ATI 3870 upgrade?

Have a MAC PRO 2x2.8ghz quad core xeon, 2GB memory and want to upgrade my ATI Radeon ATI HD2600.
Don't need a high end card just something better. In previous PC life preferred NVIDIA but not a necessity. The 8800 may be too high end, as would the new ATI 4800 series. My gaming use is minimal. I have read should wait a few weeks and the prices may be much less because of all of the recent introductions????
Thinking of the ATI 3870, 3850 or maybe the 4850. This is my first MAC upgrade so forgive my lack of knowledge. The internet websites with those cards show them as PC or MC compatible. Will these work or can I even buy this at a local Fryes? The box may not say MAC compatible but if the same model, perhaps it is??
Thinking better to buy from a web site that says it is PC/MAC compatible.
Would appreciate any guidance!

Zimmer1956, like they alreayd said:
- The 3870 is a little worse than the 8800 GT at games and other 3D apps, but still great.
- The 3870 is better at everything else on a Mac Pro.
- If you run WIndows on your Mac Pro, you can get 2 3870s and run them in Crossfire mode, but you cannot run two 8800 GTs in SLI mode. If you don't know what these are, it's essentially the ability to run two graphics cards as one to increase performance. It doesn't sound like a need for you, but it's a good upgrade option.
It's available at lots of places:
Now:
http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=3857975
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/ATI%20Technologies/100435928/
Preorder:
http://www.google.com/products?q=ati3870mac All those sites have it available for preorder. Most are cheaper than the in-stock ones now.

Similar Messages

Ati 3870 Mac edition which is the right one?

I've been looking over the weekend for a ATI 3870 card as an option for my mac pro. In different websites i've encountered 2 different cards all websites claim that it is the ATI 3870 mac/pc edition they are selling, however the 2 cards look very different physically.
Does anyone know what the difference is between these 2?
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/ATI%20Technologies/100435928/
http://www.provantage.com/ati-technologies-100-435928~4ATIT46L.htm
Thanks

I agree that the Proadvantage card might be a Mac compatible but the photo is wrong. Other dealers have made that mistake.
There are actually two Mac Editions of the Radeon HD 3870 being sold at MacSales (OWC):
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/ATI%20Technologies/100435928/
and
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/ATI%20Technologies/630ATI3870/
Message was edited by: rob_ART

ATI 3870 Mac edition help please!!!

I can't get my ATI 3870 Mac & PC edition video card to install any OS previous to 10.5.4 because apple does not support them. Can someone please help me. So far I have figured out I need to take the ATI kexts and put them on the install DVD using Pacifist. I am not sure how to make an installer or anything. Thanks in advanced.

I agree that the Proadvantage card might be a Mac compatible but the photo is wrong. Other dealers have made that mistake.
There are actually two Mac Editions of the Radeon HD 3870 being sold at MacSales (OWC):
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/ATI%20Technologies/100435928/
and
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/ATI%20Technologies/630ATI3870/
Message was edited by: rob_ART

Favorite But Lengthy FXPlug Plug Ins Test With ATI 3870

I'm going to be testing the AMD/ATI 3870 for FXPlug In acceleration versus a stock nvidia card.
Does anybody have a favorite FXPlug in FCP that frustrates them with lengthy renders?
If so let me know and I'll run a test on it with the new card.
Thanks

Cool and Cool. Mine is now installed and things are looking great thus far. I'm doing some preliminary testing but I'm also on a job so thanks for putting some testing out there.
Zoom Blurs, Shines and all things lighting seem to be render intensive. Complex PAINT as well. Can you benchmark at DVCPROHD 720p60? That's my sweet spot right now for many of my clients. Anything with several layers of fx, etc.
I'll be going through the Noiseindustries plugs when I get a chance, but I'm happy to be up and running with the 3870. My X1900XT is now my back up and I have some peace of mind.
cheers and thanks for offering.
dj

Can you have 2 ATI 3870 cards in a 1st gen Mac pro

I have a first gen Mac pro my system specs is 2 x 2.66 Ghz Dual Core Xeon. I was wondering if its possible to install 2 graphics. Does anyone have any information on if this is possible and if so can you get cross fire to work on the pc side for gaming.

