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User profile for user: davidfromlaurencekirk
davidfromlaurencekirk Author
User level: Level 1
12 points

Genuine Mac GPU? Help wanted.

Hi everyone,


My Nvidia GeForce 8800 finally gave up after 6 years of faithful service in my early 2008 Mac Pro 3,1. I sourced a replacement card on eBay which was listed as a Mac Pro ATi Radeon HD 5770 1GB. The seller told me the card had come from his old Mac Pro. He told me it was a Mac Pro card and not a flashed PC one, and that the boot screen showed up (as it should with a genuine Mac card). However, on receiving and testing the card, I get a black screen at boot-up and none of the boot options work (safe mode, system check, etc.). The card also seems slower than my old 8800 when using Photoshop. I've contacted the seller and he's swearing blind that there were boot options on his Mac with this card. My question is, other than the black screen and lack of boot options, is there any other way to tell if a GPU is a flashed PC one or an original Mac?


Thanks in advance of any help with this issue,


Dave

Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), 2 x 3 GHz QC Intel Zeon

Posted on Dec 2, 2014 8:16 AM

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User profile for user: The hatter
The hatter
User level: Level 9
61,011 points

Dec 2, 2014 8:22 AM in response to davidfromlaurencekirk

Did you try the method for baking the 8800GT? That is well documented and nice YouTube video "how to"


Photoshop at least some parts definitely prefer a card that supports CUDA.


Did you look into MacVidCards on ebay?


Ask on Netkas.org forums or on MacRumors forum for Mac Pro yet?


I still think this is a pc card - compare it with photos of the Apple card, which last I looked there were some on Amazon and also some 5870s which would be a proper card.

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User profile for user: davidfromlaurencekirk
davidfromlaurencekirk Author
User level: Level 1
12 points

Dec 2, 2014 9:08 AM in response to The hatter

I'd heard about baking the 8800 but didn't try it. I figured at 6 years the card had already served pretty well, especially as some seemed to have had failures after just a couple of years. The ATi Radeon HD5770 card I received looks like this:


User uploaded file

The Apple one listed on Amazon looks like this:


User uploaded file

There's a clear visual difference between the two, but I'm not sure whether this is just design variation or an actual difference between the PC and Apple versions. Anyone?

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User profile for user: Grant Bennet-Alder
Grant Bennet-Alder
User level: Level 10
135,307 points

Dec 2, 2014 10:29 AM in response to davidfromlaurencekirk

The shorter version with the extender from your lower picture(s) seems to be more common, but ether short or long style is likely to be genuine if it has the correct ports and is a double-height card (takes two slots width including an air exit grille, but only one connector). The genuine Mac version has one DVI, and two Mini DisplayPort.


The PC card version of the 5770 generally has two DVI connectors, one HDMI port, and a full-size DisplayPort. It is impossible to tell from outside whether the firmware has been flashed to Mac firmware or not. there are several makers, and card length and the exact fan used may vary.


A PC card that has not been flashed will not show a picture on Mac OS X, until possibly under 10.8.3, which older Mac Pros cannot run directly. Even if you can get it to work, a flashed PC card often does not support the second DVI port.

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Genuine Mac GPU? Help wanted.

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