mac pro 2,1 graphic upgrade

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Level 1

9 points

mac pro 2,1 graphic upgrade

I've seen some other posts out there about this, but did see my answer anywhere. So I have a mac pro 2,1 dual 3 gHz, 16gb ram, 128ssd/750hd/500hd/500hd, ATI Radeon HD 4870 512 MB running an Insignia 42" HD tv as a monitor. I want to upgrade my graphics card. I have been running snow loepard for ever now due to some older programs I'm too broke to upgrade.

I recently partitioned one of my 500gb drives that i've never used and put Windows 7 on half and OS El Capitan on the other have with a work around upgrade. I run Pro Tools and After effects on snow leopard and plan on normal day to day web browsing on El Capitan. I start to run some stage lighting design programs on Windows that are very hard on my graphics card. When I preview the light show it sounds like there is a hair drier in my computer.

I see I have options for some 3gb cards if I'm staying on El Cap and Windows, but it looks like they're not supported on Snow Leopard. Would there be any 2gb graphics cards that would operate on all three OSs? Or am I stuck with just a 1gb card. Looking for some suggestions. Thanks!

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Apr 27, 2017 4:17 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 29, 2017 8:39 AM in response to Lewis888

This user tip lays out most of the issues involved in graphics card upgrades, all in one place. Most of it still applies to your situation.

User Tip: Mac Pro silver tower (2006-2012) Replacement Graphics cards

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Answer 2

dot.com

Level 4

2,455 points

Apr 29, 2017 6:31 AM in response to Lewis888

You might want to take a look at this web site/page that has a lot of information about graphics cards and mac pro systems.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/frequently-asked-questions-about-nvidia-pc- non-efi-graphics-cards.1440150/

Don't forget that your Mac Pro 2,1 system is 32-bit EFI (as well as the original 2006 Mac Pro - but all other newer Mac Pro systems from 2008 and on are 64-bit EFI systems) and that will limit your choices of graphics cards. A really good source of technical details about your Mac Pro 2,1 systems is at http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/specs/mac-pro-eight-core-3.0-specs .html and for other Mac Pro systems see their web page at http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/index-macpro.html

Another good explanation about possible upgrades to older Mac Pro systems like yours is at http://lowendmac.com/2014/modernizing-the-mac-pro-11-and-21/

Good luck...

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