Radeon HD 3870 coming to a Mac Pro near you?

http://www.macrumors.com/2008/04/29/ati-radeon-hd-3870-video-card-for-the-mac-pr o-in-may/
could be a more viable option than the 8800 card for pro apps that use core graphics, also these cards are pretty energy efficient so a couple of these installed should not put too much strain on the system

What are you using these cards for? Do you need more than two monitors? If you are using Final Cut Studio at all, go with the single 4870 video card. Final Cut only supports two monitors, and often has issues if more than one video card is installed, especially if they are the exact same make and model.
If you really (really) need to run 3-4 displays (my only guess as to why you would need three GT120s) you could try the Radeon 3870 (http://eshop.macsales.com/item/ATI%20Technologies/100435928/) as they only require one auxiliary power tap each and take up a single PCIe slot. That would give you four DVI outputs, while using up only two slots, with the only downside being they are a bit noisy. There are some quiet cooling options you might be able to find that could help that. The 4870 is still your best option though, if you are at all concerned about performance, noise, reliability, and compatibility.
JM

Similar Messages

ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT and early Mac Pro

I have been following the debate regarding the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT and old Mac Pro with interest, however my problem is not quite the same. As all the correspondents are located in the USA. I would guess they are referring to Apple part no MB198Z/A. But ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT is sold in the UK by Apple as part no MB198, and I cannot be sure that it has an identical spec. Does one Know the Answer? Please respond if you know
Thank You
For info Below is the response given by ATI
(The specifications are the same. The HD 2000 series cards runs on PCIE 1.1. You will need to confirm this with www.apple.com since the cards are specifically flashed by Apple. These cards may contain different video bios versions.)

M.O.K.,
Based on the ATI information regarding PCIE 1.1, the card is the same and should work. I would call Apple when ordering to confirm.
I have the 2600 XT in my 2.66Ghz Mac Pro and it works very well. Much better than the OEM card.
Keith

Ati radeon hd 4870 for 1st generation mac pros?

unfortunately the ati radeon hd 4870 is working for all mac pros except the first generation: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB999ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA5OQ&mco=NDE4NDMxOA
are there any other graphics cards that have a mini displayport connector and are compatible with a mac pro first generation?
thanks for the help!

The information on the AMD/ATI site actually says the 4870 has lower power requirements than the 3870.
The PCIe power limit of 300W is the same for the 2008 Mac Pros as the 2007 8-core Clovertown Mac Pro. Power is not an issue. EFI appears not to be an issue either as Rob's tests have shown.
Can anyone give a logical or technical reason why the 4870 is not being made available to 1st Gen Mac Pros like the 3.0 GHz 8-core. I can't think of anything.
Surely Apple aren't restricting this cards use in an effort to persuade users to upgrade? Are they?

ATI Radeon HD 3870 Graphics Card for Mac debuts

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,147040-c,graphicsboards/article.html
AMD on Thursday announced the ATI Radeon HD 3870 for Mac and PC Edition. The new card is expected to ship at the end of June for US$219.
The card works in the PCI Express slots of both first-generation and second-generation Mac Pro systems, and features 512MB of 256-bit GDDR4 frame buffer memory and 320 stream processors. It's designed as a graphics upgrade for Mac Pros -- even those that may have come equipped with the Nvidia GeForce 8800 card introduced earlier this year. AMD claims its new Radeon card runs faster and costs less than the GeForce 8800 GT, which is only available from the Apple Store and costs $279.
The graphics processor can crank up to 70 gigabytes per second bandwidth using a 775MHz engine. That translates, according to AMD's internal benchmarks, into *30 to 180 percent better performance in Apple's Motion 3 software than the GeForce 8800*; slow Motion performance has been an Achilles' heel of Nvidia's rival card since its introduction.
http://ati.amd.com/products/radeonhd3800/macpc/index.html

Rob has it benchmarked:
http://www.barefeats.com/harper16.html
I'm going to definitely buy this as soon as it's online. I'll order it through Rob's link too to reward him for all the work he's done on this issue.
Now, how about a refund on my GeForce 8800 upgrade, Apple?

