Based on 43,473 user benchmarks for the AMD HD 7850 and the Radeon HD 6470M, we rank them both on effective speed and value for money against the best 639 GPUs. I ordered this graphic card for my Mac Pro (early 2008) because the original graphic card was no longer able to keep up the demands of current software like Apple's Motion or Final Cut Pro. I needed an OpenCL-capable graphics card or Intel HD Graphics 3000 or later. The original ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT couldn't cut the mustard for my current needs. AMD Radeon™ HD 7850 Previous Drivers. Share this page. AMD Radeon™ HD 7850 Previous Drivers. Drivers and Software. Compatible with AMD Radeon™ R9 285, 290, 290X, 380, 390, 390X, R7 260, 260X, 360, R9 Fury series, and Radeon RX 400 series products with Windows® 7/8.1/10. Feature is not available worldwide and may not be available in.
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PART ONE: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 versus other Mac Pro GPUs
Posted Tuesday, March 19th, 2013 by rob-ART morgan, mad scientist Correction on Compatibility (March 20th) -- See red text under Recommendation
Finally! After three years, a new 'blessed' GPU for the Mac Pro running OS X: the Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition. I'm sure it has piqued the curiosity of every Mac Pro owner wishing for a faster GPU. So how fast is it? Let's get right to the test results.
GRAPH LEGEND Radeon 7950 = Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7950 GPU (3G VRAM) Radeon 5870 = AMD Radeon HD 5870 GPU (1G VRAM) Radeon 5770 = AMD Radeon HD 5770 GPU (1G VRAM) GTX680MX = NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX GPU (2G VRAM) GTX675MX = NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX GPU (1G VRAM) GTX 285 = NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 GPU (1G VRAM) Quadro 4000 = NVIDIA Quadro 4000 GPU (2G VRAM) All Mac Pro GPUs above were in a in a 'Mid 2010' Mac Pro 3.33GHz Hex-Core. The two iMac GPUs (the GTX 675MX and 680MX) were embedded in the 'Late 2012' (27') iMac 3.4GHz Core i7. All Macs were running OS X 10.8.3. The AMD GPUs required a patch to run Heaven and Valley. AMD compatible versions of those apps will soon be available to all users.
Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve 9adds speed and power to color grading of HD video. It uses the GPU to apply and playback effects in real time -- no rendering required. However, the more effect nodes created, the slower the playback.
Our test project featured 8 clips (771 frames) of a 32 second 1920x1080 10-bit YUV 4:2:2 SDI 24fps video. We set the maximum playback framerate to 300 fps. We wanted to see how fast each GPU could playback with three nodes. Results are average frames per second. (LONGEST bar means FASTEST.)
Apple's Motion 5comes with various project templates. We use the 'Atmospheric - Open' 600 frame 1920x1080 template for our test. We time how long it takes to render the RAM Preview and then calculate the speed in frames per second. (LONGEST bar means FASTEST.)
OceanWave OpenCL benchmark(download link) was originally used as an Apple OpenCL source code demo. It was recently updated including options to run windowed or fullscreen, with or without anti-aliasing. We posted the results for Windowed with no AA. (LONGER bar means FASTER.)
Unigine's Heaven Benchmark 4.0 is an OpenGL 'real world' benchmark that flies through 26 scenes of a village, a ship, and floating islands applying advanced ambient occlusion, volumetric clouds, and various lighting conditions with refraction. Two presets help standardize comparison testing: Basic and Extreme. (It is cross platform. For Windows users it is a test of DirectX.)
We used Extreme preset for our testing which specifies 1600x900 windowed resolution with 8x Anti-aliasing, Ultra Quality for Shaders and Textures, and with Occlusion, Refraction, and Volumetric Shadows enabled. We posted AVERAGE frames per second. (LONGER means bar means FASTER.)
Unigine also has new OpenGL benchmark called Valley. It 'flies' through forest-covered valley surrounded by vast mountains. It amazes with its scale from a birdÕs-eye view of 64 million meters of extremely detailed terrain down to every leaf and flower petal. It features advanced visual technologies: dynamic sky, volumetric clouds, sun shafts, DOF, ambient occlusion. (It is cross platform. For Windows users it is a test of DirectX.)
