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My First Mac Pro Upgrade: ATI HD 3870
By joe | October 30, 2008
What a welcomed upgrade and pleasant experience it was to replace my original video card with the ATI Radeon HD 3870. The original card I ordered with my Mac Pro, the ATI Radeon X1900 XT, was noisy and required significant cleaning on a regular basis. With all the horsepower I had in both the video card and the rest of the chassis (8 cores, 9GB RAM) it was surprising how often I had to stop and render in Apple Motion. After reading this review by Mark Spencer, recommending the HD 3870 specifically for improving Motion performance, I was on my way over to my favorite Mac accessory shop, Other World Computing, to order my upgrade.
The first surprise was the quick shipment, even at standard ground rates. From the time I ordered it, late Sunday evening (10/26) to when I received it yesterday, it was about three days. I have ordered from Other World Computing four times now, and each time I’ve been very happy with the shipment delivery and accuracy. If you’re in the market for a custom Mac, or upgrading your Mac, they have great search tools for your specific models. Not to mention, they have much better prices than the Apple Store for custom orders such as hard drives and memory.
The second surprise was the ease of installation. My first passion for workstations was for PCs. I became a Mac convert about 5 years ago. I have built many of my own computers, as well as for relatives and friends. Upgrading a PC is a chore, compared to a Mac. ATI is typically a major part of the chore on PC/Windows computers. I use a lot of ATI cards, since they often have the features/performance I seek. Whenever I’ve upgraded them on Windows, I’ve had to gut my operating system of any previous ATI drivers and install the new ones. If the new card you were installing had a lot of updates, you were really in for an evening of specific upgrade tasks and reboots. After all that, to have your desktop exactly as you it was before the upgrade…. you can almost hear the developers laughing at you.
On my Mac Pro, it was much different. The hardware installation time, was maybe 15-20 minutes, and I took my time. The software was probably installed and I was testing out the new card, in about 20 minutes. I rebooted one more time than I probably needed to, and also took my time. After all that time for installation, I was greeted with my desktop, icons and all, exactly where I left them. My screen resolutions were exactly right. It was almost like nothing changed. This is one of the reasons I tell people to get an Apple computer. Apple usually does the customer experience right, by making the process simple for everyday people, who would rather spend their time using their computer, instead of upgrading and patching it.
A welcomed change was the noticeable drop in fan noise with the HD 3870, as compared to the X1900 XT. At times the X1900 XT sounded as though the chassis might fly away. During Motion tests, I did notice a little more chassis fan noise with the HD 3870, but still nothing like the X1900 XT card. I’m not positive, but I believe all you can really hear now, are the chassis fans.
Performance appears to have improved with the few tests so far. Motion could play many my previous tutorial files without the play pausing, or jittery motion behaviors and camera movements. I’ll have to dig around for some complex projects to give it a good workout. Stay tuned for testing/satisfaction updates.
In the meantime, here are some shots of the existing X1900 XT and the new HD 3870 during installation…
The original X1900 XT
The new HD 3870
X1900 XT (top) and HD 3870 (bottom)
UPDATE: ATI HD 3870: The First 60 Days
Topics: customer service, technology | 5 Comments »
November 30th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
I can’t wait for Obama to end this dark period in history!
Where are the connections for the 3870 power cord. i.e. one to the hard drive and one to the power source? I can’t find either inside my mac pro. where should i look?
I am glad you are happy with your new video card.
thanks
Ray
November 30th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Hi Ray – the power connection is on the motherboad, under the left I/O card bracket. The HD 3870 should have come with the proper cable. If you had the X1900, the existing power cable will fit the HD 3870. Here’s a photo of the connection, copied from ATI’s manual on the software disk – http://tinyurl.com/5evs5k
October 21st, 2009 at 3:43 am
I just upgraded mine to a 3870 because my 2600XT failed on my. The fan noise is soo loud. Is there anything I can do to make it quieter?
Thanks,
Rob
October 21st, 2009 at 4:09 am
Hi Rob,
If the fan noise is too loud, and you replaced a recently failed card, perhaps you have another system fan that’s gone bad? There was a big drop in sound from the X1900 XT to the HD 3870 for me. So, if yours sounds too loud, it could mean that it’s fighting too much heat inside the case. It could also mean poor air flow (the computer isn’t getting enough fresh air to circulate through the case to cool it.
Check out iStat pro (http://islayer.com/apps/istatpro/). It has temp monitors you can use to keep an eye on your fans. Currently, my Mac Pro is still in the shop (long story sure to show up as a blog post soon), so I can’t check right now, but from what I recall – if you’re seeing CPU temps consistently over 180, and you’re not currently doing some heavy lifting, like motion graphics, then you may have a bad case or CPU fan. Heat rises, and the CPUs and memory are right beneath your video card.
That all being said, it could be perspective. A friend of mine had the 2600XT, and we used to swap stories about how much quieter his was than my upgraded X1900 XT. The stories mostly involved him teasing me – only I couldn’t hear them so well, since my fan was so loud.
December 1st, 2009 at 11:16 pm
hey joe…thanks a million…your post got me to where ATI’s directions couldn’t…