Maybe it just a driver issue and not a CPU bottleneck. We have to wait for 10.6.5 (or maybe you should try to get 2010's ATI video driver... since those systems run a newer build of 10.6.4 with updated video drivers)
Thanks for the info
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Apple Radeon 5770/5870 in pre-2010 Mac Pro's: What We Know So Far
- Thread starter DualShock
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Maybe it just a driver issue and not a CPU bottleneck. We have to wait for 10.6.5 (or maybe you should try to get 2010's ATI video driver... since those systems run a newer build of 10.6.4 with updated video drivers)
Thanks for the info
Update: After a reboot (but not the first one) the audio on the 27-inch LED Cinema Display started working. Now everything is working fine with my ol' Mac Pro 1,1.
Are you running a pre-release version of 10.6.5 or what? (not kidding! I'm really curious about 10.6.5's video driver performance with that card).
Maybe a good sign? MicroCenter website showing 7-21 business days to ship
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0345333
and for those who cant wait:
http://www.macpartsonline.com/661-5...0-video-card-1-gb-mac-pro-mid-2010-a1289.html
for 518.70!
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0345333
and for those who cant wait:
http://www.macpartsonline.com/661-5...0-video-card-1-gb-mac-pro-mid-2010-a1289.html
for 518.70
!One question: can you check if the 27" display gets the audio signal from the USB connection - as the 24" does, or does it get it from the MDP?
I guess the way to check that would be disconnecting the display's usb and see if the display still shows in the audio preferences. My guess it's still streaming sound via USB, along with the mic and isight signals, in order to make he display work with earlier mac models that dont support audio over MDP.
Thanks for confirming this though,
cheers!
I'm pretty sure the new 27" displays do not do audio over USB, only MDP. There was even an update to the Macbook Pros to support this.
This review here states the new Mac Pro supports audio over MDP:
http://macs.about.com/od/currentapplehardware/fr/Mac-Pro-Review-Summer-2010.htm
hey goMac! seems we're both onto this subject in different threads....
yeah... I don't really care about the 27" display, rather than the audio over MDP->HDMI working in earlier MPs with the new cards. My question to e2ka was intended to resolve this pending issue in the thread.
The MacBook Pro argument does not help to resolve this anyway. On the other hand, the review you cite does in fact confirm that the new Mac Pros support audio over MDP - but nobody's debating that, nor it has to do with this threads focus, which is the 5770/5870 cards on pre-2010 Mac Pros.
EDIT... cool! good info... sorry I had not seen that. Not that I care too much about the display, nor that it would answer the original question.... but that's really good - at least for newer macs owners.
Again, my question to e2ka is to see if the MDP audio shows up in system preferences on his 1,1 MP w/5770, and if it streams audio while the USB is disconnected. That would confirm that earlier MPs with 5770/5870 acquire this new capability.
cheers!
Really? How so? Any hard evidence? Not that I care too much about the display, nor that it would answer the original question.... but that'd be interesting.
I need to make sure the 5770/5870's audio works in earlier MPs before replacing my 4870/GT120. If not, lets not speculate and stick with the subject - after all, the thread title is "Apple Radeon 5770/5870 in pre-2010 Mac Pro's: What We Know So Far"
cheers!
The evidence is quite apparent as it is listed on Apple's support page. Look at the screenshot in this MR article, which was taken from the page where you download the software.
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/09/2...es-to-support-new-27-inch-led-cinema-display/
There is no dispute, it supports both audio over MDP and audio over USB (so it is still compatible with older hardware).
You can even find reference to both on the specs page on Apple's site.
Why was there ever question?
I actually have the 27 inch, and while my Mac Pro only works with the USB part (I only have a GT120), I have an Atlona HD620 HDMI to MDP Scaler/Switcher which works perfectly with audio over MDP (via HDMI conversion). Whenever I play my PS3 hooked up to it the audio plays back through the display's speakers perfectly.
End of dispute, the 27 inch supports both. Stop questioning the facts.
As for the 5770/5870, I have no way to confirm support for audio over MDP because I do not have one, but one of many people with a 27 inch and one of those cards can surely answer that question (my guess is it does). Not sure if that would work with the 1,1 but I don't see why not because audio over MDP is a driver thing (if the card supports it), so if you are running the same driver then there is absolutely no reason for it not to work.
sorry ovrird - I found out about the double audio display support after I replied. My bad. Thanks for the info. Still, I have to find out if the new cards support it in earlier MPs.
cheers!
As I noted in my previous posts, my upgrade to the 5770 (from a 3870) was in the hopes I'd get better FCP/Motion performance.
While that hasn't been the case, here's something I noticed: (but have no way to confirm whether it's simply bias or fact - since I don't want to start swapping graphics cards to do tests)
While Motion rendering performance hasn't improved, using the Mac Pro while Motion is Rendering (for example cutting in FCP concurrently) happens as if the computer isn't in use. While I can't render at the same time in FCP and Motion - everything else continues to happen quite smoothly, as do OS-related graphics-dependant features like Spaces. When rendering in Motion with my 3870 switching spaces was slow and jerky, now it's as smooth as butter.
I can't be sure if it's the 5770 because it came also with a massive RAM upgrade (from 6 to 16GB) and an upgrade to 10.6.
However, overall the system is far more multitasking friendly with none of the graphics hiccups that used to occur when I was pushing the 3870.
