So Apple refreshed the Mac Pro line today and added the 5870 as an option. Does anybody know where these are available for purchase by themselves? I tried searching for them in the mac store but didn't find any.
Even if they make it available, does this change mean other Radeon 5870 based cards will work in the system? If so, does this mean Radeon 5870 based eyefinity 6 cards will work with the new mac pros, and hopefully the old ones with a driver/software update? That would make it an even more significant refresh from a graphics point of view...
In any case, if other 5870 based cards would work, that would be the easiest solution for getting hold of the required card as there are loads of cards already available for purchase based on the 5870 GPU...
The first thing to realize is that Macs use EFI, and as a result only a card with EFI firmware will work natively. None of the PC cards out there will. Though I am sure people will try and go the flashed PC card route, the same as some took with 4870/90.
We will need to wait and see what version of the efi ati/apple puts ont these new 5XXX cards.hopefully they will follow the previous ati model and put bothe the 32 and 64 bit firmware on them.
If it won't, then it wouldn't work in 2009s either as they share same basic UEFI 2.x firmware standards. And will have a lot of people very very upset. Not that it won't happen, or just be harder to achieve.
I'm reading through about 20 threads on MacRumors to see what they have to say, as well as performance between the two. On Windows w/ DX11 those GTX 460s lose a lot in frames etc and run faster in DX10.1 mode. And now there is talk of OpenGL 4.x
Will the ATi 5870 fit and work in the 2008 model Mac Pro's, if not it looks like i'm buying a new Mac Pro because I want to use Apple's 27" inch LED and I don't want to use any adapters.
It is still just a standard dual-wide card with two power connectors. Price wise seems like they are in the upper $300s, so a Mac version would have Apple tax on top of that 😟
From memory the ati5870 card is LONGER which may cause a problem in fitting. Also from memory, the 5870 has 3 (on the PC) not 2 power connections - even more trouble!
Hope Apple has sorted this out because I've got an early 2008 MacPro as well!
I have a first gen Mac Pro. Been looking at adding a secondary card in because I need a card in it to run a big flatscreen in another room from time to time. I thought since I was going to do that I might as well upgrade, using my current one for the TV.
I see that the Radeon HD 4870 works with my computer, but as this is something that's still a ways off I thought I might as well wait and see if this one would as well. I'm guessing this'll have to do with whether or not they include 32-bit firmware and have compatible power connectors, hmm?
If you have a first gen Mac Pro then I would stay away from a 5870, in fact because of not having PCI-Express 2.0 the 4870 won't be as fast as it can be and will be throttled by your system (though still perform faster than your current card).
That is what people said about the 4870 when it came out. Truth is, it doesn't need - or you wont - and pcie 2.0 slots at 8x may not be the pc gamers choice but it should be fine.
As others have posted, the new cards are not yet available for sale individually. No idea yet if they'll be available to order as soon as the Mac Pro's become available (in another week or so, from what I understand), or if they'll get put into the store sometime later.
We also don't yet know for sure whether or not they'll work in any of the earlier Mac Pro's. Speculation is that at the very least, they'll work in any 2008 or later Mac Pro (since they have EFI-64), and there's a good chance they'll actually work in 2006 and later Mac Pro's (the Apple/ATI Radeon HD4870 card had both the EFI-64 and EFI-32 support). We won't know for certain whether they work on older systems until they're out & available.
As for using PC cards, the short and official answer is no. Some technically minded folks who are into tinkering with their system and have the patience to deal with unexpected results, down time, and a somewhat more painful process with every update for Mac OS have managed to get certain models of PC graphics cards to work in their Mac Pro, but no idea how successful that will end up being on the new stuff. Hard to really know until the cards are out and available.
For clarification, there will be two cards.
Radeon HD 5770 1GB, which is said to perform as fast or slightly faster than the Radeon HD 4870, except have double the video memory as well as double the mini displayport plugs (2 + 1 DVI port). That card will require 1 6-pin supplemental power connection, so you could potentially drop 2 of those cards in and drive a total of 6 monitors.
Radeon HD 5870 1GB, which performs significantly faster than the Radeon HD 4870, has 1GB video memory (which is also significantly faster than the video memory in the 5770 or 4870), and also has 2 mini displayport + 1 DVI. The 5870 will require 2 6-pin supplemental power connectors, which means you'd only be able to have one of these cards in your machine (Mac Pro board/power supply can only accomodate 2 connectors).