Valley provides three presets to help standardize comparison testing: Basic, Extreme, and Extreme HD. We used Extreme preset: 1600x900 windowed resolution with 8x Anti-aliasing, Ultra Quality for Shaders and Textures, and with Occlusion, Refraction, and Volumetric Shadows enabled. We posted AVERAGE frames per second. (LONGER bar means FASTER.)
Sid Meier's Civilization Vis now on Steam. By entering '-LeaderBenchmark' in the Properties > Set Launch Options, it runs through multiple animated sequences of the various World Leaders. Eclipse see2 uv150 driver for mac. Though it does not simulate real game play, it is GPU intensive. Resolution was 2560x1440 with FullScreen ON. Quality settings were on 'Medium' with one exception -- Texture Quality was set to 'High.' VSync and High Detail Strategic View were both OFF. (LONGER bar means FASTER.)
Feral Interactive's Dirt 2has a built-in benchmark where Travis Pastrana races 7 clones of himself in a winner take all one lap race on a dirt track with puddles of water. We used best quality settings at 2560x1440. Results are average frames per second. (LONGEST bar means FASTEST.)
ANALYSIS 1. With one exception (Motion), the Radeon HD 7950 is a significant improvement over the two GPUs Apple offers currently as factory options for the Mac Pro (Radeon HD 5770 and 5870).
2. The Radeon HD 7950 is clear winner over the current optional Quadro 4000 for Mac kit sold on the Apple Store. It also handily beats the GeForce GTX 285 -- a card once offered in a kit but no longer in production. Many Mac Pro owners likely still have it installed.
3. We included the 2012 iMac's GeForce GTX 680MX as what we consider the strongest existing NVIDIA competition to the AMD GPUs. As you can see the Radeon HD 7950 beats it or 'meets' it in four out of the seven tests we featured. And in all but one test, it is 'in the conversation.' The GTX 680MX is a 'mobile' GPU and currently only available to Mac users in the 2012 iMac, but it shows you the potential if a company decided to offer an OS X compatible GeForce GTX 680 GPU or something similar. (NOTE: NVIDIA has announced the Quadro K5000 for Mac -- it is expected to ship soon.)
RECOMMENDATION If you have a Mac Pro running a Radeon HD 5770, Radeon HD 4870, GeForce GTX 285, Quadro 4000, GeForce GT120, GeForce 8800 GT, the new Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 would make a very strong upgrade. The only exception to this advice would be if you are running pro apps whose only GPU acceleration relies on CUDA support. One recent example is Octane Render. In that case, you must hope for a newer, faster NVIDIA CUDA 'aware' GPU that is OS X compatible. NEWS FLASH: EVGA will be selling a Mac Edition of the GeForce GTX 680. We will be testing it and adding those results to this page.
CORRECTION: The Radeon HD 7950 is compatible with all existing Mac Pros from 2008 - 2012 (though Sapphire is officially specifying 2010 and after). It can run under Lion 10.7.5 and Mt. Lion 10.8.2 by installing special driver that comes on a disc. No special driver needed for 10.8.3.
AND THAT'S NOT ALL. Check out 'Part Duex' with results for seven more apps and 'Shootout with the Sharks' where the 7950 goes up against 'extreme' GPUs -- flashed and unflashed.
Comments? Suggestions? Email , mad scientist. Follow me on Twitter @barefeats
WHERE TO BUY THE SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 7950 for the Mac Pros running OS X. The price will be $479 (unless a reseller decides to offer it at discount). That's more than Apple charges for the Radeon HD 5870 kit (selling for $449). Hmmm. Well at least it is cheaper than the Quadro 4000 for Mac ($1200) which it easily beats.
You can buy the Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition from Other World Computing. Also check on Amazon, NewEgg, and TigerDirect. Search for 'SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition.'
Smcfancontrol for mac. Other World Computing also sells NVIDIA cards like the Quadro K5000 for Mac and will be soon taking orders for the just announced GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition. (See their NVIDIA page.)
WHERE TO BUY NEW APPLE PRODUCTS USA readers can help us earn a commission by using this Apple Store USA link or by clicking on any Apple display ad. For GPUs, click the left side bar option for 'For Mac > Displays & Graphics' to find the GPU kits available. Or if you are buying a new Mac Pro, you will find options when you configure your order. For UK readers, visit Apple Store UK.
WHERE TO BUY FACTORY REFURBISHED MACS Apple Store USA has refurbished Macs with 12 month warranty that can be extended to 36 months with AppleCare. Pay attention to the GPU it comes with.
