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Apple Radeon HD 5870 works on 2006 Mac Pro

barefeats

barefeats

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 6, 2000
1,058
19
I borrowed a used 2006 Mac Pro from PowerMax.com. I installed the Radeon HD 5870 from our Westmere 6-core along with its boot drive. It booted up the first time no problemo.

I tried the Mini DisplayPorts with and without the MDP to DVI adapter. Works fine. Right now I'm running game benchmarks on a 24" LED Cinema display plugged directly into the MDP.

OWC techies have the 5770 running in their 2006 Mac Pro but could not get the 5870 to boot -- black screen. They are investigating what's different about their 2006 from the one I'm using.
 
We and OWC are constantly sharing info. We are on the same team. But if there is a beer summit, it should be in Portland OR, the microbrew capital.
 
Thanks for the update, barefeats.

Which 2006 Mac Pro did you test it in? There's the 1,1 (quad-core) and 2,1 (8-core)? On that note, which one is OWC testing the cards in as well?
 
barefeats said:
We and OWC are constantly sharing info. We are on the same team. But if there is a beer summit, it should be in Portland OR, the microbrew capital.
Click to expand...

I thought Denver was the microbrew capital. ;)

It probably works because he moved the boot drive from the westmere over which means it had the latest video drivers from Apple.

-mark
 
DualShock said:
Hmm OWC also says that the cards only support 2 monitors max, regardless of model of Mac Pro. Yes, even the 2010 one.

Bizarre stuff. You guys should have a beer together and chat. :D

http://blog.macsales.com/6856-owc-reveals-which-radeon-video-cards-work-with-2006-2009-mac-pros
Click to expand...

I think the reason OWC may have said that the 5870 did NOT work is because they where using a 1,1 MacPro that possibly did not have the drivers that the 2010 MacPro possibly has. Which would explain why barefeats 5870 try actually WORKED since he used the same HD off the 2010 MP and loaded it into a 1,1 MP. I think OWC is just saying at the moment its not going to work "out of the box" Usually each Mac has its own specific set of drivers that are loaded into its HD & Restore Disc. It probably wont be until the next major OSX update that all the drivers for the 5870 will be available via retail OSX Disc since that disc will have to carry all the drivers for basically all Mac's its compatible with.
 
This situation is way more confusing and mixed up than it really ought to be.

Either something's being overlooked, or there's really something odd going on with these cards. Thank you, Rob-ART and OWC, for your efforts to figure it all out. May I suggest, though, holding off from making such confidently-titled threads (eg. this one, "Apple Radeon HD 5870 works on 2006 Mac Pro") until the tests are all in agreement and reproducible?
 
Weepul said:
This situation is way more confusing and mixed up than it really ought to be.
Click to expand...

Totally agree.

Rob-ART, is it possible to get in touch with OWC and work out the differences between your 2006 Mac Pros and the way the 5870 has been installed?

Specifically:
1) Which model is it? 1,1 (quad-core) or 2,1 (8-core)?
2) Which Boot ROM and SMC versions? The latest for the 1,1 is MP11.005C.B08 (EFI 1.2) and 1.7f10 (SMC 1.1) respectively, while the latest for the 2,1 is MP21.007F.B06 (EFI 1.2) and 1.15f3 (SMC 1.1) respectively. Refer to http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1237 for more information.
3) Which OS X version? I'm assuming all test systems are running 10.6.4 with the Snow Leopard Graphics Update installed.
4) It shouldn't make a difference, but I assume the tests have been performed with only a 5870 installed in Slot 1 and no other card in any of the other slots? Also, /System/Library/CoreServices/Expansion Slot Utility.app has been configured such that Slot 1 is running at maximum bandwidth (16x)?
5) Also, is it safe to assume that both power leads are connected to the 5870?

Thanks for all your hard work!
 
This is great news! I'm happy with my 3870 at the moment but it's nice to know there's an upgrade path, and even more importantly a replacement path if my 3870 dies, since the 3870s are nearly impossible to find.

