I have a MacPro1,1, which is currently running OSX Lion and has the original NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT (256MB). I'm looking to upgrade this. I was wondering what recommendations people had. I can use any PCI Express x16 card, right? Or is the MacPro finicky about what makes/models it supports?
Apple ATI 5770 $249 has been popular since Oct 2010 for any Mac Pro incl. yours.
With Lion there are some 3rd party GTX options, support CUDA and more performance.
Just go to Apple Store: Displays and Graphic Cards for ATI or check out MacVidCards on ebay
I have a dual display setup currently. Can I still use dual displays with the ATI 5770? I thought I had read somewhere that on the MacPro1,1 only the single DVI port was usable (for some reason).
You wanted a graphic card. Now you want to find out if your display works using a MiniDisplay Port - depends on the resolution and the adapter for one thing.
Well, I think that's the obvious next question based on what I had heard about that card. It seems that finding a video card for Mac is always more complicated than doing so for a PC, so I want to make sure that I'm covering everything. I run my displays currently at 1680x1050. The 7300 doesn't have mDP, so they're connected using DVI. I have no idea what mDP adapters I'm supposed to use with this machine/that card, so any insight you can provide would be appreciated.
I can say that I got an XFX Radeon HD 6670 working in a MacPro1,1 but not with x16 under 10.6.8. I will try to update as I learn more and let you know if it is stable. I am using DVI connection have not tested the others.
In order for it to work I had to leave it at the 3rd setting in the "Expansion Slot Utility" which is 3-x8 Lane 1-x1 Lane. I have the 6670 in slot 1 the bottom most slot and under this setting that is an x8 lane. The Utility tells you that the Graphics Card is running below the x16 mark but when I tried one of the x16 settings for slot 1 the card did not appear to work and I had to VNC in to change it back.
To find the "Expansion Slot Utility" and manually launch it goto /System/Library/CoreServices/
I have also heard but not tested that these PC Graphics Cards function better under higher Mac OS's and that HDMI may even work on this card in Lion or higher.
Upgrading video card on MacPro1,1?
