Mac Pro 2006 with two ATI 3870 ??

[AlexMaximus]

I will soon upgrade to a Mac Pro 2006 first gen. They are now down to a reasonable price and still fast enough for my needs. (especially coming from a once fast G4
Since most of them come with a crappy video card, I will need a graphic card to work with. I use Bootcamp, and I would absolutely love to habe a dual ATI 3870 PC & Mac Edition set up in Crossfire mode with a passive heat sink like this guy here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NQ-YGkx5JQ

Unfortunately the 2006 model has only one Graphic slot with full bandwith, that means the second ATI 3870 would be somehow limited.

What would you do, what is your recomendation?
The "new" ATI 4870 would be for sure a bit faster, however I would love to experiment with the dual 3870. How much would be the speed difference in Bootcamp between both setups ??

Thanks for your opinion!

 

[Cindori]

The 4870 is a much better buy. It's already better then 3870 crossfire, and will be even 10-20% better if you're gonna run 16x/8x crossfire. And crossfire does not work in OSX.

3870 is a slow, two-generations-old card.


I also believe that a PC 4870 (which you flash) is cheaper then two 3870 Mac cards.

Or why not take the jump to the 4890.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/713428/