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So, who has tried their 5870 in a 2008 or 2006 Mac Pro?
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svale said:
In Windows the 5870 might still offer better performance though.
I just wish Barefeats could answer the pressing question, which has been asked a million times already in this thread, if he can confirm that you need a different boot rom from the one that's in most 1,1 Mac Pro's. Doubt he'll answer though...
Is there any issue with the boot rom and the 5770 or is that strictly related to the 5870?
Is the 5870 even available right now?
Is the 5870 even available right now?
Oh, for sure. I'm willing to bet that the 5870 does offer better performance in Windows. I don't think the other hardware in the 1,1 is enough to bottleneck the 5870 such that performance is degraded to the level of a 5770.
But as you've pointed out, there's the question of whether the 5870 plays nice with the prevalent B08 Boot ROM. And then there's also the question of availability. At least we know that the 5770 is coming in 2-4 weeks. The 5870? Well, that's anyone's guess.
My hands have been tied on this issue since I had limited access to one 2006. I now have it in the lab. It has been suggested that I update the Boot ROM to what Apple deems the latest. I'm willing to do it AFTER I finish all my benchmarking with 5870 and 5770.
Meanwhile, I can report that I have been able to get three displays to light up on all models of Mac Pro from 2006-2010 with both the 5770 and 5870.
Sometimes when I booted up, only one display was lit. But when I would pull out one of the Mini Display Port cables, then two would light up. Plug it back in and now three were lit. So there is still some "ooga booga" to do with multi-display support.
Thanks barefeats. Do you have an ETA of when this might happen?
Is the "ooga booga" at all related to this support document?
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3477
@barefeats
I have two options to upgrade right now. Either get a quad 3.2ghz 2010 Nehalem Mac Pro with the 5870 or upgrade mit 2008 2.8ghz octo core with the 5870 card. I have been reading your site and it seems like the game performance would be near identical. Cost wise it is always pretty similar for me since selling the old one still brings a lot of money.
I have two options to upgrade right now. Either get a quad 3.2ghz 2010 Nehalem Mac Pro with the 5870 or upgrade mit 2008 2.8ghz octo core with the 5870 card. I have been reading your site and it seems like the game performance would be near identical. Cost wise it is always pretty similar for me since selling the old one still brings a lot of money.
That "resolution" by Apple is utter nonsense. You should be able to use any combination of adapters if you're using three displays. I've never heard such nonsense before that "two of the displays must be mini displayport". If that were true, there would be no adapter market. Just sounds like Apple is too friggin' lazy to solve the problem.
I think a flashed ATI with two DVI ports standard would be a better option than buying Apple's POS card, which it turns out, you can't even do at the moment.
No. check out the eyefinity community. The first thing you learn about the 5000 cards is that three displays require one to be connected by a DP monitor or an active DP>DVI adapter.
and since apple decided to put 2 DP connections on their card... it's not unlogical that it requires two DP displays, or two active DP>DVI adapters, to run three displays.
2nd'd! Would love to see the 5870 and 5770 with the Boot ROM Version: MP11.005C.B08 tested driving 2 Dual link displays
I keep hoping 10.6.5 will make this a null issue.
I've been thinking about flashing a PC 5770 because I was under the impressiont eh Apple 5770 would only allow me a single monitor on DVI, but now that I see people reporting sung the card on the MacPro 1,1 to drive a mDP->DVI and a DVI I think I'm just going to buy the Apple card. It's forth the ~$50 premium to me me to not have to mess with flashing process and not have an EFI bootloader display.
I just wanted to give a little update. I have a 2008 Mac Pro and I ended up getting the 5770 as I probably did not need the 5870 and saved $200. I have 3 displays (1 30" cinema and 2 24" Dell's) and I bought two Apple MDP to Dual-Link DVI adapters on ebay for $45 each. 2 displays was no problem but as soon as I hooked up the third display my computer had the fritz. I shut down, connected the three displays and turned on the computer and it seemed fine, except one display was having odd stuttering issues. I opened up system preferences, changed the resolution and changed it back and it was fine. Now it is working fine. The only issue is that it sometimes comes back when all displays go to sleep. Maybe this is an issue that will be resolved with an update at some point so I am overall happy with my decision.
I just installed my 5770 on a 2008 Mac Pro. So far, so good. I haven't hooked up a second display yet, but I will tomorrow. I previously had the GT 120 and found the stuttering with Expose unacceptable. For that reason alone, it is worth the upgrade.
With regards to noise, I think it's just slightly louder than the GT 120, but nothing bothersome at all. The only shocker for me was the size of the card. Compared to the GT 120 it was a laughable size difference. I really had to squeeze the card in. I also put it in slot 3 which covers 2.
I'm going to try out some Starcraft 2 soon.
Thanks to everyone who helped me out with my questions.
With regards to noise, I think it's just slightly louder than the GT 120, but nothing bothersome at all. The only shocker for me was the size of the card. Compared to the GT 120 it was a laughable size difference. I really had to squeeze the card in. I also put it in slot 3 which covers 2.
I'm going to try out some Starcraft 2 soon.
Thanks to everyone who helped me out with my questions.
Clarification
I have a mac pro 2008 2.8 8 core machine.
Currently have the ATI Radeon hd 2600 xt,
no issues with it yet I want to get another dual video card for 2 more monitors.
Does anyone know what video cards will work in order of best to worst.
I'm just trying to figure this out..
Please and thanks.
I have a mac pro 2008 2.8 8 core machine.
Currently have the ATI Radeon hd 2600 xt,
no issues with it yet I want to get another dual video card for 2 more monitors.
Does anyone know what video cards will work in order of best to worst.
I'm just trying to figure this out..
Please and thanks.
Yes. Go back a few pages in this thread and see my posts.
But to answer your question: yes, the 5870 runs fine in every Mac Pro model, including the 1,1 with the .B08 Boot Rom.
I read that - but I've read so much so I just wanna be more super sure that it's correct info - some say it works and some say it doesn't work (with display port).
In my case I don't care about the display port - I just want to get a better card than my x1900. No fun to order a card from apple and then find out that it doesn't work.
By the way - is there any different between US and Europe Apple stores Cards?
Thanks again