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Help Replace ATI 5870 in MP (5,1)

C

colorspace

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 5, 2005
324
12
The stock Apple 5870 in my upgraded Mac Pro 5,1 (really a 4,1 with a single 6 core 3.33) seems to be failing and I'll need to replace it in the near future.

I don't/can't pay for an original 5870 replacement and the less expensive 5770 may even make less sense. Here is what I'm looking for:

1) performance similar or better than the 5870. In reality something performing like the 5750 would probably be fine, but I assume not cost efficient at this point? I don't need super high FPS in any sort of gaming scenario. My main uses are Aperture (for a bit more), LightRoom, Photoshop, iMovie, Final Cut Pro and a few other related apps. Obviously it must be rock solid in terms of stability.

2) the capability to drive a 27" Apple Cinema display is absolutely needed. Ideally if it can also drive the speakers over Mdisplay port -- all the better.

3) If the card can also drive a future 4K display -- great!

4) Boot screen is not required -- I don't bootcamp, and even if I decide to a reboot is fine by me.

5) If I can be kind to both my aging MP's power supply and the environment, awesome! Not sure what the best metric is for Bang/Watt, but it would be very cool to make use of better tech to make my graphics card work off of one power lead and not two, like my 5870. I really hate to see that the video card often uses as much power as the entire rest of the computer.

So, love to hear your recommendations.
 
colorspace said:
The stock Apple 5870 in my upgraded Mac Pro 5,1 (really a 4,1 with a single 6 core 3.33) seems to be failing and I'll need to replace it in the near future.

I don't/can't pay for an original 5870 replacement and the less expensive 5770 may even make less sense. Here is what I'm looking for:

1) performance similar or better than the 5870. In reality something performing like the 5750 would probably be fine, but I assume not cost efficient at this point? I don't need super high FPS in any sort of gaming scenario. My main uses are Aperture (for a bit more), LightRoom, Photoshop, iMovie, Final Cut Pro and a few other related apps. Obviously it must be rock solid in terms of stability.

2) the capability to drive a 27" Apple Cinema display is absolutely needed. Ideally if it can also drive the speakers over Mdisplay port -- all the better.

3) If the card can also drive a future 4K display -- great!

4) Boot screen is not required -- I don't bootcamp, and even if I decide to a reboot is fine by me.

5) If I can be kind to both my aging MP's power supply and the environment, awesome! Not sure what the best metric is for Bang/Watt, but it would be very cool to make use of better tech to make my graphics card work off of one power lead and not two, like my 5870. I really hate to see that the video card often uses as much power as the entire rest of the computer.

So, love to hear your recommendations.
Click to expand...

Reference Sapphire PC Edition AMD 7950 3GB , used on eBay for around 150 USD . But you should get a refurbished one as the used ones are likely from a harsh environment (bitcoin mining ) . In short, the GPU needs new thermal paste and maybe new TIM pads on the Vram and VRM chips .

Your 5870 Mac Edition might be repairable with a new thermal paste / TIM pad job , but not if the GPU or other chip(s) overheats very much over a long time . Damage then would be permanent .

I often rebuild video cards with my system builds .
 
MacVidCards said:
Interestingly, barefeatsjust did a test that includes 5870.

http://barefeats.com/gtx980b.html
Click to expand...

That's an intersting article and it does mention that the GTX 980 can run, even at highest GPU, with onboard power, and certainly the performance if VERY impressive.

But given that I'm seeing prices in the $550 range, it is NOT the card for me. I'd be really happy with something that performs about as fast as the 5870 or a bit faster (i.e. still a lot slower than the GTX 980), and consumes 50% less power. Possible?
 
If money is super tight or you just want entry-level performance I would get an eVGA GTX 750 ti. It requires no power cables. According to that link it'll perform over twice as good as your current GPU. Plus it features a display port so you could use a mini display port to display port cable for your Apple Cinema monitor. On eBay they go for about 100 USD, retail is between 130-150 depending on deals.

use pcpartpicker for deals if you want to purchase new.
 
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750 Ti Luxmark Sala's (Open CL) benchmark score is just a little higher than the AMD 5870 .

It's a sweet little card (I've played around with it) and has the Cuda the AMD 5870 lacks .

I suspect it won't be much of an upgrade otherwise , except it will be brand new . And it sips power (no need for booster power ) .

The 5870 has mini displayport capabilities too ... and EFI .
 
The 750 ti uses 1/3 the energy of the AMD 5870 and has twice the vram. It doesn't make sense IMO to purchase old obsolete graphic cards just for a boot screen.
 
Liking the EVGA GT 750 ti, especially the price, performance (for the price) and max resolution (4096 x 2160)!!

Not so sure about only ONE Displayport connector? What would I do if I find an abandoned Cinema display (their too expensive to buy new). No way to connect without a second display port, right?

One last question... does anyone know if Parallels (and to a lesser degree VMWare Fusion) take advantage of (faster) replacement cards, or if performance in these environments is actually hurt because they are optimized for Apple's own video cards?

Thx
 
Another nice feature on the Nvidia 750Ti is having the ACX Cooler technology that helps run the card at the lowest temperatures for long hours of usage. I am using a 770gtx with ACX cooler and runs cooler compared to my Radeon 5870 HD.
 
MacVidCards said:
The Barefeats test 750ti was an EFI card with lovely bootscreens.

So, possible to have cake while eating cake.
Click to expand...

Just realized that the cards that I was looking at for specs was the EVGA GTX 750 ti and NOT "GT 750 ti". Found the smallish differences between these cards on a few websites (what a naming scheme fiasco!).... is the GTX 750 ti as Mac compatible as the GT 750 ti?

