5870 card upgrade to Mac Pro 2008 Model 2,1?
Final Cut editor & final cut teacher here.
Has anyone upgraded a MacPro 2,1- to Apple ATI Radeon HD 5870 to?
Does it work?
Thanks, dc
Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4), Quad Xeon 2008 Model 2,1
You've been hiding for the last year?
First though, Early 2008 is 3,1 which helps, means it has PCIe 2.0 and double the bandwidth - so double or triple check. You have 800MHz FBDIMM slots.
Even look under commments section?
Or, search this forum for all the threads. Then Barefeats.
You do need to get up to 10.6.5 - can't see any reason not to be running 10.6.8.
$449, while 5770 would work in a true 2,1 and max out bandwidth and save $200 that could go to an SSD boot drive.
Compare the specs of both on AMD.
netkas » 5770 5870 MacPro rom - for those into using and flashing PC cards etc.
You've been hiding for the last year?
First though, Early 2008 is 3,1 which helps, means it has PCIe 2.0 and double the bandwidth - so double or triple check. You have 800MHz FBDIMM slots.
Even look under commments section?
Or, search this forum for all the threads. Then Barefeats.
You do need to get up to 10.6.5 - can't see any reason not to be running 10.6.8.
$449, while 5770 would work in a true 2,1 and max out bandwidth and save $200 that could go to an SSD boot drive.
Compare the specs of both on AMD.
netkas » 5770 5870 MacPro rom - for those into using and flashing PC cards etc.
well, yeh I'm new to this forum thing... thanks for the info, pretty much confirmed that the 5870 should/could work fine.
My question now is: Is there a difference between a 3,1 model and a 2,1 model. I got this machine in July '08-could be an '07 model?
I 'm overhauling & upgrading this machine. Doing a clean install with Snow Lepard, as soon as apple mails the disk. Adding a little bit of Ram, this graphics card, etc.. We do a lot of HD Final Cut and it's been running pretty good since I got it but my other graphics card seemed to be causing some problems. Running hard for three years, seemed to be starting to hang things up a bit. So anyway making a clean install and upgrade.
Thanks for the info, it's very helpful. It's amazing how much info is on this forum, very cool! I'll spend more time reading before asking a redundant question...
System Profiler will tell you, and us.
Also all the manual and specs http://www.apple.com/support/macpro
2008s have a single or dual processor, 2.8GHz and 4-cores each and FBDIMM DDR2 800MHz RAM
It's too bad this thread didn't continue. I expect that dougfromsanta fe's machine is indeed the MacPro 2,1 (which is a late 2007 model). Apparently those models have PCIe 1 slots only and the 3,1 and higher machines have at least 2 slots of PCIe 2. I've learned that the ATI 5870 requires for maximum speed using those PCIe 2 slots. Some have mentioned that the speed increase of the 5870 is not noticable on the pre-2008 (pre 3,1) Mac Pros even though it can be installed on them. My question is this:
Is it worthwhile to put an ATI 5870 into a Mac Pro 2,1?
I have an SSD in the machine which has made it much faster, and I already have the ATI 5770 in it as well.
I've seen the comparison tests, and the 5870 beats the 5770 by at least a third in almost every category.
BUT, if the PCIe 1 versus PCIe 2 issue makes this a wasted venture... your comments, thoughts and opinions are appreciated.
Has anyone upgraded to ATI HD 5870 to a MacPro 2,1-2008- Does it work? Thanks, dc
