ATI Radeon HD 5870 Graphics Upgrade Kit available

Apple's ATI Radeon HD 5870 Works in 2008 Mac Pro


"...We plugged the Radeon HD 5870 into the 2008 Mac Pro. It works like a charm. Runs Portal faster than the 6-core Westmere. Details coming soon. (Caveat: the two Mini DisplayPorts on the 5870 are not supported on the 2006-2008 Mac Pro. If you only plan to use it with a single display, the remaining dual-link DVI connector will do the job.)..."



The "caveat" is a clear indication (to me) of why Apple will not fully support this card in older machines. Not supporting dual DVI monitors would make it a deal breaker for me.

Brilliant news. Now how do I justify the £360 price tag to myself? :-))
On top of that - you can't buy the bloody things yet!

Any chance this will work on a 2006 Mac Pro ? I'm running a 4870 on it now and its fantastic, but can't afford to buy a 12 core so would love a cheap upgrade option. I'm in Motion, FCP and After Effects all day long so a new video card would give me a nice boost!

Your prayers have been answered:
http://www.barefeats.com/wst10g3.html

Another interesting tidbit, from here.


"...One concern we had was the existence of the two Mini DisplayPorts in addition to one DVI port. We can confirm that the 2008 and 2009 were able to drive our 23" Cinema displays with the Mini DisplayPorts (using Apple's Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter). I'm confident that the 24" LED Cinema display and soon-to-be-shipping 27" LED Cinema display will work fine as well. As for our 30" Cinema display, we used the DVI port while testing the 3G game listed above...."



Seems to contradict the initial "Quick Take" post that implied that the 'older' Macs could only use the single DVI port. However, if the mini display ports can be adapted to use DVI out AND I can use the 'other' DVI port - at the same time - this is good news.

Rob claims, "we are not done". So hopefully this story will continue to evolve, for the positive, for those of us still using "old" Mac Pros.

I know this is a side issue but... why the **** do Apple use the 'mini' DisplayPort in the first place? Does any other (top end - NEC and Eizo for instance) monitor manufacturer use them? And does not connecting a DisplayPort via DVI defeat its purpose of being able to display higher resolution and billions of colours? Has anybody tried to buy a quality mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable? Geffen anyone?

3 cheers for Gefen!

http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dcable.jsp?prod_id=9098

Looks like the 5870 has only a tiny benefit over the 5770 in Motion.

If you are playing WoW, there is a huge difference. If you are using Motion, not much of a difference.

http://www.barefeats.com/wst10c.html

Thanks, Rob!!!

Motion Blocks Detail Preview FPS
5870 11.7 fps
5770 11 fps
4870 11.5 fps

I guess I'm buying a 5770.

the 5870 should be blowing away the other cards; but according to this its not. interesting...