The 'Newest' Graphics Card supported by MacPro 1,1 - with displayport

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The 'Newest' Graphics Card supported by MacPro 1,1 - with displayport

Hello, I'm about to receive an Original MacPro 1,1 - that's the 2.66 "quad core" version that shipped back in 2006 with the NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT. I will use this very antiquated machine for sending high res (1-2GB photoshop documents) to a large format printer.

Ideally I'd like to replace the stock graphics card, I use an Eizo display with 99% Adobe RGB and I'd hate to loose a pixel. At the moment I run my MacBook Pro > miniDisplay Port adapter > displayport

Can anyone recommend the best / latest Graphics Card that was manufactured that is compatible, via displayport to displayport.

I'm currently purchasing a PCIe SSD unit to bump up the speed. The MacPro I've purchased (for pennies!) comes with 7GB of RAM. Perhaps that'd be worth upgrading. Any further thoughts welcome. As mentioned, this will be used mainly to send jobs to print, but I want it to be reliable for this purpose.

Thanks so much.

Mac Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Mar 20, 2017 8:13 AM

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Answer 1

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Callum Alden Author

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10 points

Mar 29, 2017 8:57 AM in response to Callum Alden

Here's a list of upgrades I've decided to go with. Installation of the upgrades will take place this weekend, so I'll let you know how it goes.

Costs are in GBP as of March 2017.

CPU – Matching Intel Xeon X5355 2.66 GHz Quad-Core SLAEG Processors [£35]
GPU – Gigabyte NVIDIA GTX660 2GB DDR5 PCI-E Graphics Card [£40]
RAM – 32 GB PC2-5300F | x8 4GB Modules [£30]
2.5 > 3.5" Caddy (to use my existing SSD) [£9]
GFX 6pin > 6pin Cable [£8]

Total spent so far, including postage: £122. Money well spent? We'll see.

In additional to those items listed about I purchased thermal paste, a new T15 screwdriver, a few cleaning cloths to apply alcohol wash to the CPU's. Spent no more than £10 on all that.

Anyway, I practically got the Mac Pro 1,1 for free, so not much to lose!? Since I asked this question a week or so ago I've discovered many people have documented some insanely extravagant upgrades to the 'Original' Mac Pro 1,1. Should the upgrades listed above go well (I know I'll not have a boot-screen with the GTX 660) I may use this Mac Pro as a replacement for my MacBook Pro 2011, which is currently doing my heavy lifting. It seems, from what I've read, I am about to build a very capable system.

Any further thoughts?

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Answer 2

Callum Alden Author

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10 points

Apr 3, 2017 8:05 AM in response to kahjot

So far so good. All went well though I have yet to install new CPU's. Working on this later this evening. This Mac Pro 1,1 is flying (on El Capitan 10.11.6). Spent 3 hours running several example Graphing Calculators without a glitch!

Will update you once CPU's are in.

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Answer 3

Callum Alden Author

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10 points

Apr 3, 2017 2:25 PM in response to Callum Alden

Processor upgraded done. I now have a Mac desktop that run faster than my MacBook Pro (2011 + SSD, 8GB RAM). Incredible. All for less than the cost of a NAS, which was my 'next purchase'. I HIGHLY recommend this budget build.

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Answer 4

joeyjeff

Level 1

9 points

Apr 5, 2017 3:04 AM in response to Callum Alden

You are pretty limited in how you can update. After doing a lot of research I decided to buy a new Mac Pro and use my old 2006 Mac Pro's as storage servers......

Here are the upgrades I did(old 2006 MacPro x 2).....

Ram = 32GB purchased from OWC

Video Cards = 2 each Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB

Hard drives = 4 each 3 TB WDC WD30ERS

Mac Pro 2014

2 x Dell 27in 4k monitors (2715)

1 x Dell 28in 4k monitor 2815)

1 x WACOM 27in Touch

Added 32GB Ram

2 x Drobo Storage arrays with with 25TB each

1 x OWC Storage array with 24 TB

2 x OWC Rack-mount arrays with 8TB each

Speakers = Bowers & Wilkins M4

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Answer 5

kahjot

Level 4

2,462 points

Apr 5, 2017 3:04 AM in response to Callum Alden

You should be able to use a Radeon 5770. Not sure you need it, though. I have a 1,1 Mac Pro with the stock Radeon card that came with it. I don't notice any color problems when I switch to that machine. I have a wide gamut NEC monitor hooked up to a KVM. I have a 5,1 Mac Pro hooked up as well, which has the Radeon 5770.

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Answer 6

kahjot

Level 4

2,462 points

Mar 31, 2017 1:17 PM in response to Callum Alden

No further thoughts. But would be interested to hear how it all works out.

My 2006 Mac Pro is my Wayback Machine, running Tiger through Lion. Wanting to keep the earlier OS versions and their older apps available has meant that some hardware upgrades just don't work. One card that worked with 10.5 and up caused crazy crashes if I booted into 10.4. So except for bumping up the RAM, I have left it pretty much alone in terms of hardware.

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Answer 7

Sep 12, 2017 11:40 AM in response to Callum Alden

hi , sounds really great

i got a mac pro also i think the same as you got i run some small videocuts on it with 16gb ram and 6tb hard drive

can you tell me what i can use the latest grahpiccard with runs on it 10.4-10.5 like that howdifficult is it what you did or what i need to do if i like that also can you contac me on waterman-29@ikbnet.at

mfg alex

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Answer 8

maesitos

Level 1

8 points

Dec 6, 2017 3:49 AM in response to Callum Alden

I have the exact same configuration. I did install Mavericks as I have only 5GB of RAM and I'm waiting to receive 32GB in order to run El Capitan. The problem I'm having is I'm only able to connect a DVI monitor and not my mini DisplayPort Cinema Display, all I get is a black screen in my Cinema Display. Any idea on why display port isn't working? Are you using the DisplayPort?

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Answer 9

maesitos

Level 1

8 points

Dec 6, 2017 8:09 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I have installed the same card as the author of this thread.

I installed Gigabyte Geforce GTX 660 OC Version ( ModelNname GV-N660OC-2D ) in a Mac Pro 2,1. I installed Mavericks and I can't connect my 24'' Cinema Display to the Display Port but a DVI monitor is working just fine. I did install the Nvidia Drivers... but it didn't help.

I'm not sure if El Capitan will solve that out. I'm thinking of purchasing an ATI Radeon 5770, I've read it works for Mac Pro 2,1 through DisplayPort.

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