Mac Pro 2009 - ATI4870 to 5770 or 5870 upgrade?

[DrawingArt]

Hello. I have 2009 Mac Pro Quad 2,93 with ATI4870 512GB GPU. I decided I will upgrade my 12GB ram to 24GB, with SSD RAID drives and the last thing I maybe want to upgrade is GPU. I am doing this just while patiently sitting and waiting for 2013 Mac Pro ...

My question is if the 4870 to 5770 upgrade is worth it or its better to invest a bit more for 5870. I am mostly using Photoshop CS6, Illustrator CS6, After Effects CS6 and Premier CS6 ... no gaming on my mac tho...

I noticed in some test sites that 4780 with 512GB ram is 3% faster then 5770 with 1GB ram in overall tests. Is that true?
http://www.hwcompare.com/1161/radeon-hd-4870-512mb-vs-radeon-hd-5770/

And on other hand 5870 with 1GB ram is faster for 64% then other 2 cards...
http://www.hwcompare.com/998/radeon-hd-4870-512mb-vs-radeon-hd-5870/

Your thoughts, suggestions? Do I need to upgrade to see any performance difference in my everyday design / video work.

Thanks for any advices.

Miro

 

[Amethyst]

I think hex 3.33 will boost your performance more than those GPU.

 

[CIA]

5870 is old, out dated, and expensive (from Apple). But it is hands down the fastest officially supported card for the Mac pro. Look into 6870's, I hear they are natively supported for some reason in 10.7 but I haven't done much homework on it. They are cheaper tho.

 

[akadmon]

Yes, 4870 is faster than 5770. Don't ask me why, but it is.

 

[derbothaus]

Yes, 4870 is faster than 5770. Don't ask me why, but it is.

4870 was top tier. 5770 is better price/ cooler running. Same thing with 5870/ 6870. 5870 is faster. 6870 is cheaper and runs cooler. But all those are within a few frames of one another. I would take the 5770 over the 4870 though as the fan assembly in the 4870 was noisy and it sucked up a ton o' wattage for what you get + only 512MB VRAM.

 

[MacVidCards]

4870 was top tier. 5770 is better price/ cooler running. Same thing with 5870/ 6870. 5870 is faster. 6870 is cheaper and runs cooler. But all those are within a few frames of one another. I would take the 5770 over the 4870 though as the fan assembly in the 4870 was noisy and it sucked up a ton o' wattage for what you get + only 512MB VRAM.

4870 and 5870 use same exact fan (i.e., the replacement fan & motor assembly is same part)

If 4870 is noisier it is just due to more heat to dissipate

 

[derbothaus]

4870 and 5870 use same exact fan (i.e., the replacement fan & motor assembly is same part)

I have them both running in my office. 6 feet away from one another. The 4870 at idle is super noisy compared to 5870. Whatever they did to the assembly/ design is annoyingly loud on the 4870. At post the 4870 sounds like a howitzer and my cat runs out of the room.

 

[DrawingArt]

Thank you all for your replies. I appreciate it. 5770 is no go then ... do not need same speed and just lower noise ... so expensive 5870 is a go then except if 6870 is really plug&play job ) That would be really cheap to do...

Does anyone know if ATI 6870 from any manufacturer is plug&play?

Can you also tell me which CPU from Intel (what model) is plug&play for hex 3.33?

Thanks in advance.
Miro