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Noticeable difference from Radeon 1900x to 4870?

L

Loyalty4Life

macrumors regular
Original poster
I have a 1,1 Mac Pro. Am I going to see a good difference in performance? I mainly do motion graphics and Photoshop related tasks. Gaming is secondary.

Just wondering what your guys' thoughts are and if it's worth the price upgrade. Thanks. 🙂
 
Loyalty4Life said:
I have a 1,1 Mac Pro. Am I going to see a good difference in performance? I mainly do motion graphics and Photoshop related tasks. Gaming is secondary.

Just wondering what your guys' thoughts are and if it's worth the price upgrade. Thanks. 🙂
Click to expand...

The 4870 is the faster card but it comes at an energy penalty. Check Barefeats for details on how fast the card is with Pro apps. Be prepared to see your Mac running louder and using more power.
 
How much louder would it be? My current card is already loud when running movies or playing games. I can't imagine it being much louder. Is it worth it, in your guys' opinions?
 
The 4870 is both quieter and faster.

Does CS-4 show that your X1900 has OpenGl acceleration? I don't recall if it works on that one. Certainly does for 4870, though effects are limited.

The X1900 will eventually die a hot, pixelly death if you don't regularly clean dirt out of the hair dryer they hung on it.
 
Just to make sure, this is the correct 4870 card for my 1,1 Mac Pro?

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB999ZM/A

And one last question. I'd love to consider either a better 512mb card for my system that handles motion graphics well, or ideally a 1GB card(s) setup that would work well with my computer. I don't know much about flashing, and would prefer something relatively simple. I do have friends who could help with flashing or other avenues.

Thanks. 🙂
 
Loyalty4Life said:
Just to make sure, this is the correct 4870 card for my 1,1 Mac Pro?

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB999ZM/A

And one last question. I'd love to consider either a better 512mb card for my system that handles motion graphics well, or ideally a 1GB card(s) setup that would work well with my computer. I don't know much about flashing, and would prefer something relatively simple. I do have friends who could help with flashing or other avenues.

Thanks. 🙂
Click to expand...
There's only one 4870 offered by Apple, so yep, that's the right one. 🙂

If you'd like, you can check out the 4890 compatibility thread and pick up one of those cards. I'm running a flashed 4890 in my Mac Pro - it took all of two minutes to make it work perfectly in OS X.
 
I read on Amazon a review about the 4870:

Like CDrat wrote, this card does indeed work with the 1st generation Woodcrest Mac Pro. I read that you have to be running Mac OS X 10.5.7 or later for this to work. I have Snow Leopard installed on my 1st gen Mac Pro and all is well. Note, though, that this card runs 256MB of GDDR5 memory (and not 512MB) in the 1st Gen Mac Pro. This is fine and I hardly notice the difference. Also, this card is PCI Express 2.0 whereas the 1st gen Mac Pro is PCI Express 1.0. PCI Express 2.0 is backwards compatible.
Click to expand...

Is this accurate?
 
gugucom said:
The 4870 is the faster card but it comes at an energy penalty. Check Barefeats for details on how fast the card is with Pro apps. Be prepared to see your Mac running louder and using more power.
Click to expand...

Not true at all. The 4870 will be quieter than the X1900.
 
Cycom said:
Not true at all. The 4870 will be quieter than the X1900.
Click to expand...

I used a flashed X1900 HIS Icq3. That was a very quiet card, but I agree that the Apple X1900 had a very loud and problematic fan design. So if you used that card the Mac Pro will probably get more quit.

The other points about more energy consumption are true. The 4870 uses two PCIe power cords. Make sure you get a second if you buy a flashed card.

If you are looking for an upgrade with no energy penalty check the ATI HD3870 Mac&PC Edition. The card will not run open CL but will be significant improvement in Pro apps. The fan is not a good design so be prepared to upgrade it with an Accelero or Akasa after market for 20$. In that config is is a fantastic solution regarding performance, power and silence.
 
Loyalty4Life said:
Does anyone know?

Thanks. 🙂
Click to expand...

Whoever wrote that is wrong, misguided, or simply lying. 🙂

From Apple's own page on the 4870:

The ATI Radeon HD 4870 includes 512MB of GDDR5 memory, uses the PCI Express 2.0 interface, and includes one Mini DisplayPort and one dual-link DVI port.
Click to expand...

Emphasis mine. Regardless of what machine it's installed in, all 512 MB of memory will appear.
 
I'd assume just look in the System Profiler. I don't know how they got the idea that only 256 MB would be used. Anyone with the Apple 4870 and the 2006/2007 Mac Pro want to chime in?
 
Loyalty4Life said:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ATI-Radeon-HD-4...temZ270483529205QQcategoryZ3762QQcmdZViewItem

is this 1gb 4870 video card really going to work on my 1,1 Mac Pro? Is there anything special required for this card? If not, why purchase the 512 card when you can get this card for the same price almost?
Click to expand...

That's a flashed PC 4870 (the 4870s from Apple only have DVI and MDP) - sure, it'll work, but Apple won't support it. You'd also be a fool to buy it, when you can spend ~$100 US less and get a 4890 and flash it yourself.
 
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