Compatible video cards for my Mac Pro

Some people go with $159 PC version 4890 1GB and flash
http://forums.macrumors.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=9464666

Or Apple kit
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB999ZM/A

The 4890 has turned out to be a bit of a False Prophet.

Both 10.6.3 and now 10.6.4 have proven quite problematic for them. Now different cards require different patches and current fixes involve using some 10.6.2 kexts which isn't going to work forever.

Flashed 4870s have been somewhat less trouble but several models have also had these OS issues.

There are 3870s and 8800GTs which don't have these OS issues.

$550 for a 7300GT is like paying $45 for a pack of gum.

There is a simple rule, ALL of the ATI cards work in ALL of the Mac Pros. The Nvidia cards need to be specific for EFI32 vs EFI64.

I just send people to forum on MacRumors about what's the latest on flashed ATI PC cards.

Hi Vincent,

I've just upgraded my Mac Pro 2,1 to the ATI 4870.

Couldn't be happier. Fast & Quiet, only problem is it runs hot. Great timing as it's fantastic for playing Steam games at unreal resolutions and levels of quality. I've upgraded from the 8800GT which will absolutely stump your 7300GT if you can get one.

I've done a review on my blog (see link below). Also a few other upgrades on my Mac Pro such as SSD , Blu-ray and RAID all enhancing the machine to such an extent that it benchmarks faster than the new i7 iMacs according to CineBench.

Anyway good luck with the upgrade.

Alan

http://www.theapplechap.com/TheAppleChap/Blog/Entries/2010/4/16The_ultimate_graphics_on_the_earlyMacPro.html

I've just inserted a Radeon 4870 HD in my MacPro 1,1 - it works fine.

Hi Vincent,

there is no issue with the 4780 I just think that it generates more heat than my old 8800GT did. It is far more powerful in terms of processing power so I'm not really all that surprised. The fan on the device does a good job of managing this without ever getting as noisy as either of my old cards (the 1900XT & 8800GT).

If you are worried about heat then there are a number of software options to increase the fan speeds on a Mac Pro (such as iStat Menus) but I've found that the default settings have been handling things perfectly well.

We have a bit of a heatwave going on in the UK at the moment and although my office gets pretty hot there have been no issues with how my Mac has been coping with this (no crashes or anything).

Hopefully you will be as happy as I have been with mine.

DPart,

I am interested in how all ATI cards work in a Mac Pro. I have An XFX ATI Radeon 5770 and it was not compatible. I tried to boot and all I got was a black screen. Is there something I need to do to make it work or are you just saying all ATI cards work?

No PC card works as is. Needs to have EFI firmware, and not all cards can be flashed, and in fact some can't but can be used in Windows, while with some the Mac may not even boot and work in Mac OS with the card's presence.

So you can't just take XFX and use it.

ALL EFI ATI cards work in ALL Mac Pros.

By this I mean that any ATI card that works in 2006 machine will work in 2009 machine.

Nvidia story is different.

You may want to try this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300445809025#ht3074wt1139

I ordered one myself and expect it to be here within the next two days.