2006 mac pro with 5770 =Awesome

[igouroum]

Hi there, I just purchased a 5770 to replace the old 7300gt in my 2006 mac pro 2x2.66 ghz with 8gigs of ram, and I have to say, WOW!
This machine now runs lions seamlessly with all quartz animations fluent.
On top of that, Final cut X now runs faster than ever on this machine, and my gaming in COD went from "all low" to "all on Ultra", including x4 AA.
Basically, with this 5 year old machine, I can now play cod 4 at 1920x1200 with everything cranked up at around 40 fps.
Cinebench gives me a score of 27 for the card under lion, and uh.. I think I pretty much said it all.
IF you have any other questions or benchmark requests, feel free to ask!

 

[Rustus Maximus]

It does add great new life to the ole Mac Pro 1,1. Boosting your RAM to 16 and throwing in an SSD to boot would really liven things up as well. Mac Pro 1,1 is still a great machine.

 

[ashman70]

I agree, I also have a 5770 in my 2006 Mac Pro 1,1 and it does definitely speed things up. Unfortunately adding RAM costs $$$ with these machines at 9GB for me, I am happy. An SSD is a thought, but are there mounting solutions for these MP models? Or do you have to come up with a DIY solution?

 

[Rustus Maximus]

...but are there mounting solutions for these MP models? Or do you have to come up with a DIY solution?...

Other World Computing has some great ready-made solutions and their SSDs are top notch as well. I've always had great results with their products and service.

 

[JesterJJZ]

How much of a difference would it be from a 4870? That's what I have now.

 

[Neodym]

An SSD is a thought, but are there mounting solutions for these MP models? Or do you have to come up with a DIY solution?

In my MP 1,1 i wanted to keep the HDD bays free for storage, so used a 5.25" -> 3.5" adapter together with a 3.5" -> 2.5" adapter i still had lying around, to install a SSD into the lower optical bay. Worked like a breeze - just routing the cable up from the motherboard connector to the optical bay was a little tricky...

Besides the specially designed sleds for the MP drive bays (take care to look out for the ones for the MP 1,1/2,1, as later MP's had a slightly different sled layout) and the "usual suspects" ('standard' 3.5" mounting frame for 1-2x 2,5" hard drives - sometimes with Raid-0/Raid-1 included in the frame) there are solutions to install 4x 2.5" drives into one 5.25" bay. For example the RaidSonic Icy Box IB-2222SSK or the Fantec MR-SA1041. To fully utilize those however, you'd need a dedicated PCIe SATA controller, as the MP1,1 does not offer more than 2 spare SATA ports on its motherboard...

 

[igouroum]

@JesterJJZ
The 4870 is actually around 10% faster than the 5770. That being said, the 5770 adds support for directX 11 in windows, as well as Eyefinity. The 4870 is also much more power-hungry, utilizing 2 6-pin power connectors in contrast to only one on the 5770.

 

[ActionableMango]

An SSD is a thought, but are there mounting solutions for these MP models? Or do you have to come up with a DIY solution?

There are mounting solutions, or you can just buy a 3.5" SSD. They tend to be less expensive than their 2.5" counterparts, so you save money twice (first with the SSD's lower price and again by not having to buy an adapter).

The drawback is you can never repurpose your 3.5" SSD for a device with a 2.5" bay, such as a laptop.

 

[JesterJJZ]

@JesterJJZ
The 4870 is actually around 10% faster than the 5770. That being said, the 5770 adds support for directX 11 in windows, as well as Eyefinity. The 4870 is also much more power-hungry, utilizing 2 6-pin power connectors in contrast to only one on the 5770.

Good to know! Thanks!

 

[Neodym]

The 4870 is also much more power-hungry [than] the 5770.

According to this site it's ~51 Watt when idling and ~41 Watt under load.

 

[MacVidCards]

According to this site it's ~51 Watt when idling and ~41 Watt under load.

Have a cup of coffee and try the math again

 

[spda242]

Weired, I got a score of 26.13 with a 5870 in Mac Pro 1,1 with Lion! ...but I like it I can play WoW in 2560x1440 so that is nice!!!

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An SSD is a thought, but are there mounting solutions for these MP models? Or do you have to come up with a DIY solution?

I have 2 Intel SSD, an old 80GB and a new 320 in my Mac Pro, I use Icy Dock for mounting, really good and easy to install solution.

 

[igouroum]

Weired, I got a score of 26.13 with a 5870 in Mac Pro 1,1 with Lion! ...but I like it I can play WoW in 2560x1440 so that is nice!!!

How's the 5870 working out for you? Could you provide us with some benchmarks please? Did it work plug and play?

 

[Caesar_091]

Weired, I got a score of 26.13 with a 5870 in Mac Pro 1,1 with Lion! ...but I like it I can play WoW in 2560x1440 so that is nice!!!

Hi, do you have a quad 3GHz 2006 MacPro?

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How's the 5870 working out for you? Could you provide us with some benchmarks please? Did it work plug and play?

