Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Fastest *legitimate* video card for Mac Pro 1,1?

S

StephenCampbell

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 21, 2009
1,043
54
I have the X1900XT in my Mac Pro 1,1, which I got when I first got the machine. I don't really game, and don't really need anything better, but I'm probably gonna be playing a few minutes of Call of Duty 4 here and there, and thought it would be nice to have a video card that can handle it the way the X1900XT handles Call of Duty 2.

I don't want to flash anything.. I would just want whatever the fastest official Mac card for my machine is. Can someone explain to me how it all played out in the last five years? I kind of didn't keep up to date.

Thanks!
 
The latest (and most powerful) video card for mac pro, is the HD 5870, which you can still buy on the Apple Store ;)

The card will be a little CPU limited, but for 3D stuff, it's the best you can get.
 
Hm.. that's actually out of my price range. I didn't realize they could be that much money.

Is there a card in the $200 range that would be a significant upgrade from the X1900XT?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

You can get much faster 6870 for cheaper than the 5770 but it isnt officially supported.
 
I think that the 5770 is indeed the card you need.
Really quiet, and much more powerful than the X1900.
 
nanofrog said:
If you must have it now, the 5770 would fit your requirements.
Click to expand...

And if I don't have to have it now? Is there a better option coming?

How does the 5770 compare to the 4870? Are these different cards from the same series/year? Or does the 5 and the 4 indicate different years?
 
StephenCampbell said:
And if I don't have to have it now? Is there a better option coming?

How does the 5770 compare to the 4870? Are these different cards from the same series/year? Or does the 5 and the 4 indicate different years?
Click to expand...

There is always something better coming but I have seen indications that an upgrade to a 5870 did little in OS X on a 1,1 to warrant the upgrade. Not sure if any gains will happen on new cards or not.
The 5770 is about equal to 4870. Give or take dx9 vs. dx10. The 5770 uses far less power to get roughly the same job done. The 5 or 4 is better seen as generation not year. Also the 4870 is REALLY loud compared to 5770 at idle and full fans.
 
5770 is about 10% better than the 4870.
Plus, it is
- DX 10 compatible if you plan to windows game sometime
- much less power eater (only needs 1 PCIE cable against 2 for the 4870)
- way quieter than the 4870
- cheaper ...

This is the card your MP needs.
I had a MP 1,1 4x 3GHz with a 5870, and the card was CPU limited.
So, again, you don't need to wait for newer cards, the 5770 is the one for you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back