(I was lucky; a forum member here sold me his)

Thanks for testing this out for us. :)
 
AnimeFunTv said:
I think the reason OWC may have said that the 5870 did NOT work is because they where using a 1,1 MacPro that possibly did not have the drivers that the 2010 MacPro possibly has. Which would explain why barefeats 5870 try actually WORKED since he used the same HD off the 2010 MP and loaded it into a 1,1 MP. I think OWC is just saying at the moment its not going to work "out of the box" Usually each Mac has its own specific set of drivers that are loaded into its HD & Restore Disc. It probably wont be until the next major OSX update that all the drivers for the 5870 will be available via retail OSX Disc since that disc will have to carry all the drivers for basically all Mac's its compatible with.
Click to expand...

This is very true. Let me explain:

When buying the brand new MacPro 2010, it ships with a unique build of 10.6.4. If you happen to have a old MacPro 2006 which you've updated to 10.6.4, it will not have the exact same OS ad the MacPro 2010. This is very usual for Apple, and is always resolved at the next update, in this case 10.6.5.

So yes, this may be the reason barefeats got it working, and OWC didn't.
 
barefeats said:
I borrowed a used 2006 Mac Pro from PowerMax.com. I installed the Radeon HD 5870 from our Westmere 6-core along with its boot drive. It booted up the first time no problemo.

I tried the Mini DisplayPorts with and without the MDP to DVI adapter. Works fine. Right now I'm running game benchmarks on a 24" LED Cinema display plugged directly into the MDP.

OWC techies have the 5770 running in their 2006 Mac Pro but could not get the 5870 to boot -- black screen. They are investigating what's different about their 2006 from the one I'm using.
Click to expand...

If the 5770 is running on a 2006 Mac Pro, is it safe to assume that it will run on a 2007 Mac Pro as well? Sorry for the noob question, i'm not too familiar with the differences between each year's model
 
Following up on my post above.

In this thread it's been confirmed that you need MDP --> dual link DVI adapters to drive 3 monitors, regardless of whether those monitors are single link or dual link DVI.

Apple's support doc confirms it as well (see 2nd link above).
 
BentMyWookiee said:
If the 5770 is running on a 2006 Mac Pro, is it safe to assume that it will run on a 2007 Mac Pro as well? Sorry for the noob question, i'm not too familiar with the differences between each year's model
Click to expand...

Try looking into your OSX's menu's About This Mac.
When you click on More Info button, a window will pop up.
The Model Identifier will indicate whether yours is 1,1 or 2,1 or 3,1 or higher.

2006 model is 1,1.
I think 2007 model is 2,1...
So in general, if 2006 works, 2007 will work, too.
 
barefeats said:
I borrowed a used 2006 Mac Pro from PowerMax.com. I installed the Radeon HD 5870 from our Westmere 6-core along with its boot drive. It booted up the first time no problemo.
Click to expand...

Ok... this is very interseting. Does this mean that the '06 booted into k64 as is the default for the '10?
 
hyram said:
Ok... this is very interseting. Does this mean that the '06 booted into k64 as is the default for the '10?
Click to expand...

06 cant even boot k64


people having trouble booting 06 / 07 with 5870 has nothing to do with EFI boot rom, just nabs
 
Cindori said:
people having trouble booting 06 / 07 with 5870 has nothing to do with EFI boot rom, just nabs
Click to expand...

What's a nab, and how do I get some?
The B08 that OWC had supposedly didn't work.. can I fix?


svale said:
1) Which model is it? 1,1 (quad-core) or 2,1 (8-core)?
2) Which Boot ROM and SMC versions? The latest for the 1,1 is MP11.005C.B08 (EFI 1.2) and 1.7f10 (SMC 1.1) respectively, while the latest for the 2,1 is MP21.007F.B06 (EFI 1.2) and 1.15f3 (SMC 1.1) respectively. Refer to http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1237 for more information.
3) Which OS X version? I'm assuming all test systems are running 10.6.4 with the Snow Leopard Graphics Update installed.
Click to expand...

svale said:
Which 2006 Mac Pro did you test it in? There's the 1,1 (quad-core) and 2,1 (8-core)? On that note, which one is OWC testing the cards in as well?
Click to expand...


