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Apple to Offer ATI Radeon HD 5870 Card for 2009 Mac Pro

Monday August 9, 2010 3:04 am PDT by Arnold Kim

When Apple announced the new 2010 Mac Pros, they finally added support for two new ATI Radeon HD graphics cards for the Mac Pro. The new Mac Pros can be configured with either the ATI Radeon HD 5770 or 5870 cards. Existing Mac Pro owners had been hopeful that they would be able to easily upgrade their existing Mac Pros to these same cards.

Apple has finally started listing the standalone graphics card upgrade kits on their website, but it doesn't appear to offer existing Mac Pro users many new options.

$249. ATI Radeon HD 5770 - Only compatible with the Mid 2010 Mac Pro
$449. ATI Radeon HD 5870 Upgrade Kit - Only compatible with Mid 2010 and Early 2009 Mac Pros

The 5770 part is essentially a replacement part for the newly shipping Mac Pros and apparently does not officially offer an upgrade path to existing Mac Pro owners. Meanwhile, the 5870 card (which isn't shipping yet) does offer an upgrade path, but only for 2009 Mac Pro owners.

Apple still offers the ATI Radeon HD 4870 as an upgrade option for both 2009 and 2008 Mac Pros. The 4870, however, remains priced at $349 but is said to offer similar performance as the 5770 card.
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ventro
20 months ago
5770 ($249): http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC742ZM/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY (requires '10)
5870 ($449): http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC743ZM/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY (requires '09 or '10)
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Courthold
20 months ago
Hmm, the 5870 is only labelled as early 2009/late 2010 - is there any reason this won't work on a 2008 model (3,1) as well?

They're specifying the memory speed on that page (e.g. Early 2009 with 1066MHz DDR3 memory) - is that because this is a requirement of some sort, or just for identification purposes?
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ventro
20 months ago
Note that the requirements for the 5770 are a 2010 mac pro or higher, and the requirements for the 5870 are a 2009 mac pro or higher. What's up with that? Are us 2008 owners out of luck?
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bilbo--baggins
20 months ago
Not only that, but the 4870 hasn't reduced in price at all.
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iWolf00
20 months ago
I am really surprised since the ATI 5870 is not available for 2008 and disturbed since ATI 5770 is available for 2010; Does that mean Apple may stop supporting my 2009 MP's GPU next year?? I am sure there would angry 2008 model Mob.

Amazingly, the mac pro 2010 supports 2 ATI 5770; Is that sign that MP will support SLI or Crossfire in the future? :D
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-SD-
20 months ago
The UK store has the 5870 listed for £369, and the 5770 for £199. The 4870 is still £286 though.

:apple:
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peskaa
20 months ago
Grr, I want to order a 5870 but the UK store is showing as unavailable.
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iWolf00
20 months ago
When will apple release the ATI HD 5870 upgrade? do you think its price is fair in comparison with one that work in Win?
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bilbo--baggins
20 months ago
Before these went up people seemed certain they would work on the 2008 Mac Pros. Could this still be the case, despite the Apple Store saying only for 2009 and 2010 models?
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peskaa
20 months ago

When will apple release the ATI HD 5870 upgrade? do you think its price is fair in comparison with one that work in Win?


Price is pretty fair to be honest. 5870s are about £330 for a stock model on average.
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