Update Boot Camp 3.3 to 5.1 on Mac Pro 3,1 (2008)?

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Level 1

108 points

Update Boot Camp 3.3 to 5.1 on Mac Pro 3,1 (2008)?

I currently have Win 7 Ultimate 64bit running on my Mac Pro 2008. Boot camp version is 3.3 although OS X is 10.9.3 Mavericks. I recently installed a flashed AMD 7950 which works great in both OS X and Windows 7 although I seem to have lost the ability to automatically sleep in Win 7. I'm using latest AMD drivers but that hasn't cured the scheduled sleep issue (I can make the Mac sleep manually without problem). The only other changes have been the usual Windows updates. At this point, I can't determine what's preventing my Win 7 install from sleeping so I'm contemplating upgrading the boot camp drivers from 3.3 to the latest to try and narrow down any potential conflicts.

My concern however is Apple's lack of official support for the early 2008 Mac Pro's and Boot Camp 5. Is there a specific difference at the hardware/driver level to preclude me from skipping BC 4 and upgrading straight to BC 5 drivers in my Mac Pro? If I do run into driver conflicts, can I downgrade to BC 4 without screwing up my current Windows installation?

Many thanks for your help.

2008 Mac Pro 2.8 GHz 8 core, Mac OS X (10.6.1), Also have a G4 MDD 1.25DP

Posted on Feb 13, 2015 10:09 AM

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Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Feb 13, 2015 11:38 AM in response to amstel78

You may be able to use Boot Camp Support Software 5.1.5621 provided the hardware is not significantly different.

System Requirements

MacBook Air (11-inch & 13-inch, Mid 2011)
MacBook Air (11-inch & 13-inch, Mid 2012)
MacBook Pro (15-inch & 17-inch, Mid 2010)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, & 15-inch, Early 2011)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011)
MacBook Pro (13-inch,15-inch & 17-inch Late 2011)
MacBook Pro (13-inch & 15-inch, Mid 2012)
MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012)
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch and 15-inch, Early 2013)
Mac Pro (Early 2009)
Mac Pro (Mid 2010)
Mac Pro (Mid 2012)
Mac mini (Mid 2011)
Mac mini (Late 2012)
iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010)
iMac (21.5-inch & 27-inch, Mid 2011)
iMac (21.5-inch & 27-inch, Late 2012)
iMac (21.5-inch) Early 2013
Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1, 64 bit

From Mac Pro (Early 2008) - Technical Specificationshas

PCI Express graphics	ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB (two dual-link DVI ports)	NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB (two dual-link DVI ports) NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 1.5GB (stereo 3D, two dual-link DVI ports) Two ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB Three ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB Four ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB

From Mac Pro (Early 2009) - Technical Specifications

Graphics and displays

Double-wide, 16-lane PCI Express 2.0 graphics slot with one of the following graphics cards installed:

NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 with 512MB of GDDR3 memory, PCI Express 2.0, one Mini DisplayPort, and one dual-link DVI port
ATI Radeon HD 4870 with 512MB of GDDR5 memory, PCI Express 2.0, one Mini DisplayPort, and one dual-link DVI port

Since you are using the AMD7950, which is not original in either 2008 or 2009 MacPro, the BC drivers will not have anything that you can use. You will have to rely on AMD website for GPU drivers.

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Answer 2

amstel78 Author

Level 1

108 points

Feb 13, 2015 11:50 AM in response to Loner T

Thank you for the reply Loner T. I am currently using the latest AMD display drivers. What I find confusing is that AMD provides two separate versions - regular PC drivers which are what I have installed, and specific Boot Camp drivers - of which they don't provide too much info on. I don't know the significance of what the BC version of AMD drivers provide, hence my question about overall compatibility and how it affects Windows 7 sleep functionality.

As for other hardware drivers included with the BC 5.1 package, I am not sure. The 2008 Mac Pro uses slightly different hardware architecture compared to 2009 Nehalem models. There are component-level differences with the CPU and motherboard; possibly chipset as well. I've read anecdotal reports of people installing BC 5.1 drivers on 2008 Mac Pro machines, but nothing specific in terms of compatibility issues.

