Using a GTX 260 with my Mac Pro 1,1

Hetrickaj wrote:

​First time poster here, so I am sorry if I do not have all details needed!

I currently have a Nvidia 7300 gt in my Mac Pro 1,1 I am wondering If my BFG Nvidia gtx 260 will work with my Mac Pro? I am trying to upgrade it to 3,1 and was reading some forums on how to upgrade it to mountain lion and beyond.

Are you also asking about converting your 1,1 to a 3,1 model?

I'm not sure that will work, what parts do you think need changing to make it work a s 3,1? I think you need a 3,1 logic board, cpu's, RAM & probably the power supply as a brody suggests.

The 1,1 can be made to run newer OS's via SFOTT, so I don't think you need to somehow Dr. Frankenstien parts from a 3,1 into it. I think you can go up to 10.11 on a 1,1 if you have a better GPU.

Look for a newer Mac Pro if you really need better graphics support.

As far as I know the 3,1 and 1,1 had different hardware (the whole 32bit/64bit EFI thing) so I can't see how you can trick it to run as a 3,1 and get 10.12 support etc.

Let us know how that turns out even it doesn't work. I suspect others may appreciate any info.

How do you get your "double that" statement? The specs on the page that OP notes above is 38A at 12V - that translates to 456W - if the numbers are correct. But other research seems to say this is way too high of an estimate. At http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1638/bfg_tech_geforce_gtx_260_ocx_graphics_card /index17.html they actually put a power meter on an entire PC computer with this card in it and it draws 269W under load and 177 in idle - for the entire computer. So given that actual measurement, how to determine how much of that is due to the GTX 260 card? I've no idea, but seems like it would be under the 225W max limit for a single PCI graphics card. Also see this comment about GTX260 card at http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/253576-33-nvidia-requirement

I've read that 6-pin PCI power connections are designed for 75W max, 8-pin for 150W max. Mac Pro has two 6-pin sockets for PCI power, or 150W max, to which you can add 75W from PCI bus, for a total of 225W for a single card using two 6-pin aux power connectors.

Good luck...

Keep it simple. Upgrade the GPU. Install an OS via SFOTT see if 10.11 works OK.

Then you can start by changing CPU's if you really want to do so. Attempting to do CPU, GPU mod from Windows and EFI hacks to make a working 3.1 inside 1,1 hardware seems like too many moving parts to keep track of.

Go for it is you have the experience or confidence/ patience to pull it all off but I think slow & steady will give better results. To make it easiest get a Mac GPU suited to that model.

You can find fast windows GPU's & flash them but really what is the point? It is a 10 year old machine that will never perform as well as a new PC Flashed GPU's make troubleshooting startup more difficult, not what you want if the CPU's need to be debugged & calibrated etc.

I have no idea what that graphics card is or if it is compatible with the Mac Pro. Sorry not my area of interest. You just need to avoid the original 7300 card & probably other original cards too, a Mac card will give you the ability to see startup screens.

There sees to be more info over at…

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2006-2007-mac-pro-1-1-2-1-and-os-x-el-capit an.1890435/

If you don't want to read all those posts then the easiest answer is to find a Mac compatible GPU. I doubt you get any benefit installing the latest GPU's. Not even the last Mac Pro's model (cheesegrater style) can handle all the power of modern GPU's from what I can see.

https://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/0/MA182/en_US/Mac_Pro_User_Guide.pdf

Page 47 says the entire PCI slot combo can't exceed 300w. This one card is nearly double that!

Look at http://www.xlr8yourmac.com

No problem, let us know how it turns out 🙂

I do know that an original Mac 8800GT works on a 1,1 with SFOTT & 10.9.