Thx
 
Cinema displays are old and obsolete man. You should buy a crossover 21:9 29" monitor on eBay for like 300 bucks. Or buy a 4k 32" monitor when the prices drop enough to be in your price range. With a screen that large and a resolution that high do you really need multiple displays?

There is no such thing as an Apple "optimized" card. All video cards are made by either Nvidia or AMD and what matters is the standards the cards support. Specifically OpenGL and DirectX. Specs and raw performance, that is all that matters. (with the exception of boot screen for OS X)
 
ToroidalZeus said:
Cinema displays are old and obsolete man. You should buy a crossover 21:9 29" monitor on eBay for like 300 bucks. Or buy a 4k 32" monitor when the prices drop enough to be in your price range. With a screen that large and a resolution that high do you really need multiple displays?

There is no such thing as an Apple "optimized" card. All video cards are made by either Nvidia or AMD and what matters is the standards the cards support. Specifically OpenGL and DirectX. Specs and raw performance, that is all that matters. (with the exception of boot screen for OS X)
Click to expand...

I'm old fashioned but more importantly me likes simple.... built in isight and decent-ish sound, FW, USB connectors, ahhhhhhhhh.... on the other hand 21:9 has caught my eye.
 
I am about to upgrade and replace my ATi 5770 with a PC version of the EVGA GTX 680 which I will flash with the Mac EFI/BIOS. I plan to pick up the reference card or the SuperClock card.

Each of these cards can be found for about $150 to $200 on ebay.
 
colorspace said:
Just realized that the cards that I was looking at for specs was the EVGA GTX 750 ti and NOT "GT 750 ti". Found the smallish differences between these cards on a few websites (what a naming scheme fiasco!).... is the GTX 750 ti as Mac compatible as the GT 750 ti?

Thx
Click to expand...

There is an old Macrumors thread about the GTX 750 ti , https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1728854/ In that thread, the OP tested the GTX 750 ti and did not work on the Mac Pro under Mavericks.

Another discussion saying a guy tried out the GTX 750 ti on his Mac and works except that the HDMI is not supported. Another option is the Nvidia EVGA 660 GTX 3g vram. A guy tested the 660gtx on his Mac Pro and works without the boot screen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TImpXtGYhGE The 660 gtx only requires 1 6-Pin power cable.
 
Macsonic said:
There is an old Macrumors thread about the GTX 750 ti , https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1728854/ In that thread, the OP tested the GTX 750 ti and did not work on the Mac Pro under Mavericks.

Another discussion saying a guy tried out the GTX 750 ti on his Mac and works except that the HDMI is not supported. Another option is the Nvidia EVGA 660 GTX 3g vram. A guy tested the 660gtx on his Mac Pro and works without the boot screen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TImpXtGYhGE The 660 gtx only requires 1 6-Pin power cable.
Click to expand...

Maxwell GPUs require Yosemite , unfortunately . On the rigs I've tested , HDMI is at sub-par resolution . It probably is the old driver I'm using .
 
Machines said:
Maxwell GPUs require Yosemite , unfortunately . On the rigs I've tested , HDMI is at sub-par resolution . It probably is the old driver I'm using .
Click to expand...

So which Maxwell boards have you tried specifically? Do the non-HDMI buses work as they should?
 
colorspace said:
So which Maxwell boards have you tried specifically? Do the non-HDMI buses work as they should?
Click to expand...

All of the rest should.

Apple has taken their "Drag Feet as long as possible" position and has delayed the rollout of HDMI 2.0 on Maxwell. Nvidia has done their part, we at MVC have done ours, just time for Apple to get off their butts.

Rest of ports all work as they should.
 
colorspace said:
So which Maxwell boards have you tried specifically? Do the non-HDMI buses work as they should?
Click to expand...

Dude these people are baffling you.

In responses to the post you quoted, he is 100% lying. I got a GTX 980 and I am running perfectly fine at 2560x1440. Btw from his other posts, he seems like an AMD fanboy.

As for MacVidCards, he is talking about a completely separate issue which is that OS X has no built-in drivers. HOWEVER Nvidia has released web drivers. Furthermore Nvidia updates the web derivers for each OS X release 10.10, 10.10.1, 10.10.2....
 
Thnx! One last question occurred to me - If I get one with a Display Port connector, and use a DP to MDP adaptor to connect to my 27" Apple Cinema Display will it pass audio to the 27" ACD as it does now? With or without flashing under 10.10.x?

MacVidCards said:
All of the rest should.

Apple has taken their "Drag Feet as long as possible" position and has delayed the rollout of HDMI 2.0 on Maxwell. Nvidia has done their part, we at MVC have done ours, just time for Apple to get off their butts.

Rest of ports all work as they should.
Click to expand...
 
MacVidCards said:
Apple has taken their "Drag Feet as long as possible" position and has delayed the rollout of HDMI 2.0 on Maxwell.
Click to expand...

They're great at that aren't they. Apple can spend incredible amounts of effort and money on silly (to me) watches and ghetto headphones but some of the basic stuff for Mac and OS X just never seems to get done. (Yes, I'm still angry at the Beats thing).;)
 
ToroidalZeus said:
As for MacVidCards, he is talking about a completely separate issue which is that OS X has no built-in drivers. HOWEVER Nvidia has released web drivers. Furthermore Nvidia updates the web derivers for each OS X release 10.10, 10.10.1, 10.10.2....
Click to expand...


If you are going to clarify, best to know what you are talking about.

Maxwell cards have brought out HDMI 2.0, which allows 4K res over HDMI.

All Apple products have been limited to 2K on HDMI.

Fact that HDMI 2.0 isn't working on GTX970/980 right now is 100% on Apple.

They are still crippled to 2K, Apple's choice.
 
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