It'd be helpful if anyone with a 2008 Mac Pro who's upgraded to BC 5.1 can chime in with their experiences. I'm fairly certain there has to be some people out there who have done a clean install of Mavericks or Yosemite, then proceeded to also do a clean install of Windows via Boot Camp provided with either OS X version.

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Feb 13, 2015 12:39 PM in response to amstel78

The BC drivers are provided by Apple (and AMD) due to the specific firmware differences between the stock and Apple versions.

You may want to look at

1. http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1565261.

2. http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/product_index.aspx?cid=1&gid=3& sgid=1157&pid=1777&lid=1#

I also posted on a thread on the MacPro forum (Apple Mac Pro 2008 dual 2.8ghz quad core), to ask them to take a look at the OP.

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Answer 4

amstel78 Author

Level 1

108 points

Feb 13, 2015 12:47 PM in response to Loner T

Thank you for the links. I'll do some additional research. I may just clone my Windows disk and try to install BC 5 later tonight. If it doesn't work or something catastrophic happens, I can revert to the cloned disk image.

FWIW, I did stumble upon this link which has some documented instances of people installing BC 5 on older hardware. It may help others out there who have similar questions to mine: http://www.videograndpa.com/?p=2628

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Answer 5

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Feb 13, 2015 1:28 PM in response to amstel78

What GPU were you using previously?

Did you uninstall all the graphic drivers and then install just the latest AMD?

Boot Camp is to get you started and to provide basic hardware support, not much more than that - enable motherboard and chipsets to then be ID'd so Windows will recognize them.

I would not worry about Apple's drivers - or support.

As for clone, most like WinClone, I use Paragon HDM 15 which does the job nicely if you have full drives dedicated to Windows and not split between Mac and Windows aka BCA partitioned.

BC 3.3 is darn old that is for sure. In fact 3.0 was buggy as was most of it for Windows 7.

BC 4.x was included with Lion and should work.

BC 5 is needed for Windows 8/8.1

Truthfully you can do a native install sans any BCA / BC and only thing missing is power management and the the nice little Windows Startup Disk control panel to switch or set the default boot volumes.

Sometimes a Windows clean install is worth the effort and time to clean it up after years of updates and whatnot.

AMD drivers and sleep? so sleep was working prior to installing the 7950? Of course Windows does not care or need it to be flashed, but then some cards have a switch for which BIOS to load, legacy or UEFI - but never learned the ins and outs of myself.

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Answer 6

amstel78 Author

Level 1

108 points

Feb 13, 2015 2:01 PM in response to The hatter

Thanks Hatter for your feedback. To answer your questions, the previous GPU was an official Apple Radeon 4870. To my recollection, sleep worked fine with that card installed. When installing the new 7950, I uninstalled the previous driver first, then used the latest AMD drivers as available for download on their website.

Thinking about it now, I reset PRAM but did not reset SMC after swapping cards. I will try that tonight when I get home from work. Also, I looked at the Windows system logs early this morning before I left for the office and saw that Windows did go into sleep mode on the 11th. I installed the new card on the 9th. Between the 11th and now, Windows installed a few updates - so that's another potential variable worth investigating.

And I agree with you about the BC drivers. Honestly, I never gave much thought to upgrading them because ever since 3.3, the system has worked fine with no issue. I may try BC 4 to see if anything changes but I'm doubtful.

Back to resetting SMC however, OSX 10.9.5 also stopped sleeping automatically which I just discovered this morning as well, so that brings me back to the GPU. Hopefully it's something as simple as resetting the SMC to get things back on track. Fingers crossed.

Edit: Thanks for the tip on Paragon HDM 15. My Windows 7 install resides on a separate hard drive from OS X so this should do nicely.

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Answer 7

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Feb 13, 2015 2:08 PM in response to The hatter

The hatter Thank you for taking a look. 🙂

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