Mac Pro :: 4870 Or Better To Go 2x3870 In Crossfire?
Mar 3, 2009
It's no big secret that today Apple announced that the ATI 4870 will be available sometime in the near future for the new Mac Pros and some of the other recent models.
So the question is for those of us who are running a single 3870, is it worth dropping it for the 4870 or better to go 2x3870 in crossfire. This is more of a question geared towards Windows usage and not OSX since OSX doesn't support crossfire.
Just a couple of weeks ago I purchased the Mac/PC edition of the 3870 from OWC and added the Accelero passive cooler to it and it's working out well.
I was thinking about buying an additional 3870 to crossfire sometime in the relatively near future solely for the purpose of Windows gaming since you can get PC versions of the 3870 for so cheap.
I'm guessing the Mac edition of the 4870 is going to be pricey so would the dual 3870 option make more sense?
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Sep 5, 2010
I have a 2006 Mac Pro and I'm wondering if CrossFireX is possible on this system. Specifically with two 5770s.
My understanding is that CrossFireX requires two PCIe 2.0 16x slots. However, the 2006 Mac Pro only has PCIe 1.x slots, and with two cards, it's only possible to have its slots running at 8x. Does this prevent CrossFireX from working at all, or is it simply a case of it working fine but running at reduced performance?
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Feb 14, 2008
I have on order a Mac pro 8 core with all the goodies, stock video card is the 8800GTX. I would like to know if any of you have ever ran SLI or Crossfire?
I have heard several opinions on SLI and or Crossfire and know they are not supported in OSX, but has anyone successfully ran either in Bootcamp Windows? I would assume Crossfire is easier than SLI as SLI is chipset based but I heard a hacked driver exists.
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Mar 8, 2008
So because apple has done almost nothing about the 8800 GT being available for 'older' mac pro owners and almost nothing to live up to its claims that mac pros would be easily expandable, ive been thinking about alternatives a graphic card upgrade.
Currently I have 2 Geforce 7300 GTs, bridged with an ASUS Flex bridge, and overclocked. I get about 50-100 fps constantly in Counter Strike Source, and about 120-170 fps in UT 2004, both at resolutions of 1280x1024, 4X FSAA and maximum detail.
I'm becoming very tired of my small 19" LCD as im a graphic designer and am in the process of buying a 24" LCD which woud give me 19200x1200 resolution. This of course, would kill my geforce setup and drop my frame rates significantly.
Now, I've been thinking of upgrading but am not sure which video cards I should get...1900 XT or 2 X 2600 XT and overclocking them. Is the dual 2600 XT even an option? Can they be crossfired? Overclocked?
I've been playing half life 2 and am ready to move to half life 2 episode 2, but im fairly certain my video cards wont handle the game at the same settings i currently have. Of course, there are other games i would want to play but my limitations dont allow it, more importantly, at 1920x1200 resolutions after the monitor upgrade.
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Jun 25, 2008
Obviously only under windows, i could find on google any macpros with CrossFire. Anyone here managed it.
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Jul 2, 2008
Does anyone know if the 3870 comes with a crossfire bridge? And if it doesn't the pc version has one so why wouldnt the mac and pc one not have one?
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Jul 5, 2008
I have finaly got my 2 3870's but I haven't had time to install it, and am on a trip at the moment, someone told me that if you run 2 3870's in crysis it doesn't make a difference.Has any one tried to run crossfire in crysis yet?
Also do you have to download a program to start crossfire or does it just work?
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Feb 27, 2009
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This is a cool video check it out and tell us what you think
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Apr 9, 2009
It seems that with this technology and with Snow Leopard coming out that this should be a no brainer. However, the recent refresh has shown little signs of picking this up. The Mac Pro has had multi gpu options for a while so nothing new there, but the iMac didn't get anything in the way of multi GPUs. So with the Mac Pro and the MBPro having multi GPUs, it may just be that their saving it for their pro line.