Radeon HD 5770 or 5870 in Mac Pro 1,1

I am currently running a Mac Pro 1,1 on a NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT and am severely unimpressed with the graphics performance. I am looking to upgrade to a ATI Radeon HD 5770, 5870, or even maybe dual 5770's. I know the 5770 is compatible with the 1st gen mac pro, but I'm not sure about the 5870. Looking around, I'm seeing lots of people saying it is compatible, and others saying its not. If I'm running lion on a mac pro 1,1 will a ATI Radeon 5870 work?
Additionally I was wondering how dual 5770's work... Is there a crossfire sort of cable thing between them, do you just plug two of them in, will two 5770's even work in the Mac Pro 1,1?
Any help would be very much appreciated

Today, A PC card flashed with Mac Firmware will only produce a picture after Mac OS X is fully loaded and operational. That is fine, provided when you want to change boot drives, or do maintenance, or re-Install something, or Debug a problem, you can live with nothing on your display. Most Users can not.
Cards released by Apple and fully supported by current versions of Mac OS X were built with EFI firmware ROMs.
"Hacker" sites try all sorts of currently unsupported-by-Apple stuff. Some of it works great. But those sites are not going to provide support for you when things go bad. If you need your Mac to be reliable for doing productive things, stick with what Apple supports TODAY, unless you can provide your own support.
In a few months, the situation may be different. Or maybe not.

Any updates on the ATI Radeon HD 5870 upgrade kit for Mac Pro 2009/2010?

So,
while the card is shipping without delay in new BTO Mac Pro units, there still is no sign of the kit posted on on the online store months ago (day/date with current Mac Pro release). To date, the card hasn't shipped (to anyone - no 3rd party store has received it), Apple still shows 'currently unavailable' - without even an 'add to cart' button (like the Quadro 4000); and even AppleCare is in the dark (you'd assume they can send units for replacement. Yet, while they can be setup in the GSX system, there is apparently no 'cost' shipments available even from support).
I suppose not - but does anyone have any more insight into what's going on here? This looks suspiciously like this card is not going to see the light of day as an upgrade kit; for either 2010 or 2009 Mac Pro.....
Cheers,
Dan

Ugh.
That rhymes with what we are seeing.
After about a week of there being an 'order' button for the 5870 (it remained 'currently unavailable' though), the 'add to cart' option has, today, disappeared again. I assume anyone who ordered the card during the window will not see the card, and there seem to have been no purchase confirmations (usually sent within 15 minutes of processing) sent to anyone who ordered.
All this, as well as you report, points to the 5870 being EOL; apparently only a contingent was made for the Mac Pro, and now even AppleCare is running down on inventory for replacements.
That begs the question; once inventory runs out - assuming it does - to even supply the Mac Pro BTO, there has to be some replacement ready; assumingly something with better yield.
BTW - the 5870 cards for the Mac Pro are made by AMD (they are identical to the reference boards), and are stamped as such in Mac Pros. Whatever Apple does with them, they still get them from AMD, not a third party....
And, the Quadro 4000 isn't a good replacement - apart from the cost (which is reasonable for a productivity card) as for non-optimized apps (i.e. users that would usually buy a 5870) it'll likely be much slower due to the low clock and memory speed on the card. And, WOW isn't CUDA aware
Oh well
Dan

Migration to Mac Pro , can you do it from a hard drive?

I guess if it is not an SATA drive it's a no go but what about and external case?

You have both the choice of installing it into an external FireWire enclosure or installing it into the 2nd optical drive bay as Hatter mentions. Unless you're intending to keep it inside your Mac Pro it'll be better to put it into an external enclosure?
By the way, you can always leave it in the Mac it came out of and connect to that computer via FireWire Target Disk Mode…
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583
… else simple simple network sharing.
If you're intending to use the Migration Assistant then the need to boot from it is not required.

Maxed out Mac Pro (nearly new) DEAD SLOW - why???

*I have always been a PC guy (animation and film production is what I do -- www.speedbumpstudios.com) but I decided to bite the bullet and go Mac. I maxed out my Mac Pro-- if it's available, I got it. It's a 15,000 machine. Great. So I've had it for a few months and the thing is so dead slow I am finding it almost unusable. My three year old PC laptop kicks its butt. Here are the symptoms.*
*Opening Photoshop takes anywhere from 1 to 3 minutes. Once it is open, if I try to open a file, it takes another couple of minutes for the finder to pop up so I can search for it.*
*iTunes regularly hangs and/or takes several minutes to load. My iPod, which is also new, sometimes cannot even connect to it (error).*
*HP scanning software takes minutes to open. Once the scan is ready to be saved, it takes minutes for finder to even offer the option to name the new file.*
*Almost all the software on this thing starts up painfully slow.*
*IMPORTANT: I have noticed that the machine runs almost all right immediately after a restart. The longer it runs, the worse these symptoms get.*
*ALSO IMPORTANT: -- I had been running Boot Camp on the machine, allowing me to boot into Windows XP. Recently bought Parallels and ran that. While this Mac never ran great, the problems seemed to get markedly worse at that point. I have since, out of desperation, removed Parellels completely, but the problems persist.*
*I am, of course, sick about how much I am paying for this machine that is supposed to be the best available and it about as useful as a boat anchor. WHAT SHOULD I DO!?*

