Q: ATI Radeon HD 5770 in MacPro 1,1

I too have a original Mac Pro 1.1 It was originally a Quad core machine with 2 dual core processors and I upgraded it to an 8 core machine with 2 Quad core processors.

Recently the original x1900 graphics card was giving issues so after a little research decided to go for a Radeon 5770. Quick swap over - used the same aux power cable as the x1900 used.

Installed the card and worked first time. I have 2 boot disks one Snow Leopard and one Lion.

Both work perfectly. Apple boot screen displays - all ports work no issues at all.

First thing you notice is how quiet the Mac is - that old card really made a racket.

The card came from a really good ebay seller who has a shop called Buy It Love It who sell very good quality genuine Mac Spares - new and almost new (box opened but unused)

Ok, so sounds like it will work on my 2.66 with the Apple 30" monitor, but what about running 10.5.8?

Skip

PS I'm in need of replacing my X1900, and I'm just looking for some good and something reasonable priced.

To be honest I am not sure about running Leopard. When I was researching getting the card I found quite a few people that said that it worked fine under Snow Leopard and Lion, which it certainly does.

I did see that some running earlier OS would not get the grey Apple Boot screen but once booted it was OK.

Others reported issues of one kind or another but that may have been even earlier OS versions.

However 10.6 and 10.7 have the correct drivers and all is well.

In terms of a replacement for your X1900 its a very good alternative, but you may need to go to 10.6x to guarantee stability. My guess for 10.5x is that it will probably work but you may not get a boot screen.

I think if you go back to the top of this thread and follow it you will get an idea of the potential problems.

You must get an original Apple card though - some people had bought PC versions and they dont work as standard.

There is an alternative which is the Nvidia 8800 GT or GTS both work with the MacPro 1.1

Hope that helps.

Thank you. Does the Nvidia 8800 GT / GTS work with OS 10.5.8?

I can get a new replacement X1900, and I may have to consider it, seeing this computer NEEDS to stay at 10.5.8 because of the software run on it.

Skip

Drivers for the 5770 and 5780 are included in 10.6.4 and later.

So even the older OS drivers are included?

10.5.8

Skip

No earlier than 10.6.4 contains drivers for the 5770/5780

You should be OK with the 8800 as its an older card but be worth double checking.

8800GT needs 10.5.2, and there was a 10.5.3 DVD.

Retail 10.5.6 OS X DVD was the last of that series.

Question to the people who have the official Apple branded ATI Radeon HD 5770: How is the fan noise?

I bought the Sapphire brand PC version of the card with the flashed firmware. The card is good, however whenever using flash or doing games, the ran runs very loud, at least more than what I think it should be. Granted, I switched from the stock NVidia heat sink only GPU, but I can't believe it should be this loud.

I have 2 installed and no noticable fan noise only hot air.

I use smc Fan Control to adjust the speeds. Not sure if this could help with your cards.

I'll second that. I remember being astonished that the difference in noise is almost imperceptible, (from the stock 7300GT).

I will third that, the first thing I noticed was that the noise compared to my X1900 card was minimal, not quite silent but not far off.

I am not a gamer but edit and create video with some fairly hefty renders and I am usually unaware of the GPU fan.

same here,

put in the 5770 in my 2006 Pro, connected extra power cable and it's running quitely. Still have the X1900 in the 3rd lane since I haven't got an adapter for my 2nd Cinema Display yet. Temperature is around 35C (while WoW is running with 70fps) and fan is around 500rpm - no noise, no nothing. OS X is 10.7.3

Mac pro 2.1 OS 10.6.8 ati 5770 and 8800gt all working perfect.

The 1900xt still works fine, but the air plane taking off at

start up drove me nutts!!!

Thanks

FCP7 / Shake frozen in time.

Anyone buy a non-apple specific HD5770 (the newest are PCIe 2.1) and have it working on the Mac Pro 1.1?