ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT Graphics Card in 'old' Mac Pro

I assume you know this but thought I'd mention it if you didn't, Barefeats have shown that the HD 2600 XT works in 'old' mac pros using Leopard. See the following link:

http://www.barefeats.com/harper2.html

On other forums people say that it should work on under Tiger as well as long as you have the right drivers that the 'alu' iMacs use (to run the same card).

to clarify: the one thing the 2600 XT is faster compared to the NVIDIA 7300 is OpenGL. But Quartz Extreme is SLOWER with the ATI compared to the NVIDIA. You have a system that 'feels' sluggish because of the slower screen redraws, scrolling and interface elements drawn on screen.
So: yes, maybe gameplay benefits also in the older Mac Pro's, day to day use (Quartz extreme, 2D, etc) makes for a slower expierence.

Yes: the NVIDIA is replaced, so the ATI card is in the same fast slot at full 16 lanes...

Thats interesting that it makes the rest of the system feel sluggish. That wasn't mentioned on Barefeats. They are normally hot on those sorts of points. I think they said 'it works, and it works well'.

So just to clarify further, you are now running the card on Leopard yes? (I noticed your operating system changed from your first post).

Do you think that the situation might be improved when Loepard 10.5.2 comes out?

First model Mac Pro, quad 2.66:
Xbench:

NVIDIA 7300 GT:
Quartz graphic test: 205*
User interface test: 379

ATI 2600 XT:
Quartz graphic test: 163*
User interface test: 293

*NVIDIA:
Line 183.82 12.24 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 254.30 75.92 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 203.35 16.58 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 199.86 5.04 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 200.08 12.52 Kchars/sec

*ATI:
Line 144.89 9.65 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 203.97 60.90 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 149.52 12.19 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 165.85 4.18 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 162.24 10.15 Kchars/sec

Open GL however is TWICE as fast...

Cinebench 10:
NVIDIA: 2530
ATI: 4550

SO: is it a driver problem? Can it be faster?

If you look in your system/library/extensions (NB the one in the system) on the NEW mac pro it should list the drivers. There must be one

No, drivers are an OS thing: OSx 10.5.1 installs exactly the same drivers on an 'old' mac as on a 'new' Mac. It installs all ATI drivers even if you do not have an ATI card!
It is still a 'dumb' installer that puts everything there in your kernel extensions. All the latest drivers are already in place (otherwise OpenGL won't have this great results) they are called ATI.200xx etc.
So maybe OS 10.5.2 would include new ATI 2600 drivers. And OS X 10.5.2 will install those drivers on ANY macine (old or new, no ATI or indeed ATI card in the machine)

We at Bare Feats tested the Radeon HD 2600 XT inside the April 2007 8-core Mac Pro 3.0GHz. We installed no special drivers. It was running the latest version of Leopard (10.5.1). We ran real world tests like Motion, iMaginator, Prey, UT2004 Flyby, Halo and World of Warcraft. The 2600 was much faster than the GeForce 7300 GT but not as fast as the Radeon X1900 XT.

I have the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT Graphics Card in a 'new' Mac Pro (Early 2008). Works fine in Leopard, as there is a driver:

ATI Radeon HD 2600:

Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 2600
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x9588
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-B1480A-236
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.236
Displays:
DELL 2407WFP:
Resolution: 1920 x 1200 @ 60 Hz
Depth: 32-bit Color
Core Image: Hardware Accelerated
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Rotation: Supported
DELL 2005FPW:
Resolution: 1360 x 768 @ 60 Hz
Depth: 32-bit Color
Core Image: Hardware Accelerated
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Rotation: Supported

However in 10.4.11 programs like Final Cut and Avid Xpress Pro will not run because there is no driver:

ATI Radeon HD 2600:

Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 2600
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x9588
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-B1480A-236
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.236
Displays:
Display:
Resolution: 1920 x 1200
Depth: 32-bit Color
Core Image: Software
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Not Supported
Display Connector:

So how does one move the driver from Leopard to Tiger? As to the original question, my guess is: in an "old" Mac Pro It will run fine under Leopard, ** if you're running Tiger forget it!

Message was edited by: Fredbase

That's the big question which no one is yet expicitely answering - does it work 'fine' in an old mac running Leopard?

People are saying that it is sluggish but can someone confirm that it is sluggish in Leopard please.

Doesn't the Barefeats testing answer this?

"We at Bare Feats tested the Radeon HD 2600 XT inside the April 2007 8-core Mac Pro 3.0GHz. We installed no special drivers. It was running the latest version of Leopard (10.5.1). We ran real world tests like Motion, iMaginator, Prey, UT2004 Flyby, Halo and World of Warcraft. The 2600 was much faster than the GeForce 7300 GT but not as fast as the Radeon X1900 XT. "

Seems pretty clear.

Anyway mine arrives next two days so I can chip in, though the only game I play is chess (and only 2D boards!)

No it doesn't answer that - where does it say on the Barefeats site that they were running Leopard? I assume they were but they haven't said that! Also they don't report on the performance of the system when not running a graphics specific application - apparently, as reported eslewhere, it is Sluggish!

So please, for my sanity, explain how Barefeats 'answers this'.

Well I guess I assumed that the graphics/games tests were the most demanding and so non-graphics applications would not be an issue. Hope I'm not wrong on this, but I'll find out soon enough.

My X1900 is failing and I can't wait for any other options and at £90 the X2600 is the cheapest card I can get for an 2006 Mac Pro.

Message was edited by: Mike Boreham

I tried switching the display connectors on the 2600 card and the startup apple logo and cog wheel now appear on the main screen (30 in) but the dock and apple menu items are all on the 23 in secondary. As expected but not usable.

Has anyone else who has tried the 2600 in an old Mac Pro been doing it with two monitors?

It doesn't seem to matter that the apple logo and cog wheel appear on the secondary monitor during start up, but leaves me uneasy.

Mike

Message was edited by: Mike Boreham