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Issues with a new graphics card in 2008 mac pro

Hey guys


I’ve got an early 2008 mac pro and I decided I need to upgrade the graphics card. I bought a Nvidia Geforce 660ti and installed it into the mac, but it doesn’t seem to be working. It registers in the ‘about this mac’ section but when I try and play any games the game either crashes or the graphics are really slow and laggy.


I had a radeon 5 series card which used two mini PCIe to normal PCI 6 pin leads, the GTX 660ti uses one. So I just plugged one lead in and the graphics card turns on (fans work). Like I said, the graphics card comes up in the 'about this mac' section as being there, just doesn't seem to be doing anything. I have updated all the drivers, but it just doesn't want to work. Has anyone got any experience with getting one of these cards to talk? I know its been done!


Cheers


Jordan

Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Feb 21, 2015 12:05 AM

Reply
3 replies

Feb 21, 2015 9:45 AM in response to jasper6120

well, not much to go on, I'm sure, but it's a start

make sure your Radeon card has both 6 pin cables connected. I think you can get a 6 pin(PCI-Express) splitter. How well would it work? Don't know.

You may be able to use one of the molex connectors going to the 2nd dvd drive bay, get a 6 pin Molex to PCI-E cable, use that to power the nVidia

GTX 660ti. Both cards should ideally be in PCI-E slots 1 and 2. You haven't told us much about your Mac pro, apart from the graphics cards problems

you are having. Please go to the Apple symbol, click on it, then choose about this Mac, then system report and tell us what it tells you. For the record, the

GTX 660 ti is not officially supported by nVidia on mac. The GTX 285 is , as is the GTX 680. I guess what you'd have to do is find someone to flash your 660ti card to Mac. Unfortunately, the drivers are built into the OS, so you cannot update them from nvidia or evga.


that's the best I have for today


JB

Feb 22, 2015 6:18 PM in response to Johnb-one

Hi JB, I should mention that this computer is also running Yosemite. I suspect that I would benefit from back scaling this to Mountain Lion or Snow Leopard. I had a radeon 5000 series running smoothly with Yosemite. This is the info I get when clicking the system report:


NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti:


Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti

Type: GPU

Bus: PCIe

Slot: Slot-2

PCIe Lane Width: x16

VRAM (Total): 2048 MB

Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)

Device ID: 0x1183

Revision ID: 0x00a1

ROM Revision: preset 1.0.0

Displays:

E2711:

Resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz

Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)

Display Serial Number: 204INEW2C476

Main Display: Yes

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Rotation: Supported


Cheers


J

Issues with a new graphics card in 2008 mac pro

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