AMD Announces ATI Radeon HD 3870 Card For Mac and PC

[diamond.g]

You know, I think I read once that having over sixteen cores doesn't help anything.

Anyway, it'd be awesome if SLI and CrossFire were supported in OS X.

Sadly I don't think SLI will ever be supported. Crossfire may find some love in OS X though.

 

[bbrosemer]

Yeah no where in the press release did it say designed exclusively for Mac Pro's

 

[kabunaru]

Sadly I don't think SLI will ever be supported. Crossfire may find some love in OS X though.

Yes, we would like CrossFire in Mac OS X at least. If a lot of people request CrossFire to AMD/ATI, then maybe AMD/ATI will listen and will release a disk with drivers for CrossFire. What a wonderful idea. 🙂

 

[ZachPruckowski]

Because they aren't roughly the same price.

The cheapest Radeon HD 3870 at Newegg is only $135.

Which makes 3870 CF pretty viable, especially if you get a single slot cooler. But it's worth pointing out that the firmware might need a higher quality 3870 than the cheapest one (not all 8800s work with the OSX firmware, they need the larger flash ROM).

 

[MacsRgr8]

Let the "HD 3870 or 8800 GT" threads begin. 😎
If I were to buy a Mac Pro, I would buy it with this card. I think ATI serves Apple better than Nvidia and ATI cards have better drivers.

Yep.
If you game a lot (especially in Windows), the GeForce 8800 GT is the better choice... for all the rest: get the Radeon HD 3870.

 

[GFLPraxis]

Interesting..."PC & Mac Edition"? So it works in a PC and in a Mac?

Seems ideal for my Hackintosh. 😀

 

[bigandy]

So how is it "designed exclusively for Apple's Mac Pro systems" if there's a Windows version too?


😕

 

[kabunaru]

So how is it "designed exclusively for Apple's Mac Pro systems" if there's a Windows version too?


😕

Perhaps it's a first-of-a-kind video card that supports both Mac and PC? 😕

 

[iStefmac]

Wow, cool....Mac & PC Edition? This must be perfect for my new iMac!!!






.....oh wait

 

[Joe The Dragon]

Indeed. You don't want people saying "AMD video? That'll be as bad as Intel video"! 😱

amd on board video kicks intel ass and you can use side port ram with it.

 

[barryd]

Yep.
If you game a lot (especially in Windows), the GeForce 8800 GT is the better choice... for all the rest: get the Radeon HD 3870.

After looking at the Barefeats link on the first page I am awfully tempted to do my gaming with 2x 3870 in Crossfire under Das Boot Camp.

 

[kabunaru]

After looking at the Barefeats link on the first page I am awfully tempted to do my gaming with 2x 3870 in Crossfire under Das Boot Camp.

Hold on. You could do CrossFire in Windows now with the 3870 on a Mac Pro? 😕
I must have missed that part...

 

[barryd]

I wouldn't even bother...... I'm gonna go with two 3870's in cross fire under windows... so you get better performance in os x with one card, then even better gaming under windows with two..

http://www.barefeats.com/harper18.html

Hold on. You could do CrossFire in Windows now with the 3870 on a Mac Pro? 😕
I must have missed that part...

According to this guy i guess. Also, the Barefeats lists them using 2x 3870 in their test. Maybe someone can confirm this?

 

[Michael73]

C'mon Where's The Pro App Comparison?!?

Gaming comps are nice I suppose, but for the rest of the world who use a Mac to get work done, I'd like to see some comps for a suite of pro apps not just for iMovie which doesn't count.

 

[chadder007]

Next week ATI will launch their new videocards HD 4870. What were they thinking? We have some leftover of the HD 3870, let's sell it at a high price to the mac users?

Yeah, I thought this last gen crap was over when they switched to x86.

 

[diamond.g]

Hold on. You could do CrossFire in Windows now with the 3870 on a Mac Pro? 😕
I must have missed that part...

Crossfire is now a software affair. So yes 3870 CF should be possible in BC.

What I really wonder is if a 3870X2 works in OS X. I mean the drivers should mask the two cards (as it does in Windows) so I would think it should work.

 

[QuantumLo0p]

What about the HD 3870 X2????

What about the HD 3870 X2?

If the Mac Pro had two slots to handle two of these cards then we could have a quad SLI setup.

That would be great except I do CAD/CAM/CAE and definitely could use quad Fire , not Radeon.

Sigh, Perhaps next Christmas.

 

[kabunaru]

What I really wonder is if a 3870X2 works in OS X. I mean the drivers should mask the two cards (as it does in Windows) so I would think it should work.

These are the closest threads I could find about what you are looking for:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/441191/

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/445094/

 

[diamond.g]

These are the closest threads I could find about what you are looking for:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/441191/

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/445094/

I sooo forgot about those threads 😱.

So now the question to be answered is if the "new" ktext solves the fan noise problem.

 

[guzhogi]

I wonder if Nvidia will release the GeForce 9800 for Macs? I would like to see that comparison! Also a Radeon 4870 vs Geforce 9800

 

[hayesk]

I have a quick question. 🙂
Why does AMD still call their graphics cards: "ATI Radeon"? Shouldn't it be: "AMD Radeon" now? Didn't AMD buy/acquire ATI?

Apple owns FileMaker, but they don't call it "Apple FileMaker Pro" or "Apple Pro".

 

[RichardI]

They're getting there. I'm guessing (and hoping) we'll see the 3870 in an iMac some day.

I'm also fairly certain it will make Safari snappier. 😀

Rich 😎

 

[SHOlover]

Do Want.

 

[bigandy]

Perhaps it's a first-of-a-kind video card that supports both Mac and PC? 😕

...but then it still wouldn't be exclusively designed for the Mac Pro, would it?

If their wording was correct, there wouldn't be a PC version. But that wouldn't be great even on a Mac Pro because of Boot Camp...

 

[SchneiderMan]

is it better then the mbp's 8600? im still waiting for the 9 series mac