1st Gen Mac Pro vs. ATI 4870

Yes, a pair of ACD 23" no problems - why would there be?

Noice_t, can you confirm that the mini display port is working on a 2006-2007 mac pro? A friend of mine purchased my mac pro from me, and I of course, stepped up to an 8-core 3.0ghz 2008 mac pro where I know pcie 2.0 is supported.

In other words, will the Apple cinema display 24 inch be an option for him, though he has the 2006-2007 mac pro1,1?

I replied to you in another thread, but since I don't have a MDP monitor I can't test it fully. However, it should work fine. The issue with the 4870 and 2006-2007 MP has nothing to do with ports, pcie, or type of ram and frequency it's running at (as apple has specified in their requirements).

The issue was with the EFI firmware (rom) on the 2006-2007 mac pro being 32, and not 64 like the 2008-2009. From past experiences, graphics cards from nvidia only included the specific rom, ie the 8800gt with "two" versions (a 2006-2007 & a 2008). ATI on the otherhand includes both (32 & 64) in one rom, thus making it work fine in 1st gen MPs.

For the other stuff, ports and ram are irrelevant. PCIe is backwards compatible (always has been). The only difference is that the link speed of the ports will be limited to 2.5 GT/s (PCIe 1.0) vs. 5 GT/s (PCIe 2.0). This doesn't effect your friend though as the 1st gen MPs only run PCIe 1.0 anyway.

Ah, got it. Ok, but I also found out that the pcie ports in the mac pro 2006 are 1.1 and not 1.0 like in the G5 Quad core and dual core machines. I would suspect that 1.1 is very close to 2.0 though.

So, why don't third party monitors work with the Apple version of the radeon 4870 hd and is there a fix for it?

Yeah, its 1.1, but writing and talking about 1.0 is just easier to compare. Technically, yes I do mean 1.1 🙂

1.0/1.1 still though have a speed of 2.5 GT/s vs. 2.0 which is 5 GT/s. Only a few apps afaik are bandwidth intense and make a difference with 2.0. One of those apps is mudbox, which apparently gets heavily crippled by limiting it to 2.5 GT/s

In general though, there are not many apps/games that can even satisfy pcie 2.0 anyway. If you are worried though, getting a flashed 1GB 4870 will help to offset any "slower-ness" you might see running on pcie 1.1.

The third party monitor issue is driver related I believe, it was apparent even when people were using 10.5.6 w/ beta drivers. Thought it would be fixed in 5.7, but sadly, no 😟

I spoke with apple and it seems that some manufacturers have drivers out for macs, but don't inform apple of this. So has anyone bought an ATI 4870 graphics card (not from apple) and installed it with just having to download drivers and not flashing it? If so please let us know since that would allow us to save $100 to $150.

Did you read through this thread, before posting? Running a PC 4870 on a mac pro "without flashing" is not possible. The firmware is different on PC and Mac cards, therefore the PC card needs to be flashed with a Mac compatible firmware for it to work.

oh, its not me thats worried, as I have a 2008 mac pro which has two pcie 2.0 slots. My original mac pro was a 1,1 but I sold that to a friend of mine. Yeah, I know there are very few apps that can satisfy the 2.0 pcie bus anyway.

The only reason why I am selling my 1GB 4870 is because I want that new 24 inch display from Apple. Plus, I hear that an LED display is much better on preventing eye strain than an LCD monitor.

Hi Sinister_Dane!

Yeah, I did from Applemacanix on ebay. He sold me a rather nice slightly overclocked 4870 card which I believe was originally for the PC, as the native apple version hadn't come out yet. It is really nice and powerful, however because I want to move to a 24 inch Apple cinema display with mini-dvi port, I am going to get rid of it as it won't work for me once I move to a 24 inch LED cinema display.

But, yes.. I also tested the 1GB ATI Radeon 4870 HD in my original 2.66 quad-core mac pro and it worked fine. I had to download a driver for it, as I was using 10.5.6 at the time.

Noice_t: I have something also which can benefit you a little bit. Do you run windows 7 in 64-bit mode on the 2006-2007 mac pro 1,1?

The ATI Radeon 4870 HD works also within windows 7 also.

I'm hoping for a 30" LED debut at WWDC next week. I just hope they give a matte option...a 30" glossy would be like a mirror.

That brings up an interesting thought, as if next week the displays are refreshed, that will bring the end to the 30" ACD (dvi); rendering all apple displays MDP. With the Nvidia GTX 285 debuting this month, it will only have dual dvi ports.

So anyone buying that (which I know there are a lot of) will need a third party display, as currently there are no DVI to MDP adapters available.

Nadav, thanks for your help, and could you possibly tell me what manufacturer you got the card from. Again thanks for your help.

Also I thank everyone who has writen on this forum since it is all helpful.

Well, I purchased originally the Radeon 4870 HD in 1GB format which is slightly overclocked from a guy on ebay named Applemacanix. Its a really nice card and works with all monitors. I haven't had any problems with it. The only ONLY reason why I am going to get rid of it is because I really want the 24 inch LED Apple Cinema Display.

I know there are alternatives out there, but I need a decent webcam built in, as the rocketfish webcam I have really gives poor performance. Plus, the LED monitor from Apple from what I have researched gives really good, crisp quality and its good on the eyes compared to LCD screens.

The manufactuerer of the card is ATI/AMD, but it appears that Applemacanix sold me a flashed PC card w/1GB and sightly overclocked. Again, its an excellent card!! I'd recommend it for anyone who has a mac pro - 2006 or otherwise.

Yes, running windows 7 RC. Very smooth. Had some trouble with the install though. You need to slipstream a new DVD in order to boot from disc. Also I needed to get a hold of the bootcamp 64bit drivers from the later leopard versions; my leopard disk is the original 10.5