Mac Pro 3,1 and 4,1 with 5770 upgrade now slow redraws

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Level 1

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Mac Pro 3,1 and 4,1 with 5770 upgrade now slow redraws

We upgraded two Mac Pro 4,1 computers and a single Mac Pro 3,1 with Apple/ATI/AMD 5770 video cards.

My research found that I needed SL 6.4 minimum, but our Mac Pro's were still at Leopard 10.5.8.

Along with the video cards, we purchased new 27" Cinema Displays (the non-Thunderbold versions).

Before upgrading to SL on the Mac Pros, I thought i'd try the 5770's. Installed the 5770's, the 27" Cinema Display (via mini displayport),

and powered on. Video seemed to work fine. Desktop comes up nice and big. I'm happy I didn't have to upgrade to SL.

BUT, users started complaining that when working with large image files, resizing of windows was painfully choppy and slow.

Moving objects in CS5 apps were choppy and hard to place accurately. A new Mac Pro 5,1 with same video card, but with SL 10.6.8

handles it all beautifully. Moving and resizing finder windows is fine. It's only when working with large size windows with big image files loaded in them.

I looked on the 3,1 and 4,1 Mac Pro's, and system profiler sees the video card but doesn't list anything connected to the display connectors.

My question is (finally), is SL 10.6.8 required to get proper accelerated driver performance from the 5770's? Will that fix the problem?

Thanks!

Posted on Aug 9, 2011 4:13 PM

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Answer 1

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Aug 9, 2011 4:31 PM in response to Darryl Mylrea

You are the first I've seen on this forum that tried Leopard with 5770/5870s.

And while a 4,1 with 10.6.3 or .4 could boot and get video, it was 10.6.5+ and not the original .4 that worked.

So I'd say $30 for 10.6 DVD or a pack price for 5 probably.

Lion has support for one or two PC 6xxxx series cards natively it seems but that is risky path.

Everything I have seen and read, yes, you need 10.6.8.

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