Seen a lot of 4870 vs GT 120, but is anyone currently running both an ATI 4870 and a Nvidia GT 120 in a 2009 Mac Pro?
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Anyone running *both* an ATI 4870 and a GT 120?
- Thread starter DeepCobalt
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I know I've seen somebody (can't remember whether it was on here, or the Apple Support Forums, think it was there though) who is running both a 4870 and a GT120. No problems at all from what he said...
Personally, I'm thinking of picking up an old 2900XT to run with my 4870 so I can drive all 3 of my monitors without needing to worry about power or video adaptors...
That would be Tallest Skil who has both... I believe he wrote a few things down in a thread somewhere about performance being fine in osx, both cards recognized and running well, but in bootcamp you need to use windows xp (IIRC) or 7 as vista gets confused and crashes
I don't know about you guys but, I have both flashed 4870 and OEM GT 120 in my Mac Pro and running it under Vista 64bit without any problem accept a message "Invalid graphic card in graphic adapter" or something like that. No crashing or decreasing in performance. One thing, you can use 4 monitors, only one card can be active at a time.
I'm having problems
2 x 2.26 Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (early 2009)
16g third party (Crucial) memory.
I'm having problems with the setup. I run a 30" Apple main monitor and 2 24" Dell monitors on either side of the 30". When I first got the 4870 I had the 4870 on the 30" and an independent GT120 for each 24".
What I found is it seemed to work fine but after a while of clicking between the 24" and the 30" monitors, OSX starts to freak out. By freak out, I mean act as if OSX is waiting on hardware.
I read that if you plug 2 monitors in the 4870 card it helps, which I did. I had the 30" and the left 24" on the 4870 and the right 24" on the GT120.
I played a video game at full resolution for about 4 hours last night and it never showed the symptoms, which rules out heat as an issue. Today, I'm doing some work and I started clicking on a window I moved earlier to the monitor that is running the GT 120 and BAM it happened again. It is (sortof) resolved by clicking on a monitor that is run on the 4870. It takes a few minutes to come back to life after that. As soon as I click on the GT 120 driven monitor, it happens again.
Now I only have 2 monitors plugged in
, both to the 4870 and I'm trying to see if the issue crops up again. If it doesn't I can assume it's the GT 120 causing the lockup.
The graphics card in and of itself works great. The frame rates are top notch and it's smooth as silk.
The compatibility issues with the GT 120s (not definite but evidence is pointing that way) are really ticking me off. I pay a premium so I don't have to feel like I'm trying to Gerry rig a Window box with components from different manufacturers. I mean that's the point, right?
2 x 2.26 Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (early 2009)
16g third party (Crucial) memory.
I'm having problems with the setup. I run a 30" Apple main monitor and 2 24" Dell monitors on either side of the 30". When I first got the 4870 I had the 4870 on the 30" and an independent GT120 for each 24".
What I found is it seemed to work fine but after a while of clicking between the 24" and the 30" monitors, OSX starts to freak out. By freak out, I mean act as if OSX is waiting on hardware.
I read that if you plug 2 monitors in the 4870 card it helps, which I did. I had the 30" and the left 24" on the 4870 and the right 24" on the GT120.
I played a video game at full resolution for about 4 hours last night and it never showed the symptoms, which rules out heat as an issue. Today, I'm doing some work and I started clicking on a window I moved earlier to the monitor that is running the GT 120 and BAM it happened again. It is (sortof) resolved by clicking on a monitor that is run on the 4870. It takes a few minutes to come back to life after that. As soon as I click on the GT 120 driven monitor, it happens again.
Now I only have 2 monitors plugged in
, both to the 4870 and I'm trying to see if the issue crops up again. If it doesn't I can assume it's the GT 120 causing the lockup.The graphics card in and of itself works great. The frame rates are top notch and it's smooth as silk.
The compatibility issues with the GT 120s (not definite but evidence is pointing that way) are really ticking me off. I pay a premium so I don't have to feel like I'm trying to Gerry rig a Window box with components from different manufacturers. I mean that's the point, right?
Has anyone tried an ATI 4870 and two GT 120's? Since I have found no Apple or 3rd party vendor for a female miniDisport to male DVI adapter on the market...how do they expect the ultra stylish and the sycophantic Apple
fanboi cults to run three of their 24" LED-backlit Apple Cinema Displays?You caaaan spec out a Mac Pro with multiple GT 120 cards or a single ATI 4870. No option to mix'n'match via the online store.
Thoughts? Answers?
Read the reply just above yours. Current status: No crashes with just the 4870 after about 4 hours.
I'm running the 4870 and GT120 in my 2008 mac Pro running 2x24" LED Displays...no problems at all.
I was thinking about doing the same exact thing, as I plan to add a third 20" Apple Display I needed another gfx card, now that I know you can run 2 different kinds, that's great!
Thanks everyone, I hope you get your issues resolved!
Thanks everyone, I hope you get your issues resolved!
I would like to run the 4870 and GT 120 as well. An Apple tech told me I need the RAID card and FIBRE Channel Card to make this work. Is that true?? seems odd to me from what I'm reading on these forums, or does everyone with this setup indeed have all those cards installed.
The 4870 would be running a 24" LED ACD from the mini display port and a 23" ACD from the DVI port. The GT 120 would be running an older Viewsonic 19" LCD from the DVI port via a DVI to VGA adapter... Will this all work?
I also plan to run Windows XP through Fusion or Parellels, will the two cards mess this up?
Thanks in advance, this will be my first MAC Pro and I'm very excited about it!
The 4870 would be running a 24" LED ACD from the mini display port and a 23" ACD from the DVI port. The GT 120 would be running an older Viewsonic 19" LCD from the DVI port via a DVI to VGA adapter... Will this all work?
I also plan to run Windows XP through Fusion or Parellels, will the two cards mess this up?
Thanks in advance, this will be my first MAC Pro and I'm very excited about it!
Yo! Reporting in! And it's correct that Vista won't run, but fortunately, Seven loves them. It even called them by name!
4870 and GeForce 9500.
4870 and GeForce 9500.
I'm pretty sure you don't need either a RAID card or FIBRE Channel Card. RAID card deals with hard drives and FIBRE card deals with ethernet, neither of which are graphics related. Someone correct me if i'm wrong.
I can't see how those cards are related to graphics either. Are you sure the Apple tech is an Apple tech and not a sales rep. Some Apple sales reps, especially at the online store have no idea what they're talkin' about. Or else he was discussing some other requirement you have.
Yeah, I was told the exact same thing from some of the sales support tech people at Apple when I called them prior to buying the 2009 Pro. I was asking if it's possible to run 2 4870's in the 2009 Pro and was told I'd need the FC+RAID cards to do it...
I just laughed at them and hung up. MORONS.
I don't *think* you can run 2 4870s simply because they are double height cards. In the MacPro there is space available for one of them, but I don't think you can physically put a second one unless you cut it to fit, but I could be wrong, I've just never tried it.
1 4870 and 1 GT120 works fine. 1 4780 and 2 GT120s seem to have a heat problem, at least in Florida in the Summer. I am currently running 1 4870 and 1 GT120 connected to 3 monitors and it works great.
Hey Treo - How are you liking your machine running both the 4870 and 8800? Noise, Buzz, Heat? I'm assuming you the the 4870 on slot 1 and 8800 on 2?
That's impossible. You have to use 1 and 2 and then 4 is taken up by the second power supply.
Yo! Reporting in! And it's correct that Vista won't run, but fortunately, Seven loves them. It even called them by name!
4870 and GeForce 9500.
Good stuff, I'll be sure to pick up one when I have some spare cash!