George, I feel your pain. I too have a maxed out Mac Pro;
Mac Pro - 8 Core (Dual Quad-Core 3GHz)
16GB RAM (Crucial Memory)
4x 750GB Drives
ATI 1900x Vid Card
2x 30" Cinema Displays
etc etc etc .... I even have a 2-port eSATA cables installed (OWC) with a 1.5TB external drive (Iomega, and fast as the dickens!)
My machine has been in the Apple repair facilities THREE times so far (I am working with an executive relations person for 3 months now) and we are about to swap it out for a new machine because the term "ghosts in the machine" apply to many Mac Pros. In fact, the last time Apple fixed this machine was yesterday, replacing a bluetooth module, and as soon as I booted the machine it started having kernel panics (for the first time), we thought it was the RAM Riser cards being seated wrong... after making sure everything was seated properly, and doing a complete OS reinstall, it is still kernel panic-ing every hour (if I let the machine sit quietly)...so, there is a ghost in this machine that does not want to go away.
To get your situation though, MY machine has ALWAYS been much slower than the dual-G5 I replaced last April. You are not alone here. This is an 8-Core machine, ran Tiger slow and is now running Leopard only about 20% faster, which is still slower than the G5. Makes me want to cry sometimes because I paid, what, $1300 for the processor upgrade alone?
Something is wrong with your machine. I suppose you have already tried to reinstall, reformat your drives, correct permissions, etc and still found your machine wanting in the ways of speed, right? What you need to do is to contact Apple Executive Relations and tell them what is going on. Once they see that you ordered such an expensive machine (no one buys extra RAM from Apple so they will sympathize right there!) they WILL contact you and work with you until your problem is solved. The only reason they have not replaced MY machine yet (they will usually do so after the 2nd or 3rd repair attempt) is because in my case I cannot afford the downtime. Now, however, I think we have to because no one can figure out why this machine is having panics after sitting still for an hour.
Anyway, be assured this is NOT representative of Apple or the Mac Pro speed. Mac Pro's are plenty fast, and unbelievably fast with newer, Intel-based software (CS3), and even though Leopard has many many bugs it is faster than Tiger. My partner has the same machine as I do and it is so fast I think it does most of his work before he even arrives in the morning.
Work with Apple, let them fix your machine or replace it. They will.

No more Mac Pro, Apple you're killing me

I waited 6 years where I work to get a Mac. We finally did and my work life put me on cloud 9. Have been a Mac user my whole life. I do audio production for TV and work on about 5 projects a day. I work on news stories, 5 minute documentary testimonies, 30 min weekly shows, and even 2 hour productions. I have Nuendo, Final Cut and Premiere open ALL DAY. My Mac Pro just keeps on chugging along all day, no worries. The big highlight of my life is I wrote over 90 Applescripts and use 20 EVERYDAY. These Mac feature really allows me to go home without a headache or carpal tunnel.
With Apple killing the Mac Pro, my workplace will be forced to go back to using PC's............I am seriously thinking about changing my career. My output will decrease. Stress will go up because I wont have automation to mount servers, rename files and move files. Servers will become 144.33.65.1 instead of "VideoTape". I thought the death of Steve was bad, this is even worse. I've been a loyal Mac advacate since 1988. Just got my 1st iPhone. I have converted so many people to the Mac. I love my 17" Macbook Pro, I do Lightwave 3D, Motion, FCP, and so many other things on it. My work life is headed for the toilet. Crash........Crash........Crash.............wait.........I have to manually retype all the file names in this production. My stomach is churning just thinking out it.
Ouch. Thanks Apple.

I'm in the video industry, so I share your concerns.
However, Apple has not yet done or said anythng. All that's happened is Apple Insider has reported on a rumour to (succesfully) stir the pot and get some page views. No-one knows anything.
In a few years when you can get a thunderbolt 4 slot PCI box, hook it up to a macbook pro, and you have the functional equivalent of a mac pro, then maybe it goes away. But I don't think that day is today.
Well, I hope not.

ATI RADEON 5770 on Mac Pro 2006

Hello,
I am using a MacPro 1.1 (from 2006) and out of the blue my video card which was Geforce 7300GT burned out. I can't find a replacement card which is the same and only combatible one I found is Ati Radeon 5770. Before I move on buying this card I am wondering whether it will work first of all on my mac pro, and if so which exact model should I purchase since I see some differences in each one as far as the memory bus (4800Mhz, 5200 Mhz and 1200 Mhz) and the processor clock speed ( 850 Mhz and 875 Mhz) I would really appreciate some help on this matter since it's already 2 weeks I am trying to solve it.
Thanks!

