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So I decided to upgrade my video card in my Mac Pro that's been rocking an AMD HD 5870 since day one. After reading through many articles, I decided to head on over to and grab the HD 7970. The upgrade was uneventful and required no drivers, OS patches or other such non-sense (one of the reasons I selected this card, and this vendor). The cards from this vendor cost a bit more than average but you get what you pay for.
The vendor flashes the card with the Mac-EFI so there are boot screens, next the card is modified to allow 5.0 GT/s of memory bandwidth rather than the default 2.5 GT/s. Says the card is modified to work with the Mac's 2 six-pin PCIe power booster cables. I don't know if there was actually any modification done for the boosters but it apparently works fine OOTB. Next, the vendor thoroughly tests the card for problems before shipping. The card arrived quickly and was very well packaged, it even i ncluded 2 surplus booster cables for older Macs that dont already have them.
Radeon Hd 7970 3gb Vram
If you don't know how to install the card, complete instructions and photographs are on the store website. After testing the card for several days, this feels like a very solid upgrade and a massive speed bump for users of FCPX. If you purchase a new Mac Pro cylinder and opt for the top of the line video cards (D700), you will have the same card (HD 7970) but in a different form factor. Also this card has a higher clock rate than the D700 cards. I highly recommend this vendor and this card (especially if you use FCPX). It's a great upgrade at a fair price.
Earlier this month, we that developer builds of OS X 10.7.3 were showing evidence of AMD's forthcoming 'Tahiti' graphics card family, the first to be built using 28-nanometer technology. The evidence suggested that Apple was at least preparing for the possibility of the cards being used in a Mac Pro update next year, an update that is reportedly still in question given about the future of the line. In the wake of those findings, AMD today the high-end Radeon HD 7970 from the Tahiti line, billing it as the world's fastest single-chip graphics card. With the arrival of the AMD Radeon HD 7970, AMD has unleashed its revolutionary new Graphics Core Next Architecture that enables new levels of gaming and compute capabilities – realizing an improvement of over 150% in performance/sq mm over the prior generation. Engineered with support for PCI Express 3.0 and AMD CrossFire technology, the AMD Radeon HD 7970 graphics card arrives prepared for the next level of gaming. Engadget has a nice of the new card, with testers generally reporting significantly improved performance over the current generation of equivalent AMD cards and other high-end competitors such as NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 580.
On the negative side, reviews cited the card's $549 price tag and significant noise under high load. The Radeon HD 7970 will launch on January 9th, and AMD is also reported to be preparing to launch a slightly scaled-down model in the form of a Radeon HD 7950 card. With new from Intel launching in the first quarter of 2012 and AMD's new graphics card offerings lining up for a January launch, parts do appear to be coming together for a significant upgrade for the Mac Pro, which has not been updated since July 2010.
What remains to be seen is whether Apple will continue to invest in its professional-level workstation line. Tired of eating leftovers?
Get a PC.;) Not sure why you're being voted down. But yes, I'm agree with you in case of a MacPro. Being updated on super super slow phase, MacPro is a dish served cold.
It takes longer and longer for Apple to update the line. While something like Macbook Pro can get 2 updates (major & minor spec bump) in 2011. Even Macbook Air get updated in less than 1 year since 2010! It's only fair for Apple to keep MacPro line updated, even subtly. Why not silently including 6970 desktop GPU on 2011 MacPro?
Keeping the same price tag for 2 years old hardware is just fishy. So yes, if I really need a 'Pro' workstation today, I'd get a PC instead. Vote me down you blind fanboys!! To all those who seem to think Mac gamers are idiots: you should realize that many of us don't primarily buy our Mac for gaming.
We buy it for general use, work, etc., and then do some gaming on the side. A lot of people aren't interested in Windows and wouldn't want to move to a PC just for gaming, and I don't blame them. I've got myself a base 2011 iMac and I game on it all the time in Windows 7.
It's a great machine with a great form factor and an even better price. I'm saving to build my own gaming rig because I want MOAR POWA but it still does game well. It's just such a shame that Apple has given up any interest in offering normal consumers any computer in their range to take these things. It's either a giant laptop on a stand (iMac) with a mobile chipset, or a Mac Pro at the other extream outside most budgets, and at a price point no one will really develop mass market entertainment software to support, given it's price. I wonder if Apple will ever make a 'Proper' home computer again like it used to? I hope they do as I'm sure it would sell really well. While I agree with your sentiment, I suspect most 'normal' consumers never upgrade their graphics cards.
I imagine they use their computers until they break or are no longer 'fast enough' for whatever reason (not enough memory, spyware, viruses, graphics card, etc.). Then they just buy a new one. Remember, the fact that we're on this board suggests we're not normal consumers. As much as I would love a graphics card swappable iMac or iMac equivalent (or the much sought-after xMac), I suspect most users would never use the feature. At least, not enough to justify the inherent costs to Apple.
Thunderbolt is not something to be added to a display card. It has to be attached to the motherboard chipset, since Thunderbolt is a PCI-Express lane.
Amd Radeon Hd 7950 3gb Video Card For Apple Mac Pro
It might have DisplayPort, but no one has answered that yet.The reference HD 7970 does have two Mini-DisplayPort outputs. I am sure you could place the Thunderbolt controller on the video card but that sounds like a pain to make a custom PCB and split the PCIe lanes onboard. Thunderbolt on the Mac Pro is probably the #2 subject of discussion after the new Sandy Bridge-E processors at #1.
Sorry guys you can say how great your Mac is and how much better it is than a PC. Nope, sorry, go to jail and don't pass go. Sure they're great for some things but when it comes to gaming it just can't hold a candle to a PC. PLUS why are all you guys running horrid windows on your mac? I always love when you talk crap about PC's yet mirror windows on your machine.
IF it was so great you wouldn't need to run windows. Sorry, but I never said Mac is better then a PC and I still like windows. I can have the best of many worlds. Gaming, boot to windows, video editing boot to Mac, development boot to Linux. Seems like a win/win/win situation to me.