What Video Cards Work in Mac Pros?

im debating buying a used mac pro and was wondering whats the best video nvidia and amd card i can currently get and will work?

GamerGirlAlice said:

im debating buying a used mac pro and was wondering whats the best video nvidia and amd card i can currently get and will work?

Click to expand...

Do you have a budget limitation? "Best" can sometimes be expensive!

- Nick

well considering 670 or 680 or 7950 or 7970. jut a single card under 500 is ideal i figure.

GamerGirlAlice said:

well considering 670 or 680 or 7950 or 7970.

Click to expand...

If these are model numbers for PCI video cards...Macintosh versions were never made for a Mac Pro. Windows video cards cannot just be "popped" into a Mac Pro. Mac Pro's need a "Macintosh compatible" version of the video card to operate.

Sometimes some Windows video cards can be used...but they need their ROM flashed first to work in a Mac Pro. I am not a big fan of flashed video cards...so I have no more info to offer on the subject.

The Radeon 5770 is the video card that ships with brand new currently selling Mac Pro's. These sell for around $250 new. There is also a Radeon 5870 which is about 2x as powerful as the 5770...and it sells for around $450. The Apple Store also sells the NVIDIA Quadro 4000 for $1200 bucks. I do not know if it is better than the 5870...but it sure costs more!!!

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

NVIDIA Quadro 4000 for $1200 bucks. I do not know if it is better than the 5870...but it sure costs more!!!

Click to expand...

the NVIDIA Quadro 4000 is a professional graphics card designed for 3d model work like in designing video games

The cards you can use also depend on what MacPro you get, some of the older ones with a 32 bit EFI do not take the more modern graphics cards

Unless you're very keen to buy one now, I'd suggest waiting on a Mac Pro ... Tim Cook has promised a new model (finally) in 2013, and the indication is that it would be earlier in the year rather than later, but nobody knows for sure ...