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

5870 in Mac Pro

Dazouri said:
I just received my mini DV (female) to DisplayPort (male) adapter. The 5870 is on the way. Any already tested (in windows - for now) the 24 LED on a DisplayPort for functionality? ..... Daz

This would be in an 09 Mac Pro
Click to expand...

I don't have an LED Apple display, but in theory you should be fine.

MDP and DP are the same thing, just different sizes. Pin to pin compatible.

You will be amazed at the 5870...at least in Windows. Can't wait until it shows up in the Apple kexts....soon after we will be able to have it run in OSX.

Will you be doing Eyefinity?
 
Yes I will. I the mean time I found a male mpd to dp, a female to female dp, and a male dp to dvi. Works great and I can use ANY video card I like. Currently a GTX 295 ( but only in windows... ) ... Daz

I'm also using a 6 to 8 pin power converter and powering the card with just the 2 MB PCI-e cables....
 
TheRominator: do the fans on the 5870 spin up while you're booted into OS X? I'd like to run a 5870 in addition to my 7300 GT, while using one card under Windows and the other under Mac OS X.
 
he answered here:

The Rominator said:
Booted into OSX 10.6.1 with an 2600XT to "see" from.

The 5870 is idling it's fan, certainly nowhere near 100%.

A sleeping giant.
Click to expand...

btw you say 7300 so im guessing 06-07 mac
that setup is gonna cripple the 5870 because the other PCI slots are only PCI 1.0 8x = PCI 2.0 4x
 
Cindori said:
he answered here:



btw you say 7300 so im guessing 06-07 mac
that setup is gonna cripple the 5870 because the other PCI slots are only PCI 1.0 8x = PCI 2.0 4x
Click to expand...

Ah, I didn't see that. Thanks. Guess I can go with a 4890 then. :)
 
Would make most sense to have 5870 in 1st slot, and put the 7300 in 3 or 4.

7300 is never gonna saturate a 4x or 8x slot, it is a slow card, certainly not fit for any heavy 3D apps. but just fine for desktop, web browsing, etc.

Recently I was testing a GTX285 in OSX. Because I have a 1,1 I need to have the 7300 in to make GTX285 work using Netkas magic.

I fired up COD4 to test the GTX. COD4 was lagging and stuttering horribly. It was in fact unplayable. I was worried that I had a bad GTX285...then I realized that I had never moved DVI plug from the 7300 at boot. I was trying to play COD4 with all settings on "High" or "Insane" on a 30" on a 7300. Not doable. But everything up to COD4 had been beautiful, thought i was using GTX until that point.
 
mp needs efi card in 1st slot to boot
at least didnt work for me when I tried with 8800GTX in first and 7300 2nd.
 
Cindori said:
mp needs efi card in 1st slot to boot
at least didnt work for me when I tried with 8800GTX in first and 7300 2nd.
Click to expand...

I imagine this was due to my little discovery regard 4X PCIE lane width as minimum for EFI "helper" card.

When I use a GTX285 in my 1,1 Quad 3.0, I place the GTX285 in slot 1 and the 7300 in slot 3. Works great, but ONLY if the 7300 "helper" is in a slot with 4X lane width. If you put it in a slot with 1x lane, it KPs on boot.

When I have been booting with 5870 in OSX, I have the 2600 in slot 3 and the 5870 in slot 1. So, there is definetely no requirement on the slot thing other than what I listed.
 
Eyefinity using Apple Adapter

So the PC Eyefinity forums are abuzz...nobody can get ahold of the ACTIVE DP to DVI adapter needed to run 3 @ DVI displays.

The secret answer is to use a product from our old friends, Apple Computer. The MDP to Dual Link adapter works, I can state this for a fact. There is another one that Dell sells that is on horrific backorder due to nobody seeing demand coming. So mmany folks are unable to complete their Eyefinity due to lack of these special adapters. Most seem unaware they could just drive over to the Apple Store and buy one off shelf. I got mine at Fry's.

(Requires a MDP to DP cable)

And I even found a way to make it much more stable.

The adapter uses USB power to run it's internal circuitry. SO whenever the computer goes to sleep, the monitor loses connection and Eyefinity grouping gets all buggered up. I decided to try a cheapo little AC adpter that has a USB output meant for charging cell phones.

Works a treat and has greatly increased stability of Eyefinity.

Also of note..while the current word is that all 3 monitors MUST be same res, I have discovered that to be BUNKO. I run 2 @ Dell 24" with an Apple 30" in the center. When I choose an Eyefinity Grouping of 3, it automatically runs the 30" at 1920x1200, just like a 24". I can choose whether to have lots of black around edges or if I want monitor scaled to full screen.

Gonna PO some know-it-alls on the PC forums with these 2 bits of info.
 
