Video Card Upgrade 2008 MAC PRO

Joined
May 27, 2010
Messages
72
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Hey guys,

So about a year ago I bought the Ati Radeon 5770 upgrade kit for my Mac Pro and it has been okay but I wanted to take it to the next level. It would be insane to buy the 5870 for $430 right? When the latest greatest cards blow that one away.

Is there any easy way to get a newer card from the ATI 6000 or 7000 series or the NVIDIA cards to work on a mac pro safely. I was going to buy a card from best buy but the geek squad dude said the card would destroy my mother board as I have a Mac Bios, even if I use it only with windows 7 via boot camp. Is that true? I believe my mac pro has pci 2.0 so the 3.0 cards would not work? Maybe that is what he meant?

Also it would be of course ideal to use this card for osx and windows but if I could just ad a second card to use only for windows I would be okay with that..., if i have to modify my bios or something that sounds risky.

UPDATE I just saw this post! Does anyone have any experience with this? If I upgrade to osx mountain lion will I see a performance upgrade too? I am on snow leopard. I am using FCP 7 as well and wonder how the compatibility with be.

http://nrsotw.blogspot.com/2012/09/gtx-660ti-in-mac-pro-and-davinci.html
 

Raz0rEdge

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Jul 17, 2009
Messages
15,745
Reaction score
2,071
Points
113
Location
MA
Your Mac's Specs
2022 Mac Studio M1 Max, 2023 M2 MBA
For starters, you have to buy video cards that are meant for Macs and OS X. You cannot buy generic video cards regardless of it being PCI 2.0 or 3.0 and assume it's going to work in you Mac. Plugging in a non-Mac specific video card might not work, but I don't imagine that it'd actually cause any damage to the logic board.

I don't have a Mac Pro, so I'm light on knowledge about specific video cards that you can buy to upgrade from what you have..
 
Joined
Nov 28, 2007
Messages
25,564
Reaction score
486
Points
83
Location
Blue Mountains NSW Australia
Your Mac's Specs
Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
In my Mac Pro days the card you are using was faster than the 6870 when tested. The latter had the advantage of running four monitors over the 5770 three. As to the question of using Sapphire and PC cards, google that question.
 
OP
V
Joined
May 27, 2010
Messages
72
Reaction score
0
Points
6
For starters, you have to buy video cards that are meant for Macs and OS X. You cannot buy generic video cards regardless of it being PCI 2.0 or 3.0 and assume it's going to work in you Mac. Plugging in a non-Mac specific video card might not work, but I don't imagine that it'd actually cause any damage to the logic board.

I don't have a Mac Pro, so I'm light on knowledge about specific video cards that you can buy to upgrade from what you have..

Smoke on the Water: GTX 660ti in a Mac Pro and DaVinci Resolve 9

Did you read this part of my post? He is using the gtx660i generic brand in my year of mac pro. I need to upgrade to Mountain Lion to do so. How is Mountain Lion? Is it worth upgrading?
 

pigoo3

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
May 20, 2008
Messages
44,210
Reaction score
1,418
Points
113
Location
U.S.
Your Mac's Specs
2017 15" MBP, 16gig ram, 1TB SSD, OS 10.15
Smoke on the Water: GTX 660ti in a Mac Pro and DaVinci Resolve 9

Did you read this part of my post? He is using the gtx660i generic brand in my year of mac pro. I need to upgrade to Mountain Lion to do so. How is Mountain Lion? Is it worth upgrading?

Installing a non-Mac video card into your Mac Pro is not just "plug & play". You have to "flash the ROM" of the video card to work in a Mac…and if you read the article linked…the Mac can do a few items oddly.

Also…the author of that article certainly doesn't do exactly everything that you do…and as soon as you try something that they don't do…you could run right into a brick wall in terms of compatibility.

Finally. The authors testing was with Mountain Lion version 10.8.2. You never know…when OS 10.8.3 is released…the non-Mac video card could be totally "dead in the water".

What I'm trying to say is…using a non-Mac video card in a Mac Pro…is "User Beware"!!;) It may work well with some things…and then totally lock-up when doing other things.:(

- Nick
 
OP
V
Joined
May 27, 2010
Messages
72
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Installing a non-Mac video card into your Mac Pro is not just "plug & play". You have to "flash the ROM" of the video card to work in a Mac…and if you read the article linked…the Mac can do a few items oddly.

Also…the author of that article certainly doesn't do exactly everything that you do…and as soon as you try something that they don't do…you could run right into a brick wall in terms of compatibility.

Finally. The authors testing was with Mountain Lion version 10.8.2. You never know…when OS 10.8.3 is released…the non-Mac video card could be totally "dead in the water".

What I'm trying to say is…using a non-Mac video card in a Mac Pro…is "User Beware"!!;) It may work well with some things…and then totally lock-up when doing other things.:(

- Nick


Thanks but,they are not flashing any rom or doing any kind of "hacking" to get this to work. That was the old method and does not even require Mountain Lion, and yes that is totally a user beware scenario. The updates are on the Nvidia website so why would you need to flash it or why would there be a problem?

Sure people are running into some issues but if you kept reading the threads it was all user error such as not installing the latest updates of the Nvidia Drivers and Cuda.

Unfortunately this seems like the best the pro community will get until they just totally cut us off as well as the mac pro line.

Some of these video cards do require two power cables to plug into a motherboard that might not be designed for it...I actually talked to a mac genius and he simple said "i would not recommend doing that." I could brick the machine. But I am not sure if that was just a political liability answer... Ah...times like this I don't get why I still use macs.
 
Joined
Dec 6, 2012
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Mac Pro GPU power connections

Hi there, the Mac Pro Motherboard has two connections for GPU power.
If you read some of the other posts on my blog there is more information about installing "PC" cards in a Mac Pro. There is also info on where to get the power cables required.
Many people have had success with these cards.
Basically since OSX 10.7.2 it has been possible to use an Nvidia 500 or 600 series graphic card.
There are also rumours that in 10.8.3 Apple will add support for AMD 7000 cards.
Good luck!!
http://nrsotw.blogspot.co.uk/
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top