According to this Apple support article ( »support.apple.com/en-us/HT202079 ), audio is not available via the Mini DisplayPort output unless you have a 2010 (or later) Mac Pro.

The question arises: would installing a video card from a later model into a 2009 Mac Pro provide the MDP audio output, or are there differences in the motherboards?

actions · 2015-Jan-30 1:54 am ·

HiVolt
Premium Member
join:2000-12-28
Toronto, ON

HiVolt

Premium Member

2015-Jan-30 11:22 am

I've installed an Apple ATI Radeon 5770 into a 2008 Mac Pro, and it does carry MDP audio as I found out purely by accident by hooking up a Dell Ultrasharp monitor via MDP, and I had a soundbar speaker hooked up to it's audio out port, and in Sound Output preferences the audio for the monitor appears.

My guess is that the earlier versions of the cards probably didn't carry the audio. But newer ones do. I got one used from my local ASP, i had no idea what model year MP it came out of. Let me get the info from system profiler maybe you can find one like it.

actions · 2015-Jan-30 11:22 am ·

HiVolt

HiVolt

Premium Member

2015-Jan-30 11:34 am

You probably have to find one with the same numbers, since I can confirm this one works.

ATI Radeon HD 5770:

  Chipset Model:	ATI Radeon HD 5770
  Type:	GPU
  Bus:	PCIe
  Slot:	Slot-1
  PCIe Lane Width:	x16
  VRAM (Total):	1024 MB
  Vendor:	ATI (0x1002)
  Device ID:	0x68b8
  Revision ID:	0x0000
  ROM Revision:	113-C0160C-180
  EFI Driver Version:	01.00.436
  Displays:
DELL U2713H:
  Resolution:	2560 x 1440 @ 59 Hz
  Pixel Depth:	32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
  Display Serial Number:	GK0KD29E165L
  Main Display:	Yes
  Mirror:	Off
  Online:	Yes
  Rotation:	Supported
  Connection Type:	DisplayPort
  Television:	Yes

actions · 2015-Jan-30 11:34 am ·

daveinpoway
Premium Member
join:2006-07-03
Poway, CA

daveinpoway

Premium Member

2015-Jan-30 4:53 pm

According to this Wiki ( »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_Pro ), the 2009 Mac Pro came with either a GeForce GT120 or an ATI 4870 video card- the ATI 5770 was not available (from Apple) until the 2010 model.

Since (according to the support article) all 2010 MP's can output Mini DisplayPort audio, I assume that all (Mac-version) 5770's would work. Cannot guess about reflashed Windows-version cards.

actions · 2015-Jan-30 4:53 pm ·

HiVolt
Premium Member
join:2000-12-28
Toronto, ON

HiVolt

Premium Member

2015-Jan-30 6:06 pm

Yep, I concur that it's probably safe to say that all revisions of the Apple 5770 would work, since the 5770 I put into the 2008 MP got most likely came out of a 2010 or 2012 MP (which are the same really).

actions · 2015-Jan-30 6:06 pm ·

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