where can I buy the new NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT for my existing Mac Pro?

Alan Wood wrote: "Most of the posts have been pulled and most threads have also been deleted or locked. I think they just can't keep up with how many complaints there are. maybe all this outrage is finally getting though to them."

Yep, you are spot on about that. They pulled my post in another Nvidia 8800GT thread this morning. The moderators must have their hands just trying to keep up this video card firestorm.

A couple of my "older" Mac Pro clients are livid and are asking me to confront ATI and/or Nvidia directly about this compatibility problem @ MacWorld next week. It'll be very interesting to hear their answer for this apparent debacle. Time will tell!

Thanks for replying Allen.After I posted on this related subject months ago and gotten bad replies and then pulled,I assumed I was the only person wanting to upgrade my card.(boy was I wrong).

I bought a Pro as I was led to believe that it was 'upgrade-able' and in the future I was able to change components as new developments came down the pipeline. Now I find this not to be true , I may as well have bought an iMac or Macmini.

What in earth is the point of having upgrade slots if you can't upgrade things ??

This whole thing smacks of utter incompetence and a tinge of underhand business attitude , forcing people to buy a new £3,000 computer just to change their video card. Its OUTRAGEOUS !

This is the LAST time I will ever buy a mac tower , it's back to iMacs for me . I had similar problems in 1994 when I bought a Quadra 840av , then Apple not only changed to PPC but from Nu Bus to PCI !

My suggestion : if you don't expect to upgrade your computer within 6-12 months of owning it , buy something integrated and accept you'll just have to change every 2-3 years. You'll save money in the long run and won't feel ripped off.

Apple should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen , imo it's disgraceful.

Finally the fact that the X1900 is a buggy , noisy pile of junk doesn't help. The 8800 would be a fantastic upgrade but as I've outlined earlier , that option has been taken away from us.

Really really shocking.

winkywoo wrote:
This is the LAST time I will ever buy a mac tower , it's back to iMacs for me . I had similar problems in 1994 when I bought a Quadra 840av , then Apple not only changed to PPC but from Nu Bus to PCI !

The difference being, among other things, that NuBus and 68k were outdated and worthless, plus 'dual compatibility' is impossible.

All they would have to do with this card, apparently, is just add some more code to the firmware.

FInally found this Thread again.
I think we should not start to be quiet about this topic to be honest!

Yes, I agree. To summarize my earlier statement:

It would really be uncool to have Apple not solve the graphics card incompatability problem with the 'old' Mac Pro's. I bought the Mac Pro instead of an iMac because of the possibility to upgrade components and especially the graphics card. This Mac is the first to replace my PC and if I will not be able to upgrade I will be thinking twice about buying a Mac Pro in the future.

I just want a solution for the out-of-date graphics card (buying a new Mac Pro is not a solution).

As a person who has moved away from a problem system "Windows" to this fantastic Apple Mac Pro and it's aready vastly superior OS X, I to am concerned that Apple make the effort to captalise and ensure they make upgradability a major priority as I would hate them to lose the advantage and give me no choice but go back to microsoft's dismal problem prone system. I see this as a opportunity for Apple to make a significant dent in microsofts grip of the PC market as lots of PC owners I have communicated with would switch to Mac in a flash if upgradability wasn't such an issue. I feel it's important to be able to upgrade the latest Mac compatible graphics card and that this upgrade is at least backwards compatible enough to cover their most recent Macs, Particularly Mac Pro's using Mac OS X. If Apple did this Microsoft would definitely have something to be worried about. Sorry this is a bit long winded but I do love these machines and want users to feel they are important to Apple.

As no statement was made by apple so far i am afraid they dont care and prefer forcing people to buy a new high-end machine just to have a graphics card update.
i really really hope people wont do it, send their complaints to apple. i know many people who are not going to buy another mac if this situation remains: a high-end machine which is meant ot be upgraded and expanded with no possibility of a simple graphics-card update. the win-pc world is laughing loud at you, apple. seriously. this is embarrassing.

I agree , not making a statement about this is embarrassing and unprofessional. Whoever knew or did not know about the 8800 card problem they should either fix this card or announce a rev 2.0 card in the pipe for old mac pros. or a announce a high end ati card to fill the gap caused by the still unreliabe 1900 card. In the meantime they should at least make a statement.

