ati radeon hd 4870 for 1st generation mac pros?

The latest (early 2009) Mac Pro has the very same 300W total limit on PCIe bus.

There is now PCIe power limitation across Mac Pro models as they are all the same. I don't know about the original 4-core Mac Pros but I'd assume that would be the same as power requirements of the PCIe bus would be governed by the PCIe spec.

Nvidia's GeForce GTS 250 graphics card

We measured *total system power consumption* at the _wall socket_ using an Extech power analyzer model 380803. The monitor was plugged into a separate outlet, so its power draw was not part of our measurement. The cards were plugged into a motherboard on an open test bench.

The idle measurements were taken at the Windows Vista desktop with the Aero theme enabled. The cards were tested under load running Left 4 Dead at 2560x1600 resolution, using the same settings we did for performance testing.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16504/10

The 4870 in my first gen seems to run just fine.

Guess I haven't been hallucinating after all.

I typically only post in the strong affirmative about things I have actual first hand experience. It's a good practice.

I posted at the OWC blog to encourage them to try the 10.5.7 drivers...doesn't seem like they read the comments, or that they don't care about accuracy.

Or, they may not feel free to discuss any upcoming OS release.

Hatter,

I've got an Early 2008 Mac Pro (just one generation previous to the newest one). I've been using dual 8800GT's to power 3 monitors and it works fine, though the 8800GT is not the fastest performer with Pro Apps and such.

Any chance I could use dual 4870's just like I did my dual 8800GT's? I had researched the power issue of the 8800GT at the time and don't recall now what it was but it's obviously within the 300W total of the PCIE bus.

Thoughts on options for me, again, assuming 3 monitors are needed for extended desktop?

Cheers!

Any chance I could use dual 4870's just like I did my dual 8800GT's? I had researched the power issue of the 8800GT at the time and don't recall now what it was but it's obviously within the 300W total of the PCIE bus.

No. The 8800GTs have one power cable each. A 4870 has two power cables, so uses both auxiliary power connectors for one card. It needs more than 150 watts, and the total power allowed for all PCI-e cards is 300 watts in a Mac Pro.

Ahh, ok, makes sense I guess. So now the tough decision is whether I can go down to just using 2 monitors instead of 3 to take advantage of the faster performance of the 4870 with FCP, Photoshop, etc.

Hmmm...tough call...any idea if I could use a single 4870 and single 8800GT next to each other? Oh wait, no, because of the power cable issue I guess. Can you confirm on that?

Thanks

Hmmm...tough call...any idea if I could use a single 4870 and single 8800GT next to each other? Oh wait, no, because of the power cable issue I guess. Can you confirm on that?

You should be able to use a 4870 and a Radeon HD 2600 XT, since the Radeon HD 2600 XT doesn't have a power cable.

I've got an Early 2008 Mac Pro (just one generation previous to the newest one). I've been using dual 8800GT's to power 3 monitors and it works fine, though the 8800GT is not the fastest performer with Pro Apps and such.

I would just stay with the dual 8800GTs for now. Apple may improve the drivers in Snow Leopard to get better performance with Pro Apps. Snow Leopard will be able to get more power from NVIDIA boards.
<http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/12/10/nvidia pioneering_opencl_support_on_top_ofcuda.html>
The Pro Apps will also need some updating to use this.

I think that's probably good advice Malcolm. I think I'll stay put with the 8800GT's and see what Snow Leopard brings me. Thanks for that article reference, good info indeed. Cheers!

Let's be clear, the 300W limit if the power draw from the PCIe slot itself not the total draw from the PSU.

All Mac Pros have the same 300W limit from the 1st gen to the latest 2009 nehalem MP.

Power is not an issue when determining if the 4870 will work in earlier models.

Snow Leopard may be the game changer those of us that use the ProApps have all been waiting for.

The OpenCL implementation should mean apps should see all CPUs and GPUs in a system as resources to take advantage of and should mean being able to install multiple graphics cards to improve rendering performance not just to drive monitors.

The 4870 in 1st gen Mac Pros might be come academic under Snow Leopard as we could potentially load up our machines up with 8800 GTs for some serious ProApps performance.

I look forward to being able to grade HD in Color in real-time.

Actually you could use 2 hd4870 cards. The 1st gen mac pro has a limit of 150W from the PCIe slots themselves and 75W from each of the auxiliary connectors (total 300W as has been previously stated), but you could jump power from the optical drive connector if you are not using both. The PSU of the 1st gen MP is 980W, so it would easily handle this.

I mostly trust myself, so I ordered a reflashed 1G 4870 to run on my 1st generation Mac Pro (EFI32).

I ordered it from:

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/bruinmacsW0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZQQmdoZ

As I'm currently using a solidly operating reflashed 9800 GT from the same folks and have tested it every way I know of, this may be an interesting benchmark comparison.

I should have it in a day or so.

I'll check in when I have some personal experience.

Cheers,

Well,
The reflashed 4870 1 GB GPU works just fine for me tonight, this very night (I just looked and in my excitement I forgot that it is tomorrow here)!
By far the fastest GPU in Boot Camp w/Vista Ultimate/32 I've ever installed (and I've previously installed the 8800 GT, the reflashed 8800 GTS, the reflashed 3870 and the reflashed 9800 GT).
The 4870 is the quiet one.
To be clear, I have an early 2007 Mac Pro (EFI32) and I've taken the time to test this new 4870 in OS X 10.5.6.
For OS X, I needed and obtained the 10.5.7 drivers from where I obtained the reflashed 4870:
http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/bruinmacsW0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZQQmdoZ
If you have an early Mac Pro, other solutions are out there, but this is one cool GPU!
You don't have to wait for Apple to make it available, either...
FYI...
Cheers,
tyvol