Mac Pro 3,1 Using ATI Radeon 5770

Question

Mac Pro 3,1 Using ATI Radeon 5770

Hello all,

Please forgive this question from a bygone age ... but I have an old setup that I'm trying to resurrect for the first film project in a while:

I have a Mac Pro 3,1 and used it happily with OSX 6.8 and my Logic 9 workstation which had a standard graphics card to drive 2 monitors. However whilst scoring a new film shot at 23.976 fps, the editors aren't converting to 24 fps for post, so I can no longer fire MIDI TC to a MacBook where the movie always ran out to a larger screen using a Canopus box (MIDI TC doesn't exist at 23.976 fps)

I decided to purchase a ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics card to fire out the movie to a 3rd monitor ... an LED tv screen. (The 5770 has 2 x DVI outputs / standard HDMI output / Display Port output)

Having installed the graphics card ... I plugged in the standard DVI monitor leads to my 2 computer monitors which work fine ... but taking the HDMI output from the HD 5770 to the 3rd screen, there is no sign of the 3rd monitor working ... nor does it turn up in in the System Prefs Arrangement page or the Logic Cinema prefs also have nothing show up and "external video output" project settings.

I tried turning the 2 computer monitors off and re-starting the Mac up with just HDMI ... but nothing appears?

I've searched many forums and cannot find any others with this request .. the spec says the card runs 3 monitors and there is an HDMI output on it? Should the HDMI run a movie in Logic out to it?

many thanks

Richard

Posted on Oct 3, 2018 4:53 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 3, 2018 6:06 AM in response to dick the flick

Since my initial enquiry ... I find this card is a 'Sapphire' ATI Radeon 5770 1 gb GDDR5 card .. it is designed to work on any Mac Pro with OSX6.8 or later. But not really sure about why HDMI output doesn't seem to function?

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Answer 2

Oct 3, 2018 8:40 AM in response to dick the flick

Is the card "flashed" to be Mac compatible? Unfortunately flashing a PC graphics card to be Mac friendly often renders the HDMI port useless, so you may need to try the Displayport output. If the 3rd monitor only has HDMI inputs, there are HDMI > DP cables available, e.g.. kenable DisplayPort Plug to HDMI Male Plug Display/Monitor/TV Cable 1m

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Answer 3

Oct 3, 2018 8:55 AM in response to F-L-E-X-I-S

Great thought ... many thanks F~L~E~X~I~S. The card works fine with 2 monitors plumbed out through DVI outputs .. so if card has been blown for Mac .. your HDMI loss seems to make sense. There is a DisplayPort ... woud that need and expensive Apple DP to HDMI convertor to try out the theory? All best wishes Richard

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Answer 4

Oct 3, 2018 9:09 AM in response to dick the flick

Any decent (inexpensive) cable 'should' work, but make sure you get the right size - not sure if your card has mini variant or full size display port outputs.

Failing that check what inputs your other monitors have - you can also get DVI to HDMI & DVI to Display port cables, so you may need to do some lateral thinking! 😉

Last resort is a different card e.g.. http://www.macvidcards.com/store/p8/Nvidia_GTX_680_2_GB%2C_4_GB.html

Hope it helps...

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Answer 5

Oct 6, 2018 2:08 AM in response to F-L-E-X-I-S

Thanks Flexis ... your note about using a straight DP > HDMI lead has resulted in some progress ... the 3rd screen now boots first (on external LED screen) followed by the 2 standard computer monitors but 3rd screen will only mirror the main screen. ("Mirror" option in System Prefs is turned off) When looking at screen arrange window in system prefs there are only 2 screens show up ... yet the 3rd monitor does now boot up before my 2 main computer monitors? Having read lots of forums .. it does seem most issues result in only 2 screens working at any one time ... so this is indeed progress, but I'm not sure how to make 3rd screen work independently (ultimately project movie from within Logic .... where all options in external Logic video prefs are greyed out)

Mac Pro 3,1 2008 OSX 6.8 - Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5770 GDDR5 graphics card (The 5770 has 2 x DVI outputs / standard HDMI output / Display Port output )

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Answer 6

Oct 6, 2018 5:33 AM in response to gnubee

Hello Gnubee ... thanks indeed for that link. The more I get into this ... the more complex it all seems to become!

However ... I'm making progress and the situation does seem quite positive without perhaps the expense of ACTIVE connections (though not quite there yet)?

Few of the threads actually now relate to my version of the 5770 card ... the Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5770 GDDR5 which has 2 x DVI, 1 x HDMI and 1 DP. It was designed for PC and those running Macs have been blown with firmware updates, and as a consequence most likely don't run the HDMI port. (which mine doesn't)

However .. I simply purchased a DP > HDMI cable and now have 3 monitors working (2 computer monitors running from the DVI outs and the third, a Panasonic LED Cinema screen, running from the DP > HDMI cable)

The cinema LED 3rd monitor on the DP > HDMI output mirrors the main Mac screen. ("Mirror" option in System Prefs is turned off) ... which one of the computer monitors also displays.

When looking at display "arrange" window in system prefs there are still only 2 screens show up ... yet the 3rd monitor does now boot up before my 2 main computer monitors?

I've tried zapping the PRAM .... anyone got any thoughts?

Very best wishes Richard

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Answer 7

Oct 8, 2018 10:36 AM in response to dick the flick

3rd monitor (large LED screen) is running happily out of 5770 via DP > HDMI but mirrors the main Mac screen. ("Mirror" option in System Prefs is turned off) ... the 2 DVI outputs supply my monitors as normal and appear in System Prefs "Display arrangement" window.

The 3rd monitor now boots up before my 2 main computer monitors?

I want to send out the movie from Logic via external output to 3rd screen

Does anyone know how to make the 3rd monitor become additional desktop space? (i.e. How to make it appear in Display Arrangement window?

Many thanks

Richard

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