Radeon 6870 - Fastest Card & Flawless Final Cut Pro X

[Markabre]

My 2009 Mac Pro is seeing terrible corruption and artefacts when pushed hard in Final Cut Pro X for extended bouts (and once triggered it continues with the rest of OSX once the app has been closed)

It is my understanding that the Radeon 6870 is the fastest card you can add to the Mac Pro but is it FLAWLESS once flashed? Can I expect Final Cut Pro X to work well with it?

Anyone know if an XFX 6870 2GB card would work ok and would 2GB improve performance in Final Cut at all?

Thankyou.
(Please don't snark over FCPX, I actually think it's a great base on which they can build upon)

 

[ActionableMango]

I'd be surprised if anyone is willing to say a currently unsupported card is now and forever will be flawless. Anything can happen with an update in the future.

In any case, the 5870 is slightly faster than the 6870 in most benchmarks, and you can get an official Apple one if you want "flawless".

 

[Markabre]

Unfortunately the official card also costs over £200 more in the UK. I just need my Mac Pro to live a little longer until the iMac or Mac Pro get some Ivy Bridge love next year. £370 for an ancient card just hurts.

 

[derbothaus]

It is my understanding that the Radeon 6870 is the fastest card you can add to the Mac Pro but is it FLAWLESS once flashed?

The Radeon 5870 is faster by 10-20%. The 6870 is the low power tock version. The number is higher, the speed is not. The 6870 is much cheaper though. FYI.
Sorry for dupe info. Just saw action's post after the fact.

 

[ActionableMango]

Unfortunately the official card also costs over £200 more in the UK. I just need my Mac Pro to live a little longer until the iMac or Mac Pro get some Ivy Bridge love next year. £370 for an ancient card just hurts.

You asked for fastest and flawless.

With your new requirement of inexpensive that you did not mention before, I would say there is no such thing.

The 6870 is the closest, but not all of the ports work, the boot screen won't show up under all conditions, AND future updates may or may not cause problems. That's pretty damn good progress on the part of those who have made it happen, but you asked for "flawless" and I think you have to go with Apple cards for that.

 

[peskaa]

The 5870 is faster than the 6870 - AMD pulled a fast one with their branding on the current gen cards. However it's cheaper and uses less power.

My advice would be to get the 5770 from Apple or investigate the second hand market for one. It'll be 100% compatible, and for FCPX, won't make much difference.

 

[goMac]

£370 for an ancient card just hurts.

An "ancient" card that is faster and has the same capabilities as the 6870, yes.

The 6870 is really almost just a rebrand 5XXX series card. They really didn't do much at all with the 6XXX line.

 

[derbothaus]

...and for FCPX, won't make much difference.

That may be up for debate as FCPX uses OpenCL all over the place. If Apple did the drivers correctly you should see a big boost over 5770 with a 6870 or 5870.
All the tests I have seen do not use the same Mac and swap just the cards though. They were testing all different models so it is hard to gauge. Maybe another poster has better data to pull from.

 

[goMac]

That may be up for debate as FCPX uses OpenCL all over the place. If Apple did the drivers correctly you should see a big boost over 5770 with a 6870 or 5870.
All the tests I have seen do not use the same Mac and swap just the cards though. They were testing all different models so it is hard to gauge. Maybe another poster has better data to pull from.

Yeah, either the 5870 or 6870 will trounce the 5770 for FCPX. FCPX is very GPU optimized, using both OpenCL and OpenGL.

The 5870 has twice as many cores, which should put the speed boost somewhere in the ballpark of 2x.

 

[derbothaus]

The 5870 has twice as many cores, which should put the speed boost somewhere in the ballpark of 2x.

I like the math on that one.

 

[peskaa]

That may be up for debate as FCPX uses OpenCL all over the place. If Apple did the drivers correctly you should see a big boost over 5770 with a 6870 or 5870.
All the tests I have seen do not use the same Mac and swap just the cards though. They were testing all different models so it is hard to gauge. Maybe another poster has better data to pull from.

Yeah, either the 5870 or 6870 will trounce the 5770 for FCPX. FCPX is very GPU optimized, using both OpenCL and OpenGL.

The 5870 has twice as many cores, which should put the speed boost somewhere in the ballpark of 2x.

If that's true, then great! I've just had poor experiences with GPU upgrades doing very little in the past - but then I don't use FCPX.

However, if they're looking for a card to 'get by' on until new machines land, then it's hard to justify the added cost of a 5870 (possibly).

 

[goMac]

I like the math on that one.

OpenGL is a little more tricky to relate to number of cores, but in general, OpenCL should come pretty close to speeding up by the core count multiple.

 

[Igantius]

Unfortunately the official card also costs over £200 more in the UK. I just need my Mac Pro to live a little longer until the iMac or Mac Pro get some Ivy Bridge love next year. £370 for an ancient card just hurts.

If you know anyone who can buy through the HE Store, the 5870 is about £70cheaper but as you're going for sometime relatively short-term, the 6870 is the better deal as others have mentioned. Personally, I would go with the Black Edition.

 

[gmac39s]

Specs

OP.. please post your specs so others can respond.

I am running a MacPro 3.1 8GB Ram Dual monitor with a XFX 2GB 6870. It works pretty good so far for video editing. Haven't really used FCP X yet but AE, FCP 7, PPro CS 5.5 work as of now. I will be testing more in the coming days and will probably report back...

 

[Loa]

Hello,

I am running a MacPro 3.1 8GB Ram Dual monitor with a XFX 2GB 6870. It works pretty good so far

Have you flashed yours? And do you experience the fans revving up problem some ppl have reported over at netkas?

Thanks

Loa