Heck, if it wasnt for barefeats and others in this forum we would not even know that the 2600 card does work at full speed in the old mac pro. While this will satisfy me, as it runs bluray movies and is twice as fast as the 7300 card, i am sure it will not be enough for others.

A couple of my "older" Mac Pro clients are livid and are asking me to confront ATI
and/or Nvidia directly about this compatibility problem @ MacWorld next week.
It'll be very interesting to hear their answer for this apparent debacle.
Time will tell!

I'd be very interested to hear the outcome of this. I hope you have confronted Apple directly about it as well. My concern is that the moderators of these dicussion forums probably just admin staff who censor stuff that goes against the company line or remove irrelevant/abusive comments. Very little that gets discussed here probably ever makes it back to the people at the top. Some face to face confrontation at MacWorld is very much called for.

Well, according to several posters who have called Apple and spoke to Nate Doss in Apple Customer relations there are "no plans to make the 8800 compatible with older Mac Pros."

Nate Doss
1-916-399-7032
8am to 5pm (Pacific)

this is unbeleivable. a pro-high-end machine from december 2007 called to be an expandable machine bound to a totally outdated poor graphics card like the geforce 7600.

no more professional macs for me anymore as this is simply NOT professional.

Apple has lost my business because of this stunt. I'm not unfamiliar with Apple's history of dropping systems from any upgrade path even when purchased a month prior to a new release. This is old hat for them and its frankly a dismal business practice. I had hopes when I purchased my Quad system in August that because they used intel chips, PCI slots, that there would be an upgrade path. I was sadly mistaken. Apple's attitude is sadly that if you want a new graphics card you shell out 3grand for a new system. I can't wait for the winders folks to do a parody ad on the Mac guy and PC guy, with the PC guy taunting us because we can't even upgrade to a current graphics card. Even more tantalizing is the prospect of a class action similar to what was done to Verizon/Motorola over the V710 phone which claimed blue tooth standard when it wasn't. They lost and had to put a disclaimer on all phones released later in which Obex was disabled that you couldn't transfer files. I think the same applies here, according to the RFC's for PCIe2.0 from what I've read so far, this should be backward compatible to PCIe1.0. The issue is Apple's proprietary roms. If apple is going to use the branding of "PCIe2.0 or PCIe1.0" then they need a disclamer that the PCI slots do NOT allow the upgrade of graphics to any other card other than those offered initially for sale with the system.

Anyhow, canceled my iPhone order for myself and wife. This was the final straw, I've owned Mac 512KE, LC, 8500, BW G3 and now this hunk of non upgradeable metal.

We get laughed at because we can't even upgrade a video card on a $3000 system.

Like most of people here, I've been a rabbit in Apple's headlights, believing in the upgradable nature of my 2007's Mac Pro.
I left my daily use of Windows for my crush in OS X, but still use Vista only to play games. Incoming of the 8800 was great news for me FPS addict, but hard was the reality of this topic.

I'm now split into 2 painful states :
-Being french, I obviously whine, and agrees into yelling at such unprofessionnal customer-care. I am frustrated, disappointed and don't want to support this kind of marketing technique. I won't change for a new MP every year just to get reasonable graphics.
-Being french, I'm weak, and every day without seeing my metal dude on e-bay tortures me. I lose time, selling chances (how many will give up the fight ?), money (in my limited mind, money=hardware=smiley), and worse, pushing me close to an old known windows-only solution.

I even though about adding the 8800, and praying that the existing 7300 would still boot on OS X, while the 8800 would bootcamp on Vista. Or would-I be condemned to juggle with cards each time I switch between OS ?

Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my... what ? linux ? You're kidding...

Message was edited by: alexandre_12

thanks alexandre.
i agree in every single word you say and have the exact same thoughts.

i COULD live with an 8800 just wrking under windows / bootcamp if i can just keep both cards in the mac and boot macosx using the 7300 and using the 8800 for windows. my wish would be to just use the 8800 for my "old" (8 months old) mac pro in total.

and whatever apple claims: this IS technically possible if they just wanted and let the pro users upgrade their oh so "expandable machines". this is really a shame.