Mac Pro 3.1 (early 2008) New Graphics Card, What are the options?

It is not true that it must have EFI. Many PC "only" graphics cards work fine in OS X, and they are usually less expensive than the mac version. There's also more choices (gtx 660ti works for example).

With a PC video card you will not get BOOTUP screens without EFI, but once you are booted, you are golden. Mountain Lion contains drivers for all KINDS of cards that aren't available in 'mac' versions. I'm using a eVGA GTX 670 4GB Superclock in my 2008 mac pro, and it works great.

No boot screen just means you won't get the grey apple and spinning circle while boot happens, it just starts right at the desktop. I boot from a PCI SSD so it's only a few seconds. I kept my old card around in case I ever need the boot screens (like to select boot disk) but I usually use other options for choosing starup disk. I also boot Windows 8 with boot camp and it also works perfectly.

check out the forums and blog at netkas.org for far more info. Mountain Lion made a lot of new things possible, though.

Hmm... I didn't read that whole thread but the stuff about needing a 2009 is BS - at least when it comes to the 6xx cards (I've personally installed a 670 and a 680 both with 4GB ram on a 2008 AND a 2009 mac pro - but not a 7xx).

I'd check out netkas to see what you can find - by far the best resource for this... http://forum.netkas.org/

I know that the 780s are now available flashed to EFI so they should work out of the box, too, just without boot screen suport. EFI is the newer version of BIOS - which is basically the set of instructions the computer runs when it is first started. PCs used to (and many still do) use BIOS - which is when you see all the text on the screen initializing expansion cards, checking ram, etc. EFI is the new hotness when it comes to BIOS. Often, EFI will "hand off" to BIOS - to load legacy drivers etc. On a mac, which uses EFI, you don't get text, you get a grey screen with an apple on it, or maybe a boot disc selection screen if you hold option on boot. With a gpu that doesn't have EFI, you won't see this boot screen - because the card isn't compatible with the EFI sequence. Once the hand off occurs, you get picture. On a mac, you go right to desktop. When loading windows, I actually get a few BIOS messages before my windows logo. Point it, you SHOULD be able to use a BIOS-only (aka a "PC") GPU, you just won't get boot screens, which can be bad if you rely on that disc selection screen when you hold option. The other thing you can do is pay to have the card flashed with a mac compatible EFI - and then you'd get boot screens, but the card itself would function the same otherwise.

I hope this didn't confuse you more - for more info on EFI read this (it helps if you have a basic undertanding of BIOS though): http://www.extremetech.com/computing/96985-demystifying-uefi-the-long-overdue-bi os-replacement

or:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface

I am not positive as I never got an official answer but I was told the mac pro 2008 has a 900 watt power supply -- definitely more than 600w. BUT, it may not provide enough to the card itself, though not likely really (I'm assuming you connected the extra power connectors to the MB, yes?)

I have a 2008 3.1 and I put a Sapphire HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 Mac Edition in it and it works like a dream. Just drop it in and fire it up with no hassles, latest OS X has the drivers pre-installed. I run dual operating systems (OS X Mavericks & Windows 7) with no conflict what so ever. Cost is about $450-$500 last I saw.

A lot depends on what version of OS X.

The GTX 680 from EVGA or the AMD 7950 are new and a lot less than any Quadro.

Barefeats.com just posted 5870 vs those two.

Wahtever you plug in MUST have Apple EFI firmware, or it will not show a picture AT ALL under Mac OS X.

ATI Radeon HD5870 or HD5770 or NVIDIA Quadro 4000 or NVIDIA Quadro K5000.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC743ZM/A/ati-radeon-hd-5870-graphics-upgrade- kit-for-mac-pro-(mid-2010-or-early-2009)?fnode=53

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC743ZM/A/ati-radeon-hd-5870-graphics-upgrade- kit-for-mac-pro-(mid-2010-or-early-2009)?fnode=53

http://store.apple.com/us/product/H3314LL/A/nvidia-quadro-4000-for-mac?fnode=53& p=1

http://store.apple.com/us/product/HA959LL/A/nvidia-quadro-k5000-gpu-for-mac?fnod e=53&p=1

-- kaz-k

All nVidia GTX works perfect. No need special edition, all works in 10.8.2

I have the GTX 770 running in my Mac Pro 2008. In OSX and Windows (bootcamp)

ScottieB-

You are right in the case of some of the new NVIDIA cards under 10.8.3.

But for casual Users who are not prepared to Flash cards, the rule of using only Apple-firmware cards will keep securely them out of trouble, with no surprises whatsovever.

It should work as far as I know. Sounds like a power issue - or maybe you don't have latest OS updates? That's a new card - perhaps you need 10.9 for 7xx cards? Not sure...

also check this:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1588653

Do I get two DVI ports? in the past, not always.

10.8.3 is a "game changer"

Do I have or want to keep a card on hand for when I do need to say use Recovery Mode to do troubleshooting or repairs? Or if you have to download and install 10.8?

I have never liked having to find and release the card clasp or lock and swap out a card unless absolutely necessary.

IF the Mac Pro would just have 1 x 8-pin in addition to the two 6-pin aux power cables would make it a lot easier. You had to make sure you bought a card with 2 x 6-pin connectors. One person seems to be frying cards, trying to use 6-pin to 8-pin adapters, or you have cables from a 2nd PSU that are messy but provide 450W (2x8 and 2x6).

I am not clear if any and all 660ti are going to work or worth it though. And how close a card has to be to reference design.

Even support for a 4GB card. Or directing CS6 to use the card.

Lack of early boot that is provided by EFI may or may not seem like small potatoes.

Sure it can be done. It isn't always necessary to or even desireable to flash a PC card, not nVidia card, and those people - I send them to MacRumors or to "look around".

I suspect some are better off with a PC and Windows. You can build a i7 3770 that makes a nice graphic workstation or for gaming today.

No flashing necesary either. The flashing would ADD efi, but you don't need efi. That said I did need to do some simple patches to have adobe cs6 see the card.

Of coure a new machine is a better option, and right now Windows is a better choice for a 'workstation' (and games of course) - but if we're talking about upgrading a 5-year old machine, a little hackery is expected I'd think. And it's FUN! I guess I tend to think of mac pro owners as more than casual users. Regardless, even on my mac pro and everything working in os x, I find myself using windows more these days.

Redownload Mountain Lion. When you go to the App Store it should be current version.

depends I guess how you want to do this. I recommend keep your current hard drive and OS as is and install to a different drive. Or partition.

I did that, but I think you also have to reset the PRAM (read that somewhere) because I was getting some error message I've never seen before when I tried it. It looked like the kernel panic message but looked a little different and said that there is a problem with my computer or something like that. Unconfirmed if resetting the PRAM works because I went and replaced the new card with the old one anyway.

Anyway, I got it sorted out. Running ML 10.8.4 with a totally unmodified GPU that isn't made for Mac. The only problem is that the Finder windows sometimes freeze when I resize them, but I don't know if that's the hardware or software.

I don't know if that's hardware or software either but I can say I've not seen that (freezing finder windows) with a gtx670 or a 680 (both 4GB). However, my old gtx285 would show some slowdown on moving finder windows between displays (I had 2 and 1 was a 30" so that could have been using up the 1GB of vRam quickly).