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GRAPHICS CARD : Need to upgrade from ATI Radeon X1900.. can anyone help?

F

fantismo

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 12, 2009
28
0
Hi there.. GRAPHICS CARD HELP PLEASE! :)

I have a MACPRO early 2008.. i upgraded in build to a X1900.

I have a budget of about £300 and want to go for the best I can get.. can anyone help me from their experience?

Really appreciate any help guys (and gals!)

B
 
As Hellhammer says, the two realistic options from Apple are the 5770 and the 5870. The former is a decent card, at least at 1920x1200 resolution, for gaming, and is under your budget. If you can reach to the 5870 though, way better.
 
thats great... do you think ill see a great improvement then - i mainly use ableton live and have a number of windows open which can slow down a bit.. become choppy when moving things around..
 
fantismo said:
thats great... do you think ill see a great improvement then - i mainly use ableton live and have a number of windows open which can slow down a bit.. become choppy when moving things around..
Click to expand...

For your use (ie: not games) then the 5770 is what you need. It should make moving your windows around perfectly smooth. How many displays are you using?

Pressure said:
Another option is the Radeon HD 6870, which is nearly plug'n'play.
Click to expand...

Emphasis on nearly. The 6870 isn't officially supported by Apple, and is a hack to get working. Obviously some people are happy with this.

fantismo said:
Hi

So ive been to the AMD website.. whats the difference between AMD and ATI.. do both these product lines work fine in my EARLY 2008 MACPRO?....

AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series
ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series

Also..

This is the apple link.. http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MC743ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA5OQ&mco=MTg2OTU0NTI

Does that mean I'll get two cards to work in tandem.. if not.. its very confusing!! :)

Ben
Click to expand...

AMD and ATi are the same company, and from the 6xxx series all cards are now under the AMD brand.

You can't use Crossfire in OS X (ie: two cards in tandem), it simply isn't supported. And yes, that is the correct card for the 5870, but again, I think you'll be fine with the cheaper 5770.

You can't just go and buy a GPU off a shelf - for it to work natively, it has to be one of the cards from Apple. There are hacks to get PC cards working (like the 6870), but that can be a lot of hassle and not 100%.
 
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