ATI 5870's are now shipping!

[ventro]

Maybe this will drive down the price of the 285, which in turn will make it easier for people like The Rominator to flash/resell em.

 

[Pressure]

didn't we get our drivers for our flashed 4870's from netkas a few weeks before they came in the 10.5.7 update?

No, they came from the developer seed.

 

[Pressure]

To add something actually relevant to this thread, since we have no clue if or when 5870 mac drivers will exist, there is some very good news in its announcement:

The Eyefinity card with 6 mini-Displayports. If you hate MDP this is bad news, but for those of us who have to live with it, this is great news because it means it's becoming standard on hardware - that card only has MDP and is designed to run 6 monitors simultaneously. So it's now being built into cards and monitors, which means it is not 's niche product, but soon to be included standard on hardware that is not made by . I have to imagine that Samsung array they're showing it off on will use MDP if it doesn't already.

You can get Mini-DisplayPort to DVI cables (2 x Single Link, 1920 x 1200 resolution), which is probably what they were using.

Anyway, I asked Dave (the Radeon HD 5870 product manager) about an EFI compatible card since it uses Mini-DisplayPort connectors and the only currently shipping monitor with MDP is the Apple LED Cinema Display.

He didn't answer the specific question though but clarified that the Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity / SIX version with 6 Mini-DisplayPort connectors will be the same length as the Radeon HD 5870.

So there is hope

 

[Salavat23]

The 5870 Eyefinity Edition with 6 mini-display ports only supports up to resolutions of 1920x1200. Not because the card cannot output the signal, but because a mini-displayport cable is only capable of sending out 1920x1200 signals. If you want to run 6 30" monitors, you can do that, but only through the use of mini-displayport to Dual-link DVI adapters, that the Eyefinity edition should come with.

So, yes, you can run 6x 30" ACDs with one 5870 Eyefinity.

 

[lixuelai]

miniDisplayPort can do 2560x1600.

 

[TheStrudel]

Mini Displayport carries just as much bandwidth as Displayport. It just uses a smaller physical connector.  does make a dual-link DVI to MDP adapter, though their particular product is flaky.

 

[Pressure]

The 5870 Eyefinity Edition with 6 mini-display ports only supports up to resolutions of 1920x1200. Not because the card cannot output the signal, but because a mini-displayport cable is only capable of sending out 1920x1200 signals. If you want to run 6 30" monitors, you can do that, but only through the use of mini-displayport to Dual-link DVI adapters, that the Eyefinity edition should come with.

So, yes, you can run 6x 30" ACDs with one 5870 Eyefinity.

That's just gibberish. Mini-DisplayPort and DisplayPort signals are identical. Both can output 2560 x 1600 pixels.

Update: NINJA'd

 

[TheStrudel]

At any rate, we mac users can rejoice because MDP is not to be consigned to the same fate as Mini-VGA, Mini-DVI, and Micro-DVI.

Not only is it part of a standard, but other manufacturers are using it with no encouragement or ties to . Because the connector is small enough to fit them all, amusingly enough.