LOOKING FOR ADOBE SOFTWARE? Order your copy of Adobe Creative Suite (or any portion thereof) direct from Adobe USA. Or click these links to Adobe France, Adobe Germany, Adobe Sweden, or Adobe UK. (Clicking our links helps us earn a commission.)
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AMD spent most of 2012 releasing a slew of 28nm GPUs, starting with the Radeon HD 7970 in January, followed by over half a dozen more cards over the next 8 months.
At the end of the year we launched our feature “The best graphics cards: Nvidia vs. AMD Current-Gen Comparison ', in which Nvidia took out the price range of 100 to 150 US dollars with the GeForce GTX 650 Ti, while AMD claimed the 150 US dollars for itself. $ 200 with the Radeon HD 7850.
As well thought out as the Radeon HD 7000 series was, we hoped 2012 would mark the beginning and end of the series, just as 2011 would mark the previous generation. Expecting anything completely new shouldn't be as we are now three months into 2013 reviewing a brand new AMD graphics card that is not based on a new architecture.
Rather, we have the newest member of the Southern Islands family that aims to bridge the gap between the Radeon HD 7770 and the 7850.
Not the most exciting product to be released, and its performance will be far from what we saw with the GeForce GTX Titan last month. Even so, the new Radeon HD 7790 is likely to be of more interest to many of you than the GTX Titan for the simple reason that it's affordable and should be pretty good value for money too.
The Radeon HD 7790 will be available April 2 for just $ 150. Prices range from 7770 to 7850. Currently, the Radeon HD 7770 is priced at $ 110 to $ 120, while the 7850 costs between $ 180 and $ 200.
When we last checked that the GeForce GTX 650 Ti was the best value in this bracket, AMD seemed to convince us.
Radeon 4670 Hd Driver
Radeon HD 7790 in detail
The Gigabyte Radeon HD 7790 we tested was 19 cm long, a typical length for a modern mid-range graphics card. Gigabyte's own version of the GTX 650 Ti is 23 cm long, although the actual circuit board is quite shorter at just 14.5 cm. This new Radeon GPU core runs at 1 GHz. This is the highest frequency of all Radeon cards and corresponds to the cards of Edition 7770, 7870 and 7970 GHz.
The HD 7790 is clocked 16% faster than the HD 7850, while its GDDR5 memory is also faster at 1500 MHz (6.0 GHz DDR). However, by coupling this frequency to a tiny 128-bit memory bus, the HD 7790 gets a theoretical bandwidth of 96 GB / s, which is actually much less than the old HD 6790.
Gigabyte has overclocked its 7790 card from 1000 MHz to a core speed of 1075 MHz. For this test, however, we clocked the card back to the standard AMD specification of 1 GHz.
The HD 7790 is equipped with a 1 GB image memory, just like the midrange cards of the previous generation. We have no doubt that Board Partners will be releasing 2GB versions. However, since the HD 7790 is not designed for extreme resolutions, 2GB models are unlikely to offer a performance boost.
The core configuration of the HD 7790 is also different from that of the HD 7770. This new GPU has 896 SPUs, 56 TAUs and 16 ROPs. That's 40% more SPUs and TAUs, while the ROPs remain the same.
Gigabyte decided to cool the 'Bonaire XT' GPU with its own design that uses a massive 95mm fan. Under this fan there is a relatively small aluminum heat sink with a length of 11.5 cm, a width of 9 cm and a thickness of 2 cm. While that sounds like a decent heat sink, it's actually quite small by graphics card standards.
The HD 7790 works almost noiselessly, as it only consumes 85 watts under load thanks to the ZeroCore power technology and only 3 watts when idling.
Radeon 6870 Specs
In order to supply the card with sufficient power, AMD has a single 6-pin PCI Express power connector – the same setup as the HD 7770, 7850 and GTX 650 Ti as well as numerous other mid-range graphics cards.
Amd Hd 5770 Driver Download
Of course, the HD 7790 supports Crossfire, so there are two ports that can be used to connect two cards together. The only other ports are on the I / O control panel. The AMD reference version has a double DL-DVI connector, a single HDMI 1.4a connector and two Mini DisplayPort 1.2 sockets. The Gigabyte version is slightly different in that it uses a pair of DL-DVI connectors, a single HDMI 1.4a connector, and a standard DisplayPort jack.