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So, who has tried their 5870 in a 2008 or 2006 Mac Pro?

Radeon 5870 works in the 2006! I did it.

I borrowed a used 2006 Mac Pro from PowerMax.com. I installed the Radeon HD 5870 from our Westmere 6-core along with its boot drive. It booted up the first time no problemo.

I tried the Mini DisplayPorts with and without the MDP to DVI adapter. Works fine. Right now I'm running game benchmarks on a 24" LED Cinema display plugged directly into the MDP.

Good news, eh? Tell a friend.
 
Unless this issue gets resolved with an update, Apple have really fumbled the ball on this occasion it seems. If they're trying to get people onside with MDP, it's not going that well so far.
 
barefeats said:
I borrowed a used 2006 Mac Pro from PowerMax.com. I installed the Radeon HD 5870 from our Westmere 6-core along with its boot drive. It booted up the first time no problemo.

I tried the Mini DisplayPorts with and without the MDP to DVI adapter. Works fine. Right now I'm running game benchmarks on a 24" LED Cinema display plugged directly into the MDP.

Good news, eh? Tell a friend.
Click to expand...

That is great news, one question is that the 1,1 MacPro (Woodcrest) or 2,1 (Clovertown) MacPro?
 
barefeats said:
I borrowed a used 2006 Mac Pro from PowerMax.com. I installed the Radeon HD 5870 from our Westmere 6-core along with its boot drive. It booted up the first time no problemo.

I tried the Mini DisplayPorts with and without the MDP to DVI adapter. Works fine. Right now I'm running game benchmarks on a 24" LED Cinema display plugged directly into the MDP.

Good news, eh? Tell a friend.
Click to expand...

Great News. Kudos to PowerMax.com. People are so friendly here in Oregon.

Will you be able to test different multiple monitor configurations as well? Such as 2x MDP, 1x DVI, or like my current setup, 1x MDP, 2x DVI?

I'd love to have a single card run all 3 of my monitors. Right now, with my mis-match setup, Photoshop CS5 defaults to my weaker video card over my 4870 when all 3 displays are connected, resulting in poor performance.

Anyway, keep up the good work. Long live Mac Pro 1,1
 
AnimeFunTv said:
That is great news, one question is that the 1,1 MacPro (Woodcrest) or 2,1 (Clovertown) MacPro?
Click to expand...

I am pretty sure it is Woodcrest I dumped the system profile summary. I will answer in a few hours when I reach my lab.
 
Great news regarding the 5870 in the 1,1 mac pro.

I'm currently running 6 hard drives in mine though (2 extra in the optical bay). Anyone know if I can still supply enough power to the 5870 to run it?
 
lloyd709 said:
Great news regarding the 5870 in the 1,1 mac pro.

I'm currently running 6 hard drives in mine though (2 extra in the optical bay). Anyone know if I can still supply enough power to the 5870 to run it?
Click to expand...

Shouldn't be a problem, as long as you use the 6-pin power connectors from the logic board.
 
barefeats said:
I borrowed a used 2006 Mac Pro from PowerMax.com. I installed the Radeon HD 5870 from our Westmere 6-core along with its boot drive. It booted up the first time no problem.
Click to expand...

May be a stupid question. Why are you using the boot drive from the 2010. Was the 2006 mac pro not loaded with the latest software or is something missing on the 2006 Mac Pro that gets installed on the 2010 Mac Pros?
 
fsron said:
May be a stupid question. Why are you using the boot drive from the 2010. Was the 2006 mac pro not loaded with the latest software or is something missing on the 2006 Mac Pro that gets installed on the 2010 Mac Pros?
Click to expand...

a 2006 MP will be using most likely using the retail version of OSX Snow leopard which currently do not have the drivers for the 5870, using the boot drive from the 2010 MP will have the latest drivers already installed. It probably wont be to the next major release of OSX that the drivers will be in a retail OSX Disc
 
AnimeFunTv said:
a 2006 MP will be using most likely using the retail version of OSX Snow leopard which currently do not have the drivers for the 5870, using the boot drive from the 2010 MP will have the latest drivers already installed. It probably wont be to the next major release of OSX that the drivers will be in a retail OSX Disc
Click to expand...

This is a good question. Once the cards are released, how do we get the drivers on to the our systems? Do we have to wait for 10.6.5? I bought the GT 120 and don't remember seeing a disc in the box.
 
fsron said:
May be a stupid question. Why are you using the boot drive from the 2010. Was the 2006 mac pro not loaded with the latest software or is something missing on the 2006 Mac Pro that gets installed on the 2010 Mac Pros?
Click to expand...

I wanted to make sure I was using the same build of Snow Leopard as the 2010. And it saved time since it was a trade-in 2006 Mac Pro with "who knows what" on the boot drive.

I promise to do a fresh Snow Leopard install and run the Snow Leopard Graphics Update (which I've confirmed has the same version of the ATI drivers as the 2010 Mac Pro) to see if that changes anything.
 
Excellent news that it is confirmed to work, but those numbers do look a little underwhelming, especially since games are more GPU reliant than CPU. Is it the fact that the 1.1 only has half the number of cores compared to the tested 2008 model, and in that case would the 2.1 show results more in line with the other 8 core models?

Or is it that the older spec PCI slot is finally becoming the bottleneck, throttling GPU performance?

I'm pretty sure that I will do the upgrade once the card becomes available, but it would be interested to hear others thoughts on this. I love my Clovertown 2.1, and this would hopefully be a great boost to it's lifespan!
 
barefeats said:
I promise to do a fresh Snow Leopard install and run the Snow Leopard Graphics Update (which I've confirmed has the same version of the ATI drivers as the 2010 Mac Pro) to see if that changes anything.
Click to expand...

That would be great. Thanks.
I plan on having a 5770 on order for my 2008 Mac Pro before the cards actually start shipping.
 
Hey Rob-ART,

As mentioned in the other thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/10930655/

The last firmware version Apple released for the 2006 Mac Pro (1,1) was MP11.005C.B08. But the one you tested on was MP11.005D.B00. Seems to be a newer revision that Apple has no knowledge of (at least according to their list of firmware versions).

Could that be why OWC's 2006 Mac Pro didn't work with the 5870?
 
Barefeats,

your boot ROM version is MP11.005D.B00


But mine is MP11.005C.B08.

Will that make any difference? I am worried :(
 
DualShock said:
Hey Rob-ART,

As mentioned in the other thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/10930655/

The last firmware version Apple released for the 2006 Mac Pro (1,1) was MP11.005C.B08. But the one you tested on was MP11.005D.B00. Seems to be a newer revision that Apple has no knowledge of (at least according to their list of firmware versions).

Could that be why OWC's 2006 Mac Pro didn't work with the 5870?
Click to expand...

I would assume the higher numeric number would be the latest, meaning the B08 is the newer boot rom.
 
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