Yes you can. I have a 1st Gen Mac Pro with 2 ATI 3870s and crossfire mode when I run Windows with Bootcamp.
On the mac side install the drivers BEFORE you put the hardware in.
Install them in the two lower pcie slots and connect them with both crossfire cables. You have to go into the expansion slot utility (HD>System>Library>CoreServices>Expansion Slot Utility) and change the configuration of the two lower slots (slots 1 & 2) to be 8 lanes each.
In bootcamp: After you physically install the cards you need to remove all current gpu drivers from Windows and then install the new drivers for the 3870s.
I just did this myself not even a month ago after several days of frustration of trying to make it work. The key is to make sure the pcie slots are both equal at 8 lanes. Nothing worked until I did that.
Works great but is quite loud. I'm looking into passive cooling systems now...

Bridge and ATI 3870 Mac and PC edition

I've been playing around with the PhotoShop CS4 trial but seem to be having some issues with Bridge. My first problem was with Bridge simply locking up after moving a panel. This problem did not occur when moving panels in PS. Finally after running DiskWarrior, repairing permissions, clearing the caches, uninstalling and the reinstalling PS that problem seems to be gone.
My current problem is that when I try to view a slide show or do a full screen view all I get is a grey screen, pictures do not display. A search of the forums seems to point towards underpowered video cards, but this was on older systems then mine. My current card is not listed as supported for CS4 but its a newer card and is fully OpenGL 2.0 compliant (the old card that I replaced was listed).
Here are my system specs:
MacPro 2 dual-core processors 2.66 GHz
5 GB of certified memory
ATI Radeon HD 3870 Mac and Windows edition
the vidoe card has 512 MB of VRAM
I'm running OS X 10.5.5
A Google search did not reveal any known conflicts between this card and Bridge.

>>nd do you have the right ACR Plug in (5.2) installed. Check this under PS under the menu >>Photoshop / About Plug ins / Camera Raw.
I updated to 5.2, didn't help.
>>However do you have tried to refresh the Bridge preferences and also tried the cache for >>folder option using the tool menu in Bridge.
Tried both, no improvement.
>>Meaning that they work randomly or what?
No, only that the first item on the list Preveiw Panel does work, the others do not.
>>I don't see any reference in the specs. for that card that it supports "Shader Model 3"
As far as I know the card supports Pixel Shader 4.1
>>Put your old card back (the one that is listed as being compatible with CS4)
I was hoping to avoid this but it is an option.
Thank you both for your help. When I tried reseting the Bridge preferences by closing Bridge and then reopening with the option key held down something strange happened. Two instances of Bridge opened up, both were reset to default, and neither would play a slide show.
I'm beginning to think I have a corrupted file somewhere. I used the Adobe Uninstaller when I reinstalled PS the first time, but I don't think it removes all the files. I'll try again manually.

ATI 3870 only works on 8 lane

I've added an ATI Radeon HD 3870 Mac & PC Edition to slot 1. When looking at the Expansion Slot Utility the card does not show up when slot 1 is set to x16; doesn't show up in the System Profiler either. If I switch slot 1 to an 8 lane option, then the card shows up. Anyone know why I can't run the card in slot 1 with a full 16 lanes? The card doesn't work when the slot is set to x16, works otherwise.
I installed the drivers from the CD not knowing that 10.5.8 is suppose to already have them. But the card has the same problems when I boot off a separate drive that has only 10.5.8 installed.
Thanks,
James

Slot 1 is the bottom slot. That's where the card is installed. I have the old card (NVIDIA GeForce 7300GT) installed in slot 4. I switched it back to slot 1 and it worked at x16. Took it out, ATI card only, nothing; put the NVIDIA back so that I can have a working card while testing different configurations with the ATI card.
Right now the card is working with slot 1 set to x8.
Looking at the System Profiler, looking at PCI Cards, the ATI shows up twice. As:
Card:ATI Radeon HD3870, Type: display, Driver Installed Yes
and as
Card:ATI Radeon HD3870, Type: ATY,MegaloddonParent, Driver Installed: No
Odd, that... at least to me.
Thanks,
James

Second Ati 3870 and STILL noisy!

Hi,
I just got a replacement Ati radeon 3870 because the first cards fans didn't run at all for a minute or so and would then spin up full for 30 seconds or so and so forth, regardless of what i was doing.
My replacement card came today but this cards fan runs full all of the time!!!!????????
Surely this is a driver or fan control issue or something, my previous nvidia 8800GT was silent all of the time, but alas I could not play Call of Duty 2 with that card hence the switch.
Is there anything i can do to help cool the card besides fitting aftermarket fans which i don't feel confident doing and they don't seem to support the 3870 100%. Maybe open up the PCI slots or upping the Mac Pros fans via SMC Fan Control?
Or do i return it and switch back to a 8800gt and forfit Call Of Duty 2 or wait and switch it for a 4870?
I'm going to try and live with the fan noise tonight but does anyone own a quiet 3870?