He didn't post a link to his article:
http://barefeats.com/wst10g3.html

We can now confirm that at least one 2006 Mac Pro supports the Radeon HD 5870. We used the boot drive from the 2010 Westmere 6-core Mac Pro to fire up the 2006 Mac Pro. Other than that, nothing else was done to "help" it work. FYI, it was:
Model Identifier: MacPro1,1
Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.66GHz
Total Number of Cores: 4
Bus Speed: 1.33GHz
Boot ROM Version: MP11.005D.B00
SMC version: 1.7f10
...
The DVI port works, of course, but we also tested with a Mini DisplayPort. It worked with a 20" Cinema display using a Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter. We also tried a 24" LED Cinema display with "direct" Mini DisplayPort connection. That worked. We used the 24" display for running the benchmarks since it supported 1920x1200.
Click to expand...

If you ask me, THIS is a way more informative thread.
 
Cindori said:
06 cant even boot k64


people having trouble booting 06 / 07 with 5870 has nothing to do with EFI boot rom, just nabs
Click to expand...

I know... but the '10 should load k64 by default, or so I've read. But what is being reported here is that the boot disk from a '10 is able to boot in a '06 "no problemo". I'd say we're missing some info on what is really being done here.

Barefeets: please fill in some details here rather than just giving the highlights.
 
hyram said:
I know... but the '10 should load k64 by default, or so I've read. But what is being reported here is that the boot disk from a '10 is able to boot in a '06 "no problemo". I'd say we're missing some info on what is really being done here.

Barefeets: please fill in some details here rather than just giving the highlights.
Click to expand...

Presumably the OS X install on the '10's hard drive scans the system or tries to boot to 64 bit, and when it encounters problems defaults to 32 bit.

OS X installs are generally pretty good at booting up on systems that they weren't originally installed on, unlike windows which is far more picky.
 
Anyone know if we can use "Real' 5870s? in the new Mac Pro 12 cores?

Sitting here with 3 30" displays (HP not apple)., and my new 12 core 2.93ghz mac pro with a spankin new 64gb ram kit from OWC... and 4 512gb SSDs and two marginally useless MDC ports on the back of an ati5870...

Does anyone know if I Can I just use a pair of REAL ati 5870s instead of the one that apple produces?
 
Last edited:
trauncher said:
Does anyone know if I Can I just use a pair of REAL ati 5870s instead of the one that apple has destroyed with their totally useless MDC ports?
Click to expand...

You can use other 5870s, but you'll have to flash them first, and there's a chance you'll have limited success. Check netkas.org.
 
trauncher said:
Sitting here with 3 30" displays (HP not apple)., and my new 12 core 2.93ghz mac pro with a spankin new 64gb ram kit from OWC... and 4 512gb SSDs and two totally useless and shameful MDC ports on the back of an ati5870...

Does anyone know if I Can I just use a pair of REAL ati 5870s instead of the one that apple has destroyed with their totally useless MDC ports?

Why after 12+ grand spent do I not have three native Dual DVI ports on the back of this machine? Is apple truly that Stupid? Truly that Totally Lame and Ignorant? Why would ANYONE want MDC ports on an 12 thousand dollar computer????????????????

Hey Steve Jobs! YOU ARE AN IDIOT.
Click to expand...
There are a number of monitors that use DisplayPort, and there are a lot of GPUs coming out that have multiple mDP ports (it's not MDC, my friend). They're neither useless nor shameful.

Try not to react so emotionally next time - didn't you know what you were spending your money on?
 
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