Q: ATI Radeon HD 5770 in MacPro 1,1

I have the same tower you do. At the same time I put the 5770 in, I also upgraded from the 4g of ram to 12g. The main reason I put the card in is because I wanted to run 2- 1080p displays, and also use the latest Final Cut Pro X, which uses OpenCL rendering in the effects and transitions.

Overall, the machine runs a bit faster from the 12ram I put in, but in general, there really isn't anything that will make the machine go any faster. You can't install 10.8, and it will only run a 32bit kernel.

If you're in the market for a new machine, I'd wait until the new MacPro is launched later this year - should be a game changer. Other than that, I'd look into the current MacMini's, which for speed, blows away your 1,1. True it only uses integreated graphics, but it will be faster than what you're using now.

How is FC X with that card? I have the 1.1 with 7300 card and X wont run.. i also have a laptop with i5 processor, X runs but not as smooth as I want it.. How does it work with this card?

My 3GHz quad core 1.1 with 8GB of ram works great with the 5770 and Final Cut.  I too had the 7300 and when I made the jump to FCP I had to upgrade.  Anyway, my 1.1 is doing just fine.  A bit slow on renders, but even with my new 12 core machine, I've found the best thing you can do is work with proxy media.  That more than anything will speed things up on any machine especially if you are working with codecs that aren't FCP friendly.

Hi all, very informative thread, many thanks for all the contributions.

My reason for posting:

I'm running the 5770 on 1.1 MacPro,10.7.5 for around 6 months, purchased from apple store. Easy install and I've not had any direct issues from this new card. Runs 2 x 23" LG HD Monitors.

The issue I've had which may or may not be related to the card is stuttery video streaming on various sites(youtube,facebook, vimeo etc) The streaming is done via Firefox latest release and I've had the issue on previous versions of Firefox since the install of the card.

Has anyone had this issue at all with their 5770?

If not, can anyone point me in the direction of a fix to this issue, I'm just ruling out the 5770 for now as it may be something else which is completly unknown to me at the moment.

Thanks all, hope your are well wherever you are

Edit: I found this page on apple site - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2848 I contradicts what apple shop said when I purchased this card, it seems it is now no longer the correct card!? Confused...

You may have issues playing back COPY PROTECTED video, such as DVDs, using this card according to this article:

Mac Pro: Using ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics card with Mac Pro released before 2010

Other than that issue, the graphics card itself is never the source of such problems.

Perfomance problems that could produce stuttering include using a slow WiFi connection, problems on your Hard drive, or simply not enough RAM to do everything you are trying to do at once.

Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory and determine how much RAM is being used

How much of the Pie is Green?

How much is Green + Blue?

How many PageOuts?

Hi Grant,

Ok perfect with regards to 5770, I havent noticed the issue you linked too but thanks for this!

WiFi is good and internet connection good to, the video always loads quickly but playing is always very stuttery, sound is good though but video lags behind.

RAM is a possible which I have thought of, for now getting to know wether to upgrade or not and hoping it maybe a simpler cheaper soloution... Running 6gb 667Mhz DDR2 FB-DIMM RAM atm..possible cause for upgrade?

I've noticed that Firefox is always running 100%+ CPU or there or there abouts, indicative of ram upgrade?

Green/Free - 225mb roughly

Blue/Inactive - 1,70 gb

Red/Wired - 504 mb

Yellow/Active - 3.74 gb

Page outs - 4.67 bg (0 bytes/sec)

Thanks for the prompt response

Those numbers indicate you are running short of Real RAM for all the programs you are running at once. Solutions include Quitting Applications you are not using before starting a Video, or adding more real RAM.

A non-trivial number of PageOuts since startup is indicative of more than once when there was absolutely no spare RAM available.

Ok, thing is, I'm not running alot of programs whilst this issue is happening, firefox could be sucking up alot of the ram though!?On Sys mem real memory is at 3.3 gb ram for firefox, I've 6 installed!?

I've quit almost all programs and the issue still remains!?

Any other possibilities other than ram?

Whats a "normal" pageouts? Does this stay with the machine once it has maxed out, rebott put this back into a normal range?

Cheers

If you are not running a lot of stuff while this is happening, you may need more real RAM.

The PageOuts counter is a cumulative counter since last Startup, with current amount (in parentheses). A good value for it is near zero, since it is indicative that you had to endure paging active stuff out to make room for paging something else in.

Mavericks uses memory compression and uses memory somewhat differently, and this display changes for Mavericks and later.

To reduce Browser memory consumption, reduce History tracking to ONE DAY. You will save a lot of RAM, but may occasionally have to retype a URL or re-Search instead of autocompleting it.

Ok, thanks thats answered a few  of my issues and questions, I'm unable to give points on this one, your a star in my book though

Many thanks for all your help with this and the other post!

Have a good one!

Cheers

$50 buys 4 x 2GB FBDIMMS Amazon

just like an SSD $159 buys 250GB and speeds things up

plugin issue? u7nusual but I stopped using Chrome and FF never have to worry about. Safari use to.

Hi again Grant,

Since speaking to you last about my stuttering web video streaming, i've purchased new ram(22gb in total now) My machine is running much better generally and have many apps open without any delays, but, the video issue still remians... Any further advice or ways I can elimenate other things which might be causing the issue?

I have a SSD boot drive so it also makes everything run that little bit quicker so now i'm at a loss to what is causing this, all plugins for FF are up-to-date, system software is up-to-date....

Your advice and help is very much appreciated and i'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this..

Cheers

You seem to have plugged the biggest rat-holes with more RAM and an SSD -- do you have TRIM enabled with a third-party Utility such as TRIM Enabler?

Are you using Ethernet or WiFi? If WiFi, what does you display of Option click on the MenuBar icon look like?

What are you using for PHY mode?

What Channel is being used?

What value for raw signal strength RSSI?

What Transmit Rate?

And how many other Networks can you see?

.

Hi and thanks for the prompt response.

I've had the SSD for a while now, just the RAM upgrade - 2x8gb + 6gb already installed.

I Installed trim enabler when I installed the drive, I went back and checked and it wasn't enabled, now sorted.

Using WiFi, airport extream base station. Using a 3g system to connect to the net with the airpot on bridge mode to extend the distance. 3G WIBE device, cabled(Bridge) to airport base station and connect MP to airport wirlessly. Good DL/UL speeds, video loads fine but still jittery.

The WIBE device also has a wirless signal so 2 networks show up on MP, airport is always used though.

If the internet speed is good and loads the video, would this still cause issues?

Other options other than networking?

RE: SSD and Trim Enabler:

If you have another source of full Mac OS X software, 10.6.8 or later, that you can boot from, Install TRIM Enabler on that also. Then run Disk Utility (Repair Disk) for your SSD with TRIM Enabler fully functioning. The last line will be "TRIM-ing Unused blocks" and it will pause for as long as a minute while all the Deleted Data are removed. Very satisfying and may speed up your SSD.

WiFi:

Whether your WiFi could be a pinch point depends on those readings. Good signal Strength and good Transmit speed (not slowed down from maximum speeds due to interference) indicate a solid connection that will not likely be an issue. Marginal signal strength, slowed down Transmit speed, and using 2.4 GHz band with a dozen Networks around you are Red Flags indicating you could be in trouble from a marginal connection.