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ATI Radeon HD 5870 Driver for Mac OS X

I have a 2009 Mac Pro with a default NVidia GeForce GT 120 graphics card AND the ATI Radeon HD 5870 as a additional graphics card which is hooked into my two external monitor.


I had been having non - stop kernel panic, where i was forced to reinstall mountain lion, and still got kernal panic. But i switched my ram slots, and it somehow seems to be stable now, and just finished installing my mountain lion.


Two of my external displays are not detected now, and i have done updating all my software updates for mountain lion. Can't find the driver for MAC for ATI Radeon HD 5870 in google, ati, amd websites as well.


Can someone please provide me the link for mac driver download?


When i had snow leopard, software update made it work. But not now.


Please assist.

Mac Pro (Early 2009), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), ATI Radeon HD 5870 Driver for Mac

Posted on Feb 10, 2013 2:54 PM

Reply
23 replies

Feb 13, 2013 10:16 AM in response to William Lloyd

I clearly mentioned i did the software update and it's not working. I don't know why you are saying the same theory.


I raised a ticket with AMD, and they denied the support. Called Apple, and spent hours talking to diff people, finally they said its' a third party product they dont' support.


I dont know where the heck i can get this updated driver or even a basic DRIVER download.

Feb 13, 2013 10:53 AM in response to filmmakerind

so does that mean this graphics card is incompatible with mountain lion? if my software is up to date and not detecting

It's been explained - twice. There are no drivers you need to download, they're already part of the OS and the card is supported without you doing anything extra.


As an example, here are a handful of the ATI drivers already in the System folder:


AMDRadeonAccelerator.kext

AMDRadeonVADriver.bundle

ATI5000Controller.kext


The 5000 refers to the series, not specifically a card named "5000". So it includes the 5870.

Feb 13, 2013 11:12 AM in response to filmmakerind

When did i ever deny the answer?


I myself aware that software update should fix this issue from my previous experience with snow leopard.


But it did not help with mountain lion. Just wanted to understand what could be the issue, and what 's the trial that i can make to have this resolved.


I did try to remove the graphics card and put it back, but it was too tight. In the process of doing that, i removed the power cable, hdmi connection from my monitors, and put them back.


Bingo. It worked.


So I assume by doing default update sometimes it doesn't detect second graphics card monitors. This worked anyways.


Thanks to you Kurt and William for taking time to reply back out of 65 other viewers of this issue.


Appreciate it.

Feb 13, 2013 11:22 AM in response to Badunit

😟 My bad... problem did not solve. I was watching a youtube video, and it just got stuck and had a cracking sound. Whole mac frozen, and automatically restarted. Now again those external monitors are gone.


My whole reason for installing mountain lion is the reason that my snow leopard started getting constant kernal panic attack.


Not sure what is wrong with my computer, and am tired of installing fresh OS like i used to do with windows.


What could be the issue here???


I am back to the square one now.

Feb 13, 2013 11:29 AM in response to filmmakerind

and it just got stuck and had a cracking sound. Whole mac frozen, and automatically restarted. Now again those external monitors are gone.

A cracking sound?! Can't imagine what that would be, but it sure doesn't sound good. Where did this card come from? Is it a Mac version of the 5870, or a modified PC card?

Not sure what is wrong with my computer, and am tired of installing fresh OS like i used to do with windows.

That you certainly shouldn't have to do. In all the years I've owned Macs, I've only ever installed the OS for system issues twice. Otherwise, I never have to think about it.


If there's an Apple store near you, I'd say you need to bring it in to have it looked at.

Feb 13, 2013 11:35 AM in response to Kurt Lang

I do photography and filmmaking. I highly depend on final cut pro 7, but apple discontinued the updates. It is incompatible with OS later than snow leopard.


I had a very stable snow leopard version, and i had been always happy.


Some snow leopard update started causing problem on my mac. problem was, all my monitors will go black and takes few seconds to come back. and since then i had been constantly ending up freezing, restarting, kernal panic issues.


I had even went back to leopard, and still no luck. had installed snow leopard again, and kernal panic was constantly coming up in few mins.


this is a external graphics card, mac compatible and i bought it from APPLE itself on 2010.


now am tired of mac 😟 I miss final cut pro 7, and have to learn so many new stuffs on fcp 10, and all my purchased softwares are incompatible with mountain lion.


although apple OS's are cheap, its' nto really helping the consumers. its' my view. now i dont have peace of mind and wasting hours and wondering what to do.


took once to apple store, and they ask me to purchase something to provide support. and i can do better fix googling, than what they do on the store.


paid $2500 + 16gb ram and graphics card updates. all together nearly $3500 i spent. now dont know what to do, and recycling program evaluates this computer for $713.

Feb 13, 2013 11:48 AM in response to filmmakerind

Constant kernel panics, even after a fresh install of the OS almost certainly points to a hardware error (which most kernel panics are). Like any other company, the occasional bad product goes out the door.


Something needs to be fixed, and it's probably the system board. If you purchased AppleCare for the Mac, which extends full coverage to three years, bring it and have the folks at the Apple Store look at it. They will do whatever is necessary to fix it at no cost to you.

ATI Radeon HD 5870 Driver for Mac OS X

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