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92jlee

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 11, 2009
277
0
Cardiff, Wales, UK
Hi guys,

My 3870 is playing up making lines all over the screen and one hell of a noise - I'm thinking of getting a 5770 from Apple so I can have the boot screens. I don't want to mess around with flashing etc and don't have access to paypal or ebay to buy second hand.

If I spend the rediculous £200 on an apple 5770 can I pick up a generic PC 5770 and crossfire them together for gaming under windows? I mean rather than spending £200 for the 5770 and another £200+ for a high end line PC card wouldn't crossfireing 2 together work well?

I mainly play strategy games and SW:TOR but my monitors are 27" 1600 x 1200 so my PC 4850 isn't that good.

Let me know your suggestions,

Cheers!
 

slughead

macrumors 68040
Apr 28, 2004
3,107
237
Yes, you can crossfire a mac and a PC 5770. I think it may be cheaper to flash a PC one though,.
 

lloyd709

macrumors 6502
Jan 10, 2008
312
0
I tried it and didn't get any boost in performance!!! I bought 2 Mac 5770s to test crossfire and a 5870 to compare (with the intension of sending at least one back!).

I don't think I made any mistakes with the crossfire (windows reported it was working correctly) but it gave me zero performance increase in games - I think the MapPro simply maxes out in other places at about what a single 5770 gives you. The 5870 gave me a little performance increase in some games but not enough to justify the extra cost (or noise!).

Before I did this I looked hard for someone else that might have already done it but couldn't fine anyone - I found lots of people that said it would work though (without having actually tired it)!!
 

92jlee

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 11, 2009
277
0
Cardiff, Wales, UK
I tried it and didn't get any boost in performance!!! I bought 2 Mac 5770s to test crossfire and a 5870 to compare (with the intension of sending at least one back!).

I don't think I made any mistakes with the crossfire (windows reported it was working correctly) but it gave me zero performance increase in games - I think the MapPro simply maxes out in other places at about what a single 5770 gives you. The 5870 gave me a little performance increase in some games but not enough to justify the extra cost (or noise!).

Before I did this I looked hard for someone else that might have already done it but couldn't fine anyone - I found lots of people that said it would work though (without having actually tired it)!!

Thanks for the info, saves me going through all the trouble to not gain any performance.

Everyone says about flashing 5770s but its all too complicated, yes £200 is rediculous money and I'd gladly pay someone to flash but the only guys who do it seems to be macvidcards and they are expensive and use paypal.
 

ActionableMango

macrumors G3
Sep 21, 2010
9,612
6,907
If you can live without the boot screens, just pop in a PC 6870. It will cost less than the Apple 5770, perform better than 5770 xfire, and you don't have to flash it.
 
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