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Best video card for the early 08 Mac Pro? also, do Ebay 6870s support openCL?

F

fs454

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Dec 7, 2007
1,987
1,876
Los Angeles / Boston
Alright, the time has come for me to buy a video card(still on the stock 2600XT!) and I'm definitely not going to spend what Apple charges for extremely outdated cards. I've been poking around and it seems like the preflashed 6870s are priced a bit better...I can't seem to find anything of higher performance. The big question is, do these support OpenCL and whatnot? If there's anyone running this or a similar card can you share your experiences? If there's a best-bang-for-your-buck card out there that I'm missing, let me know, hah.


:edit: forgot the link. This is the card in question. http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Radeon-...eo_TV_Cards&hash=item20bc04ce15#ht_2735wt_966
Also, I should add that I really, really would like to retain the ability to play cider/wrapper games and Steam games. DVD player is a complete non-issue for me, but I really, really need to be able to run FCPX well, it's one of the reasons I'm upgrading.

Thanks.
 
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If you will be using any Adobe apps or any apps that use CUDA, you may want to look instead at Nvidia cards.

If you want a 6870, you can save even more money by just flashing it yourself. The guy who wrote he ROM that is making all of the 6870 cards possible is Netkas. You can go to his forum and download all of the files to create the card you have linked. That is what "Mac*Pro" has done, nothing more, and nothing less. He is offering to sell you the work that Netkas has been kind enough to give away for FREE.

The cards being sold by that guy, and all of the other "copy and paste" flashers are all limited to PCIE 1.0 speeds of 2.5 GT/s. (Ask them)

MacVidCards is the only card flashing company to work WITH Netkas and the other "pro hackers" to bring these cards into existence. We are alone in offering the PCIE 2.0 version of this card which runs at 5.0 GT/s.

All of the other flashing services can only offer you something that you could easily do yourself. We alone can offer you a unique (and superior) product.

If you can settle for the PCIE 1.0 version of the card, the info is available for free at Netkas.org. The unique Apple power cables can be had for $7/ea at S-Video.com. (unless they have raised price)
 
MacVidCards said:
If you will be using any Adobe apps or any apps that use CUDA, you may want to look instead at Nvidia cards.

If you want a 6870, you can save even more money by just flashing it yourself. The guy who wrote he ROM that is making all of the 6870 cards possible is Netkas. You can go to his forum and download all of the files to create the card you have linked. That is what "Mac*Pro" has done, nothing more, and nothing less. He is offering to sell you the work that Netkas has been kind enough to give away for FREE.

The cards being sold by that guy, and all of the other "copy and paste" flashers are all limited to PCIE 1.0 speeds of 2.5 GT/s. (Ask them)

MacVidCards is the only card flashing company to work WITH Netkas and the other "pro hackers" to bring these cards into existence. We are alone in offering the PCIE 2.0 version of this card which runs at 5.0 GT/s.

All of the other flashing services can only offer you something that you could easily do yourself. We alone can offer you a unique (and superior) product.

If you can settle for the PCIE 1.0 version of the card, the info is available for free at Netkas.org. The unique Apple power cables can be had for $7/ea at S-Video.com. (unless they have raised price)
Click to expand...

Total SPAM. All of this is available VIA search engine.
 
MacVidCards said:
If you will be using any Adobe apps or any apps that use CUDA, you may want to look instead at Nvidia cards.

If you want a 6870, you can save even more money by just flashing it yourself. The guy who wrote he ROM that is making all of the 6870 cards possible is Netkas. You can go to his forum and download all of the files to create the card you have linked. That is what "Mac*Pro" has done, nothing more, and nothing less. He is offering to sell you the work that Netkas has been kind enough to give away for FREE.

The cards being sold by that guy, and all of the other "copy and paste" flashers are all limited to PCIE 1.0 speeds of 2.5 GT/s. (Ask them)

MacVidCards is the only card flashing company to work WITH Netkas and the other "pro hackers" to bring these cards into existence. We are alone in offering the PCIE 2.0 version of this card which runs at 5.0 GT/s.

All of the other flashing services can only offer you something that you could easily do yourself. We alone can offer you a unique (and superior) product.

