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What ATI card came with Mac Pro in 2007?

I have a NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT currently in my Mac Pro. I got the cheaper of the video cards when I bought the Mac Pro. I have a friend who got the ATI card around the same time with 500mb vram. He is offering to send this to me. I am just wondering about the comparison between the NVIDIA that I have and the one he is giving me. He is upgrading to a 64 bit card. Will I get the Advanced drawing in Photoshop now?

Mac Pro 2.66 5gb ram, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on May 26, 2010 10:55 AM

Reply
18 replies

May 26, 2010 11:08 AM in response to Cindy

I wouldn't take the ATI X1900 512MB if paid to.

There are cards that work in all Mac Pro like the ATI 4870, there are nVidia that only work in EFI64. You can't upgrade to "64-bit" firmware. Not even sure what they are talking about doing.

You can't use some cards in Mac Pro 1,1 or 2,1.

Checked Barefeats? And check aDobe and ATI.

May 26, 2010 11:13 AM in response to Cindy

PS I remember when I bought this computer there were only 2 choices as I recall. The ATI and the NVIDIA that I have. The ATI card was quite a bit more expensive so I got the other one. I am sure he ordered the ATI card that was being sold with them at the time. I am just wondering if I would be better off with his or the one I have. I cannot upgrade right now any other way. Business is too slow.

May 26, 2010 11:35 AM in response to Cindy

Yes, well quite sure his is X1900 - is still $399 and was probably $250 BTO.

And while it is a step up, it may not do what you want. And you WILL need to watch for dust built up, clean every 3 months, boost the fans.

For me, I could buy a Mac Pro 2009 or build two PC Core i7 950 w/ EVGA GTX.

But, the only upgrade they can put in, is ATI 4870 (or flashed PC cards).

May 26, 2010 1:42 PM in response to Cindy

NO. All Mac Pros and esp with the X1900, you should already be using and installed SMCFANCONTROL 2.X to BOOST 3 of the 4 fans. Default rpm of an extra 300 rpm.

X1900 clogs itself, then the fan self-destructs and the Mac Pro fans work... when hopefully your friend knew to pull it and clean the intake and exhaust of the X1900. Some use a copper cooler.

http://www.google.com/search?q=X1900+xlr8yourmac

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/X1900XTOverheating/ATI_X1900artifacts.html

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/radeonX1900XT/X1900XT_dustbuildup.html#storytop

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/MacX1900XT_SilentCooler.html

Hopefully, people check AccelerateYourMac to see if anyone has posted reports.

May 26, 2010 1:53 PM in response to Cindy

One fan isn't able to be controlled by that utility.
You're good to go! summer temps and Hardware Monitor to keep your eye on things.

I think you actually need an Nvidia GTX 285 to use some of the new latest CS5 acceleration technology. They've always been ahead of ATI in GPGPU utilization.

There are dozen threads about problems mixing 7300GT and X1900 or 4870 with CS4/5.

May 26, 2010 8:21 PM in response to Cindy

you can create presets and then quickly select them in the menu bar as per your workload.

in the preferences, click on the + button upper right, bring the fans up to 1200, say, and save that preset as "colder", or "1200RPM" and then another preset at factory lows for when you know the computer is not going to work hard, surfing and such.

the power supply fan (PS) isn't afected by smcfancontrol.

May 26, 2010 10:04 PM in response to Cindy

try them at 1200 and see what kind of temps you get.

i have mine at 1470, 1330, 1330. But i run my 8 cores at 800% pretty much all the time. 1470 RPM on the CPU gives me a temp of 53ºC
there is a tradeoff. my mac is no longer silent, but i'd rather it be cool. If your not running 800%, treat yourself to a more silent running, maybe between 1000 and 1200?

you can try;
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/16609/hardware-monitor
or
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12381/temperature-monitor
to see what going on more extensively than the number SMC gives.

before installing SMC, my RAM was in the 80ºs, and anything that starts getting close to being able to boil water makes me nervous.

you can also follow how hard you work your CPUs and RAM modules in the activity monitor (apps/utilities/activity monitor). Arrange your columns by CPU% to see whats the most demanding, and click on the 'system memory' button below, to follow your RAM usage. Watch your page outs, if its in the gigabytes, you might not have enough RAM.

What ATI card came with Mac Pro in 2007?

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