MacPro 1.1 video-card upgrade

I've been running an Apple 4870/512GB for the past few years, running a 27" LED Cinema Display via Mini Display port from it, with no issues, even on 10.7.5. 😉 Quiet as a mouse, significant upgrade from the 7300, and probably dirt cheap by now. I don't know how dodgy the 5700-5800 series are in the old Mac Pro model, but this will be the last card upgrade for me anyway. Runs heavy-duty games like a champ, even under Windows (having the dual Xeon 5355 upgrade helps a bit too... )

all I can tell you is what's been said here: ATI 5770/5870 or nvidia GT120

as for No-No, can't really say. buying a PC card and flashing it with Mac EFI is pretty

dodgy, so I'd be inclined to give that a miss'

JB

The nVidia GT120 won't work with a Mac Pro 1.1

On everymac.com it says the original optional graphics card upgrades are the 512 MB ATI Radeon X1900 XT and the 512 MB NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500, Stereo 3D with two dual-link DVI ports.

The first of which seems expensive at over $250 on ebay, but the second is just over $100.

According to some other forums the XFX Radeon graphics cards work on the mac pro 1,1 such as the

XFX - One Radeon HD 1GB DDR3 PCI Express Graphics Card - which apparently lacks power but is around $70

and the

XFX - AMD Radeon HD 6670 2GB DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 which is around $90

And they worked straight away. But both of those aren't osx lion supported if you intend to use that.

Apparently the ati radeon hd 5770 1GB is compatible with osx lion and can be had for around $80 on ebay at the moment.

Hope that helps.

For Apple card and support for 10.6.5+ the ATI 5770.

Yes you can play with 6870 and even some use GTX 460 (if you have 10.7.4 there is more support for GTX).

Netkas and MacRumors forums have info - look for threads about what you want first though before asking - gets to be redundant over and over.

The OEM card was 7300GT 256MB.

Doug,

People that went from 4870 to 5770 saw significant improved performance, probably due to OpenCL/OpenGL support and the extra VRAM (some apps need 2GB+ today). Can find 4870 and 5x70 in Barefeat test results.

I bought the 5770 in order to do FCPX. It has worked flawlessly and without a hiccup. The MacPro is too long in the tooth at this point for me to bother buying a new machine so the 5770 was a great stop gap measure and has worked fine.

True, if I needed the extra oomf it would be great; I just don't have a need for it ATM. After dropping $335 on the 4870 18 months ago, and the 5770 still retails for $225+ (and the 5870 is $435+ ouch!).

Every time a new card comes out, even if it works now, I wonder how "future proof" it would be in the old Pro with the LED MDP display. Already limited to Lion, all drive slots full, 14GB RAM, X5355 upgraded; it's plenty to get by for now, so I'd rather put it towards a new Pro in the future (if Apple will still make them).

🙂

$335 on the 4870 18 months ago

But the 5770 has been around since Oct 2010, 24 months ago and odd as it works in every Mac Pro w/ 10.6.5+. And from people that went from 4870's to 5770 it was a nice noticeable improvement. I assume yours must have been a PC 1GB model perhaps circa early 2011, the 4870 was sold as BTO with Early 2009s - 3 yrs ago (and it was not even 'new' then either).

Sorry, looked back at the purchase and it was 2-1/2 years ago, winter 2011, and paid $245, Apple store retail was still well over $300. Time - and memory - flies when you have kids. 🙂

It's an Apple-brand 4870 512MB, not a PC-flashed model, needed to be sure of compat with current/future displays (MDP), and needed ANYTHING better than the 7300. The Apple 5770 was much more $$ than that at the time, I think well over $400. And yes, the lag time with Apple cards is still a bit of a sore point with me. Would have thought they'd be able to reverse the big/little endianness issue by now, opening up cheaprer PC card options. Also remember reading some rumor to that effect some time ago...

Doug,

There was no 5770 2.5 yrs ago which would have been not 2011 anyway but Early 2009.

For us, Apple was still selling that over priced dust bunny clogger X1900 $399 yes.

The 5770 from Apple has always been ~$249 + s/h - and at the time ATI had just cut the PC versions from $220 or so down to $120-150 so a lot of people (summer 2010, the 5770 supply for upgrades did not start shipping unitl... just two years ago, October 2010 after they caught up with new Mac Pros.

I paid $279 for the 8800GT for MacPro 1,1 series - that was around the end of 2008 which was end of when they were available - supply availability died up and of course those have the infamous "bake in oven" if the solder goes bad.

Too bad we never had something like the GT120 $129 but even those have trouble in Lion + if there are two present.

Right now, IF you had a 2010 model and 10.8.2 then there is support for GTX 550 up through 680, even GTX 460 which I have. You may pay same or more but a lot more card and performance.

Ok, ok, UNCLE

I was slamming out the note just before the kids woke up from nap, while trying to finish some weekend IT work. And now I'm half asleep after getting them in bed trying to stay awake myself, flipping between the Charlotte race and the stinkin Yankees game (Detroit's winning 😎), so I'll probably be wrong here again...

Yes, I meant 2010. Yep, it was the X1900. But original retail on the 4870 was $299, I got it for $245, and there was no better card option at the time.

Like I said, I don't have much capacity for detailed memory of these things these days, it's old dead tech news. But my point is the 4870 does just fine for now, and I'm not sinking another dime in a 6+ year old Mac that's dead at 10.7. 😟

Anyway, thanks for the info. 🙂