Upgrade from AMD 5770 to 6870 worth it

[ashman70]

Just wondering if there is enough of a performance increase in upgrading from a 5770 to a 6870 on my MP 3,1? I don't game much in bootcamp, mainly looking at the four display native support offered by the 6870 as the main advantage.

Thoughts?

 

[Cindori]

The PC 6870 support in OSX is a bit sketchy. Don't think anyone has got 4 monitors running.

 

[ActionableMango]

If you just need additional monitor support, pop in a GT120. It will use up one more slot, but no supplementary power is needed.

Four monitors is a lot for a single card. You are dividing up the frame buffer memory across all of the cards.

 

[ashman70]

The PC 6870 support in OSX is a bit sketchy. Don't think anyone has got 4 monitors running.

I believe I have read threads on here of people running 3. You mention the 'PC' is there a 'Mac' version of this card?

 

[ClassObject]

I run a 6870 and can get only two monitors running off of it. I would love to know how to get three going. I currently use a gt120 to drive two additional monitors

 

[carylee2002]

I run 5770 with Nvidia quadro 4000 for mac and running 3 monitors with space for one more. In addition I have cuda support for Adobe Premiere cs5.5, aftereffects 5 and photoshop 5.

 

[derbothaus]

I believe I have read threads on here of people running 3. You mention the 'PC' is there a 'Mac' version of this card?

Nope. Only PC "officially" for 6870. Mac users have got them to work fairly consistently but as Cindori points out, maybe not for 4 display's in OS X.
If your main goal is the 4 displays I'd just get a 2nd 5770. Easy and if needed you could Crossfire them in Windows for gaming but I know that was not a priority for you. But 2 display's on each 5770 would work just great.

 

[ashman70]

Nope. Only PC "officially" for 6870. Mac users have got them to work fairly consistently but as Cindori points out, maybe not for 4 display's in OS X.
If your main goal is the 4 displays I'd just get a 2nd 5770. Easy and if needed you could Crossfire them in Windows for gaming but I know that was not a priority for you. But 2 display's on each 5770 would work just great.

I should amend my first post, four displays would be nice, three would be fine too. But if there is zero improvement in performance, then its not really worth it. I have three displays working now, but my third is a bit of a kludgy setup using a Matrox USB display adapter, it works but the monitor plugged into this is a bit sluggish when I change virtual desktops.

 

[derbothaus]

I should amend my first post, four displays would be nice, three would be fine too. But if there is zero improvement in performance, then its not really worth it. I have three displays working now, but my third is a bit of a kludgy setup using a Matrox USB display adapter, it works but the monitor plugged into this is a bit sluggish when I change virtual desktops.

Oh there is a fairly large performance boost. But you may not feel the boost all that much unless you game or do very intensive on card renders/ OpenCL work. The 6870 is almost twice as fast as a 5770 in something like 3DMark/ Video games. Unless you are stressing it though then both the 6870 and 5770 paint pixels the same. 6870 just has the extended display support (in Windows)
The USB adapter is the main reason things feel slow for you. Mac users are basically hacking the 6870 to work in OS X. Some things don't work, most do.
Use Cindori's "Golden Guide" under his post to find out more regarding PC cards in Mac's. If you are uncomfortable with running unsupported you should just get the 2nd 5770 and run either 1 or 2 display's off it.
What kind of performance improvements are you looking for? In what apps? That may sway things.
Honestly you may just need a bit more video memory and 2x5770's would do that fully supported by Apple and drivers.

 

[ashman70]

I do game a bit in windows via bootcamp. I do use photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, thats about it graphics wise. The 6870 is cheap enough and I could likely offset the cost by selling my 5770 if thats what I decide to do. I may just pick one up this weekend and try it out. The few things that don't work in OSX due to the fact its a PC card, don't really bother me.

 

[derbothaus]

I do game a bit in windows via bootcamp. I do use photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, thats about it graphics wise. The 6870 is cheap enough and I could likely offset the cost by selling my 5770 if thats what I decide to do. I may just pick one up this weekend and try it out. The few things that don't work in OSX due to the fact its a PC card, don't really bother me.

As long as you've read the finer points... do it. I would have done it had I not sprung for the 5870 when I ordered my Pro.

 

[KingJosh]

I have the card waiting to go in. Waiting for the 2nd power cable to arrive which is 21 days since shipping now...

Got the card in 6 days from the same place and ship on the same day. freaking ridiculous.

 

[ClassObject]

I run a 6870 and can get only two monitors running off of it. I would love to know how to get three going. I currently use a gt120 to drive two additional monitors

I now have 4 monitors running on one card. Don't care about FPS. I used 2 of these to make it happen: link. 1 dvi, 1 hdmi, 2 active mdp to dv adapters. Works great with an msi 6870 flashed using netkas' bios.