AMD 7900 series and current Mac Pros?

[dh2005]

Hey folks,

I was trolling around for guff on the new AMD cards and came across this:

http://www.fudzilla.com/graphics/item/25152-amd-radeon-hd-7900-series-tahiti-pixellized

The commentary suggests that it will be possible to Crossfire two of these cards with an 8-pin and a 6-pin power connector. Am I right in thinking that the current Mac Pro is capable of serving these power needs? I don't own a Mac Pro of my own, but I recall someone telling me that on these forums.

If so, might this dovetail with the recent leak about Tahiti drivers being released for OS X? As in, there might not be a new Mac Pro, but it might be possible to fit these cards to the current line of machines...?


Yeah, okay, so this is a big fat pile of speculation. I had ten minutes to kill, and now I've killed it. Anybody wanting to waste some time of their own, weigh in.

 

[Pressure]

You can be rest assured that the released card will feature 2 x 6-pin connectors.

Other than that, the actual drivers for the next Radeon series is not in Mac OS X but the Device ID is mentioned.

 

[Cindori]

there is already a 7970 thread

we will get 7900 working on mac pro wether 7900 is released for mac pro, doesnt matter, because it will be for iMac anyway eventually and then support is present in OSX.

just like we have 6900 series working in macpro, without a 6900 series mac card being sold.

 

[dh2005]

there is already a 7970 thread

we will get 7900 working on mac pro wether 7900 is released for mac pro, doesnt matter, because it will be for iMac anyway eventually and then support is present in OSX.

just like we have 6900 series working in macpro, without a 6900 series mac card being sold.

If it's in an iMac, it'll be a Mobility card, right? Are the drivers the same for mobile and desktop cards, then? I hadn't realised that.

----------

You can be rest assured that the released card will feature 2 x 6-pin connectors.

That's interesting. What is it that makes you sure of that?

 

[derbothaus]

Mobile or desktop, the drivers are similar enough. I've ran desktop drivers on mobility chips before. None the wiser.

 

[ActionableMango]

If it's in an iMac, it'll be a Mobility card, right? Are the drivers the same for mobile and desktop cards, then? I hadn't realised that.

For many years now GPU drivers seem to be written to work across a wide variety of cards and distributed as a universal package for an entire family or even multiple families of cards.

 

[dh2005]

That's good to know. Thanks.

So, does OS X natively recognise the equivalent desktop card? As in, let's say you have an HD 6970 in your Mac Pro, and you boot to OS X; does OS X think, 'oh, that's the HD 6970M from the 2011 iMac', or does it throw a fit; and then you tell it that it's the 6970M, after which everything is fine?

And I trust you get the performance of the desktop card rather than the mobile card, right...?!

 

[ActionableMango]

In my opinion, people should not say the 6970 is working in OS X yet. I am far from an expert on this, but "partially working with significant problems" is a lot more accurate in my opinion.

So, does OS X natively recognise the equivalent desktop card? As in, let's say you have an HD 6970 in your Mac Pro, and you boot to OS X; does OS X think, 'oh, that's the HD 6970M from the 2011 iMac', or does it throw a fit; and then you tell it that it's the 6970M, after which everything is fine?

There is a detailed thread about 6970 at netkas. Reading it should give you a good idea of the accomplishments so far and the problems that remain.
http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,1117.0.html

 

[MacVidCards]

In my opinion, people should not say the 6970 is working in OS X yet. I am far from an expert on this, but "partially working with significant problems" is a lot more accurate in my opinion.



There is a detailed thread about 6970 at netkas. Reading it should give you a good idea of the accomplishments so far and the problems that remain.
http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,1117.0.html

I would agree, not ready for Prime Time yet.

Netkas has been away for awhile, has pledged to give it another whack when he returns.

 

[dh2005]

In my opinion, people should not say the 6970 is working in OS X yet. I am far from an expert on this, but "partially working with significant problems" is a lot more accurate in my opinion.

...

There is a detailed thread about 6970 at netkas. Reading it should give you a good idea of the accomplishments so far and the problems that remain.
http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,1117.0.html

Ah, I see. So, it doesn't 'just work', but in fact takes tons of faffing about. No way I could be bothered with that. The principal reason why I switched from PCs to Macs was to cut 'faffing about' to a minimum.