Mac Pro :: 1st Generation - Update Video Card
Jan 26, 2010
I just purchased my first Mac... a used Mac Pro...2 x2.66 dual core with 8 gb of ram and a 7300GT video card. (built Aug 2007) I want to upgrade the video card. I have tried to follow earlier postings, but need a bit more clarification... It appears that the 8800GT mac version is the only recommended card, but Apple no longer sells them. I can still find these 1st gen cards on eBay for approx $250-280. I have also read where others of you have installed new cards, such as the 4870, in your 1st gen mac, but using these newer cards seems to require some "flashing" of the card or other such tweaks--which, unfortunately, I am not that familiar with. With the 8800GT, it seems you can just swap out the cards, update the drivers and you are good to go... am I wrong in thinking that the newer cards are more difficult to get up and running?
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Dec 10, 2010
New to forums. Just purchased a first gen(2006) mac pro off ebay and found out it had a x1900 for a video card, I have a 8800gt in my old comp(hackintosh) but tried removing the ati card and installing 8800gt and no luck. Could anyone reccomend me a video card that would work maybe out of the box and that isnt too expensive, really wanna spend 100$-150$ max.
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Mar 29, 2012
Need a relacement video card for my first gen macpro quad, anybody find a working quality card currently available?
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Mar 4, 2009
I got my early 2008 2.8 Octo mainly for photoshop and photo editing. I added 8gb ram and a couple of 1TB hd's.
Now I want to do some video editing in Final Cut Pro in the near future. Is my stock 2600 card good enough or should I get a better card?
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May 14, 2009
I have an 8 Core Mac Pro with the NVIDIA GeoForce 7300GT video card and I was wondering if I should update the driver? I am running Vista Business 64bit through bootcamp. When you go to nvidia site there is no driver update for mac os but there is for vista 64bit. But I am afraid that if I update the driver for vista it might mess it up when I am in Leoapard?
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Jun 14, 2009
Back in my PC days, I used to have to manually update my video card drivers ALOT due to the many games I played on it. I know that Apple has the update software feature, but I never seem to see any video card drivers for the 9400/9600 chip. Can I update this manually from the Nvidia site? Or trust that Apple will update drivers when they feel the need. BTW, I'm not having video issues on the OS X, but just wondering.
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May 17, 2012
Can I update the video card on my computer?
Info:
iMac
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Nov 12, 2009
I think my video card died about a month ago and I've been trying out some cards with no success. Here is a previous thread I made about it:
[URL]
I just got the second card I'm trying today: ATI X800 XT AGP, and my computer will just sit at the grey apple screen with no wheel spinning. I'm assuming this is a driver issue (or something much worse)! Since my computer will not boot, I have no idea how to update the drivers for this card.
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Mar 8, 2009
I just updated boot camp and when restarting teh entire windows went 8 bit. In the monitor conrol panel the computer recognizes I have an nvidia 8600N video card but when changing the resolution it won't take it. I press apply and nothing, it goes back to 640 x 480 and 256 colors.
I started the computer switching to the previous working system and I get the same result.
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Jan 22, 2010
I have a friend who's first gen Mac Pro's graphics card died. (It's the 8800gt) I was looking at replacements for him and wanted to check and see if this card will work: [URL] I read online that the 3870 is compatible, but I just wanted to double check.
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Oct 5, 2008
After reading through several pages of post's on here I am still at a stand still on upgrading my original macpro 2.66ghz quad core. The reason I am upgrading the stock card is I cant handle the grainy look on my photos after using my same moniter with my new macbook pro. Also I am going to be using my bootcamp vista side to play bluray and hd dvds. I recently purchased the new buffalo dual external drive but the images are blury and after a hd video test my graphics card failed misserably. Can someone point me in the right direction. I want to spend around 275-300 shipped. My lcd display supports hdmi and all recent standards.
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Aug 1, 2009
My 1st gen mac pro's radion 1900 is getting really bad - pixels /lines / system hangs etc.... I was going to update the card a couple of months back to an 8800gt - but you can't get them on the store anymore! have a spare 8800gt kicking around!
FCT
Some Motion and color
CS3
Logic Pro
I want also to be reasonably confident that the new card will work in Snow Leopard.