Have you tried running Apple Hardware Test?
I wonder if there could be an underlying problem, seeing how it is the same under Windows - and you installed ATI latest Catalyst after uninstall and deleting old prior drivers - can't have ATI and Nvidia drivers or cards in Windows.
Sounds like "old stock" from early batches back in Aug/Sept.
Was just reading an article on power and noice:
Of course, noise levels will vary greatly in the real world along with the acoustic properties of the PC enclosure used, whether the enclosure provides adequate cooling to avoid a card's highest fan speeds, placement of the enclosure in the room, and a whole range of other variables. These results should give a reasonably good picture of comparative fan noise, though.
http://techreport.com/articles.x/16504/10
And there are some faulty cooling and fan units out there (I had Radeon 9800 where fan would die, it was too hot for G4 MDD) ATI has not been great (X1900 was terrible design also). I try to use eVGA (Nvidia) when possible.
+Asus custom coolers get caught in the CrossFire+
The Radeon HD 4850 was an instant hit around these parts, but the first implementations caused us to raise (or is it singe?) an eyebrow over their thermals. Their single-slot coolers were never very beefy, and AMD tuned their fan speed control points pretty aggressively for good acoustics. The result was GPU temperatures approaching 90°C under load and idle temperatures around 80°C. Nothing to be worried about, according to AMD, but those temps were high enough to prompt us to look forward to 4850 cards with aftermarket cooling.
http://techreport.com/articles.x/16229/4
People have used copper coolers for 8800 and for ATI Radeon.
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/8800GTAcceleroS1/8800GTAcceleroS1R2.html
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186016
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/productinfo.php?cPath=2&mID=105&language=en

ATI 3870 Install on MacPro 2.66 Question

Is there anywhere I can find an online manual to download? I've been to ATI's WWW site and had a hard time finding any manual for download. I've got to figure out how to plug in the power cable and I sure would like a diagram or picture. Anyone out there have a picture of their install? Does the power cable go to the motherboard on one of these 2006 MacPros? Maybe it will all see evident once I take delivery? Thanks. I couldn't wait for the mythical Mac 4870 any longer

For the record, I just replaced my 2600 with a 3870 in a 2x2.66(2006) Mac Pro.
I followed the advice everywhere and installed the drivers from the CD before fitting and all worked fine.
Then I booted from a 10.5.5 partition which had NOT had the ATI CD driver installed and it also worked fine.
Digging around in System profiler showed that the extension called ATY_Megalodon is at version 1.5f64 in the driver on the ATI CD, and at 1.5.66 in the 10.5.5 partition without the ATI CD drivers.
Seems to confirm that with 10.5.5 it is no longer necessary to run the supplied CD and that the drivers are different (newer) in 10.5.5.
I ran the 10.5.5 combo updater on my main partition and it is now at 1.5.66.
Message was edited by: Mike Boreham
Message was edited by: Mike Boreham

Ati 3870?

Is this card still available, and does Apple sell it through their online store? I can't find it there. Also for those who have it, I am getting a 21 in cintiq to add to my Mac Pro and I am considering upgrading to the ATI card? Is it worth it, if I can find it??
Thanks
Dan

http://ati.amd.com/products/radeonhd3800/macpc/index.html
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/ATI3870_Mac_PC_review/radeonhd3870review.html#storytop
http://www.barefeats.com/harper18.html
http://www.barefeats.com/harper17.html
http://eshop.macsales.com/Item_XLR8YourMac.cfm?ID=10876&Item=ATI100435928

G5 Dual Core with ATI X1900GT - upgrade to FCS2, Tiger or Leopard?

