Best GFX Card for Jan 2009 Mac Pro?

[seer]

Hi guys

I have been totally off the game for a long while hardware wise (since buying my 2009 Mac Pro I haven't needed to think about it )

I got the 2009 Mac Pro with the Radeon gfx card (4870 was it?) and only about now am I noticing it not really keep up with the modern games (sure I could turn a few settings down, but I dont want to )

So what is the best OSX supported gfx card I can buy for it? Is it that Geforce 285 that came out not long after the 2009 launch? Or is there something better now?

I would prefer a card that is supported out of the box by OSX, but am open to something that requires a little hackery to make work too.

I just wanna breathe new life into for another couple of years gaming wise (especially now I can play TF2 etc via Steam ) before I replace the machine late 2012 / early 2013.

Thanks guys!

 

[Hellhammer]

Ati 5870

 

[peskaa]

Second vote for the ATi 5870.

 

[seer]

Thanks guys - but man I just did a price check and bend-me-over-and-screw-me-with-your-apple-tax the apple version of the card is 4500 swedish krona whereas the pc versions are 2300

THATS CRAZY!!!

 

[Hellhammer]

Thanks guys - but man I just did a price check and bend-me-over-and-screw-me-with-your-apple-tax the apple version of the card is 4500 swedish krona whereas the pc versions are 2300

THATS CRAZY!!!

It is crazy, we know that. It wasn't that bad when Apple launched it but now that AMD 6000-series is out, the prices of 5000-series have gone down quite a lot. You could think about flashing a PC 5870 if you can't justify the price

 

[peskaa]

When they came out the Apple card cost me a whole £10 more than a PC card, but this is what time does to tech!

 

[seer]

Thanks for the info.

Looking at this

http://www.indomo.se/11557-Kampanj-XFX-HD5870-1GB-GDDR5-1-Spel-AVP

is reaaaallllly cheap (about $260) thus I wont cry too much if I break it trying to flash it. Only concern is that it has quite different set of ports to that of a mac. Thus is flashing as likely to be successful?

 

[gpzjock]

Check here if it has been done already: http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,371.0.html

 

[seer]

Hmm - the list is a little unclear - but it seems like it is this card

Using google translate:
http://www.macbidouille.com/news/2010/09/01/maj-installer-une-radeon-hd5870-pc-dans-un-mac-pro-2006

tested to work great (even HDMI)

Worth a punt and if it doesnt work I can always flash back the original ROM and sell it for a small loss I guess.

 

[gpzjock]

This looks like the one you are looking at.

On Page 5 of the thread I linked:

"Re: Compatibility overview
« Reply #72 on: December 04, 2010, 07:32:50 PM »

Mac Pro: 5,1 (mid 2010)
GPU: XFX HD-587X-ZNFV (Alien vs Predators Bundle with Revision 2 5870 design i.e. fan in centre instead of at end)
BIOS: XFX5870_1.rom

As expected everything works except image at EFI boot screen.

Only quibble is that card runs at PCI-E x16 1.1 speed of 2.5Mb/s rather than full speed of PCI-E x16 2.0 at 2.5Mb/s

I also have an official Apple Radeon HD 5870, is there anything I can copy across from ROM dump of that to make it work at full speed?"

This is where the ROMs come from: http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,321.0.html

 

[Transporteur]

There are some flashed 5870's on ebay and one seller claims that he is the only one that sells cards that work at 5Gb/s.

He probably adjusted the ROM to make this work, so there definitely is a way.

 

[Cindori]

the swedish apple prices are extra retarded because its not just extra 25% moms, instead the american price are calculated by 1 dollar = 10 kronor which adds much extra to the total price.


for info about flashing 5870, check out the previously mentioned netkas forum.

to get more information about flashing, how it works etc, check out my Golden Guide thread or my website http://groths.se

 

[gugy]

just a question:
Between the Quadro FX 4800 for MacPro or the ATI Radeon HD 5770 which one would you guys recommend for Photoshop work?
I have the ATI Radeon HD 5770 but I have a option to get the Quadro for really cheap price.
Thanks for any input.

 

[goMac]

just a question:
Between the Quadro FX 4800 for MacPro or the ATI Radeon HD 5770 which one would you guys recommend for Photoshop work?
I have the ATI Radeon HD 5770 but I have a option to get the Quadro for really cheap price.
Thanks for any input.

Doesn't really matter. Photoshop doesn't use your graphics card.

So if you have the 5770, keep the 5770.

 

[gugy]

Doesn't really matter. Photoshop doesn't use your graphics card.

So if you have the 5770, keep the 5770.

wow, really?
I watched a bunch of video demos on Nvidia site about how the Quadro performs so well in the Photoshop environment.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/adobe_photoshop.html

I am lost now.

 

[goMac]

wow, really?
I watched a bunch of video demos on Nvidia site about how the Quadro performs so well in the Photoshop environment.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/adobe_photoshop.html

I am lost now.

In theory, if you're running under OpenGL mode, you get some additional magic.

But OpenGL mode is still fairly buggy, and it some cases, can actually be substantially slower than the normal CPU based mode.

 

[gugy]

In theory, if you're running under OpenGL mode, you get some additional magic.

But OpenGL mode is still fairly buggy, and it some cases, can actually be substantially slower than the normal CPU based mode.

Cool, Thanks.
Well, I have a good friend that works at Nvidia and he offered me a free Quadro card. Just curious because I had actually several issues in the past with Nvidia cards on the MacPro.
So I was wondering if it is worth to ask him for one.

 

[goMac]

Cool, Thanks.
Well, I have a good friend that works at Nvidia and he offered me a free Quadro card. Just curious because I had actually several issues in the past with Nvidia cards on the MacPro.
So I was wondering if it is worth to ask him for one.

If it's free, then why not?

I wouldn't really pay for one at this point, though. I have heard a lot of driver issues.