Well, thank you for that.
If you are lucky or willing, the link I have for 1st gen 8800GT model on ebay. Pricey as can be though.
Also:
http://myworld.ebay.com/macvidcards/
Hopefully 5770s are waiting for drivers or to be replaced with Radeon 6xxx series (but which would then require more retooling of drivers you can be sure).
Last year this time, the 5000's were just coming out. Nvidia was also inbetween the FERMI (GeForce 400s) and older GTX 200 series which caused shortages and when you could find anything, inflated pricing.
When I bought the 8800GT I also picked up ($129) OS X DVD 10.5.6 (had I guessed, I would have waited for Snow Leopard @ $29 maybe). And, you have to call but 10.5.x DVDs can be ordered by phone Apple Store but not online (another peeve, it is almost impossible to buy Leopard now, the last that supports PowerMacs too).
At least the Apple variety of ATI Radeon work in any and all Mac Pro models.
If there is a way to flash or work with PC cards, that would come from MacRumors Mac Pro.
http://forum.netkas.org/
http://forums.macrumors.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1

How many Sapphire Sapphire RADEON R9 270X can i install in my mac pro 2009?

How many of the graphics cards can I install in my mac pro 2009? Sapphire Sapphire RADEON R9 270X
Thanks

Why? do you use FCP-X? that will benefit from two. Also gaming in Windows where you can use Crossfire
You have two 6-pin power feeds so you will need a small 450W PSU - those come with two 8-pin and two 6-pin.
Those can often fit in the optical drive bay and cost $25-75 range.
"500W" is NOT for the card! that is the minimum PC PSU only!
when buying look for card that uses only two 6-pin and not an 8-pin power.
75W for the PCIe slot, and 150W from two 6-pin cables, most GPUs fall into the 200-250W at maximum stress levels8-pin is basically two 6-pins and 150W feed
> we CrossFired a pair of Radeon R9 270s in our 2010 Mac Pro tower. Under Windows 7 64bit Ultimate, it registered 145 FPS in the Diablo test.
http://barefeats.com/tube06.html
Keep in mind that the Mac Pro tower can't feed enough power to the dual 980s, dual 290Xs, or dual 7950s.
We used an auxillary power supply to compensate.
For the hard core GPU rendering, there are external expansion boxes with their own power supplies.
In an earlier article, we featured the Cubix Xpander which facilitated the connection of 5 GPUs to the Mac Pro tower.
If you favor an AMD GPU like the Radeon R9 290X, MacVidCards can modify it to run at PCIe 2.0 bandwidth in your Mac Pro tower.
The Sapphire Radeon R9 7950 Mac Edition is available from OWC and TransIntl.
February 6th, 2015 -- Dual GeForce GTX 980s vs other Dual GPUs running multi-gpu 'aware' apps
February 6th, 2014 -- (UPDATE) GeForce GTX 980 GPU versus 8 other GPUs running Games and OpenGL Benchmarks
January 29th, 2015 -- GeForce GTX 980 vs 9 other GPUs running Resolve, LuxMark, and Octane Render
December 28th, 2013 -- Does Final Cut Pro X 10.1 render faster on Mac Pro towers with Dual AMD GPUs? What about Motion 5.1?
Things to keep in mind:
The Radeon R9 280X we used was 'un-flashed.' It booted OS X fine but there was no startup screen. Also, when we checked the speed of CPU-to-PCIe-to-CPU communication, it appeared to be running in PCIe 1.0 mode instead of PCIe 2.0. However, unless the GPU intensive app saturates the PCIe 1.0 bandwidth, it will not run any faster in PCIe 2.0 mode. http://barefeats.com/tube12.html
Which is one reason why you might want to buy pre-modified cards from http://www.macvidcards.com

VisionTek Radeon HD2600XT or HD2600PRO Mac Pro compatible?

Does anyone know if the 'Visiontek Radeon HD2600XT 512MB (Model 900183) or the VisionTek Radeon HD2600PRO 512MB (Model: 900181) is Mac Pro (early 2008) compatible? Both are PCIe with 2 port Dvi-i Tv/hdtv Out.

I was hoping to find something on Amazon with Prime shipping. It is difficult for me to get around, so I'm looking for something I can overnight cheaply. They show different versions of the ATI 5770, but I'm not sure which will work in the Mac Pro.

