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Mac Pro 1st Generation Graphics Cards

H

htdefiant

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 19, 2006
77
0
So, its now the 3870 vs. the 8800. As someone who plays games on the Windows and uses iLife '08 on the Mac side (not many games though), which card is looking better?
 
For your needs it sounds like the 8800 GT will be better, especially for games under Windows. (unless you want to spend around $450 and get two 3870s for Crossfire under Windows)
 
The 8800GT will be significantly better under windows than the 3870, unless, as Mackilroy said, you are willing to go Crossfire'd 3870's.
 
htdefiant said:
So, its now the 3870 vs. the 8800. As someone who plays games on the Windows and uses iLife '08 on the Mac side (not many games though), which card is looking better?
Click to expand...

Get 2 3870s and CrossFire them in Windows when playing games. Overall, the 3870 is better for OS X than 8800 GT except for games but it's not far behind.
 
I am looking at the MacPro in the AppleUK shopping area and I do not see a 3870 option :confused:
 
kabunaru said:
Get 2 3870s and CrossFire them in Windows when playing games. Overall, the 3870 is better for OS X than 8800 GT except for games but it's not far behind.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's only $440!

wait...

Also, I don't think crossfire works in OS X... may be okay for this guy--who only games in windows--but may not be good if he ever gets a mac game.
 
Can you expand on this crossfire option? I would get two 3870s and do what exactly with them? And how much does this cost?
Sorry for the dumb questions :p
 
Crossfire is ATI's answer to SLI, which is Nvidia's method of slapping two separate GPUs together to get (theoretically) twice as much speed. In reality, that doesn't happen, though you do see an improvement.

So: what you do is you'd buy two cards, connect them with the Crossfire cable, and it would cost around $440 USD.
 
THE MONEY IS OK, for the long RUN (You don't have to buy BOTH of the cards together)
As long as I'm having the option for Crossfire or SLI, It'll be OK (^_^)
I have the same problem I don't know what to buy....

I want to have the option of doing SLI or Crossfire, these are MY THOUGHTS

BOTH cards are almost the same ... Max. 10-15 frames different in high res. gaming

BOTH of them are great when you use SLI or Crossfire (I didn't see any Benchmarks)


FIRST... 8800GT
Support SLI on early version of Mac Pro??? YES or NO? (Win only)
I don't know, DID any one tried it?
PLZ post your results and some photos.

SECOND... ATI 3870
Support Crossfire on early version of Mac Pro??? BIG YES
According to there site, and the fact the you'll have the Crossfire adapter included with the card (Win only).

For the future of gaming on my Mac Pro, I'm definitely getting ATI 3870.

BUT if 8800Gt supports SLI on 1st gen Mac Pro , I'll kiss ATI good buy.
 
hms84 said:
FIRST... 8800GT
Support SLI on early version of Mac Pro??? YES or NO? (Win only)
I don't know, DID any one tried it?
PLZ post your results and some photos.

SECOND... ATI 3870
Support Crossfire on early version of Mac Pro??? BIG YES
According to there site, and the fact the you'll have the Crossfire adapter included with the card (Win only).

For the future of gaming on my Mac Pro, I'm definitely getting ATI 3870.

BUT if 8800Gt supports SLI on 1st gen Mac Pro , I'll kiss ATI good buy.
Click to expand...

I don't think SLI works on the Mac Pro right now, if ever. 2 HD 3870s CrossFired are still king when it comes to Mac cards and gaming in Windows on the Mac Pro.
And another question, is 2 8800GT SLIed that much better than 2 HD 3870 CrossFired?
 
Given that one 8800 GT is superior to one 3870, you can be certain two in SLI will scale higher than two 3870s in Crossfire. However, the Mac Pro does not support SLI, so if you want to go with multi-GPUs you're only option is Crossfire.
 
SLI does work on the mac pro in Windows. I read it in 2006.

I don't know if it works in the "mac" version of the 8800, though.
 
Do you all think the SLI has a potential of coming for 1st Generation Mac Pros? It would seem that the Crossfire is a pretty good option. $440 is not terrible, but I'd bet that price will decrease a bit in the next year or so. Thoughts?
Thanks for the help guys.
 
htdefiant said:
Do you all think the SLI has a potential of coming for 1st Generation Mac Pros? It would seem that the Crossfire is a pretty good option. $440 is not terrible, but I'd bet that price will decrease a bit in the next year or so. Thoughts?
Thanks for the help guys.
Click to expand...

I personally don't think SLI is coming to the Mac Pro right now. CrossFire is the way to go if you are going this route. :)
 
htdefiant said:
So, its now the 3870 vs. the 8800. As someone who plays games on the Windows and uses iLife '08 on the Mac side (not many games though), which card is looking better?
Click to expand...

The only iLife app that would benefit from a better graphics card is iMovie (rendering effects and thumbnails).

As for games, the GeForce 8800 GT runs Windows (and Mac) games faster in most cases:
http://www.barefeats.com/harper17.html
and
http://www.barefeats.com/harper18.html

But then again, two Radeon 3870s will run in Crossfire mode under Windows while SLI is not supported for two GeForce 8800s.
 
Elven said:
I am looking at the MacPro in the AppleUK shopping area and I do not see a 3870 option :confused:
Click to expand...

The Mac / PC version is too new. I phoned quite a few companies on Friday and all said the same thing "Sorry no stock as yet, try again in a few weeks" .. :(

Like you I will change to the new HD 3870 when they are available.
 
Father Jack said:
The Mac / PC version is too new. I phoned quite a few companies on Friday and all said the same thing "Sorry no stock as yet, try again in a few weeks" .. :(
Click to expand...

"End of June" is when it starts shipping to distributors so my guess is early July for resellers. Apple could choose to sell the kit on the Apple online Store or even as a CTO option -- but that's still being negotiated, I am told.
 
barefeats said:
"End of June" is when it starts shipping to distributors so my guess is early July for resellers. Apple could choose to sell the kit on the Apple online Store or even as a CTO option -- but that's still being negotiated, I am told.
Click to expand...
Really looking forward to getting one for my 2.66 Mhz Mac Pro .. :)
 
OMFG HAXX! said:
SLI'd 7300GT's? Are you serious? I do not think that this is possible.
Click to expand...

There are software hacks to get 7 series cards working in SLI without the Nvidia SLI hardware chips, and a few people have claimed to have done it on Mac Pros under windows. Though I've never seen any photos of hardware or screenshots of software. 8 series cards can't be done.
 
Father Jack said:
Really looking forward to getting one for my 2.66 Mhz Mac Pro .. :)
Click to expand...
:eek: How in the world did your Mac Pro come as a 2.66 MHz machine!

(kidding, I know you mistyped)

If I hadn't already bought an 8800 GT, which suits my purposes more than well enough, I might've gotten the 3870 instead. But I'm good. :)
 
So the 3870 will come out in late June - can you please explain to me how I go about installing two of them and then crossfiring them? Sorry, I have no experience whatsoever with graphics cards :confused:
 
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