ATI Radeon 7970 Ghz Edition

I have not read of any support for 7900's, and you come up against what to do when a card needs 8-pin cables which support 2x what 6-pin will.

There seems to be support for a GTX but again you hit the wall if you want the 680 (570 is fine, and 580 "would" except for power cable issue).

PCIe 3.0 only matters where you are using SLI / CF and need more than 8GT bandwidth is all.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5458/the-radeon-hd-7970-reprise-pcie-bandwidth-ove rclocking-and-msaa

Tell me why I want to spend time on Youtube.

I have read and followed a lot of discussions on hardware, pcie 3 vs 2.

thanks.

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?high=&m=1537816

Anyway to get the 8-pin (150W) + 6-pin (75W) power necessary to the card? Seems like I'll only be able to get 150W to the card via (2) 6-pin connectors.

"500W (or greater) power supply with one 150W 8-pin PCI Express power connector and one 75W 6-pin PCI Express power connector recommended." - AMD

Crashrider,

Yes, you can use a two four-pin MOLEX to one 8-pin adapter (this will give you the 8-pin 150W you need), and there are also two 6-pin (75W) PCI Express power connectors on the Mac Pro motherboard (just order a cable or two off the internet, order ONE two four-pin MOLEX to one 8-pin PCI Express power connector cable, and also order ONE 6-pin Apple Mac Pro to 6-pin PCI Express power connector cable). Both cables can be easily purchased over the internet.

The graphics cards do work in an Apple Mac Pro. I have a Diamond Radeon 7970 GHz Edition (7970PE53GHZ) and Diamond Radeon HD 7970 (7970PE53G) graphics card working in four of my Apple Mac Pro's (I have a 2008 Apple Mac Pro, a 2010 Apple Mac Pro, and two 2012 Apple Mac Pro's). I ordered the correct power cables, and everything works fine. The graphics cards work fine in the Apple Mac Pro (under Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8). The only problem is that Apple hasn't added graphics driver support to OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion (as of yet). The Graphics cards work great in the Apple Mac Pro, but I'm just waiting on Apple to add support for the graphics drivers, so I can actually use the cards in OS X (which was the whole point of buying an Apple Mac).

I'm extremely disappointed that Apple has "dropped the ball" and hasn't added graphics driver support for the Diamond Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition (7970PE53GHZ) or Diamond Radeon HD 7970 (7970PE53G) to OS X 10.8.2. Apple really needs to hire a few extra people to start working on graphics driver support for Apple OS X, and start working on adding hardware support for modern and the latest and greatest hardware.

I have four Apple Mac Pro's and have four Diamond Radeon 7970 GHz Edition (7970PE53GHZ) graphics cards, and I'm extremely upset that I have to use my Apple Mac Pro as a Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8 Machine, and can't even use OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion with my Radeon 7970 GHz Edition graphics card.

Crashrider,

The Dual 4-pin Molex to 8-pin (6+2) PCI Express cable you need is here: http://www.frys.com/product/6969147?source=googleps&gclid=CMD-7ovQz7MCFcxcMgodGy 8A6Q

The Mac Pro 6-pin (75W) motherboard to PCI Express power cable is here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mac-Pro-PCIe-6pin-power-cable-Radeon-4870-5770-5870-6870 -GeForce-8800-GTX-285-/160708022317

This will pull 150 Watts from your MOLEX (directly from the power supply) and also pull 75 watts from the mainboard, and the card can also pull 75 watts from the PCI 2.0 bus itself so the card can easily pull 300 watts (if it needs to), just using the two cables that I listed above.

The Mac Pro power supply is sufficient, and I have four Diamond Radeon 7970 GHz Edition (7970PE53GHZ) graphics cards and they work fine in my Apple Mac Pro's. Just order the power adapter/cables I listed above.

The Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition graphics cards work great in an Apple Mac Pro using Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. I'm still waiting on Apple to add graphics driver support for Diamond Radeon 7970 GHz Edition (7970PE53GHZ) graphics cards to OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion.

The graphics cards do work great in an Apple Mac Pro, but I'm still waiting on Radeon HD 7970 graphics drivers to be added to OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion, so we can actually use the graphics cards with OS X. As of right now, I have to boot directly into windows, and the graphics cards work great in Microsoft Windows, but Apple OS X is still a few years behind Microsoft Windows (when it comes to hardware support). Apple OS X still doesn't even have drivers/hardware support for 3D Blu-Ray burners (like the LG WH14NS40 burner) and you can't rip/burn or watch 3D Blu-Ray movies in OS X yet.

Hopefully Apple will improve their hardware support in OS X in the near future, or this will probably be the last Apple product that I purchase, and I may end up just going back to buying normal PC's, instead of Apple products because Apple does such a terrible job at supporting modern commercial (COTS) of the shelf hardware.