Speaking of adapters.... I finally located a DVI to MDP that will allow the use of the 24' Apple LED monitor from a DVI only video card.
Daz
 
bozz2006 said:
because they (apple) doesn't make the vid card. you should be asking this question of EVGA, not Apple.
Click to expand...

Apple should get out of the computer biz then if they can't offer more than one or two stupid video cards and sell it to Wozniak. If Wozniak was running Apple Computer, like it used to be called, you could be damn well sure you'd have a choice of more than two junk video cards on your premium priced computer. :mad:

steve_wozniak_thumbs_up.jpg
 
Well done, Rominator. Nice solution there. I think a lot of people wouldn't consider it because the dual link adapter is considered to be flaky (with 30" displays).

Your comment kind of reminds me how on the PC forums, wide gamut displays are a bug, not a feature because Windows and browsers that aren't Firefox and Safari lack desktop color management. Always causes me to grin. They complain that most newer displays are wide gamut.

Bubba, you have to realize your point about the video card is irrelevant to most people (non gamers), including the professional workstation market that is the bastion of Mac Pro sales. What you want is more companies to follow in EVGA's path of offering aftermarket add-ons.
 
Fan noise

The Rominator said:
Booted into OSX 10.6.1 with an 2600XT to "see" from.

The 5870 is idling it's fan, certainly nowhere near 100%.

A sleeping giant.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much Rominator! I see you have the 2007 Mac Pro with the 7300 and the RAM risers facing upwards. My only fear is my 2008 Mac Pro having a different EFI that controls the GPU fan differently. Also the PCI-E lanes are different. I wish I had someone to borrow a 5870 from, and test it!

Last time I tried an MSI 4870 T2D1G-OC for Windows and the fans went on a full blast in OS X. It was too unpleasant to have it in a workstation. This was before any injectors from Netkas.

One thing left to find out wether the OS version coiunts or not. I tried the MSI 4870 with Leopard 10.5.(something) Did the 5870 quiet down during booting into 10.6.1, or was it already quiet prior loading OS X?
 
HardOCP was able to get 3 dual link DVI monitors to work in eyefinity with the dell active DP->DL-DVI adapter, 3 dell 3007's I believe. From the forums it looks like the adapter should work with other monitors of other/lower resolutions, it runs $100 though. I might do this next year if the 5870 is supported next year in mac pro(and hackintosh in my case) then I'll get a third dell 2209WA (only 22" non-TN dell panel, but no DP).
 
thedarkhorse said:
HardOCP was able to get 3 dual link DVI monitors to work in eyefinity with the dell active DP->DL-DVI adapter, 3 dell 3007's I believe. From the forums it looks like the adapter should work with other monitors of other/lower resolutions, it runs $100 though. I might do this next year if the 5870 is supported next year in mac pro(and hackintosh in my case) then I'll get a third dell 2209WA (only 22" non-TN dell panel, but no DP).
Click to expand...

If you look in the sticky thread on "3 DVI Eyefinity" @ [H]ardOCP you will see that nobody has been able to get the Dell adapter for awhile now. You will also see that I posted there about using Apple adapter to enable Eyefinity and already 1 guy followed my advice and has his up and running.

I ordered the Dell adapter on the 15th...still no ship date from Dell.

So, my feeling is that Apple adapter is same thing internally...just in a white Apple case with MDP instead of DP. (pin compatible)
 
I hear there is an ATI Eyefinity card comming with 6 MPD's. Is this true? Would it be possible to run 3 24 LED Apple monitors directly from it? .. Daz
 
Thanks

Thanks Cin!
I can now report that the Geffen DVI to MDP powered adapter will run the Apple 24' LED display using both the Apple GTX285 (DVI only card and the Visiontek 5870. I have purchased 2 and plan to have a 3 Apple LED 24 eyefinity setup running in the next several days...... any input welcomed...Daz

2 of the apple LED's will use geffen DVI/MPD and 1 a mpd to dp adapter. this is all on on apple mac pro 09.....
 
Horrible pics (iPhone) but here's one in my late 2009 Mac Pro
 

Attachments

  • photo(2).jpg
    photo(2).jpg
    136.3 KB · Views: 93
  • photo.jpg
    photo.jpg
    132.2 KB · Views: 117
  • .jpg
    .jpg
    98.7 KB · Views: 108
Dazouri said:
So Romi, you can or cannot boot OSX with 5870. I have an 09 Mac Pro. Daz
Click to expand...

There are no kexts for a 5xxx series ATI graphics card. From The Rominator himself -

The Rominator said:
You will be amazed at the 5870...at least in Windows. Can't wait until it shows up in the Apple kexts....soon after we will be able to have it run in OSX.
Click to expand...

There have been predictions that on the next MacPro update there will be an ATI 5xxx series card. Theoretically, its not that far off.
 
If anyone has OpenCL up under Windows: Can you see this card under a ocl device query? Performance numbers?
 
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