Mac Pro 2010 Dual 5770s CrossfireX?

[Tucom]

Hi, I'll be getting a Mac Pro 2010 with a single 5770 and while I'm still shifting around ideas about what I want to do for a GPU upgrade, I'm curious if CrossFire or CrossFireX (are they the same thing?) would work officially in a 2010 Mac Pro without any potential for their to be damage done to the Mac Pro in any way.

If so, can it be done without the CrossFire bridge like the newer cards - without any damage in anyway to the Mac Pro?

This is, of course, with in Windows. I've Googled around and found a few threads, but nothing really definitive, some saying it works, but only with much older CCC drivers, others saying it doesn't work.

Anyone have any definitive answer on this, and if it would cause damage to the Mac Pro in ANY way?

Thanks!

 

[DougTheImpaler]

There's no Crossfire in OS X. If you do your gaming in Windows, it'll work, but I don't view it as particularly cost-effective.

If you don't mind losing your boot screen, you COULD sell the 5770 (Mac cards command a premium) and offset the cost of something that plays games better. You can pick up an R9 270X for what you could sell your 5770 for, and flash it yourself to get the boot screens back.

 

[IowaLynn]

Congratulations on the 2010!

Perhaps upgrade? might find that it makes more sense in the end to have one strong GPU instead.
http://barefeats.com/gtx980b.html

 

[Tucom]

Thanks for the replies, one of the options I am looking into is the GTX 680 Mac Edition (Yes, the extra for a warranty and the REAL deal) - or a 7950, but I read numerous stories of absolutely horrible issues with Yosemite, which is what I'll be running. Supposedly fixed in 10.10.3, but still.

However I want MiniDisplayPort ports, and I don't want to pay $100 for a Kanex adapter in order to get a MDP port from a DVI port.

According to Barefeats benchmarks, dual 5770's are faster than a single 5870 in OpenCL tasks as Motion and Final Cut, and would be the far more affordable option at the moment.

I really don't want to go with a PC card, I want the boot screen, and I don't want to flash either.

Does anyone know if CrossFire will work WITHOUT the bridge, and if CrossFire will cause ANY damage to the Mac Pro with or without the bridge? With no CrossFire bridge I read that the Northbridge (or whichever chipset on the Mac Pro's logic board) will heat up due to that handling the crosstalk between the GPU's instead of the CrossFire bridge. So I may just get a bridge anyways, lol. Still curious.

 

[DougTheImpaler]

I can't answer your question about trying to go dual without the Crossfire bridges, but they're not expensive. A couple bucks on eBay.

I can attest to Radeon 7950 weirdness in Yosemite. It affects (as far as I can tell) *only* Safari, and in the 10.10.3 beta it seems mostly fixed.

Some GeForces can also be flashed. If the warranty is worthwhile to you, then by all means get the official card. Otherwise there's this: http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,5709.0.html

If I had it to do over again, I'd have found that GeForce flashing thread sooner and bought a compatible eVGA 680 to flash myself.

 

[Tucom]

Do you know of ANY damage that can occur to a Mac Pro from using 5770s in Crossfire? With and without the bridge? I know you said not sure about the bridge, but for anyone else who might know I'm 99% sure it would be fine, but still.

 

[brentsg]

I didn't think CrossfireX worked on any ATI card prior to the 290 series without a bridge. I had a pair of 280's and they definitely required a bridge (in my PC).