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Crashrider,

Your best bet is to purchase the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, and hope/pray that Diamond/AMD/Radeon will develop and release graphics drivers for OS X 10.8.x Mountain Lion.

I currently use the Diamond Radeon HD 7970 (7970PE53G) and Diamond Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition (7970PE53GHZ) graphics cards in my Apple Mac Pro computers.

I have 27 Apple Mac Pro's (between work/office, home, and clients), and have four Apple Mac Pro's (just at home) and I have purchased the Diamond Radeon HD 7970 graphics cards (7970PE53GHZ) for each of the 27 computers and the graphics cards do work great in all of my Apple Mac Pro computers (2008, 2010, and two 2012 Apple Mac Pro).

The only problem is that I have to boot directly into Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8 to use the graphics cards because Diamond/Radeon/AMD have not released graphics drivers for the Radeon 7970 for OS X 10.8.x Mountain Lion (as of yet?)

I'm desperately waiting (just like thousands of other Apple Mac OS X users) for Diamond/Radeon/AMD to release the Diamond Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition (7970PE53G and 7970PE53GHZ) graphics drivers for Apple OS X 10.8.x Mountain Lion.

I was hoping the latest Mountain Lion 10.8.x OS X would natively support the Radeon HD 7970 series graphics cards, but as of right now, I'm still waiting on Diamond Multimedia, AMD/Radeon to release graphics drivers for OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion for the latest 7970PE53GHZ (Gigahertz Edition) and 7970PE53G graphics cards.

nextech,

Where did you plug in your Molex connectors in the Mac Pro 5,1 chassis (I have same computer)? I currently am using 2 optical drives - the original Apple DVD drive and a third party Blu-ray drive. Do I need to remove one of the drives?

Also, how do you reboot into Mac OS - and which OS - with 7970 card? I am using a (no-longer supported) GT120 as my EFI-based graphics card, to retain access to the Mac OS. However, I cannot migrate beyond 10.6.7 without losing the grey startup boot screen, with my dual graphics card approach. I also have problem with non EFI graphics cards causing one of the chassis smc fans to unnecessarily spin up to full speed - but only after putting computer to sleep...

Use a 2nd small PSU 450W and don't expect to use molex to power a video card.

Even though EVGA ships their cards with molex, they often caution against their use.

use 6-pin and if you need more or 8-pin there are inexpensive PSU designed for such purposes and one or two that fit in optical drive bay (if yours was freed up)

Thanks for PSU suggestion, hatter.

By the way, I modified my Sapphire 7970 card by installing an Arctic Accelero Xtreme 7970 (very quite) cooling fan. Unfortunately, because of the very limited PCI expansion space in Mac Pro 5,1 chassis, I had to slightly saw ends of copper cooling pipes, and use stock (not Arctic} GPU mounting beneath the card.

I have been very satisified with cooling/noise performance of my prior Sapphire/Arctic Xtreme modified 6970 card (never gets above 60 C during active 3D gaming). The Mac Pro motherboard power plugs have been adequate for the 6970, but the 7970 requires even more power.

Attempted to install 2nd PSU (see http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002IZE5RE/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00), but encountered several issues during installation:

1. Cable routing from optical drive bay to PCIe card area will require SIGNIFICANT modification of the Mac Pro metal chassis, to enable cable crossing between compartment boundaries with side closed.

2. Mac Pro 5,1 no longer has MOLEX power connector in optical drive bay. This second PSU could use the one of the two 6-pin PCIe power connectors on the motherboard for the slave trigger to turn PSU on/off, but a female 4-pin MOLEX adaptor is needed (very hard to find).

Some people extend and route the cables out of an open PCI slot thru the rear and back to the GPU.

Messy. Poor design. The lack of 2 x 8-pin along with the two 6-pin means to me it is not a full workstation but has been liimited in functionality. And that GPU was never taken seriously or seen as more than gaming and always the lower end cards that often didn't need any add'l aux power cables.

The 2nd PSU that I attempted to install already consumed one open PCI slot for its AC interface - and still required (at least) 2 cables to cross the solid chassis seal between the optical bay and PCIe card compartments.

Deciding to live with the less desirable Motherboard PCIe power plugs, I started more rigorous testing of my Arctic cooling modified 7970 today. These same power plugs were designed to handle the 5870, which can also consume more than the stated power limits (see comparative load power at http://www.anandtech.com/show/5261/amd-radeon-hd-7970-review/27, for example).

Unfortunately, I discovered that one should saw the ends of a vacuum sealed heat pipe, no matter how little... Bottom line: the Accelero Xtreme 7970 cooler does NOT fit the Mac Pro chassis (at least, my 5,1 chassis). Looks like I will be purchasing a new 7970 card - with at least 2 factory installed fans for quiet operation.