1. Ati Radeon Hd 3870 Mac Driver Download

Click to expand.Radeon HD 4870 has 1.2 TFLOPS of compute potential (800 execution units. 2 flops/unit (for a multiply-add). 750MHz), but in the vast majority of cases we'll look at, NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 280 with 933.12 GFLOPS ((240 SPs. N52te software download.

2 flops/unit (for multiply-add) + 60 SFUs. 4 flops/unit (when doing 4 scalar muls paired with MADs run on SPs)). 1296MHz) is the top performer. The Radeon HD 4870 is not only based on an efficient architecture (both in terms of performance per area and per watt), it is an excellent buy as well. Of course we have to put out the usual disclaimer of 'it depends on the benchmark you care about,' but in our testing we definitely saw this $300 part perform at the level of NVIDIA's $400 GT200 variant, the GTX 260. Click to expand.One big problem is there are no GPGPU programs for Macs. AppleInsider thinks that Nvidia working on first GPGPUs for Apple Macs.

'The technology - in Nvidia's case - leverages a proprietary architecture called CUDA, which is short for Compute Unified Device Architecture. It's currently compatible with the company's new GeForce 8 Series of graphics cards, allowing developers to use the C programming language to write algorithms for execution on the GPU.

GPGPUs have proven most beneficial in applications requiring intense number crunching, examples of which include high-performance computer clusters, raytracing, scientific computing applications, database operations, cryptography, physics-based simulation engines, and video, audio and digital image processing. It's likely that the first Mac-comptaible GPGPUs would turn up as build-to-order options for Apple's Mac Pro workstations due to their ability to aid digital video and audio professionals in sound effects processing, video decoding and post processing. Precisely when those cards will crop up is unclear, though Nividia through its Santa Clara, Calif.-based offices this week put out an urgent call for a full time staffer to help design and implement kernel level Mac OS X drivers for the cards. Programs based on the CUDA architecture can not only tap its 3D performance but also repurpose the shader processors for advanced math.

The massively parallel nature leads to tremendous gains in performance compared to regular CPUs, NVIDIA claims. In science applications, calculations have seen speed boosts from a 45 times to as much as 415 times in processing MRI scans for hospitals. Increases such as this can mean the difference between using a single system and a whole computer cluster to do the same work, the company says.' One big problem is there are no GPGPU programs for Macs.

AppleInsider thinks that Nvidia working on first GPGPUs for Apple Macs. 'The technology - in Nvidia's case - leverages a proprietary architecture called CUDA, which is short for Compute Unified Device Architecture. It's currently compatible with the company's new GeForce 8 Series of graphics cards, allowing developers to use the C programming language to write algorithms for execution on the GPU.

GPGPUs have proven most beneficial in applications requiring intense number crunching, examples of which include high-performance computer clusters, raytracing, scientific computing applications, database operations, cryptography, physics-based simulation engines, and video, audio and digital image processing. It's likely that the first Mac-comptaible GPGPUs would turn up as build-to-order options for Apple's Mac Pro workstations due to their ability to aid digital video and audio professionals in sound effects processing, video decoding and post processing.

Precisely when those cards will crop up is unclear, though Nividia through its Santa Clara, Calif.-based offices this week put out an urgent call for a full time staffer to help design and implement kernel level Mac OS X drivers for the cards. Programs based on the CUDA architecture can not only tap its 3D performance but also repurpose the shader processors for advanced math. The massively parallel nature leads to tremendous gains in performance compared to regular CPUs, NVIDIA claims. In science applications, calculations have seen speed boosts from a 45 times to as much as 415 times in processing MRI scans for hospitals. Increases such as this can mean the difference between using a single system and a whole computer cluster to do the same work, the company says.' While I'm as disappointed as everybody else that the 8800 GT is not faster like I'd hoped it would be with Core Image tasks (and the fact that I paid more for it!), I will say there's one thing I like about it more than the 3870 - it's a single slot design.

