wouldn't that require a third card to boot from (like a GT120) because i don't have enough power cables for both the 4870 and the 5870?

 

[Transporteur]

i thought about flashing too, but wouldn't that require a third card to boot from (like a GT120) because i don't have enough power cables for both the 4870 and the 5870?

Why would you need a third card?

Just flash the 5870 (you can buy already flashed cards from ebay), pop it in and you're good to go for both Windows and OS X. No other graphics card needed.

If you really want to have both the original 4870 and a standard, non-flashed 5870 in your system, you'd need an additional power supply. newegg has got a 5.25" PSU (fits right in the upper or lower ODD bay) for about 30 bucks.

 

[tintifax3k]

i thought i needed a third card to boot macos from and then flash the windows card, thats why - i thought the computer wouldn't boot with the non-flashed card only. i didn't occur to me to flash from windows...