ATI Radeon 2600 XT on Mac Pro 2008 has died

Hi All,
I have recently been having issues with one of my ATI Radeon 2600 XT Graphics cards - choppy graphics, artefacts appearing on the display and endless crashes of the OS.
I have read online about a recall program Apple did run which recalled these exact graphics cards, and after checking the serial number of the card in question, it does indeed match one of the 'bad' batch.
The only problem is - the program ended in July 2011
What are the chances Apple would be kind enough to still swap my card for a new unaffected one?
Thanks
Mac Pro (early 2008)
6GB Memory
2 x ATI Radeon 2600XT
2 x 23" Cinema HD Monitors

What are the chances Apple would be kind enough to still swap my card for a new unaffected one?
I'm in the same boat. :\ Mine just died too, would I need to take my tower to an Apple Store? Or how would I go about asking Apple to replace my graphics card?
Also, if I were to put in a different graphics card (say the ATI Radeon HD 5770), how difficult is it to replace? Would my Mac Pro (Early 2008) be able to handle it? I have 2x2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (8-core) processor, the ATI Radeon HD 5770 says it requires Mac Pro (Mid 2010) with PCI Express 2.0 slot and OS X 10.6.4, whereas I'm still on just 10.5 Leopard and have an Early 2008 model...
On another thread, here, The Hatter, said something about baking the card in the oven? Would that work if Apple won't replace it for free?
I have never opened up my tower before (I don't know how!) and I have been wanting to upgrade my RAM as well. I have 4x1GB cards and I wanted to move up to like 8 or 16GB. I was thinking about buying RAM from NewEgg or Amazon, whichever is cheaper, any suggestions?
Thank you for any help and sorry about hijacking the thread! >~< Should I make my own thread or continue in this one? I'm sorry, I just don't want to cause any problems...I will make a new one if need be.

Radeon R9 280x on Mac pro

I have a Mac Pro 4.1 and would upgrade my grafic card.
En internet one seller offer a Diamond Radeon R9 280x how compatible... is true?
I can buy this card?
Thank's
Max

Ah, yeah, have seen your post on Netkas.
There's only two, no three possibilites, as far as I can see:
1. Your card is broken. Dead on arrival
2. It doesn't get enough power ...
3. or it doesn't detect power on one of the cables correctly.
So either your 6 pin to 8 pin adapter is not the right one. Not the right setup of power lines and grounds.
Or it doesn't get enough power in, which should not be happening in Desktop / 2D only. It should at least boot up.
Be advised that, also a lot of people say they run their 280x / 7970 from internal power only, your are OVER the maximum the Mac Pro can safely supply. The Mac Pro gives you 1 x 75 from Slot, 2 x 75 Watt from 2 x 6 Pin on the board. Thats 225 Watts. The 280x can easily draw 250 Watts and spike to even more. The card is designer for 2 x 75 Watts = 150 Watts: 300 Watts.
The Mac Pro has the power lines as traces ON THE MAINBOARD. So if they overheat / fry: there goes your whole board. And I've already read that a couple of times from people. Or the Mac Pro just gives you the hard "shut down" as a safety measure.
I advise to either go for an external PSU, which you would have to hook up to internal power to make it switch on / switch of with Mac Pro.
Or, to get it to run safely with internal power, do it like this:
1. Get a 2 x 6 pin to 1 x 8 pin adapter to give the 8 pin port on the card the requires 150 Watts.
2 . Get a 2 x SATA two 1 x 6 pin adapter and connect to 2 SATA ports on the board. Gives you the 75 Watts for the 6 pin easily.
That way you'll lose two SATA Ports, but you still have 4 in total for drives (Two Bays and 2 from the optical bay).
Enough power, no danger for motherboard. No external PSU needed.

Need advice on Video card for my 1st Gen Mac Pro 667ghz

OK, I'm getting frustrated because I can't seem to find a card to replace my now failing NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT. I was thinking of buying the ATI 4870 but I saw that it needed 800ghz and my Mac Pro has 667ghz..
What are my options? ;-(

The graphics card doesn't care about your memory bus speed. The ATI 4870 will work in any Mac Pro.
<http://www.barefeats.com/nehal05.html>
"As with the Radeon HD 3870 and HD 2600, ATI included both a 32-bit and 64-bit EFI driver in the ROM, so it should work in all models of Mac Pro with the latest drivers. We installed in the Clovertown first generation 8-core Mac Pro (as you can see from the graphs above) and a close colleague installed it in a 2.66GHz Woodcrest 4-core first generation Mac Pro. As long as you have two power feeds for the card in your first generation Mac Pro and have the correct drivers properly installed, it should work fine."

Radeon HD 3870 coming to a Mac Pro near you?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for