I just received a used Mac Pro.
(specs here: Mac Pro "Quad Core" 2.66 (Original) Specs (Mac Pro, MA356LL/A, MacPro1,1*, A1186, 2180) @ EveryMac.com)
The problem I'm facing is that it has no graphics card in it, due to the original 7300GT having burned up and been tossed long ago. From what I've read (plenty!) there appear to only be about four cards which will work with this computer, due to only that many having been produced with the necessary Apple EFI. I've looked around and I've seen the original 7300GT cards for around $150 (and up). I'm no gamer nor web designer, so for me, spending more than $100 on a graphics card is hard to fathom.
I've read in many places where it states that without a card having the Apple EFI on it, you won't get the Mac bootup screens, but that once the OS loads, you will see the screen once OS X applies the appropriate driver.
What I'm after is a way to get a graphics card in this beast for under $100. In all that I've read, it astounds me that there hasn't been more tinkering and experimentation where this is concerned. I've read plenty of posts with people lamenting that "well, we just have to deal with it".
(specs here: Mac Pro "Quad Core" 2.66 (Original) Specs (Mac Pro, MA356LL/A, MacPro1,1*, A1186, 2180) @ EveryMac.com)
The problem I'm facing is that it has no graphics card in it, due to the original 7300GT having burned up and been tossed long ago. From what I've read (plenty!) there appear to only be about four cards which will work with this computer, due to only that many having been produced with the necessary Apple EFI. I've looked around and I've seen the original 7300GT cards for around $150 (and up). I'm no gamer nor web designer, so for me, spending more than $100 on a graphics card is hard to fathom.
I've read in many places where it states that without a card having the Apple EFI on it, you won't get the Mac bootup screens, but that once the OS loads, you will see the screen once OS X applies the appropriate driver.
- So, does that mean that just about any PCI Express card will actually work, so long as I don't care about seeing the Mac bootup screen?
- Is there any way of taking your ordinary average PCI Express graphics card and flashing it with Apple EFI, or does there have to have been written an Apple EFI version for the particular card? (I've read about taking the "PC version" of cards and flashing it with the EFI from a PC/Mac version of that SAME card, for example.)
What I'm after is a way to get a graphics card in this beast for under $100. In all that I've read, it astounds me that there hasn't been more tinkering and experimentation where this is concerned. I've read plenty of posts with people lamenting that "well, we just have to deal with it".
- Is it really that much of a brick wall?
- Has there not been a configurable graphics card EFI image that can be manipulated (to reflect the actual card in question) flashed onto any compatible (i.e. has a big enough ROM chip on it) graphics card, or does Apple have to have written one for the card to work at all under Mac OS?