cMP 1.1 upgrade.

[VanneDC]

So I have 3 kids, 2 old enough to hassle me to want to do Minecraft on my lappy all the time, so I thought it time to give them a desktop of Thier own.

So I bought a cMP 1.1 a while back for very cheap and just a couple of months that ago bought 2 used 23 inch used cinema displays. When I picked up the displays, the guy asked if I wanted a cMP 1.1 for free and said hey that's great.

So I now have 2 spare cMP's that I wanna setup for my kids. I did this for a good reason as the cMP is pretty darn sturdy and can be locked from the back. Hehe which I'll be doing.

Bought 2 CPU upgrades,xeon x5365, SLAED.
And 2 32gb FB ram kits. Followed that up by 2 120gb Kingston sata3 SSD's with associated SSD to 3.5 inch caddies for MP.

I plan to run the SSD as the install OS disks and then have a couple of normal 7200rpm data drives.

That leaves me with a question or 2..

I have a few vid cards lying around, just a few lol and I wonder which would make the better card for my kids setup.

There are 2 Mac flashed gtx 570's from my old 2008 (long sold) cMP.
I also have currently in one cMP 2.1, a flashed hd4870 1gb card. And also have a non flashed hd4890 1gb card.. (which I would flash if I was going to use it for this setup for my kids)

Now I know I can just Chuck in the gtx 570's and be done with it (no boot screen though) but was just thinking maybe that would be a waste for just mine craft and YouTube, and possibly some app store games..

What would you guys do??

Cheers.
V.

 

[CapnDavey]

That 4870 is a good card for that computer I never had any issues with mine

 

[devon807]

If your not using the 570's, i think it would be a great use! If not then the Radeon cards should do just fine.

 

[VanneDC]

Thanks guys, when the CPU's come in ill update. Thinking possibly either would be fine. though the nvidia cards will be better suited to future proof, but will give zero boot screen..

 

[fendersrule]

The 4870 was a great card in 2009 with my 3,1 Mac Pro. To this day, I'm able to dabble in 1440p with valve HL2 era games (no sweat). It's the newer stuff that bites me at 1440p.

I bought a 5,1 Mac Pro with the 5770. The 5770 is pretty much the exact same card, but less power, less temp, and less noise. More-or-less, it's a superior card when it comes to efficiency. One 6-pin power connector vs 2 6-pin power connectors like on the 4870. Duh!

Online bench results are more or less the same, being dead equal. Some cases the 4870 may get 1-2 FPS faster, but we're talking non-significant.

With the 5770, I've noticed the same speeds/no difference compared to the 4870. The only game that went from 14-30FPS to 42-60FPS is Psychonauts on Steam, which seemed to demand more vram that the 4870 had to offer. The 5770 was night and day better for that game.

Otherwise, same card. But again, lots of minor benefits other than being the "same" from an FPS perspective.

I think my point is that that 5770 is a better card than the 4870, and either would be superb for a 1,1.

 

[VanneDC]

Cheers, thx for your input.