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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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I'd absolutely kill to get HDMI audio out working in OS X. It's blocked by a firmware check. Works fine in Windows XP, but OS X doesn't even see the audio device. Nobody's found where in AppleHDA.kext the info needs to be changed in order to get this working?
Must be related to your specific setup (video card, driver(s), TV) - OS X on a Mac mini with 320m graphics gives out HDMI audio just fine. Are you sure the AppleHDA.kext is the culprit? In that case i could inspect it on my mini - maybe there is some helpful entry...
Can someone point me towards a definitive answer on a 5870 (or faster) card for my Mac Pro 3.1? I've spent hours searching, and at this point, I'm just lost.
I know that the Apple 5870 is the easiest answer, and the most expensive.
Can I still flash a PC 5870 if I'm running the latest version of Lion? Is there something faster I can flash, and have work reliably?
I'm looking for gaming performance under an x64 W7 install. But I also do a lot of photo work on the OS X side, so I don't want to sacrifice a bunch of stuff not working. I'm looking to buy in the next few weeks.
Any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated.
I know that the Apple 5870 is the easiest answer, and the most expensive.
Can I still flash a PC 5870 if I'm running the latest version of Lion? Is there something faster I can flash, and have work reliably?
I'm looking for gaming performance under an x64 W7 install. But I also do a lot of photo work on the OS X side, so I don't want to sacrifice a bunch of stuff not working. I'm looking to buy in the next few weeks.
Any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Where have you found a cheap PC5870 in stock? The prices have skyrocketed to the point where you might as well buy the Apple card anyway.
It's blocked by a firmware check. Even the 2009 Mac Pros do not have HDMI audio out via the 5770/5870. The Mac Mini has that built into the 320M which resides on its motherboard and has driver/firmware support for it. The non-2010 Mac Pros do not.
Want evidence? 2009 Mac pro owners that used the firmware updater from netkas.org to flash their Mac Pro to the 2010 model instantly got all aspects of the 5770/5870 working, including HDMI audio out. That right there proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that the driver and/or card were programmed with a specific firmware check in place. If it's in the driver, it's fixable for all Mac Pros. If it's in the card's EBC ROM, not so easy (I suspect it's in the drivers since the EBC ROM works fine in Windows on a Mac Pro, even in Vista/Win7 which both support EFI booting).
Nowhere, really. Well, at least not to the point where prices are way cheaper like they used to be. But, PC ones are still at least $40-75 cheaper.
To answer your previous question, the 5870 is the fastest you can go that I'm aware of. For $40 difference, I'd go with the Apple just to avoid problems. Back when it was a 50% difference, I'd get the PC version, but it's too late for that.
You can go PC 6870 for about half the price and get 90% of the performance. It's problems have been worked out. Of course, any future update may break compatibility.
If you can wait a while, some progress is being made with generic 6970s.
Also, Apple will probably release newer official cards in early 2012.
Thanks for the input! I wouldn't mind the 6870, as I'm sure it'd be enough for me, but I can't afford to have an update "break" my computer. Although, if it's something like jailbreaking where you just hold off on the update for a bit, until compatibility is restored, I could deal with that.
I'll try to find some more info the on the 6870's.
I'll try to find some more info the on the 6870's.
Done: I found a good offer for an Apple ATI 5870 and I (finally) bought it!
Can't wait to see if there are any big differences between all the benchmarks you can find around with a Mac Pro 1,1 with 2,66Ghz CPUs and mine (3GHz CPUs).
In the meantime take a look here if you're interested in these benchmarks too.
Can't wait to see if there are any big differences between all the benchmarks you can find around with a Mac Pro 1,1 with 2,66Ghz CPUs and mine (3GHz CPUs).
In the meantime take a look here if you're interested in these benchmarks too.
Oops
Last year I replaced my Apple version of the 8800 card with the Apple version of the 5870 for my original 2006 Mac Pro (1,1). Although the card worked fine and was able to power my three 30" ACDs, last week I pulled the 5870 and put it into a new machine, putting back the old 8800. Although I did not record the exact benchmarks, my machine actually scored better on Geekbench and XBench with the 8800 than with the 5870. There is no real-world change in the responsiveness of my machine. It was worth it for the three display support, but there is no performance gain with the 5870.
Last year I replaced my Apple version of the 8800 card with the Apple version of the 5870 for my original 2006 Mac Pro (1,1). Although the card worked fine and was able to power my three 30" ACDs, last week I pulled the 5870 and put it into a new machine, putting back the old 8800. Although I did not record the exact benchmarks, my machine actually scored better on Geekbench and XBench with the 8800 than with the 5870. There is no real-world change in the responsiveness of my machine. It was worth it for the three display support, but there is no performance gain with the 5870.
Monitors
You are right, that likely is a confounding problem, since the 8800 only supports two - and was tested with two, whereas the 5870 supports three and was tested with three. I cannot switch them back to test, but the added theoretical horsepower in the 5870 did not appear to overcome any performance hit of another monitor, at least on a 1,1 with 10.7.2. Importantly, I did not have any problems running the card at all so at least it is compatible.
You are right, that likely is a confounding problem, since the 8800 only supports two - and was tested with two, whereas the 5870 supports three and was tested with three. I cannot switch them back to test, but the added theoretical horsepower in the 5870 did not appear to overcome any performance hit of another monitor, at least on a 1,1 with 10.7.2. Importantly, I did not have any problems running the card at all so at least it is compatible.
AAMOF I would not expect any improvement in daily use (Finder and common apps), the gain is expected in games and in those applications that take advantage of OpenGL/CL.
