before I buy a GTX 660, what am I going to regret

These are the caveats of going with PC-only cards:

... show all the screens, including Boot up screens, Safe Mode, Installer, Recovery, debug screens, and Alt/Option boot screens.

... require no more than the provided two 6-pin aux power connectors provided in the Mac Pro through 2012 model. Aux cables may not be provided for third-party cards, but are readily available.

If you are Meet ALL of these:

• running 10.8.3 or later AND

• don't care about "no boot screens" etc AND

• can re-wire or otherwise "work out" the power cabling

.

Hi Grant,

I would like to ask a question while on this subject. Can I still have my boot screen if I install a second PC GPU like a Nvidia GTX 680 along side an authorized Apple GPU. I currently have two GPUs in my 2009 mac pro an ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024 MB graphics, and NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512 MB. I would like to upgrade the ATI to a Nvidia GTX 680. Could save 200 bucks buying the non apple version and potentially still have the boot screen and other options.

Thanks

The GTX 680 does not have the firmware required to show boot screens unless it is a "Mac Edition"

RE: Mac Pro Replacement Graphics cards

1) Apple brand cards,

2) "sold in the Apple store" cards, and

3) "Mac Edition" cards ...

... show all the screens, including Boot up screens, Safe Mode, Installer, Recovery, debug screens, and Alt/Option boot screens. At this writing, these choices include:

1) Apple brand cards:

• Apple-firmware 5770, about US$250** works near full speed in every model Mac Pro, Drivers in 10.6.5

• Apple-firmware 5870, about US$450

2) "sold in the Apple store" cards

• NVIDIA Quadro 4000, about US$1200

• NVIDIA Quadro 5000, about US$2500

3) "Mac Edition" cards -- REQUIRE 10.8.3 or later:

• SAPPHIRE HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 MAC Edition, about US$480** Vendor recommends Mac Pro 4,1

• EVGA GTX 680 Mac Edition, about US$600

The cards above require no more than the provided two 6-pin aux power connectors provided in the Mac Pro through 2012 model. Aux cables may not be provided for third-party cards, but are readily available.

--------

If you are Meet ALL of these:

• running 10.8.3 or later AND

• don't care about "no boot screens" etc AND

• can re-wire or otherwise "work out" the power cabling, THEN:

You can use many more cards, even most "PC-only cards"

.

Hi Grant, I think you missed the main point of my question but thanks for your extensive response with prices etc....

If I have two GPUs installed in my 2009 Mac Pro, one is mac version and the second card a PC version, will I still get a boot screen? I'm running 10.3.8

Perhaps I mis-read your writing above. It sounded like you were attempting to duck ANY genuine Apple cards at all. That will not get you the Boot Screens.

If you have ONE genuine Apple card, and assign it as the Primary display, you will get the Boot screens on it, and the other screen is a "don't care".

Note: There has been a problem (I think resolved in the latest 10.8) with more than one NVIDIA card in a Mac Pro causing Kernel Panics.

Thanks Grant that was the answer I was hoping / looking for!

The PC-only cards depend on the loaded Driver to show a picture. That driver becomes active in "regular" (i.e., not Safe Mode) Mac OS X at the login screen (or when the desktop is drawn if you auto-login.

The Driver is not loaded and not activated at Startup and in the other modes listed, such as Recovery_HD, Alt/Option Boot, etc. A very simple "one size fits all" driver is used with a "pretty good" resolution until Mac OS X initializes. That driver cannot find a PC-only card, so the screen stays blank, but the process continues -- you just can't see it.

The guy who seems to know this process inside out sells a few flashed cards on eBay. He refers to the boot-up etc screens being provided by a ROM on the card. Some of his cards have this modification on board.

Apple seems to look at such modifications as small-scale hobbyist activity, and has not tested and does not provide any support for these configurations. A Mac presented with these modifications may be refused standard service. There is some question about whether this activity violates copyright, but as long as it stays at a very small scale, it has not risen to a level that Apple has come after him.

Some cards do not have a large enough ROM for EFI64 to be fitted in or "stitched into" the ROMs. Some (AMD) do. most cards can have side-effects like will it support DVI and MiniDisplay Ports or not.

So there are sites that really do specialize in supporting these cards, flashing ROMs and more.

Try http://netkas.org/

Hi Grant,

Your informations in this discussion were really helpful. Maybe you have the answer to my question...

I have a macpro from beginning 2009 with 2 Nvidia GeForce GT 120 512 Mo but I want to upgrade my graphic card to a 2 Go at least (a mac edition or mac compatible). My problem is that my macpro is running two different osX (10.6.8 and 10.10.5) on two hard drives. I'd really like to still access to my old 10.6.8.

Do you know if NVIDIA Quadro cards are Snow Leopard compatible? Or could there be some issues combining a NVIDIA Quadro, HD 7950 or GTX680 with a NVIDIA GT 120 ?...

Thanks for your help

This article suggests the genuine Apple Quadro 4000 is supported, and the linked article on everyman.com states it works for MacPro 3,1 (2008) and later:

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

.

Flashed GTX470 and GTX480 work in 10.6.8 as well, as long as you install the Nvidia Driver.

This topic is exactly what I wish to find out.

1. I have a Mac Pro 2008 and wish to find out if the GTX 680 will both fit and work ok with my Mac?

2. Also if the particular card is Mac flashed, if it will run with OSX 10.6.8?

(I do have a second startup drive with 10.10 but only use it for maintenance, emergencies and testing.

I love Snow Leopard & wish to stick to it for as long as possible. I'm not into facebook, etc., do not own mobile devices so the benefits of the later OSX such as synching are not really applicable. And I greatly dislike some of the OSX changes. And loss of having up to 12 folders permanently open on startup. Though I do like the same documents opening option.)

GTX 670 versus 8800 GT:

Width: Dual-slot V's Single-slot

Length: 9.5 inches V's 9 inches (GTX 680 is 10.0 inches)

Height: 4.376 inches V's Single Slot

After my second GT 8800 died, I had it replaced with a GTX 8800 (at apple service guy's recommendation) which is marginally better. But I wish to upgrade again if I can. And from what I can find out, the GTX 600 series is the end of the road for compatibility with mp 2008 due to still possessing PCI Express 2.0 support.