1st Gen Mac Pro vs. ATI 4870

People running flashed 4870s with 10.5.7 at macrumors have had success (no change from 10.5.6). Theoretically, it should be the same, as the ROM being used on the flashed 4870s is from an apple oem 4870.

{quote:title=I updated to 10.5.7 and no problems. I had the Expansion Slot Utility open up which I had never seen before and I realized with my 2 cards my personal best configuration would be to put the 7300 card in slot 4 instead of slot 2 so I did so. I've added a screenshot and some more details at the top of my flashing tutorial (link below). Two monitors on the 4870 and a third on the 7300 still working great - didn't test any changes.}{quote}

{quote:title=I can confirm the Sapphire 1GB card (per Rew's condensed instructions) continues to function under 10.5.7. I have not yet tested speed/reliability in any way other than using the system to type this, but it is still 2.5GT/s and not 5... (See attached pic)}{quote}

{quote:title=Justupdated to 10.5.7 and a 4870 1 Gig XFX works EXACTLY the same so far.OpenGl View scores were within 1%-2%Haven't tested everything yet though }{quote}

The 4870 should be available at apple stores now (hopefully), I will buy one and try it out, post results.

The Apple store shows the 4870 now but it does not recommend use with first gen MacPro. I don't know if that means we actually need to get a flashed drive off ebay or if in fact the Apple card will work well with 10.5.7 on a first gen MacPro in spite Apple's failure to recommend it.

Well,
It seems that the Apple 4870 may not work in the earliest (EFI32) Mac Pros.
OK.
I decided not to go that way.
I have a reflashed PC 1 GB 4870 running just fine in my earliest Mac Pro for some time now.
As I've mentioned before, it is the fastest single GPU available for Boot Camp and OSX I've ever benchmarked against Open GL 3.0.
I did not test it in VMWare Fusion because I hardly ever use it.
So, if you are an early Mac Pro EFI32 owner, you have two choices: (1) Wait to hear from someone with personal experience if Apple's 4870 works and buy one, or, (2) get a proven reflashed PC 1 GB 4870 from the same vendor mentioned above.
I understand that the reflashed route is not for everyone, but the Apple route for some of us just doesn't exist.
Cheers,
tyvol

I have reflashed 512MB Gigabyte 4870. No problem after 10.5.7 upgrade.

Anybody know if the reflashed 4870 works any better/faster in the 2008 Mac Pro than the 2006/7?

I have the 8800GT in my 2008 MP, and in terms of Cinebench, it gets better OGL scores than the 4870 in the 2007 MP - just wondered if it would be quicker in the 2008?

Cheers
Adam

Why not wait then and see how the GTX 285 fares? costs a lot more and I'm sure there will a lot of effort for those that pursue PC cards to try to get one working, though there is only $100 difference.

All cards do slightly better with each successive model year.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/EGVA/01GP31080TR/

As a side note for flashed 4870's: according to peeps from macrumors, a 1GB 4870 on 2.5 GT/s (pcie 1.0/1st gen MP) will serve the "general public" better than a 512MB 4870 on 5 GT/s (pcie 2.0/'08~).

The current main drawback with flashed 4870's is the fact of not getting pcie 2.0.

General public meaning those using for games and pro-apps that are not bandwidth intensive. Apparently the Mudbox app is one of those rare cases that pcie 2.0 is a strict necessity.

Disabling a card to specifically "X-out" prior customers would not be a smart move, and I doubt( hope) apple is that dumb to go down that road...

1GB flashed 4870s run for about 190.00 + 25.00 for ATI mini-pcie cables. Still a hundred less than the apple card.

If the rumors are true, the ATI 5000 series will drop in July. If that happens, it will drastically drop the price of the 4870s.

Yes, and Nvidia is set to launch their GTX 300's 🙂

I wonder if there are different builds, chipsets, along with even revised ROMs floating around. I'm sure nothing stands totally still and there are some revisions already.

After the noise of the early 2600's for one, always a good idea to step back from bleeding edge.

Some oddities reported with 3870 and 10.5.7, but quiet and still normal booting from 10.5.6 drive (reason why never update w/o backup or making a clone - and test new OS on just one).
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/OSX/OSX_10_5_7reports.html#reports

I am current in the same boat. I have a 1st generation Mac Pro and I need to upgrade the graphics card. I've read through the discussion, and one thing I noticed is that the ATI Radeon requires a 450 Watt power supply and the total amount of power the mac gives to the pci slots is 300 Watts. Correct me if I am wrong, but shouldn't that cause a problem for getting good performance? OR Is there a way around that?

I noticed is that the ATI Radeon requires a 450 Watt power supply and the total amount of power the mac gives to the pci slots is 300 Watts.

For PC cards, they often specify the tatal capacity of the computer's power supply required, rather than how much power the card actually needs. The Mac Pro's power supply provides a lot more than just the 300 watts for the PCI slots. The Mac version of the ATI 4870 cannot need more than 225 watts since the PCI slot and the two auxiliary power connectors it uses each are rated for 75 watts. Of course, if you are talking about a non-Mac version of the card, it may need more than 300 watts.

I'm assuming you are talking about the apple 4870 since you said $350. I am currently running it on my 2006 mac pro with no issues, runs great. I only run 1 display however, so I cannot comment on 2 displays. However, I see no problem running 2 displays, as that's what it's meant to do: 1 off dvi, 1 off mdp, even off a 2006 MP. This shouldn't be affected.

The problem with no dual display was with flashed 4870s. Certain models were getting only 1 display working, while others would get both.

The Sapphire 4870 only gets 1 dvi working at a time. Both work just not together.

The XFX 4870 (the best choice currently for flashed ones) has both working dvi ports which supports 2 displays. However (and this applys to all flashed 4870s) only one port is running dual link and the other only runs single link. No 2x 30" ACDs. There is also the issue with PCIe 2.0 link speeds, however this doesn't affect you as you are running a 2006.

http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html