Crossfire and Physics Accel on an '08 Mac Pro

[nanofrog]

I seem to remember dual apple 4870s with a crossfire link simply not working with crossfire - even when they'd been reflashed with a non Apple ROM. Although ATI's 9.11 Catalyst drivers allowed them to work in Crossfire, bypassing Apple's hardware lockdown. Although, why bother spending all that money on two Apple 4870s? Two Apple 4870 512MB cards = $698. Two PC 4870 1024MB cards = ~$400. Apple's pricing is insane. Why bother getting a pair of year old cards that had half the memory compared to most of its PC counterparts at the time when for $650 you can now get a PC 5970??

I agee, that a pair of Apple cards is a waste. If a user was too afraid of flashing or using an injector, then one Apple version and one PC version should suffice, and save $$$ in the process.

And like you say, if someone is going to go to the trouble, go for the newer card and run it under Windows if there's no way to get it working under OS X. Just keep the stock graphics card in the system (or upgrade if more than the basic model is needed on the OS X side). At least cards (manufacturers) can be mixed under Windows 7 (as I recall Vista not working that way).

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

I agee, that a pair of Apple cards is a waste. If a user was too afraid of flashing or using an injector, then one Apple version and one PC version should suffice, and save $$$ in the process.

And like you say, if someone is going to go to the trouble, go for the newer card and run it under Windows if there's no way to get it working under OS X. Just keep the stock graphics card in the system (or upgrade if more than the basic model is needed on the OS X side). At least cards (manufacturers) can be mixed under Windows 7 (as I recall Vista not working that way).

Yeah. Chances are 5xxx series will come to OS X within the next six months tops if not sooner anyway.

 

[nanofrog]

Yeah. Chances are 5xxx series will come to OS X within the next six months tops if not sooner anyway.

I'm thinking it will show as well, but not so sure on the date. Likely within 6 mo., but not certain. It always feels odd predicting those dates, as it's not always coincided with the release of a new MP line (in general, as the GTX285 didn't IIRC).

What I do hope, is that it will work in the EFI32 systems as the 4870 does (granted it won't be very useful for GPGPU calculations <single precision only in those systems>, but that's not what most need anyway).

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

I'm thinking it will show as well, but not so sure on the date. Likely within 6 mo., but not certain. It always feels odd predicting those dates, as it's not always coincided with the release of a new MP line (in general, as the GTX285 didn't IIRC).

What I do hope, is that it will work in the EFI32 systems as the 4870 does (granted it won't be very useful for GPGPU calculations <single precision only in those systems>, but that's not what most need anyway).

Yeah but the GTX285 isn't made by Apple, it's made by EVGA. Provided the sales of the 285 were good, EVGA will probably release a Fermi based card within a few months of general release.

The Mac Pro is overdue a refresh now and the GPU is already over a year and a half old. When a refresh does come it will most likely have a next gen graphics card. So probably either a 5870 1GB card or whatever nVidia has to offer if they ever actually get round to releasing their vaporware next gen chips. Although Apple is strongly favouring ATI in all their machines right now (apart from the necessity to keep the 9400m for the time being), probably because of nVidia burning Apple's hands with all those faulty chips, nVidia cards are better at OpenCL type stuff thanks to far better drivers in those regards. If Apple updates the MP line before March then it'll probably be a 5870. Afterwards, it could be either. Then again, they could just add an even faster CPU speed and charge an even higher price for it and leave everything else untouched for another six months.

 

[nanofrog]

Yeah but the GTX285 isn't made by Apple, it's made by EVGA. Provided the sales of the 285 were good, EVGA will probably release a Fermi based card within a few months of general release.

I know it's 3rd party, as is the Quadro FX4800 Mac Edition (PNY), but both are available directly from Apple. They just aren't offered as options for BTO systems, and are separate purchases only.

Unfortunately, graphics card choices have always been lean, and it doesn't appear it's going to change much in the near future. I guess MP users should consider themselves lucky to have 4 available ATM.

The Mac Pro is overdue a refresh now and the GPU is already over a year and a half old. When a refresh does come it will most likely have a next gen graphics card. So probably either a 5870 1GB card or whatever nVidia has to offer if they ever actually get round to releasing their vaporware next gen chips. Although Apple is strongly favouring ATI in all their machines right now (apart from the necessity to keep the 9400m for the time being), probably because of nVidia burning Apple's hands with all those faulty chips, nVidia cards are better at OpenCL type stuff thanks to far better drivers in those regards. If Apple updates the MP line before March then it'll probably be a 5870. Afterwards, it could be either. Then again, they could just add an even faster CPU speed and charge an even higher price for it and leave everything else untouched for another six months.

The 2010's won't be too long, and I'd think the 5870 will be a BTO option (and separate part for upgrades), given the ATI cards work well (decent drivers, especially compared to those for the nVidia cards). Even if it releases later than the new MP's.

I'm not sure how long nVidia's going to be able to hold out, TBH. The next few products will either save or sink them IMO (as they've had bad products in their chipset offerings as well). Given their track record, and the complexity of the 300 series of GPU's, I'm not sure it's going to go well for them. It's an uphill battle anyway, and would take a major shift in how they do things.