Potentially an issue if you'd prefer your card to run cooler, but I was eventually going to put three more PCIe cards in the mac pro (Have one additional, for eSATA already). If I get the desk space to move up to 3 monitors, I was thinking of getting the 3870 and using that as the primary card, but that doesn't seem like a possibility at this point if I'm going to have four cards in there. Maybe the 48xx series will have a mac edition in a single-slot design at some point, but until then it looks like I may just get a 2900 on the cheap if I go above two monitors. Anybody else with similar thoughts? While I'm as disappointed as everybody else that the 8800 GT is not faster like I'd hoped it would be with Core Image tasks (and the fact that I paid more for it!), I will say there's one thing I like about it more than the 3870 - it's a single slot design. Potentially an issue if you'd prefer your card to run cooler, but I was eventually going to put three more PCIe cards in the mac pro (Have one additional, for eSATA already).

If I get the desk space to move up to 3 monitors, I was thinking of getting the 3870 and using that as the primary card, but that doesn't seem like a possibility at this point if I'm going to have four cards in there. Maybe the 48xx series will have a mac edition in a single-slot design at some point, but until then it looks like I may just get a 2900 on the cheap if I go above two monitors. Anybody else with similar thoughts?

So when exactly is the 3870 coming for the Mac??? The most important question is of course: will there be support for the 3870x2 also (by some means)? Its like the same thing with 2 chips on board, so it should work with some editing/flashing, right?

I really need a powerful graphics card expansion for BOTH osx and win kind of urgently, and i am planning on buying a PC 3870 version and later, when the mac edition comes out, flash it. If the 3870x2 works too after this, buy one and crossfire them in windows. If not, buy another 3870 as two of those still perform a lot better than ONE 8800gt (in windows, of course). Fans blowing on max when working in os x is of course unacceptable for me (i can manage with the PC card for some weeks, until the mac edition comes out, i hope), so i am thinking about some native drivers here.

Do we have any info about these things? Is this a good strategy? If so, what kind of PC 3870 card should i get, what should i pay attention to?

ROM size,etc?! So when exactly is the 3870 coming for the Mac??? The most important question is of course: will there be support for the 3870x2 also (by some means)? Its like the same thing with 2 chips on board, so it should work with some editing/flashing, right?

I really need a powerful graphics card expansion for BOTH osx and win kind of urgently, and i am planning on buying a PC 3870 version and later, when the mac edition comes out, flash it. If the 3870x2 works too after this, buy one and crossfire them in windows. If not, buy another 3870 as two of those still perform a lot better than ONE 8800gt (in windows, of course). Fans blowing on max when working in os x is of course unacceptable for me (i can manage with the PC card for some weeks, until the mac edition comes out, i hope), so i am thinking about some native drivers here. Do we have any info about these things? Is this a good strategy?

If so, what kind of PC 3870 card should i get, what should i pay attention to? ROM size,etc?! Click to expand.The 3870 X2 works in Windows because it uses Crossfire technology on one board, something OS X lacks. Unless ATI and Apple team up to make a Crossfire driver, the X2 wouldn't bring any benefit. That's not an easy task, and I doubt it'll come any time soon. Retailers taking preorders fo the 3870 Mac and PC edition are saying shipments are coming sometime next week.

We still don't know the exact info on the ROM size and such, so I'd take the safe route and wait just a little bit longer. And I'm with you on the dual 3870s. Even though Crossfire isn't an option in OS X, it'll certainly work if you game in Windows on your Mac Pro, which is a pretty good gaming option.

Ati Radeon Hd 3870 Mac Driver Download

AMD made a late announcement on Thursday expanding its lineup. The ATI-branded Radeon HD 3870 for Mac & PC is AMD's first 3000-series card for Macs and also one of the first to explicitly support more than one platform: users can install the card now in either a Mac Pro tower or a Windows PC and swap it to the other platform later, including for Boot Camp. As a new-generation part, the new chipset has twice as much performance per watt as the outgoing Radeon HD 2900 XT, the company claims. AMD's card is virtually equal to the Windows-only edition with 320 stream (pixel and vertex) processors, improved power use, and support for newer graphics shader effects either in DirectX 10.1 when in Windows or OpenGL 2.0 in OS X and other environments. For connections, the new Radeon HD board is built to outpace Apple's own offerings with both dual-link DVI ports that handle 30-inch displays as well as an S-video jack for analog video from TVs.

AMD is shipping the card by the end of June in a 512MB version for $219 and expects it to be available at a number of Mac resellers.