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Anyone successfully run an ati 4870 and gt 120 together?

G

gtsmygts

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 21, 2009
8
0
Hi,

My Mac Pro with ati 4870 card will be coming in about 2 weeks time. I need it to run 3 monitors.

Has anyone or you know of anyone who have successfully ran both the ati 4870 and the gt 120 together in the new mac pro 2009?

Any known problems, compatibility issues with software etc...

Thanks
 
Tallest Skil said:
You don't read many of my posts, do you? :p

It works. There are no problems. Don't even think about running Vista. XP and 7 are fine.
Click to expand...

will vista work with VMWare? (the monitor running vista will be plugged to the gt 120 and the Ati 4870 will be plugged to the other 2 monitors)

or you are refering to bootcamp?
 
Tallest Skil said:
Nothing right now, except the ability to run more than two monitors or one monitor on each (my setup), but Snow Leopard will let us use the power of both cards for general processing, so more than one card gives us even more power.
Click to expand...

Are you currently running 2 ACD 24" displays with this setup? or did u buy the extra card for more processin in the future?

if ur running 2 monitors could u please show a pic of ur setup thx
 
gtsmygts said:
will vista work with VMWare? (the monitor running vista will be plugged to the gt 120 and the Ati 4870 will be plugged to the other 2 monitors)

or you are refering to bootcamp?
Click to expand...

Er... I don't know how VMWare deals with GPUs. I was under the impression that it only emulated a generic GPU with extra power gleaned from the processor. I could be wrong; I don't use it.

Yes, I was referring to Boot Camp. Vista with mixed manufacturer cards goes haywire.

KBS756 said:
Are you currently running 2 ACD 24" displays with this setup? or did u buy the extra card for more processin in the future?

if ur running 2 monitors could u please show a pic of ur setup thx
Click to expand...

Two 24" monitors, but not LED Cinema Displays. I'll post pictures sometime late next week of my setup as a whole and of how the 4870 and GT 120 play in terms of physical spacing and in terms of use in Leopard, Snow Leopard, and Windows 7.
 
Tallest Skil said:
Er... I don't know how VMWare deals with GPUs. I was under the impression that it only emulated a generic GPU with extra power gleaned from the processor. I could be wrong; I don't use it.

Yes, I was referring to Boot Camp. Vista with mixed manufacturer cards goes haywire.



Two 24" monitors, but not LED Cinema Displays. I'll post pictures sometime late next week of my setup as a whole and of how the 4870 and GT 120 play in terms of physical spacing and in terms of use in Leopard, Snow Leopard, and Windows 7.
Click to expand...

kk thanks looking forward to seeing it ...

does anyone run 2 24 led ACD's i'm wondering if that even will fit since the cords are so short
 
I wanted to order but, Apple told me they can't install CTO

I need 2 screens, have one 24" LED Apple now, want another the same when and if I order a new MP, so I need two cards for the infamous Mini DVI cables. Apple told me, they do not recommend, have reports of inconsistencies with installing both 4870 and the 120 together. You are running both without any problems? (BTW..I do not use Windows, use Cross over.) Do you use one monitor with the better card for certain apps.? I am needing for photo and video editing. And.. curious what you may think if I ran 2 120 cards (for the connections) for my type of work, would it make a real difference for my apps. or if the apps. will not work well without the better card? Thanks....:)

Tallest Skil said:
You don't read many of my posts, do you? :p

It works. There are no problems. Don't even think about running Vista. XP and 7 are fine.
Click to expand...
 
gtsmygts said:
will vista work with VMWare? (the monitor running vista will be plugged to the gt 120 and the Ati 4870 will be plugged to the other 2 monitors)

or you are refering to bootcamp?
Click to expand...

No problems, tested the setup with Vmware (migrated my entire laptop environment over).
For XP - works great
 
D3 Shooter said:
I need 2 screens, have one 24" LED Apple now, want another the same when and if I order a new MP, so I need two cards for the infamous Mini DVI cables. Apple told me, they do not recommend, have reports of inconsistencies with installing both 4870 and the 120 together. You are running both without any problems? (BTW..I do not use Windows, use Cross over.) Do you use one monitor with the better card for certain apps.? I am needing for photo and video editing. And.. curious what you may think if I ran 2 120 cards (for the connections) for my type of work, would it make a real difference for my apps. or if the apps. will not work well without the better card? Thanks....:)
Click to expand...


Who at Apple told you that ? I've ran into a few at the retail store that were clueless about the video cards and tried to tell me there wasn't much difference between the GT 120 and the 4870 in power and other silly things (and they were trying to sell this idea on gaming of all things).

Anyway I have a GT 120 and a 3870 while waiting on the 4870 and there are no issues with it - running VMware causes no issues dragging from one screen/gpu to the other either - OS X handles the hardware - VMware just believes there is a "graphics adapter" there.

Also waiting to hook them both up when the 4870 comes in (right now running one of my Apple 24" off the new mini ) but they can and do sit side by side and would have no problem hooking up to the Pro , with it positioned behind the desk (raised about a foot off the ground ).

Works perfect for me atm , so you shouldn't have any problems with a 4870 and GT 120 , the 3870 and GT work fine both OS X and VMware Vista to server 08 and other OS's.
 
The only problem I seem to be having with Vista Vmware is dragging large files from Vista to Mac I seem to be getting some errors on vista and it restarts.

Think its Vista part not the dual cards set up (GT 120 and ATI 4870)
 
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