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Aug 11, 2009
I want to add a Airport Extreme card to my first generation (2006) Mac Pro. My serial number is G86380EKUPZ. Which Model #/Part # card would I need and where can I find them? I called my local Apple store and they told me that they could install it for me but they aren't allowed to order the part...? Weird. Also, while I'm asking, I'm interested in upgrading my graphics card. I read somewhere that the ATI Radeon HD 3870 will work. Is there anything else you guys could recommend? I'm gonna be working in Final Cut Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, etc.
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Sep 4, 2009
Ok so I have a old Mac Performa 640CD/Dos that I am trying to to get up and running again. I had a monitor for it but it fell off the couch and broke. So I thought maybe I can use an adapter with it in order to use PC VGA monitor. Well after getting the first adapter and trying it, no luck, then I tried one that had dip switches on it. Tried 640 x 480, 800 x 600, almost all the dip switch combination with no luck on getting anything on the screen. Could it be that I might have a bad video card and it needs replaced? Or is this particular model not compatible with PC VGA monitors?
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May 25, 2010
Well I got rid of the quicksilvers since they died. Power supplys gave out and took the motherboards, So I sold what was left on EBAY.
My G4 Ethernet was sold to a co-worked and he is quite happy.
And I got this off ebay today:
Dual 1.8GHz PowerPC G5Procs
2GB RAM (2 x 1GB PC3200U DDR SDRAM)
Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-117D
Samsung HD160JJ/P 160GB SATA HDD (not apple labeled, not original to this system)
(1) Power Cord
pci106b,9 PCI Ethernet Controller
Well I didnt' read the fine print and BAZINGA! I noticed that it comes without a video card.
So For video editing, watching hulu and youtube and netflix What do you guys recommend.
I do have a PCI GEforce at home with 512 megs for PC and I was wondering if I could flash it and if so, does anyone know of a good walkthrough?
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May 8, 2009
i have a powermac g4 sawtooth. it stutters on youtube videos and other videos so i was wandering whats a decent video card thats compatible with it?
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May 13, 2010
trying to watch show on cwtv.com got this message. What the heck?
Your computer's video card is unable to render the video and controls.
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Apr 28, 2010
I see here that my Mac Pro (Early 2008) is compatable with:
ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600
ATI Radeon HD 4870
It looks like in many cases there's two versions, and the mac version costs about 10x as much on ebay and in stores. Is that accurate, or is one of these models mac and pc compatable, and therefore the laws of supply and demand work in my favour?
(fyi: I just want the cheapest one, I don't do heavy GPU work)
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Aug 19, 2009
is it possible to take my old 2600 XT from my Mac Pro and stick it in a PC?
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Jun 14, 2010
I have a 2008 intel 8 core mac pro with a NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT 512MB with 2x 30 inch cinema displays.
I want to add 2 smaller displays, what is the best card to add ? Find the same Nvidia Geforce 8800GT ? Or can I buy another one ?
Do i have to buy it specially for mac or are the pc video cards off the shelve working on the mac ?
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Dec 29, 2010
I'm going to be buying a new Mac Pro soon.
I have 2 30" Cinema Displays (the older ones with DVI plugs) and I'm looking for the right video card to go in the new box. Currently, I have one nVidia GeForce 8800Gt with 1/2 Gb RAM. Video refreshes are a little tardy.
SO: Do I go with the 1 Gb. ATI card that Apple sells as stock with the new Pro's, or is there an nVidia or other unit that will give me better performance?
I know I could use 2 of the ATIs, but if I'm gonna do that, I'd rather do the nVidia Quadro FX 4800. I just happen to prefer nVidia, but it looks like their offerings in the Mac side are limited.
I'm not doing a lot of video, but I will be virtualizing with Win7 for some medical visual applications.
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Jan 4, 2011
So I was given a first gen Mac Pro (2.66 dual dual-core "quad") which has taken a beating cosmetically, but hardware wise it's fine, just bulging caps on the video card: GeForce 7300GT.
This is going to be my testing and OS restore server once I get it up and going, assuming I can do that for less than the cost of a Mini Server.
On GSX the system is listed as "Ver3" so I assume that means it's a later revision that has the PCI-E 2.0 slots.
I need a new video card that will work with this system. Doesn't need to be anything special, I won't be gaming with it. Cheap is always good too. Mac OS X Server's going to cost $500, so if the price goes over $1,000 total, it's probably just cheaper to get a Mini Server. I already need to get an Airport and BT card which is about $150 total.