PS: even if today I'm fine with 2 monitors (Cinema Diaplsy 23" and a 1080p videoprojector)... I confess that I'm thinking about one more monitor for daily use!
PS: even if today I'm fine with 2 monitors (Cinema Diaplsy 23" and a 1080p videoprojector)... I confess that I'm thinking about one more monitor for daily use!
If so I should get the same performances obtained with a 5770 on a 2,66GHz configuration. Indeed my own idea is that in all the benchmarks you can find online the main bottleneck was the CPU (2,66GHz vs 3GHz) and not the PCIe bus itself.
Another happy Mac Pro 1,1 user after 5870 installation!
Card just arrived!
...installed and running flawlessly under 10.6.8.
I haven't run any benchmark right now but all I can say is that games (CoD4, L4D2 and SCII demo) are running great will all settings maxed out (also anisotropic filtering an MMSA whan avaiable) at 1900x1200 or 1920x1080 (original resolution of my two screens). Games look also better than before (probably due to some OpenGL features that where non available with my older cards - ATI X1900XT and nVidia 8800GT).
I've also made a dew few OpenCL runs will post results later these days... I've to run to work now!
Feel free to ask a question if you have one.
Card just arrived!
...installed and running flawlessly under 10.6.8.
Code:
Hardware Overview:
Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: [B]MacPro1,1[/B]
Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: [B]3 GHz[/B]
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 10 GB
Bus Speed: 1,33 GHz
Boot ROM Version: [B]MP11.005C.B08[/B]
SMC Version (system): 1.7f10
....
[B] ATI Radeon HD 5870:[/B]
Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 5870
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 1024 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x6898
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-C0780C-194
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.436I haven't run any benchmark right now but all I can say is that games (CoD4, L4D2 and SCII demo) are running great will all settings maxed out (also anisotropic filtering an MMSA whan avaiable) at 1900x1200 or 1920x1080 (original resolution of my two screens). Games look also better than before (probably due to some OpenGL features that where non available with my older cards - ATI X1900XT and nVidia 8800GT).
I've also made a dew few OpenCL runs will post results later these days... I've to run to work now!
Feel free to ask a question if you have one.
A few fast update about multi-monitor configs.
Can't, repeat CAN'T, get 3 monitor to work at the same time.
This my test config:
- Cinema Display HD 23" connected to DVI port;
- 1080p video projector connected via an Apple's mini-DP to DVI adapter (and a DVI to HDMI cable);
- ACER 15" LCD monitor connected via an Apple's mini-DP to VGA adapter.
When I connect all the monitors only the VGA and the projector are recognized. I can get any combination of 2 out of 3 of those monitors to work but I can't get them to work all together even after reboot/PRAM reset/etc etc (haven't tried on Windows yet).
Can't, repeat CAN'T, get 3 monitor to work at the same time.
This my test config:
- Cinema Display HD 23" connected to DVI port;
- 1080p video projector connected via an Apple's mini-DP to DVI adapter (and a DVI to HDMI cable);
- ACER 15" LCD monitor connected via an Apple's mini-DP to VGA adapter.
When I connect all the monitors only the VGA and the projector are recognized. I can get any combination of 2 out of 3 of those monitors to work but I can't get them to work all together even after reboot/PRAM reset/etc etc (haven't tried on Windows yet).
No audio with HD 5870 installed
Hi folks - really need some help here. I'm currently running a;
Mac Pro 4,1 (early 2009)
2.66 Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
8 Gb RAM
Boot ROM MP41.0081.B07
Mac OS X 10.7.2
I've just swapped out my stock GT 120 card for a new Radeon HD 5870, I have it connected to my Sony SDM-X93 monitor via DVI. On booting up, I now have NO SOUND on my Mac at all and the sound control panel states 'no output devices found'. I've also tried booting up in both Snow Leopard and Windows 7 x64 (bootcamp) but with the same results - no sound at all. All the sound controls appear 'muted'.
I have read a note on Apple's site regarding a no sound issue on the MP 2009 when used with the mini display connectors but I am and will only be using the DVI port.
Does anyone have any suggestions please? is the card faulty? I'm unsure as to why installing a graphics card creates issues with audio
If I can't get it working it will just have to go back and I'll have to live with the GT 120
cheers all!
Hi folks - really need some help here. I'm currently running a;
Mac Pro 4,1 (early 2009)
2.66 Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
8 Gb RAM
Boot ROM MP41.0081.B07
Mac OS X 10.7.2
I've just swapped out my stock GT 120 card for a new Radeon HD 5870, I have it connected to my Sony SDM-X93 monitor via DVI. On booting up, I now have NO SOUND on my Mac at all and the sound control panel states 'no output devices found'. I've also tried booting up in both Snow Leopard and Windows 7 x64 (bootcamp) but with the same results - no sound at all. All the sound controls appear 'muted'.
I have read a note on Apple's site regarding a no sound issue on the MP 2009 when used with the mini display connectors but I am and will only be using the DVI port.
Does anyone have any suggestions please? is the card faulty? I'm unsure as to why installing a graphics card creates issues with audio
If I can't get it working it will just have to go back and I'll have to live with the GT 120
cheers all!
Try a PRAM reset (reboot and press "apple+p+r" since you hear the boot chime two times than release the keys).
Thanks for your reply Caesar
If the sound is not working then surely I will not be able to hear the chimes?
Of course you will not hear the first, but if it's something related to PRAM you will hear the second and the third. Just press those keys until you see for 3 times the grey apple on your screen than release them and wait for the Mac to boot up.
Of course yours looks like a bug and not a PRAM related/solvable issue but just give it a try