If you can settle for the PCIE 1.0 version of the card, the info is available for free at Netkas.org. The unique Apple power cables can be had for $7/ea at S-Video.com. (unless they have raised price)
Click to expand...


Thanks for the info, and this is definitely not spam, if he is legit, it's an invaluable resource to have someone on the forums to answer questions like this. If he/his company are putting out good, reliable products to solve this problem, this is welcomed info.

I'm gonna be doing a lot of gaming, Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5, After Effects, etc....would nVidia be a better bet? I'm poking around you guys' eBay page and the GTX 460 seems to be the most powerful nvidia card for sale, but it doesn't do OpenCL yet. Is there a ballpark figure on how development is going on that and when we'll see openCL support?


What's my best bet for my usage..or is there not a perfect compromise just yet?


Thanks again for your time.
 
fs454 said:
I'm gonna be doing a lot of gaming, Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5, After Effects, etc....would nVidia be a better bet? I'm poking around you guys' eBay page and the GTX 460 seems to be the most powerful nvidia card for sale, but it doesn't do OpenCL yet. Is there a ballpark figure on how development is going on that and when we'll see openCL support?
Click to expand...

For Pro work, I'd be very careful about the 400/500 NVidia series on Mac. No Mac has ever shipped with these cards, so the support is much more iffy. Unless you're a heavy Premiere user, I'd stick with ATI.

In fact, I saw that some of the ATI cards now have a flash able Mac ROM. That's a pretty safe bet.

If you are using FCPX, you must buy an OpenCL card.
 
Well i've been chugging along in FCPX with no issues other than a laggy UI with my non-openCL HD2600, but there's really no middle ground nvidia product with CUDA cores and openCL capability just yet?


As you guys probably know the video postproduction industry was shaken up by the release of FCPX so I'm cutting two independent projects(both shot on canon SLRs) on FCPX and Premiere Pro CS5.5, and will soon make the decision on what to use primarily going forward.

It sucks that that there's a brand issue where I have to buy a nVidia card for adobe products to benefit and I have to buy a supported AMD/ATI openCL card for FCPX to benefit....how big is the benefit that CUDA gives to Adobe products?


Anyone got a solution? Should I wait until the new Mac Pros are introduced with new drivers/cards?
 
It is possible to enable OpenCl on all of the Fermi cards.

The problem is actually quite simple for GTX460...Apple's OpenCl is looking for cards with OLDER Compute ability. Once again, Apple's use of older tech is hampering our ability to use newer stuff. The cards are actually TOO capable for the drivers. A smart guy at insanelymac figured out the fix, and I can confirm it works.

So...in any Mac EFI capable Fermi card, full OpenCl support. Will work with FCPX and also work with Adobe apps that utilize CUDA.

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=266318
 
MacVidCards said:
It is possible to enable OpenCl on all of the Fermi cards.

The problem is actually quite simple for GTX460...Apple's OpenCl is looking for cards with OLDER Compute ability. Once again, Apple's use of older tech is hampering our ability to use newer stuff. The cards are actually TOO capable for the drivers. A smart guy at insanelymac figured out the fix, and I can confirm it works.

So...in any Mac EFI capable Fermi card, full OpenCl support. Will work with FCPX and also work with Adobe apps that utilize CUDA.

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=266318
Click to expand...


and Steam games and whatnot work fine? This is sounding sweet. thanks.

:edit, and also, that listing says GTX 460 but the picture and description heading are of a GTS 450. I just want to confirm that the specs listed and the auction are for the GTX 460. I was gonna go for the 480 but the price is a bit too steep.
 
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I have a 2008 Mac Pro and I mulled over this question for about a month. 6870s are a good value, but they aren't quite as fast as the 5870 and even with flashing they still have issues such as no boot screen on mini displayport --- I use a 27" Apple Cinema Display. I don't think the minor savings is worth the hassle.

So in the end I opted for the official Apple 5870. I picked up a used one on eBay for $345 + shipping. The official Apple card works 100% out of the box and is very quiet. I think it will also have a better resale value (because of the Apple brand) than a flashed 6870---I plan to keep my Mac Pro for at least couple more years and upgrade the graphics card again in the future.
 
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