Video Card upgrade for early 2008 MacPro

I drag cinebench window from one monitor to other to test the card attached;

Ati Radeon is the same, 9-10 fps;

nVidia is 31 fps. 🙂

Thanks

It is good to see you get the same results for the 2600 as I did. I wondered if mine had a fault with such a low score.

So did yo just drag the Cinebench window? or did you have to go to Sys Prefs to drag the menu bar too?

Yes, i simply drag the cinebench window and full resize it in monitor connected to Ati Radeon;

the application still report "Nvidia Quadro" but the test (and the fps 😟) are from Radeon (this morning, 16,4 fps).

in main monitor, 31,74 fps.

I wonder if any driver for nVidia is to be installed. I installed CUDA driver (6.5.51 is latest for 10.8.5, my os).

What OS version ? With my machine and 10.9.5 just dragging did not work. Had to swap the menu bar in the prefs to get Cinebench to run on different GPU

Moving the MenuBar as described changes which of multiple displays is considered "Primary". That makes it the default for Startup screens, and it appears for some tests.

I run mountain lion (10.8.5); not upgraded to 10.9 or 10.10 in the wait for compatibility of some app i use.

can some1 help me 😝 ? i have bught an Mac pro tower 2008 with the 10.7.5 X os, and installing an ATI Radeon Hd 5750 in it but when i start it up the screen is just black, even if i wait 10 minuts, ive done everything correct.

If i replace the new graphic card and replace it with the old Geforece 250mb graphic card and put the new graphic card on the 2nd graphic place the computer cant find the new graphic card. it only shows in the Pci-express system when it starts up and cant find it if i exit it.

ur enable to use 2 graphic cars right ?

i have read somewhere that later mac os versions added support for many graphic card (i remember.. from 10.8.3..)

User Tip: Mac Pro silver tower (2006-2012) Replacement Graphics cards

Gustavbergh wrote:

can some1 help me 😝 ? i have bught an Mac pro tower 2008 with the 10.7.5 X os, and installing an ATI Radeon Hd 5750 in it but when i start it up the screen is just black, even if i wait 10 minuts, ive done everything correct.

So you are fitting the new card yes?

Did the computer work properly and start correctly BEFORE you fitted the new card?

It is staying black probably because it is an unsupported card that DOES not show Boot screen AND you have a Boot issue or fault so you are not seeing anything on screen.

Or the new card is dead

Does the machine work perfectly with the one original GeForce 256 card ONLY ?

If i replace the new graphic card and replace it with the old Geforece 250mb graphic card and put the new graphic card on the 2nd graphic place the computer cant find the new graphic card.

As I said, let us know if it works with ONE Old card only. Just so we are clear as to which slot is which .. Factory original fitting is with the first graphics card in the slot CLOSEST to the Memory, this is the double width x16 slot. Just want to make sure you are counting number one slot at the bottom of the machine not at the top. I don't know if his makes any difference though.

Gustavbergh wrote:

put the new graphic card on the 2nd graphic place the computer cant find the new graphic card.

It does rather sound like the card is dead. Or does the new 5750 card need external power. Does it have 6 or 8 pin power connectors on it to make it work. Maybe you are missing a power cable to it. I have a GeForce 8800..or 66000, can't remember. it won't work at all without the external power, though i believe some cards work with what is available.

Gustavbergh wrote:

it only shows in the Pci-express system when it starts up and cant find it if i exit it.

I don't really understand what you mean

Gustavbergh wrote:

ur enable to use 2 graphic cars right ?

Yes you can use two graphics cards.

I am really directing this to the Mac Video card guru, but all views appreciated.

So Grant,

what would you think to this

3,1 2008 mac pro

Currently a

ATI2600 256mb

4870 1 gb own flashed. works as boot device

4 screens, 3 xDVI , no other ports and a TV on HDMI via DVI-HDMI adapter

Swap them both out for

Nvidia GT 640 4Gb

Nvidia GT 770 4Gb

http://www.macvidcards.com/store/p9/Nvidia_GTX_770_2_GB_and_4_GB.html

http://www.macvidcards.com/store/p36/Nvidia_GT_640_1_GB%2C_2_GB_or_4_GB.html

Going for a 640 since it can run on internal power without the need for additional power cables , taking all its power from the PCIe slot.

the 770 is then free to use both on main board power cables. Means I don't need an external PSU.which saves a job opening up the PSU to extract 240 volt from it to run the second PSU

Are the 4GB cards over kill? is it a waste of cash? will I see any noticeable performance improvements over the 2gb cards in an old machine like this?

The guys at the store above sen to thing in e-mail exchange that any card better than the 770 is a waste as the Mac itself is then the bottle neck to performance.

Thanks

NP

The improvement you see will occur when the card does substantial GPU computations, such as special effects filters and Ray Tracing and such. Displaying regular 2D graphics will all seem about the same on just about any card, except that additional Display RAM allows the upcoming screen to be drawn into off-screen memory, and then "pop" onto the display all at once, which can seem faster than incremental updating of the "live" screen.

The 2006, 2007 models only have PCIe 1 slots, so they are running only half as fast as the later PCIe slots. The two PCIe 2.0 slots in the 2008 model are almost as fast as later models, but this is their first implementation and still has a few kinks in it that slows it down a little. So I think the advice not to over-buy on the graphics cards is sound.

Graphics and displays

Double-wide, 16-lane PCI Express 2.0 graphics slot

PCI Express expansion

• Three open full-length PCI Express expansion slots
• One PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot
• Two PCI Express x4 slots

OK, thanks

Yes, I had known about the first two slots, being the faster two, but not aware that they were not quite the same as later iterations of the v2 x 16 .

I am upgrading mainly for use with FCP X which I believe does a lot of offloading of processing to the GPU, so hopefully I will see an improvement.

My main fear was that you were going to say , NO , STOP, don't do it,

I have been running a render of 6 x 2 hour sequences using Compressor over night.

I am not sure how to read the Activity monitor correctly ,but there is a chance that any upgrade I make, may not improve things ..but without trying I won't know for sure.

With the render running, i was seeing all 8 cores at near on max in iStatPro, 695% + 45% + 10% CPU usage across the three major Compressor processes in Activity monitor.

Memory usage, in Activity monitor was showing

Physical memory 28Gb ..correct

Menory used 9 Gb

Virtual memory 28Gb

Swap used 0

So I suppose it is going to depend on how much of the processing FCP X or Compresor 'farms out' to the GPU. probably more a FCP X forum question.

Any init appreciated, though , to my mind I am look gin at these figures and seeing the bottleneck in my speed begin the old system and CPU . maybe an upgrade to the 3.2Gjz processors may help a little. Or spend the money just buying a later Mac Pro maybe a 4.1 or a 5.1 may see more improvement per $ than upgrading this machine ?

Hi, I am wondering if it would be possible to put a GTX 960 graphics card in my early 2008 Mac Pro?

mac pro early 2008 10.10.3 gtx 750 ti upgrade successful 😉