GTX285 or HD4870

[harleymhs]

Hey Guys, I have a 2008 MP 8 core and I want to get a new video card, I have a 8800 in it now, and I need a more powerful card for Win 7 for Flight Simulator. I have 12 GB of ram in the system and I am going to add a 256 SSD for Win 7 and use a WD raptor drive for the Flight Sim. Which is the BETTER video card for the windows side ( dont care about it in OSX ) The GtX285 has 1 GB ram on board and the ATI only has 512mb.. ( like the 8800 ) Any help would be helpful! Thanks in advance.. I dont want to get the GTX 400 series and make it work I rather go with the 4870 or GTX285.. Thanks!!!

 

[jav6454]

Don't get either right now. Get a GTX460 (it's better than GF100 based fermis) or a HD 5850. Drivers (labeit they're hacked) are out for both cards.

 

[Cindori]

Don't get either right now. Get a GTX460 (it's better than GF100 based fermis) or a HD 5850. Drivers (labeit they're hacked) are out for both cards.

although non functional so far

 

[Hellhammer]

Don't get either right now. Get a GTX460 (it's better than GF100 based fermis) or a HD 5850. Drivers (labeit they're hacked) are out for both cards.

I second this, GTX 460 is brilliant card, only Fermi worth buying. If you're going to use it in Windows, you can get any card, just keep the 8800 in there for OS X. There is no reason to get Apple card if it will only be used in Windows

 

[jav6454]

although non functional so far

I have it on good authority you the man here for drivers and such. So I wouldn't doubt the drivers would start to work sometime soon.

 

[Pressure]

Considering you use it for Flight Simulator you should really get the card that offers the best Double Precision performance.

Currently that is the Geforce GTX 480.

 

[jav6454]

Considering you use it for Flight Simulator you should really get the card that offers the best Double Precision performance.

Currently that is the Geforce GTX 480.

No, bad card, not worth the cash and certainly not worth the horrendous power draws + heat production. Like I said GTX 460 is where it is at.

 

[Pressure]

No, bad card, not worth the cash and certainly not worth the horrendous power draws + heat production. Like I said GTX 460 is where it is at.

It doesn't matter. The Geforce GTX 480 is still the fastest Double Precision performance card, which is VERY important with flight simulators.

Flight simulators need double precision because the size of the earth is so large that single precision is only accurate down to around +/- 1 meter at one earth radius from the origin.
Which would be enough for mountains and other terrain but simulating an airstrip in any country where the runway is nearly but not quite level is not going to cut it with single precision. A small bump of 3 cm is quite noticeable when you are rolling on the runway at over 160 KM/H during landing and takeoff.

 

[Hellhammer]

It doesn't matter. The Geforce GTX 480 is still the fastest Double Precision performance card, which is VERY important with flight simulators.

Flight simulators need double precision because the size of the earth is so large that single precision is only accurate down to around +/- 1 meter at one earth radius from the origin.
Which would be enough for mountains and other terrain but simulating an airstrip in any country where the runway is nearly but not quite level is not going to cut it with single precision. A small bump of 3 cm is quite noticeable when you are rolling on the runway at over 160 KM/H during landing and takeoff.

Dual GTX 460s in SLI will run circles around GTX 480 and will still be over 100$ cheaper. May not be that easy to get it work but it should be possible to get SLI in Mac Pro.

 

[harleymhs]

OK, THANKS!! I knew the GT480 is the BEST! But I thought that I could ONLY use a MAC graphics card!! So I can use 2 cards in the machine? Use the 8800 GT for the Mac and BUY any GTX480 for the windows side? How does MAC know what card to use and the same with windows? Do I need to tell them which to use or the 2 OS's will find the correct ones on their own? YOU guys ROCK! No I can order a GTX480 which I knew was the BEST for Flight Simulator! I just thought I had NO other choice cause of OSX! Any brand better than another in the GTX480???? THANKS GUYS!!!!!!!!

 

[Hellhammer]

OK, THANKS!! I knew the GT480 is the BEST! But I thought that I could ONLY use a MAC graphics card!! So I can use 2 cards in the machine? Use the 8800 GT for the Mac and BUY any GTX480 for the windows side? How does MAC know what card to use and the same with windows? Do I need to tell them which to use or the 2 OS's will find the correct ones on their own? YOU guys ROCK! No I can order a GTX480 which I knew was the BEST for Flight Simulator! I just thought I had NO other choice cause of OSX! Any brand better than another in the GTX480???? THANKS GUYS!!!!!!!!

All models should work but I prefer EVGA, they only do high-end stuff and are good at it.

 

[harleymhs]

This is stupid but Will they both fit in the MP ( 8800 and the GTX480 ) Will Ineed anymore power cored for the motherboard or power supply? I know the GTX285 needs 2 power cords! Will the GTX480 need 2 as well? and the 8800 thats in there has one power cord! Now I would need 3 power cords! Do I need to order more power cored or will the GTX480 come for with what I need? Being the 480 is made for PC.s will I have an issue with the power cords? HELP FAST! LOL I need to order the card overnight from amazon! LOL
Looks like the EVGA GTX 480 is the better one am I correct?

 

[Hellhammer]

This is stupid but Will they both fit in the MP ( 8800 and the GTX480 ) Will Ineed anymore power cored for the motherboard or power supply? I know the GTX285 needs 2 power cords! Will the GTX480 need 2 as well? and the 8800 thats in there has one power cord! Now I would need 3 power cords! Do I need to order more power cored or will the GTX480 come for with what I need? Being the 480 is made for PC.s will I have an issue with the power cords? HELP FAST! LOL I need to order the card overnight from amazon! LOL
Looks like the EVGA GTX 480 is the better one am I correct?

