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So, does 7950 work out of the box?

M

MaxHarryson

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 23, 2011
28
0
Hey! Im running a Mac Pro 2008, 8x2,8, 4 gigs ram and 8800gt for OSX and 6870 for windows.

I realized that I am in need of a PC for gaming. However i will keep the MP for music production in Logic.

The card I want for my gaming pc is 7950, and a quick google search mentioned something about it working in 10.8.3. I saw alot of threads talking about it but i couldnt understand most of it.

Does it work? In that case i will buy the card now and the rest of the PC later.
If it doesnt, is there alot of work making it work or is it something the somewhat avarage joe could pull off?

Edit:
Or does it only work if i boot it up in windows?
 
Last edited:
MaxHarryson said:
Does it work? In that case i will buy the card now and the rest of the PC later.
If it doesnt, is there alot of work making it work or is it something the somewhat avarage joe could pull off?

Edit:
Or does it only work if i boot it up in windows?
Click to expand...

I'm running a 2010 5,1 Mac Pro and I purchased an XFX 7950 and popped it in and besides not having a boot screen in works perfectly. I see a very nice increase in performance in X-Plane which is really the only app that I use that would benefit from a better GPU. Hope that helps...
 
Since 10.8.3 is in beta, maybe the best thing to do is wait for it to be officially released and see if the card still work before buying ?
 
Gonna give this thread one last bump and ask: Any brands to stay away from when buying a 7950 ?
 
MaxHarryson said:
Gonna give this thread one last bump and ask: Any brands to stay away from when buying a 7950 ?
Click to expand...

I'd stick with a reference board design: 1 DL-DVI, 2-MDP, 1 HDMI to be safe. They are usually stamped with the AMD logo. Asus is known to design their own board so may be worth avoiding. I'd also avoid single fan solutions.

XFX has a lifetime warranty, Gigabyte has a quiet 3 Fan solution. YMMV
 
akadmon said:
So are you saying it does not work with the latest official version of OSX (10.8.2)? As far as I know, 10.8.3 has not been released.
Click to expand...

10.8.3 is supposedly going to bring a ton of AMD Radeon HD 7xxx drivers along with it. This is likely why a 10.8.3 beta at minimum is required.
 
scottrichardson said:
Does the 7970 work just as easily? Or does it require additional power supply?

Does the 7950 literally just 'slot into' a 2009 Mac Pro?
Click to expand...

Look at card page for power min, some 7970 requires 2 8 pin vs only 2 6 pin in the MP. User in these forums used an 7970 that had 1 8 pin and 1 6 pin and is reporting no issues, but forum experts advise against it fearing damaging the MP motherboard.
 
I just tried putting a 6970 (also 1-6 pin and 1-8 pin) into a 2008 MP and the card whined loud N long (didn't even know it had a speaker) and would not show itself to the OS.
The other 2 pins are just ground so I'm whipping up a cable that will provide the extra 2 pins out to a molex (CD/HD) power connector for the extra ground.
Testing on a normal PC shows the hybrid cable works, no whine and the card powers up fine, will be testing on the MP tonight.
 
The drivers are looking fully baked.
 

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