ATI 4870 Crossfire, hypothetical question...

[inigel]

I'm am sick of being on the **** end of Apple's pricing stick (I live in Australia) and have decided to buy a PC 4870 and flash the ROM.

I can get a good deal on two 512MB cards, and I thought that would be awesome for gaming.

My questions are;

1- Will the cards work properly in Mac OS X if I crossfire them?
2- Do both cards have to be flashed to Mac versions?
3- Is this possible at all?

 

[Cindori]

There are no crossfire drivers in OSX. Crossfire does not work.

In Windows, crossfire works.


They have to be flashed to be used in OSX.

Also, if you don't get the right model, only 1 DVI will work on the card.


Just do like me and get the 4890

 

[inigel]

There are no crossfire drivers in OSX. Crossfire does not work.

OK, but will the card work? Or does having the card crossfired change everything?

 

[Cindori]

It will probably work as 1 4870.

 

[Andrew Henry]

It will probably work as 1 4870.

No it wont, if anything it will show as 2 separate cards.

 

[Tallest Skil]

Do not flash them. Install netkas' injector to run PC cards natively.

OS X does not support CrossFire in any way, shape, or form. Two cards will show up as two cards. The second card will be useless unless you have a monitor plugged into it.

 

[lannister80]

Do not flash them. Install netkas' injector to run PC cards natively.

If you like leaving 2 video cards in your box just to get it to boot.

Extra heat = bad

 

[inigel]

Thanks for the responses. It seems like too much effort.

I'll just build a dedicated box for gaming.

 

[noiceT]

Yeah, injectors are great, and a real step forward imo.
However, the problem though I have is while running 2 vid cards does equal more heat and use more power, the thing that worries me the most is the fact that I'm going to be relying on a 7300gt.

With the fact of them failing at a high rate, using the 7300gt as the EFI boot for a PC card puts the PC card at the mercy of the 7300; once it goes...no more osx for you... and now you just have a card that works in windows.

 

[Cindori]

Yeah, injectors are great, and a real step forward imo.
However, the problem though I have is while running 2 vid cards does equal more heat and use more power, the thing that worries me the most is the fact that I'm going to be relying on a 7300gt.

With the fact of them failing at a high rate, using the 7300gt as the EFI boot for a PC card puts the PC card at the mercy of the 7300; once it goes...no more osx for you... and now you just have a card that works in windows.

For the 285, yes. For the 4890, no need