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Finally an affordable GPU upgrade for MacPro 1,1 owners?
- Thread starter zorinlynx
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+1 for a 5870 here in my '06 Pro. A new GPU and half a dozen gig more RAM and my Pro will keep rocking for another 2 years!
If I had got an iMac back when I was in Uni 4 years ago, I would:
a) have not produced work as fast as I did with my Pro
b) not been able to upgrade it so extensively (despite limited official GPU choices) and certainly wouldnt have been able to plug 4.5 Tb of disk space into it!
c) would have already been forced to replace it with a new model!
Love my Pro!
If I had got an iMac back when I was in Uni 4 years ago, I would:
a) have not produced work as fast as I did with my Pro
b) not been able to upgrade it so extensively (despite limited official GPU choices) and certainly wouldnt have been able to plug 4.5 Tb of disk space into it!
c) would have already been forced to replace it with a new model!
Love my Pro!
Where are you getting that figure? Charts I've seen show the 5870 consuming around 150W idle!
And here I was hoping to get a performance card that wouldn't increase idle consumption much more than the 2008's stock, weak 2600 (~13W IIRC), one of the reasons I hadn't gone for the 285...
+2 for a 5870 for my 2008 MP as well! As several people have pointed out, there is a very real possibility that there will be a considerable amount of Apple Tax applied to the final price, so it may be more worthwhile to go with a PC card flashed with the 5870 BIOS.
Right now the lowest price for a PC-5870 is $379.99, but the average is $400. now that is a full-RETAIL 5870xt with an 850MHz core clock and 1200MHz memory clock.
Who knows what Apple's will be clocked at???
Newegg 5870's
Cindori, Rominator, netkas, and others should be working on it when the Apple 5870's hit the streets and someone provides them with the ROM dump.
I know I speak for others when I say their work is VERY appreciated!
Right now the lowest price for a PC-5870 is $379.99, but the average is $400. now that is a full-RETAIL 5870xt with an 850MHz core clock and 1200MHz memory clock.
Who knows what Apple's will be clocked at???
Newegg 5870's
Cindori, Rominator, netkas, and others should be working on it when the Apple 5870's hit the streets and someone provides them with the ROM dump.
I know I speak for others when I say their work is VERY appreciated!
I've mentioned this before, but it may be possible that will sell the 5870 at original MSRP - supply on the 58xx series cards has been constrained and demand so great that the cards have been selling at MSRP or higher, frequently.
Intriugingly, the reason the tax is so harsh is that insists on selling at original MSRP for the high end cards - whose prices actually start quite high - long after their prices have dropped to half of that. In this case, they might actually be selling the card at what other retailers charge.
This, of course, assumes that ATI isn't about to start selling a new release, causing prices to drop like a stone, leaving us with a hefty overcharging. It's quite plausible.
What I'm more curious about, right now, is the three-monitor support. I know we won't have Eyefinity or anything quite like it, but all the same I'm curious - will this support three dual-link DVI equivalent displays? How well will that work? etc., etc.
Intriugingly, the reason the tax is so harsh is that insists on selling at original MSRP for the high end cards - whose prices actually start quite high - long after their prices have dropped to half of that. In this case, they might actually be selling the card at what other retailers charge.
This, of course, assumes that ATI isn't about to start selling a new release, causing prices to drop like a stone, leaving us with a hefty overcharging. It's quite plausible.
What I'm more curious about, right now, is the three-monitor support. I know we won't have Eyefinity or anything quite like it, but all the same I'm curious - will this support three dual-link DVI equivalent displays? How well will that work? etc., etc.
You will be able to run 2 @ DVI but 3 rd will need DP or an active adapter. NOT a driver thing but based on timing mechanism on cards.
Right, that much I know from what I've read already. But will that work fully in OS X? Will we be able to use MDP to DP converters for full functionality?
Just a follow-up: it would seem I've gravely misread the chart, which displays the total power consumption of the test computer, not just the card. That's rather counterintuitive (useless?), but having now looked at the card's review article, it means the poster I originally quoted was correct.
Back on topic...
This isn't looking good for us Mac Pro 1.1 owners.
The radeons in the new iMacs have 64-bit EFI.
There's a very high probability that desktop cards will have 64-bit EFI too, unless their firmware are developed by different people (say Apple vs. AMD), which I doubt.
I'm pissed.
This isn't looking good for us Mac Pro 1.1 owners.
The radeons in the new iMacs have 64-bit EFI.
There's a very high probability that desktop cards will have 64-bit EFI too, unless their firmware are developed by different people (say Apple vs. AMD), which I doubt.
I'm pissed.
What is the current recommendation for MacPro1,1 owners?
An Apple 5770? A flashed (4xxx) PC card? Or do we need to wait to see?
An Apple 5770? A flashed (4xxx) PC card? Or do we need to wait to see?
And here I was hoping to get a performance card that wouldn't increase idle consumption much more than the 2008's stock, weak 2600 (~13W IIRC), one of the reasons I hadn't gone for the 285...
If I remember correctly, there was an ambiguous firmware update for the 2600, which resolved some sleep issues but it increased the idle power consumption considerably (basically, it disabled some low-power states).
My card was noisier after the update and consumes almost 20W more. So I think that the 5870 will consume even less than an "updated" 2600...
Not sure if this power increase was related to firmware... as toggling between 10.5.2 and a later version of the OS switches the problem on and off... also, while I have the problem - others such as Alifhar do not under 10.6.4...
I hope this is the case, and the 5000 series works properly in the 2006 1,1 MacPro's, If it does.... Im long overdue for a graphics upgrade, OpenGL 3.2 and.... OpenCL !!
I wonder if the 2006 1,1 and 2008 are similar and could be flashed to get EFI64 ?? Now would be GREAT!!! (I think thats just dreaming though....)
It just seems daft to me, Selling a Machine with a fully 64-bit capable CPU architecture, and just having a EFI32...? Dumb decision on Apples part I think, just does not seem logical. I hope REALLY REALLY hope they update ALL the MacPros including the 2006 1,1 to have a universal EFI.