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

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

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.1), RME FireFace 400

Posted on Jan 8, 2008 12:18 PM

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116 replies

Jan 8, 2008 5:55 PM in response to alicanlondon

PCI-SIG announced the availability of the PCI Express Base 2.0 specification on 15 January 2007.[4] PCIe 2.0 doubles the bus standard's bandwidth from 2.5 Gbit/s to 5 Gbit/s, meaning a x32 connector can transfer data at up to 16 GB/s in each direction.

PCIe 2.0 is completely backwards compatible with PCIe v1.x. Graphic cards and motherboards designed for v2.0 will be able to work with v1.1 and v1.0, and vice versa.

The PCI-SIG also said PCIe 2.0 also features improvements to the point-to-point data transfer protocol and its software architecture.[5]

In June 2007 Intel released the specification of the P35 chipset which does not support PCIe 2.0 only PCIe 1.1.[6] Some people may be confused by the P35 block diagram[7] which states the Intel P35 has a PCIe x16 graphics link (8 GB/s) and 6 PCIe x1 links (500 MB/s each), for simple verification one can view the P965 block diagram which shows the same number of lanes and bandwidth but was released before PCIe 2.0 was finalized. Intel's first PCIe 2.0 capable chipset is the X38 and boards are already shipping from various vendors (Abit, Asus, Gigabyte) as of October 21, 2007.[8] AMD started supporting PCIe 2.0 with its RD700 chipset series. NVIDIA has revealed that the MCP72 will be their first PCIe 2.0 equipped chipset.[9]

Jan 8, 2008 5:57 PM in response to alicanlondon

alicanlondon wrote:
This new card is definately OK is it? what with the original mac pro being PCIe1 and this new card being PCIe2?


the new cards should be Backwards compatible.
PCIe2.0 cards are backwards compatible with most PCIe1.1 slots
aswel as:
PCIe2.0 slots are compatible to handle PCIe.1.1 cards (so in essence your not happy with the current card if you have an older card from your previous macpro you can slap it in there or vice-versa, not interested in your old MacPro graphics card, put the 2.0 in)

hope that helps!

Jan 8, 2008 9:28 PM in response to controller2k

Previous reports have shown that the 8800 is available for order from the UK and Portugal Stores online. It is also available from the Japan Apple Store as well with a 5-7 week lead time. At 42,800 yen, (393 USD) it probably won't be a cheap upgrade - maybe ~300 USD here in the States. No explicit indication of whether or not it is compatible with the quad core Xeon MPs, but in theory, it should work.

http://store.apple.com/0120-APPLE-1/WebObjects/japanstore?productLearnMore=MB137 Z/A

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

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