Since Snow Leopard is supposed to bring about OpenCL which will use the GPU, why have we heard nothing about SLI or Crossfire? These would greatly benefit the system. It seems to me that Apple could benefit greatly from using this technology, not just for the OS, but for a better hardware position.
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Nov 19, 2010
I have two Apple 5870s on hand, a modular power supply on order as well as a crossfire bridge connector. I am taking it upon myself to rearrange the mac pro with two 5870s and test whether or not crossfire will work under Windows 7.
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Jul 7, 2008
Has anyone put in 2 of the 3870's and also left in their 2600 to use it as a physics accelator? I am thinking about getting 2x3870's to replace my 8800GT, but not sure it is worth the money yet.
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Nov 2, 2008
What would be better for gaming under bootcamp?
8800gt vs 2 3870 crossfire
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Sep 3, 2008
I want to use dual 3870 Crossfire in Boot Camp Windows and not have OS X choke.Note I am NOT asking to have Crossfire work in OS X, I just want OS X to use one of the cards while both work when booted into Windows.
Does anybody know, on a Jan08 Mac Pro Xeon, if I install dual 3870 cards with the Crossfire jumper connected, will OS X ignore the jumper and work properly on a single card?
I already have workarounds for power connections.
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Jun 15, 2009
The limitation for getting a 4870x2 working in OSX seems to be the lack of crossfire support. Crossfire is available in Linux and BSD, though I'm not sure to what extent and how well. So serious question time: What will it take to get crossfire working in OSX with the goal of running a 4870x2??? Seems to me it should be possible, I just don't know how.
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Mar 17, 2009
i have a smartdisk (now verbatim) crossfire xf 250 standalone hard disk that i use to back up g3 and a g4 mac ibooks. although the disk reports, when i check via "get info," that it has 98 gbytes of free space, and shows thousands of files that have been copied to it, i cannot copy more files to this disk - i get the message that the disk is full.
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Sep 21, 2009
Can a 06 Mac Pro run it?
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Jul 27, 2008
Has anyone tested this scenario? Since PC versions of the 3870 are cheaper than the PC+Mac version, I was wondering if I'd be able to crossfire the PC+Mac version, and a regular PC version. (Obviously I'd only be looking to run Crossfire on the Windows side.) Would this setup cause problems with either the OS X or Windows side? BTW, I've got the 2008 Mac Pro with 2 PCI-E x16 slots.
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Oct 6, 2008
Just bought a couple weeks ago, 2.8ghz 8-core Mac Pro. My only complaint is the wimpy 2600 XT that it came with.
I know I could put in the 3870 or 8800GT but that would be a step down from my windows pc that I just switched from, which was running 4850.
I've heard the rumors that Mac will soon support the 4800 series ATI cards but my question is will the card work on my current Mac Pro or would this upgrade only be for the new Mac Pros that everyone is guessing will come out in January?
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Jun 10, 2009
When I say I'd want the power of the 4870, I mostly mean gaming with that card. Now that I've typed this out, it sounds less and less like it would work.
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Aug 23, 2009
I need some help getting some facts straight. I am considering upgrading from the 4870 to the 285. It's a fine idea except that the 285 is very expensive, but at least I could try and sell the 4870 and maybe get $300CAD for it. Then I thought, what about just getting a second 4870 and crossfiring them?
I have read through a good 3 or 4 threads on these forums about powering the second card, flashing PC cards and working with crossfire... that was a freaking long 3 hours of reading non-stop.
So I have these questions which I hope someone here can answer with reasonable certainty.
1) When doing crossfire, do the cards have to be very similar for them to work? If 1 card is 512 and the other 1GB will there be any advantage over just getting a card with 512?
2) If other cards of the same family work, would a crossfiring of the apple 4870 with a 4870X2 perform similar to 3 X 4870 in crossfire?
3) Could someone explain the cables and/or hardware needed to power the second card from the second optical drive slot? I think the best way to go is 1 cable from each card to the regular spot and 1 cable from each card going to the same connector in the optical bay.
4) Apparently 2 X apple 4870s don't work with crossfire. But does this apply to combining an apple 4870 with an unflashed PC 4870?