Hi everyone,
I am little confused what to do. So, maybe somebody can advise me what it would be the best.
Here is the situation:
I am still using my G5 Dual Core 2.0 with an ATI X1900GT card, 8.5GB RAM and Decklink SP (as below states). I intend to use it till the end of this year, and then to switch to the fastest at that moment Mac Pro. Now, I have 10.4.11 and FCS-1 with almost all filters from Noise Industries. Everything works perfect.
But I would like to upgrade to FCS-2, especially because of Motion3 new features. The questions are:
1. Stay with Tiger and do the upgrade to FCS-2? And after that how the Motion3 will work? With similar speed? Or better, maybe worse? (I am not afraid about Final Cut - it shouldn't be any problem, but what about Motion?)
2. Upgrade the system to Leopard, and then upgrade the FCS?
But what about the graphic card drivers? On the Ati/AMD web site there are still (from over a year) drivers for Tiger and not for Leopard. Without the proper drivers it could be a problem to install the FCS. Few months ago, when I was changing the startup disk for WD Raptor, I did the clean system installation and tried to install FCS-1. But I forgotten about installing the ATI drivers. When I tried to install, the FCS shows the info that this computer doesn't have the graphic card which support Quartz Extreme. Of course, after installing those drivers everything works OK.
So, how it could be with Leopard?
3. Will the all filters (I mean filter from Noise Industries) work fine in Motion and in FCP?
4. Will the old Motion project open correct in Motion3? I use the old project quite often.
+For those upgrades I can use another (cloned) startup disk to avoid the "dramatic" situation.+
I appreciate any help. Thanks in advance.
Marek.

Thanks for all replies.
It looks that it is not a bad idea to stay with 10.4.11, and upgrade only the FCS.
I will do this on my clone disk, and check if everything works fine.
But, is it possible to install Motion3 (from FCS2 upgrade disks) and leave the Motion2 on the same disk being installed? (I suppose no, but asking just in case)
I checked the specification of the Noise Industries - filters work fine in both system Tiger and Leopard (most of them I am using now, except of those filter which need FCP6 and Motion3), so I think I will stay with Tiger.
Peter, do you know what capabilities exactly I can loose staying with Tiger? Do you use those filters (or some of them)?
Marek.

ATI PowerCinema Upgrade with GemStar Guide Plus+

PowerCinema and Gemstar GuidePlus+ is available for the TV Wonder Elite. ATI PowerCinema
Will the MSI version of PowerCinema include this upgrade as well? I have registered my MSI PowerCinema with CyberLink but nothing is there for an upgrade. I hope we will not be left in the dark as having a working TV Guide would make PowerCinema bearable to use.
iQix

Kari,
I see that you've posted your issue in the Photohsop.com forum. That's likely a much better place than this forum (Photoshop Elements), since real Adobe employees post there and are often (but not always) quite helpful in resolving basic membership problems. There are almost no posts in this forum by Adobe employees or people who have much experience with Photoshop.com.
For what it's worth, Adobe seems to have finally acknowledged at a very high level that they have serious problems with customer service:
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/484712?tstart=0

Aperture + ATI 5770 upgrade

Will I see a significant improvement in Aperture 3.1 by upgrading the graphics card in my 2008 MacPro to the ATI 5770 from the currently installed ATI 2600?
More specifically, when working with RAW images using adjustment brushes and presets.
Thanks.

Or the 5870 though those aren't shipping until late December now.
There are half a dozen articles on Barefeats I put in one reply:
http://discussions.apple.com/messageview.jspa?messageID=12370032&stqc=true
I'd do it regardless just to get off the 2600.
Where is Aperture now?
What are you using for system boot drive?
Those two can also help make a difference.
Would a Quadro 4000 make a difference with its 2GB VRAM?

ATI 3870 HD Pro for MacPro in June...

Tis June and I was wondering if anyone has bought the 3870 HD Pro 512MB card for their existing MacPro? If so, how is it working for you?
Does the 10.5.3 update work with it?
Does LP8 work with it (no Vi/FX window movement problems, aka beachball)?
Any accelerated boost for FCS?
Sorry for all the questions, but many thanks in advance.
Rob

Installed 10.5.3 but it still doesn't have the drivers to recognize the 3870x2 in slot 1, in fact the ATI kext versions are unchanged from the previous system.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=477248&page=6
I half expected to see another Graphics Update 2.0, maybe waiting for an official release.

Why SW update offering me the NVIDIA update....have ATI 3870

Anyone know why Software Update wants me to install the Apple NVIDIA Graphics Update 2009 1.0, when my Mac pro has an ATI Radeon HD 3870 card?
Thanks

Most likely because the 7300 card is used in Mac Pros, so the firmware update is targeted for the computer to fix a problem with that video card.

ATI 3870 upgrade?

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