graphics card for 2006-07 Mac Pro system

RE: Mac Pro silver tower (2006-2012) 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 /1GB, about US$250** works near full speed in every model Mac Pro, Drivers in 10.6.5 [This card has jsut been discontinued at the Apple store and many Apple re-sellers]

• Apple-firmware 5870 /1GB, 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 /2GB 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.

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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"

.

RE: Original MacPro Silver Tower graphics cards

The original Mac Pro from 2006, and its cousin from 2007 seem to have shipped with one or the other of these in its double-wide 16x PCIe 1.0 slot:

• NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB (single-link DVI and dual-link DVI)

• ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (two dual-link DVI)

• NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB (stereo 3D, two dual-link DVI)

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The 2008 model is 64-bit kernel capable. It had a double-wide 16-lane PCIe 2.0 slot, and used these cards originally:

• ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT with 256MB of GDDR3 memory and two dual-link DVI ports
• NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT with 512MB of GDDR3 memory and two dual-link DVI ports
• NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 with 1.5GB of GDDR3 memory, two dual-link DVI ports, and one stereo 3D port

There are few good choices for a 2007 2,1 today.

MacVidCards on ebay caters to Mac Pro customer and usually has some Nvidia 8800GT series.

Apple ATI 5770 use to be best bet but is about 4 yrs old EOL now and no longer available, and when it is from 3rd party it is over priced today above the $249 it was selling for.

OEM 7300GT is older still, it was old in 2006 and 8800GTs often can be ressurected but may fail and need to be baked in 350* oven, and yes, it works.

Need to be clear about your system specs. and OS, 10.6.8 is often your best bet.

it does run lion which gives more freedom in gpu choice

http://store.apple.com/us/product/D6106Z/A/os-x-lion

ALL Mac Pro models are supported. Alll have Xeon processors.

Only Mountain Lion and above have an additional EFI-64 requirement which came out in Early 2008 3,1's and older models 1,1 and 2,1 have EFI-32 which prohibits native 64-bit kernal mode used and which requires 64-bit video drivers and PCIe 2.0+ for graphics.

2009 cards use EFI64 while pre-2008 use EFI32.

You need to get a card to support your system

Hi, folks,

I also have the Mac pro 1,1 bought in 2007. Seems the second video card that I install in this machine has just failed.

The original card was damaged in 2011 and now a spare old one also has gone.

I don´t know if it is the UPS that I use that was providing some dirty energy to the MAc Pro...

I had a power collapse a few hours ago and happens the same behavior the other poster mentioned: Gray apple with some thin purple lists and system locks.

I have tried Zap P-RAM, safe mode, single user mode.

I have just got a third spare 7300GT - 256MB RAM but comes with a DVI and a VGA port. Probably from PC World. Not sure if it will function...

What models can go fine with this machine under OS 10.6.8? I am really desperate because the thing failed in the midlle of a pile of work.

I have had difficulty finding the 2012 model Sapphire Vapor X ATI Radeon HD 5770 (DDR5, Pci-e, overclock version).

Can you guys confirm this model? I saw the newer ones have some different specifications and I am afraid of buying and not functioning.

Thanks for any info!

BTW, is this "cooking of the board" safe and serious?

Hi,

I have just found this:

http://www.nvidia.com.br/object/product_geforce_gtx_285_for_mac_br.html

This thread was started quite a long time ago. Since then I have assembled many of the recommendations suggested above, plus additional user-suggested information into this User Tip. The card you are looking at is listed there as well:

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

I have nothing to add to the card discussion, but wanted to give you a virtual pat on the back for donating to your local Humane Society.

Re. Baking in the oven: I would like to try this as i have nothing to loose.

300 degrees F or C?
If it is a domestic oven then it must be F, but would like to make sure.

For how long?
Thanks.