5) I thought I read about some attempts to modify the ROM of the apple card to enable crossfire with some success. Is that true and if so where is this ROM and does it negatively impact the apple 4870 in OSX?
6) If have read in the past (I think with the PC 3870s) that if you connect a second unflashed card to an apple card with the crossfire link that the card behaves in OSX (doesn't spin it's fans wildly). I don't need it to do anything in OSX except not blow up, I only care about it working in windows. I'd like to avoid flashing the PC card if I can.
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Feb 22, 2010
guys would a flashed 4870 from this tutorial
[URL]
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Apr 7, 2010
I just bought a 4870 for my Mac Pro 1,1. Is there any advantage to keeping the 7300 GT in there, or disadvantage? It does give me a few more DVI outs if I add a third monitor, I guess. What about Aperture or other apps that use the video card - my guess is that it doesn't add anything, but I don't know.
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May 6, 2010
I just installed an ATI 4870 into my 2008 Mac Pro, I need a second power cable to connect the card to the logic board, does anyone know exactly what cable I have to order?
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Jul 27, 2010
Shew... I currently have the 4870 and am looking to upgrade to the 5870 for two reason:
1. I have duel ACD and need the dual mini display
2. I am an avid After Effects guru and need all the punch I can get (yes i know the QaudroFX, but it's just not worth it and they never update them).
How do you all think they will compare performance for price? Any early reviews comparing them both on the PC at least?
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Mar 7, 2009
Is it possible, I'm considering buying the new Pro, but I just want to know whether I could install more than one Ati 4870 HD graphics card
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Mar 19, 2009
Does anyone game on a Mac Pro with an ATI Radeon HD 4870? How is the performance? Can it play most games? I'd be gaming at 1920x1200.
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Mar 30, 2009
Ever since the 3870 came out last year, I've been waiting to see if anyone was able to dump the ROM from the Mac version and flash a PC version with it. But it seems no one was able to do it.
How come suddenly everyone and their brother is now able to flash the PC 4870? Anyone know what the differences between the two are, that would prevent the 3870 from being flashed successfully?
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Jul 17, 2009
I have a 2009 - Mac Pro 8 Core with a 4870 Video Card. I know this card uses both the six pin power plugs. I want to add a ATi 2600 Xt card to be able to drive a third monitor and Wacom Cintiq tablet.
Will there be any problems doing this? Does the 2600 just plug into the PCI slot and fire right up? Do I have to adjust the card from 16 to 8?
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Aug 15, 2009
I had wanted to get a dual 2.66 with the ATI 4870 card. A client ordered it with the Geo 120. One option seems to be to buy an upgrade so here are my questions: 1. Is there anything I can do with the GEO 120? If I leave it in, will it do anything useful? When you have more than one card in, is their a "primary card"? How does the computer know? 2. If I buy another card, should I buy the ATI 4870 or the GTX 285? I've been reading about the 285 here. Will installing either of these cards void my warranty and/or AppleCare? There seems to be a question as to whether the 285 is "supported" by Apple, whatever that means. I do a lot of Photoshop editing and some video -- that's why I wanted the ATI. Suggestions as to what to do will be greatly appreciated.
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Sep 5, 2009
Does anybody have a working ROM for this MSI 4870 1gb card (T2D1G)? I have already tried combining a "fanfix-implemented" pc bios with the apple ROM using pipomolo42's script, and then flashing it with atitool. The card seems to have been bricked in the process, after the restart command, the (early 2008) Mac Pro have begun chiming constantly, apparently stuck in a POST-loop. I have been unable to boot while the 4870 is put in (only after disconnecting all 2 power cables, although the fan spins on 100%).
Does this mean the card is paperweight, or is it reflashable in a PC (unfortunately i only have the Mac Pro right now)? Alternatively, can i reflash it without the power cables? I suppose atiflash wouldn't even recognise it.. (i couldn't test this, the bootable CD i wrote appears to have ceased working after the initial flashing, even without the 4870 put in) If the card is reflashable, and someone has a working ROM
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