While that hasn't been the case, here's something I noticed: (but have no way to confirm whether it's simply bias or fact - since I don't want to start swapping graphics cards to do tests)
While Motion rendering performance hasn't improved, using the Mac Pro while Motion is Rendering (for example cutting in FCP concurrently) happens as if the computer isn't in use. While I can't render at the same time in FCP and Motion - everything else continues to happen quite smoothly, as do OS-related graphics-dependant features like Spaces. When rendering in Motion with my 3870 switching spaces was slow and jerky, now it's as smooth as butter.
I can't be sure if it's the 5770 because it came also with a massive RAM upgrade (from 6 to 16GB) and an upgrade to 10.6.
However, overall the system is far more multitasking friendly with none of the graphics hiccups that used to occur when I was pushing the 3870.
Same here
While Motion rendering performance hasn't improved, using the Mac Pro while Motion is Rendering (for example cutting in FCP concurrently) happens as if the computer isn't in use. While I can't render at the same time in FCP and Motion - everything else continues to happen quite smoothly, as do OS-related graphics-dependant features like Spaces. When rendering in Motion with my 3870 switching spaces was slow and jerky, now it's as smooth as butter.
Ive noticed the exact same thing only difference being my old card (which died on me) was a ati 4870 and os has been upgraded from 10.5 - 10.6. I'm also not sure if it's the os or 5770, at least you know it's not the ram. Dock magnification is also smooth as butter when rendering in motion.
I suspect its snow leopard as the 4870 was slightly better than the 5770 in motion.
While Motion rendering performance hasn't improved, using the Mac Pro while Motion is Rendering (for example cutting in FCP concurrently) happens as if the computer isn't in use. While I can't render at the same time in FCP and Motion - everything else continues to happen quite smoothly, as do OS-related graphics-dependant features like Spaces. When rendering in Motion with my 3870 switching spaces was slow and jerky, now it's as smooth as butter.
Ive noticed the exact same thing only difference being my old card (which died on me) was a ati 4870 and os has been upgraded from 10.5 - 10.6. I'm also not sure if it's the os or 5770, at least you know it's not the ram. Dock magnification is also smooth as butter when rendering in motion.
I suspect its snow leopard as the 4870 was slightly better than the 5770 in motion.
On my Mac Pro 1,1 Audio/Microphone/iSight all go through USB. Disconnecting the USB makes them all disappear, connecting makes them appear in System Preferences. They are listed under USB in System Profiler.
If there is a way to make them work through the mini display port, I don't know how.
As a side note, yesterday the audio and microphone stopped working again. I noticed the following message appearing in the console logs when I would try to increase or decrease the volume:
Code:
USBF: 589.04 AppleUSBEHCI[0xf3d0800]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out!I found that disconnecting the mini-display port and re-connecting it resolved the problem. This is the second time I've observed this problem, one more time and I'll call support.
How?
How can they have it and Apple website don't??? Is MicroCenter a known company?
How can they have it and Apple website don't??? Is MicroCenter a known company?
Maybe a good sign? MicroCenter website showing 7-21 business days to ship
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0345333
and for those who cant wait:
http://www.macpartsonline.com/661-5...0-video-card-1-gb-mac-pro-mid-2010-a1289.html
for 518.70
One thought occurred to me this morning regarding Motion performance.
When my 1,1 boots, the 5770's fan goes into high-speed-takeoff mode. In normal running it's silent. I imagine if Motion was pushing the graphics card then the fan would also go crazy. I've had at least 1 hour-long Motion render since the 5770 was installed and that hasn't happened - so the card isn't being pushed I don't think.
Again, evidence is pretty much as anecdotal as it gets.
When my 1,1 boots, the 5770's fan goes into high-speed-takeoff mode. In normal running it's silent. I imagine if Motion was pushing the graphics card then the fan would also go crazy. I've had at least 1 hour-long Motion render since the 5770 was installed and that hasn't happened - so the card isn't being pushed I don't think.
Again, evidence is pretty much as anecdotal as it gets.
mine doesn't
my x1900 would go beserk at initial power on 4870 would let out a burst once the os had loaded the 5770 remains silent, strange I wonder if I have a different mac firmware revision (I too have the 1,1)
my x1900 would go beserk at initial power on 4870 would let out a burst once the os had loaded the 5770 remains silent, strange I wonder if I have a different mac firmware revision (I too have the 1,1)
Thanks e2ka. too bad...
so... to the experts here, what do you think can be inferred from this? It seems the audio via MDP/HDMI capability does not work on a 1,1 MP. But does it work in other MPs other than the 2010 model? or perhaps it is a firmware issue that makes it exclusive for 2010 MPs?You are not the only one - here and here are a couple of threads of these cases. Seems it has to do with the display itself though. Hope that gets resolved soon.
cheers!
they order from apple and disassemble a few dozen macpros. they then part it out. at least applecomponents.com does that.
Yes, and I'm less than thrilled with the performance. I have a quad 2.66 w/16GB RAM and ultra quality with two 1680x1050 displays gives me ~20-40FPS, but it can dip lower if there's a lot going on.
Dialing the quality down doesn't seem to make much of a difference which is odd. I've also noticed that the card makes virtually no noise, even after an hour of play (is this normal? Maybe I'm used to the vacuum cleaner sound of my old x1900).
Also, CPU usage is never more than 60% of each core..
I'm hoping that the mediocre performance is driver related, and that the next release will be better.
I thought that Apple might make the 5870 available when they update their store for MacBook Air, but looks like I was wrong.
My last hope is waiting for 10.6.5 to hit next week (or the next after that) and then throwing in the towel and getting the 5770. I really didn't want to since the price is ridiculous but I really want to upgrade this GT120.