Is the Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition Compatible with the 2009 8-core Mac Pro?

I just ordered the new Radeon HD 7950 and then saw that it only officially supports 2010 and later models. I thought everything after 2009 was just a processor bump? Would I fry the card or my MAC PRO trying to use it? I can't return it to Newegg, so either it works, or perhaps if it doesn't should I hang onto it anyway for when the new Mac Pros come out?

I'm so bummed that this card might not work in my 2009.

Mac Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Mar 20, 2013 12:46 AM

23 replies

Mar 24, 2013 5:51 AM in response to Chill433

Perhaps you've found it's OK by now, but I was just on the Sapphire website and they specifically list the 2009 Mac Pro as the minimum... So it should be absolutely fine.

Mar 24, 2013 5:31 PM in response to Chill433

I decided that I'm going to wait until Apple releases the 2013 Mac Pro and see what GPU Apple will have as a option, I'm not in a rush to buy the Sapphire 7950 Mac Edition and by the time 2013 Mac Pro comes out the drivers on the 7950 should be fully optimized if I decided to get the card but I think this time around Apple may go NVidia route sense most of there current computers uses NVidia. I remember a few years back EVGA released the 285 GTX Mac Edition and then Apple came out with something different I think it was the 8800GT or ATi 5770-5870 at the time and that's why i'm going to wait and judging by reviews by barefeats the 7950 is not as fast as the 5870 not by much anyway

Chill433 Author

Level 1

1 points

Mar 24, 2013 5:37 PM in response to Darrell Jackson

I ordered and installed the Radeon 7950 in my 2009 Mac Pro. It works great! I ran Cinebench, as the main point for me getting this card is to run Cinema 4D more smoothly. With the Radeon 5870, I was getting about 12fps in Cinebench, now I'm getting 28fps. It's not mind blowing but it makes my Mac Pro usuable now. Perhaps new drivers will help it along even more, and once the new Mac Pros come out I'll just pop this card in the new one, assuming it's better than whatever stock card they offer. I'll benmark both then decide which to use.

Mar 24, 2013 5:40 PM in response to Chill433

Chill433-

Is that the Macintosh edition?

Any surprises (other than good speed)?

Chill433 Author

Level 1

1 points

Mar 24, 2013 5:51 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Yes, it's the Mac edition. I ordered from Newegg the day they started shipping. So far so good. I posted here originally because I realized after I ordered it that it said it only worked with 2010 and newer, but that was inaccurate. It works fine in my 2009 and I believe they've even changed their website to reflect that it works in the 2009s.

The card fit properly, installation was easy. I've tried it in After Effects CS6. It speeds graphics while working in the comp and RAM previews, does nothing for render times. Same in Cinema 4D. Don't get me wrong, this thing is FAST! It's about double the speed as the 5780 it seems, which is huge!

But that said, on the Mac Pro with the new 7950 I'm getting 27.31fps and 8.21pts in Cinebench. On my MacBook Pro Retina I'm getting 36.36fps on GPU and 6.24pts on CPU. So this card just barely brings my 2009 8 core 2.26ghz Mac Pro tower with 24 gigs of RAM up to the speed of a modern laptop.

Before the upgrade I was barely getting 12fps in the Mac Pro in Cinebench with the 5870.

Drinahn

Level 1

0 points

Mar 26, 2013 2:39 AM in response to Chill433

Thank you so much Chill433 for posting your success at the end! I'm sitting here with my 2009 8-core Mac Pro with a Radeon 4870 in it still, so I've been itching for stories of success with this card so I can upgrade. Looks like I can pull the trigger now!

Thanks again.

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Mar 26, 2013 7:36 AM in response to Chill433

There is always the chance, and from Barefeats test results and comments, along with how long it takes Apple or even nVidia and AMD to begin to improve and get better results with improved drivers. The GTX 680 came out almost a year ago and they are still seeing improvements and better drivers (which could not be said of the cards or the drivers for the first months).

Chill433 Author

Level 1

1 points

Mar 26, 2013 8:43 AM in response to Drinahn

Your welcome! I emailed the guy at bearfeats who's been doing the benchmarking for advice before installing the card. He suggested NOT installing the driver on the included CD, and instead just using the drivers built into 10.8.3. That has worked fine and fhe card is performing well, but I'm wondering if I might get even better performance if I use the driver from the CD.

For now I'm going to stick with the built in 10.8.3 driver until I hear about updates from Sapphire.

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Is the Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition Compatible with the 2009 8-core Mac Pro?