You can find a lot of benchmarks aorund (in the forum and in other sites too; try barefeats.com ). The only benchmarks you'll not find are those with a 3GHz 2006 Mac Pro... there are only benckmarks with 2,66GHz models running 5770 or 5870 but no one with a 3GHz MacPro and a 5870

 

[spda242]

How's the 5870 working out for you? Could you provide us with some benchmarks please? Did it work plug and play?

It worked OOB no trouble at all. I belive you can find benchmarks at Barefeats as someone said. Acording to most benchmarks I have read 5870 doesn't run much faster than 5770 in MP 1,1 due to old processors.
My closet, which I use as a homeoffice gets a little warmer (used 8800GT before) thought.

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Hi, do you have a quad 3GHz 2006 MacPro?

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No 2x2,66, same as OP

 

[Neodym]

Have a cup of coffee and try the math again

Unfortunately i don't drink coffee, so maybe you can help me out in terms of math:

According to the site it's

(Idle)
4870: 165W
5770: 114W

Delta: 51W (assuming the rest of the test system is unchanged)

(Load)
4870: 277W
5770: 236W

Delta: 41W (assuming the rest of the test system is unchanged)

Now where did i miscalculate or assume wrongly?

 

[octomac]

I ran cinebench with the 2600 and got a 16.42 open GL score, put the 285 back in and got a 28.09. Much better score but the 285 fan noise is a lot louder

Wonder how loud the 4870 is.

 

[Neodym]

Wonder how loud the 4870 is.

Depends on the cooling system used. Reference coolers on 4870's are pretty loud - current-gen 6870's are significantly quieter.

However - you can always retrofit a better cooling solution (like the Accelero cooling systems) or get a card with (tested) quiet cooling systems (like MSI's TwinFrozr cards or Sapphires Vapor-X) in the first place...

 

[ProtoProduction]

Resurrecting this thread...

I am thinking of upgrading my 1,1. It is scheduled to start DAILY for work since purchased new in August 2006! I leave it running while on business travel 24/7. Thinking of upgrading with a 5770. And a 240Gb Mercury Ultra SSD for Boot, with a 2.0TB Seagate 7,200 for Jobs. Already have 10Gb Ram (2 x 2GB, 6 x 1Gb).

FYI: I put a 480 GB SSD and 750GB 7,200 Data-doubler and 8Gb Ram from OWC in my MacBook Pro late 2010 and holy crap! It literally Boots and launches InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop in 26 seconds from pushing the On button.

I am doing Final Cut Pro X now and would like to use my old 1,1 when not traveling.

Cheers

 

[ElderBrE]

I went for an OC'd 5850 which almost reaches the potential of a stock 5870 for half the price, and I must say that playing games on a 30" with everything on maximum settings on such an old machine is quite amazing. I have no need for a new MP for the moment and it has given me at least 2 years until I think again about updating.

 

[ssgbryan]

I am thinking of upgrading my 1,1. It is scheduled to start DAILY for work since purchased new in August 2006! I leave it running while on business travel 24/7. Thinking of upgrading with a 5770. And a 240Gb Mercury Ultra SSD for Boot, with a 2.0TB Seagate 7,200 for Jobs. Already have 10Gb Ram (2 x 2GB, 6 x 1Gb).

FYI: I put a 480 GB SSD and 750GB 7,200 Data-doubler and 8Gb Ram from OWC in my MacBook Pro late 2010 and holy crap! It literally Boots and launches InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop in 26 seconds from pushing the On button.

I am doing Final Cut Pro X now and would like to use my old 1,1 when not traveling.

Cheers

I have a 5770 in mine & I have been quite pleased with it. I also picked up 2 OWC 240 SSD's & I am using them in a raid for my boot drive (I love having those extra 2 SATAII ports.)

 

[JimT1701]

Yes my Mac Pro 1,1 with 8GB, 5770, Samsung SSD for boot drive, 2x Dell U2412M and 1 Dell 2007FP, and Drobo S over eSATA for storage is a rocking machine. Why did Apple drop this from Mountain lion I hate feeling left behind.

 

[WardC]

5770 is not a bad card at all. My 2010 6-core came with the 5770 and it's been a great performer since I've bought it. I've seen no need to upgrade to a 5870 or other card yet....but again, I am not a gamer and I don't need super high 3D rendering performance at super-high resolutions. I'm just running a 23" Cinema display on the Mac Pro @ 1920x1200, and for this, the 5770 does great and runs all video applications and uses just fine.

 

[derbothaus]

Unless you game Ward, you ain't missing anything. Paltry gains in anything NOT game related thanks to Apples ***** drivers.

 

[Neodym]

Why did Apple drop this from Mountain lion I hate feeling left behind.

It's exactly that: a feeling! Nothing more! Get over it and rather focus on your 1,1 running strong, regardless of the OS!

For my part i don't mind at all as i'm not even on Lion, but chose to stay with Snow Leopard instead, which offers everything i need and is still supported in regards of security patches and 3rd party software. Therefore the discussion whether ML will or will not support the 1,1 is pretty much academic to me.