Q: ATI Radeon HD 5770 in MacPro 1,1

The 5770 has it's own vram. I just always suggest to increase the system ram as much as possible. Has nothing to do with the video card. More ram just makes the system run faster.

If your getting a new Mac pro, unless you are going to install the 5770 in there, I'd almost go for a USB to Dvi graphics card adapter. I find it works well and cheaper option than a 5770. http://www.displaylink.com/shop/adapters

I disagree with ahx8's comment about adapters. There's no way they are going to provide the same type of performance as a video card directly connected to a Mac Pro's PCI bus. His link to displaylink.com also has a note in red: Products based on the DL-3xxx family are not currently supported on Mac OSX.

Go for the 5770 - the 5% discount for an opened, returned product should surely still entitle you to a power cable!

Also, while I've no idea on Mountain Lion requirements and less interest, you might appreciate knowing that my 2006 Mac Pro would not originally have been able to run Final Cut X - with the new video card no problems. As many modern apps are making use of VRAM getting a decentish video card is probably THE best way to give an old Mac Pro a new lease of life.

Guess what? My machine has been stable for a week and a half (since about Sept 17th). The only things different than when the MP had the problems was that I removed the card and shot canned air on it (I'd done this while in the case plus vacuumed everything earlier but it still acted up). Not much dust was there to blow away with this last effort.

Another factor was that our weather here cooled down significantly and we began to run the A/C a lot as well as a room fan to help. I'm thinking that those early hot temps may have been what caused it to freeze. My new MP 2.66 6-core is here so can't wait to set it up. I've delayed due to busy workload and that the old MP is running ok. Thoughts on what happened?

H, I do have the Mac pro 2008 with 16Gb memory. I bought the 27" Cinema Display and also the ATI Radeon HD 5770 card. I did remove the old NVDIA card. When booting the system (which in 64Bit mode) I only see 4gb memory. How is that possible? Do I need a driver to install? Please help me.

kutatz-

I only see 4gb memory

Then some of your original 16GB of memory has failed. The Mac Pro 65lb tower uses Error Correcting Code DIMMs, so it can quickly determine when modules are grossly malfunctioning. If that can be determined at Startup, those modules are marked "not present" and will not show up in:

About this Mac > ( More Info ) > Memory

or will show up at half their expected size, or with a status other than "OK".

If these are aftermarket DIMMs that still have the Vendor's sticker, reputable Mac Vendors provide a lifetime replacement warranty, so you should contact them for replacement at no charge.

I put the 5770 in my Mac Pro 1.1 about a month ago and just recently have been having some erratic start up issues with the screen showing the apple logo and spinning wheel but when it goes to my login/password screen, the video goes to multi colored lines.......kinda like the white "snow" on an old tv.

I can screen share and see the computer is properly booted so I'm 99.9% sure its either a defect with the card or apple's reported "anomalies" when using in pre 2010 mac pros.

Should I return the card or accept that this is an anomaly?

Are you sure the snow is not generated by your adapters, cables, or display itself?

The only valid "anomaly" I have heard reported is that the speed of re-draw in older Mac Pro models does not benchmark quite as fast as in Mac Pro 2008 and later due to slower PCIe slots.

As long as you have not added graphics-related third-party software to your Mac, snow in image displayed should be completely reproducible in a newer model, so the genius Bar should be able to see that snow as well.

Your appointment at the genius Bar for an evaluation is free, in warranty or out. But try to deal with an Apple store that actually has Mac Pro available for test.

It works, I have one in my 2006.

Howdy. Running a Mac Pro 3.1 10GB RAM, with a ATI Radeon 5770 (replaced my failed OEM video card a year ago). It shows up in System Profiler as:

Card:

(First Line)     ATI Radeon 5770 / Display Controller / Yes (driver installed) / Slot-1

(Second Line) ATI Radeon 5770 / ATY,HoolockParent / No (driver installed) / Slot-1

I've been running two Dell 24" 1920/1080 monitors since I bought the machine. Since my video edit has moved from DV/HDV-based acquisition (Sony Z1s and HD M15 FireWire deck) to file-based 1080p ProRes422 via AtomOs recorders on Nikon D800 (Ninja2 via clean HDMI out) and Sony Z1 (Samauri via AJA HD Component-to-HDSDI converter), my venerable Sony PVM-1351Q monitor (component/Y/C and composite SD input only) is no longer workable. I have a Sony 32"/16x9 Trinitron with a DVI input. When I tried feeding it via the third output of the ATI card (via a miniDisplay Port-to-DVI cable) it displayed, at 1920x1080, but one of the Dells (second miniDisplay-to-DVI and DVI outputs) shut down. When I disconnected the Sony and restarted, both Dells came back.

Is this a firmware or driver problem, or am I doomed to having only two 1080 outputs from the ATI card?

Thanks!

HB

Is this a firmware or driver problem,

or am I doomed to having only two 1080 outputs from the ATI card?

No,

and No.

This is a problem based on AMD/ATI decisions based on the POWER available to converter/adapters. There isn't enough for three displays immediately, but there are solutions.

The first connector is a Dual-Link capable DVI-I, which has direct Dual-Link DVI _OR_ direct VGA (in the bar and the four pins around it at one end of the connector. It also picks up the top last pin off the grid array to complete the set of five signals for VGA: Red, Green, Blue, H-Sync, and V-Sync, (with the bar as the common return for all).

Those two little connectors are Mini DisplayPort, which are plug or cable adaptable to DisplayPort without conversion. They can also be coaxed to produce a signal that is DVI-compatible in timing, but not always powerful enough. To run three displays, each adapter needs the Re-Driver circuitry found only in Adapter/Converters sold as ACTIVE (read: POWERED) Adapters. There is a power lead in the interface that suffices for Single-Link DVI. For Dual-Link DVI Apple has chosen to use an additional USB lead to pick up more power still. If present, it MUST be plugged in!

ATI/AMD has an article on this subject, and has tested several adapters. Read the accompanying table Very carefully, as ACTIVE and not-active adapters are listed, as well as Displayport and Mini DisplayPort. The most common Accell ACTIVE adapters are available on Amazon, but Amazon search is imprecise by design to include more items than you would get from an exact search. So Again, Read Carefully!

http://support.amd.com/us/eyefinity/Pages/eyefinity-dongles.aspx

Dual-Link DVI is so-called because the data signals in the connectors and cables are doubled, to accommodate displays wider than 1920 wide.

To get HDMI, a DVI -> HDMI cable that swaps the wires around is all that is needed.

Thanks, Grant, for your most excellent response.

I've been to the reference, and see the active vs passive adapters. So... last questions... Do I need ONE or TWO active adapters to enable a third DVI monitor to be used in this configuration? Is the DVI port on the card already "powered" or do I need something additional to the (already DVI) monitor cable in that connection? Will running three monitors degrade the life of the 5770?

TIA...

HB

Do I need ONE or TWO active adapters to enable a third DVI monitor to be used in this configuration?

The item in short supply is the power behind the signals, especially when converted from Mini DisplayPort to DVI.

Except when you are using the graphics card output directly, you need two ACTIVE Adapters present, or the last display will drop out.

Running 3 displays will not tax the 5770 in any other way.

Thankayasoverrrrymuch...

HB