Apple's TSPS was completely useless at helping with this one, so hoping someone out there will maybe be a bit more helpful. So far I can only really pin down the GeForce 7300GT, GeForce 8800GT, Radeon HD 2600XT and Radeon HD 4870 as being compatible. None of which are very easy to find... At a reasonable price anyway.
So, looking for video cards compatible with Mac OS X, and the first gen Mac Pro. ATI or nVidia makes no difference, preferably sub-$150. I have searched in vain for some kind of list, and wouldn't be posting here if I had any luck, but if someone has better luck with Google than me,
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Nov 6, 2010
Got 6GB RAM on 2009 2.66 Mac Pro with 4870. The upcoming 5870 is $450. 12 GB (3x4GB) is $320 and 16 GB (4x4GB) is $425, and finally 24 GB (3x8GB) is $820. Which purchase or combo of purchase is best for video edit on Final Cut Pro? BTW, any additional benefits of getting the 5870? Gaming would be better (I game a little; X-Plane & Call of Duty), but wouldn't some apps off load to the GPU to make the CPU faster, though I don't know what those apps would be. I could run 2 displays with 5870 with ease, not sure if the 4870 can handle 2 displays.
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Nov 7, 2010
I've been reading, researching, etc like crazy on flashing PC video cards for mac. Cindori's Post: The Golden Guide to Flashing Graphic Cards [URL]. This guide is GOLDEN!! And Rew's post: Step by Step: How to flash a PC 4870 1 Gig Video Card for your 2006 Mac Pro (1,1) [URL]. Have been really helpful. Only my ATI Radeon HD 2600XT stock card in my 2008 mac pro, totally fried/died out. So I have zero video card (I'm using a PC laptop now). And the tutorials on how to flash a PC cards requires plugging in both the old card (using it while dumping the ROM) and new card. I was looking into buy a Sapphire 4870 1G and I don't want to pay the $300 and plus already used flashed cards on eBay. The 4870 are cheaper compared to the 5870 at $400 plus. I was wondering if anybody got to flashing the 4870 using just the one video card on a mac pro 2008 (3.1)? I need a good video card to do 3D modeling in Maya and Mudbox. But don't want to pay double the price, or lesser choice for 'apple' approved hardware?
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Mar 7, 2008
Is it possiable to get a off-the-shelf video card for the 2008 MP? I've seen that the MP uses the same graphics card as other PC computers (i.e. PCI-E)
or, do I have to get the Apple Nvidia 8800?
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Apr 18, 2008
I'm planning on buying a mac pro. Now the question is which video card should I get.
The choices are:
- ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB GDDR3
- NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3
I will not play games on my mac. It's gonna be a machine strictly for work, meaning Final Cut Pro, After Effects, Flash, Email, web, eventually maybe also Cinema 4D.
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Sep 13, 2008
I have a dual 2.0 PowerMac G5 without a video card. I also have an old GeForce4mx 64 MB video card lying around from a MDD. I was wondering if I could use that card in the G5, just to test for functionality of the computer. I'm wanting to avoid putting any unnecessary money into it just incase it doesn't work.
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Oct 12, 2008
Lately I've been seeing some odd things on my screen. The appear randomly and can only be removed if I change the resolution of my screen (I guess thats the closest thing to a degauss button we have these days) but it always comes back within an hour or so. There is nothing that seems to specifically trigger it either. It shows up as blue on a dark color and yellow on light colors (see the images below).I have an NVIDIA GeForce 7800GT in a 2.5 Ghz Quad PPC Powermac.
This has been going on since about the same time I updated to 10.5.5 but Im not so sure its a software glitch. A part of me is thinking that this is my video card's last gasps for air before it dies. BUT I can take a screenshot of it which makes me question the software aspect. I can only take a screenshot of it when I use the command for taking a shot of the entire screen (Command-Shift-3) and not the command for cropping your shot (Command-Shift-4).
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Apr 14, 2009
i just received my 17 inch mbp and i was wondering how do i choose what video card i want to use ?
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Apr 16, 2009
The GT 120s are killing me in a WinXP program that I use. I tried sticking in a GeForce 8800GT that I took from a windows machine. When you power on, a loud alarm goes off. Obviously, I turned it off. I was under the impression that I could use a different card. I know most pci's won't boot os x, but I thought I could use it just for Win. This alarm going off tells me otherwise. Weren't 8800 GT's available for Mac pros recently?
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