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Apple's ATI Radeon HD 5870 Works in 2008 Mac Pro

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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According to Barefeats, Apple's ATI Radeon HD 5870 Graphics Upgrade Kit ($449) for the Mac Pro does indeed work in the 2008 Mac Pro. This is despite the fact that Apple only officially lists the 2009 and 2010 Mac Pros as supported hardware for the upgrade card.
We plugged the Radeon HD 5870 into the 2008 Mac Pro. It works like a charm. Runs Portal faster than the 6-core Westmere. Details coming soon.
Click to expand...
This gives existing 2008 Mac Pro owners another video card upgrade option from Apple. We had previously reported when the video cards had become available for purchase from Apple's online store. Barefeats has posted some preliminary results on the forums:
Here's an appetizer. I'm benchmarking Portal First Slice (which all my remote testers are using).

At 1920x1200 with these settings:
Model Detail = High, Texture Detail = High, Shader Detail = High
Water Detail = Reflect All, Shadow Detail = High, Color Correction = Enabled
Antialiasing Mode = None, Filtering Mode = Anisotropic 4X
Vertical Sync = Disabled, Motion Blur = Enabled

The 6-core Westmere 3.33 (2010) with Radeon HD 5870 = 233 FPS avg
The 8-core Harpertown 3.2 (2008) with Radeon HD 5870 = 250 FPS avg
The 2008 model is faster!!
Click to expand...
Full results should appear on Barefeats shortly.

Article Link: Apple's ATI Radeon HD 5870 Works in 2008 Mac Pro
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/08/24/apples-ati-radeon-hd-5870-works-in-2008-mac-pro/
I know many people are asking about the 2006 ... but would you want to spend $450+ on a 4 year old machine? That's 1/4 the price of a new setup.
 
A PCI express card works in a computer with a PCI express slot. stop the presses, this is amazing
 
Apple doesn't "support" it for the 2008 Mac Pro because they would rather have 2008 MP owners buy a completely new system in order to get the new video card.

Unfortunately for Apple, consumers are smarter than that.
 
Wild-Bill said:
Apple doesn't "support" it for the 2008 Mac Pro because they would rather have 2008 MP owners buy a completely new system in order to get the new video card.

Unfortunately for Apple, consumers are smarter than that.
Click to expand...

yep it more proof of typical Apple. They will lie on marketing among the worse of the worse or even intentally break things just to force people to upgrade.

Would I honestly be shocked if apple broke this ablity in the future. No I would not.
 
Yeah I did not get that...they state is a PCIe2.0 spec card as long as you have a PCIe 2.0 slot whats the difference?

I'm glad someone tried this because I was writing them off, now I am back on board with them.

-mark
 
Screw it working on a 2006 MP, I want this on my 2006 MacBook :p ha, even with an external adaptor it would rock my world.

*wakes up in real world* :(
 
This is good news indeed. What I'm curious about is why Apple says that the card only works with the 2009 and 2010 models... There must be a reason. It can't simply be that they want us all to upgrade to the newest models. I'd hate to drop $400 on the card only to have a software update kill it (not saying that's what's gonna happen, but I'm just thinking out loud).
 
mmh... Maybe it DOES support it but performance isn't "up to Apple's standards"? Kind of iOS 4 on 1st gen iPhone, but better? :confused:
 
ranReloaded said:
mmh... Maybe it DOES support it but performance isn't "up to Apple's standards"? Kind of iOS 4 on 1st gen iPhone, but better? :confused:
Click to expand...

No this is a standard case of apples greed.

Just FYI you can buy a card from new egg, do a few extra steps and spend way less on this card.
 
mwayne85 said:
This is good news indeed. What I'm curious about is why Apple says that the card only works with the 2009 and 2010 models... There must be a reason. It can't simply be that they want us all to upgrade to the newest models. I'd hate to drop $400 on the card only to have a software update kill it (not saying that's what's gonna happen, but I'm just thinking out loud).
Click to expand...

My guess is that its a support decision. When you are given a project you need to budget your allocated time between engineering/development and testing and various other things like project management. The team probably opted to save hours/cost on testing by cutting out the 2008 mac pro from their testing matrix.

Its more a matter of the cost of supporting it and testing it than it not actually working. Apple is notorious for expecting their customers to upgrade often -- though I would think they would lengthen the expected timespan for upgrade with the Mac Pro series -- these machines are meant to be expandable so they can last 5 years.

If Apple wanted to be jerks and force upgrades they would find some way to make it not work on the older hardware.

As a side note, I called the Apple store and asked if they carried third-party shoelace cases for the Nike+ sensor. They told me that Apple does not support Nike+iPod on non-Nike shoes. Does that make me think for one minute that it won't work? More likely a contractual agreement with Nike.
 
Xenious said:
When it will actually be for sale?
Click to expand...

Yeah to me the question isn't "why did Apple say it only works with 2009 and 2010 MPs" it's "when will they actually start selling it?"

I understand they want to give inventory priority to new Mac Pro buyers, but they could still let people place orders, no?
 
mwayne85 said:
It can't simply be that they want us all to upgrade to the newest models.
Click to expand...

Yes it can. We now have hard evidence that it does work (as most expected) in the 2008 Mac Pro. Apple does not support it because they want you to buy a new machine.

Same thing happened with the nVidia 8800GT and the 2006 Mac Pro. Apple was hounded by angry 2006 MP owners and they eventually came up with a solution. I think it was EFI related but not sure.
 
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