You need two of these AFAIK. As I said, I prefer EVGA so IMO EVGA is the best

 

[Pressure]

Dual GTX 460s in SLI will run circles around GTX 480 and will still be over 100$ cheaper. May not be that easy to get it work but it should be possible to get SLI in Mac Pro.

Perhaps in normal games. The Geforce GTX 460 doesn't even average 30FPS in Flight Simulator (1920 x 1080 with 4xAA). Two in SLI won't do any better because Flight Simulator does not take advantage of the extra GPU.

So no, they do not run circles around the Geforce GTX 480.

 

[Hellhammer]

Perhaps in normal games. The Geforce GTX 460 doesn't even average 30FPS in Flight Simulator (1920 x 1080 with 4xAA). Two in SLI won't do any better because Flight Simulator does not take advantage of the extra GPU.

So no, they do not run circles around the Geforce GTX 480.

My mistake then. I thought Flight Simulator is just one game among others and not a special occasion Then the GTX 480 is worth it even though it usually is not

 

[MacVidCards]

Dual GTX 460s in SLI will run circles around GTX 480 and will still be over 100$ cheaper. May not be that easy to get it work but it should be possible to get SLI in Mac Pro.

AFAIK, SLi has been disabled by Nvidia and has not worked on a Mac Pro since 2006 with G70 cards. If you have some special knowledge about this, please share.

 

[Hellhammer]

AFAIK, SLi has been disabled by Nvidia and has not worked on a Mac Pro since 2006 with G70 cards. If you have some special knowledge about this, please share.

I wish I did. I just quickly googled that and it showed it can be done with 2006 MP at least. AFAIK, the current ones would work if hacked drivers existed. Anyway, the GTX 460 is no deal for OP according to Pressure so GTX 480 is his best option (two of those in SLI would probs melt Mac Pro ). NVidia and their bloody limitations, grrr! CrossFire works under Windows, right?

 

[MacVidCards]

Can I suggest that before we go handing out potentially expensive purchase advice that we either :

1. Know what we are talking about

or

2. "quickly google" something that is well known to NOT WORK

While feeling and sounding authoritative is lovely, giving out BAD advice is worse than giving out no advice.

The reason I never give out advice on RAIDs is that I DON'T KNOW A DAMN THING ABOUT THEM and prefer to let actual knowledgeable people give useful advice.

 

[Pressure]

NVidia and their bloody limitations, grrr! CrossFire works under Windows, right?

Yeah, CrossFire works just fine in Windows.

 

[Hellhammer]

Can I suggest that before we go handing out potentially expensive purchase advice that we either :

1. Know what we are talking about

or

2. "quickly google" something that is well known to NOT WORK

While feeling and sounding authoritative is lovely, giving out BAD advice is worse than giving out no advice.

The reason I never give out advice on RAIDs is that I DON'T KNOW A DAMN THING ABOUT THEM and prefer to let actual knowledgeable people give useful advice.

I never said it WILL work. I said it may not be that easy to get it work and it turned out to be harder than I thought. It's not impossible, someone would just have to hack the drivers. You corrected me, so what's the point? You have never made a mistake in your life? It didn't change anything, OP is still getting GTX 480 anyway

 

[Cindori]

The SLI of Mac Pro was made on a 2006 model with two 7600GS cards, if I am not mistaken. The windows driver was hacked to allow custom motherboards.

No one has been able to hack nvidia's drivers since the 7000 series cards.

 

[MacVidCards]

It's not impossible, someone would just have to hack the drivers.

Unless that someone is going to be you, how could you possibly know this?

Further reading will show that THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE. To further sales of their own components Nvidia has written out SLI support for anything but their chipsets. It is a huge issue in Windows world that nobody has found a fix for. Enthusiasm and energy don't solve such things. Knowledge does. I can tell you don't have any.

If you don't know what you are talking about, then S T F U ! The guy was about to click on a "Buy Now" link somewhere, based on your advice he would have gotten a useless setup. Walk away.

 

[Hellhammer]

The guy was about to click on a "Buy Now" link somewhere.

Where? He replied at the same time as I did. There was no harm done so why the anger? If he had bought two of those, then I would understand your anger but he didn't. It was my mistake, I should have read more about it before posting, sorry Can we now move on?

 

[harleymhs]

Hey guys, no fighting!! Can we PLEASE get back to the topic that I started?
I think the idea for 2 VIDEO cards is the BEST for me! I ordered the GTX480 EVGA.. Now my question is whats the BEST way to switch the monitors back and fourth with out pulling the plug on the video cards every time I want to go back to MAC OSX? Thanks GUYS!

 

[Hellhammer]

Hey guys, no fighting!! Can we PLEASE get back to the topic that I started?
I think the idea for 2 VIDEO cards is the BEST for me! I ordered the GTX480 EVGA.. Now my question is whats the BEST way to switch the monitors back and fourth with out pulling the plug on the video cards every time I want to go back to MAC OSX? Thanks GUYS!

Do you mean 8800 + 480 or 2x480? The first one is possible and what you should do but you can't have dual GTX 480 cards in SLI (sorry if I confused you before). Something like this should work AFAIK

EDIT: This seems to be better because it supports higher resolution