AMD Radeon HD 6870 2GB

[Bloodklot]

Has anyone used this card in their Mac Pro with any success? I have a Mac Pro 3,1 2008 and was looking for a card. I have an NVIDIA GTX 285 and was looking for deals on ATI 5870 when I came across this card which he says is completely compatible with my gen Mac Pro. I assume it's pre-flashed. I was wondering if anyone had any comments or success with flashed ATI 6870 2 GB card? When I looked at comments for this card on Newegg, they complained of the loud noise.

Oops here's the ebay link

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-AMD-Rad...o_TV_Cards&hash=item20bcd1c7c5#ht_3266wt_1289

 

[pigoo3]

...he says is completely compatible with my gen Mac Pro.

Who is he?

If there are random thoughts whizzing thru the gray-matter when posting...they need to be included in the post for us to understand!

- Nick

 

[Bloodklot]

yeah i re-edited the post right before you posted.

 

[Bloodklot]

I guess a better question is, what card is compatible with Mac Pro (3,1) and Lion without flash hacking the card? I read around and heard that Lion is compatible with all GTX 5xx cards? I just wanna upgrade my GTX 285 with a more powerful and cheaper PC card without all the fuss.

 

[pigoo3]

yeah i re-edited the post right before you posted.

The edit really doesn't explain who "he" is...but it's probably not important.

The AMD Radeon HD 6870 is not a video card that was ever available in a "Macintosh" version for a Mac Pro. Therefore...any one of these cards said to run on a Mac Pro will have to have been flashed...and as you may know...flashed video cards can have various levels of compatibility.

Not many folks have Mac Pro's...even far fewer will "experiment" with flashed video cards. To "slice" things thinner...of the folks that own Mac Pro's, are willing to experiment with flashed video cards...far fewer have done it with a Radeon 6870.

I'm afraid that when "diving into these waters"...you may have to go this one alone. Meaning...you may have to purchase the flashed card, install it, and then find out how compatible it is with a 2008 Mac Pro.

Good luck,

- Nick

 

[pigoo3]

I guess a better question is, what card is compatible with Mac Pro (3,1) and Lion without flash hacking the card?

Not really a lot. Two cards that are compatible are the Radeon 5770 & 5870.

With the various Mac Pro models...it can be a tricky project finding compatible video cards.

Here's some additional info:

What graphics cards are available for the Mac Pro? Which models have which ports? @ EveryMac.com

- Nick

 

[pigoo3]

I just wanna upgrade my GTX 285 with a more powerful and cheaper PC card without all the fuss.

Don't we all! But this is many times easier said than done!

- Nick

 

[Nethfel]

Ok - first of all - it will work with a Mac Pro. I had a AMD Radeon 6870 w/ flashed bios in my Mac Pro for several months before I decided to retire the system. The video card works fine EXCEPT you have to know it doesn't give PCIe 2.0 speeds. Also, the flashed version will give the gray boot screen (allowing you to optionally boot to windows or OSX on a dual boot machine) when a monitor is connected to the DVI port. The non-flashed version should work (reports have been found of it working with Lion and Mountain Lion) except you will not get the boot gray screen (although I had read in once place where ML changed that, but I can't confirm this report).

The fan on the card is louder then the 8800gt I had in my Mac Pro. I never tested it with DVD Player (some people had reported issues with the DVD Player app) but never had problems in my other apps (games, FCPX, handbrake, safari, etc.)

The card also worked awesomely in Windows for gaming. It was a little low on performance compared to official benchmarks but I figure that was due

You can see in the attachment my novabench results with the card in it.

There was one other flaw, but it's a flaw with Lion more then the card (it's a flaw that was reported on Apple's boards with regard to the AMD card in the 27" iMac's that also affects this card) - with the card in (at least as of 10.7.3, I think of the problem was on 7.4 as well, I just don't remember if I tested it), on a fresh boot it works flawlessly. If you let the computer go to sleep for an extended time (a minute isn't long enough as there is enough residual charge to keep settings in place, I don't remember what the minimum time was but I remember experiencing it after like 10 minutes or so of sleep) and wake it up you'll find the gpu performance has dropped dramatically. Some people had success with just changing resolutions to get everything to reset, I had to actually reboot my system and eventually just stopped it from ever sleeping. I don't know if this issue was fixed in Mountain Lion. Here's just one thread on the subject at Apple : https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3203487?start=0&tstart=0

Here's a link to someone who put (I believe non-flashed) version of a 6870 in a Early 2008 Mac Pro: How to install a 6870 Video Card into a Early 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 running MacOS X Lion or earlier release.

 

[pigoo3]

Ok - first of all - it will work with a Mac Pro. I had a AMD Radeon 6870 w/ flashed bios in my Mac Pro for several months before I decided to retire the system.

Wow...you're one of the rare folks with this setup!

- Nick

 

[Bloodklot]

The edit really doesn't explain who "he" is...but it's probably not important.

Lol yeah i was just referring to the Seller on Ebay.

 

[Bloodklot]

Thanks for the info Nethfel!

 

[Nethfel]

Wow...you're one of the rare folks with this setup!

- Nick

ROFLMAO Yeah, I have some interesting stuff to use with my Macs Although I'd love to be an ultra rare with the 6870, it's actually more common then you'd think - I'm probably just one of the few that have actually used it and admitted to it here

 

[Bloodklot]

Although I'd love to be an ultra rare with the 6870...

I thought you were ultra rare with the 6870 before you "retired the system" Does this mean it only worked for a little while? lol

 

[Nethfel]

Haha no it was working fine - the system itself was showing its age with some of the stuff I was doing, plus a bank of ram had failed so I was down to 6 gig of ram and it's not cheap to replace ram in the Mac pro of that vintage. And it was expensive in terms of power compared to the MacBook pro and thunderbolt display I'm using now .

The only thing that bothered me with that card was the noise - it was louder then I really wanted when in use. On the windows side I used an application to change the fan characteristics while in windows (it shoots up to 100% fan speed sooner then it should) which made it much more enjoyable while in windows but I never could find a utility like that for osx. I also don't know if the fan speed was an issue for the model of 6870 I had or the modified firmware it had.

 

[waveshell]

Amd hd 7870 2gb

Following up on this thread...

I also have the Mac Pro 2008, and I'm starting to see flickering green pixels, sometimes as a long green line, when working in Lightroom - Which gives me the indication that my Nvidia 8800GT is failing on me (for the second time! Already had one replaced two years ago). So I'm pretty much in the line of upgrading the graphics card. Instead of getting the 6870 I'm wondering if the ASUS Radeon HD 7870 will work in Lion or any other up-to-date graphics card, does anyone know..?

Many thanks in advance.