2008 mac pro grpahics card help ????

[cg1983]

I had the original card for years in the mac pro, stopped working few months ago.
Swapped it for a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT

Id say its been used around 20 to 30 times since been replaced.
This has now stopped working.
Same issue picture on screen starts to distort, now doesnt work at all after trying to clean it out etc..

Is this just bad luck or does it sound like something more is going on?

Its a 2008 8 core mac pro
[doublepost=1540502245][/doublepost]Also, if it does just need replacing again, which is the best one. Cant seem to find any with a warranty

 

[tsialex]

Buy a PC NVIDIA GTX 680 and flash yourself the eVGA GTX 680 Mac Edition firmware into it, it's the best flash yourself card that you can use with a MP3,1 and you can even run Mojave with this GPU installed into a MP3,1 with some hacking.

Take a look on the Confirmed and Possible Flashable GTX 680 Models, start to searching for one of the recommended/tested models.

 

[iriejedi]

my GT8000 dies - thermal issues were common for these - die with heat - make sure your fans are working in front - one of mine died - likely cost me the video card and then a ram module before I noticed.

I put in a Radeon 5870 and it is great! My 2008 Mac Pro with a SSD boot drive is still a beast!

 

[cg1983]

the fan on the front is working.
the fan on the video card is also working.

flash myself? That was some language I didnt understand
Can someone please explain what all that means in non computer tech words

 

[tsialex]

the fan on the front is working.
the fan on the video card is also working.

flash myself? That was some language I didnt understand
Can someone please explain what all that means in non computer tech words

PC Cards to work correctly on a Mac, have boot screens, single mode, verbose mode, FileVault2 needs to change the PC firmware to a Mac one. Flashing is the process of writing the Mac firmware into the SPI flash memory of the GPU card.

The easiest card to do it is the GTX 680, you can do it yourself within 5 minutes in Windows. Read Step-by-Step Instructions for Flashing GTX680.

Mac Pro 2008 can't use most of current GPUs on the market, at least no AMD one, but you can find a used GTX 680 and flash the Mac firmware.

 

[cg1983]

Ok so you recommend this over say the

NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600

One that is already setup for mac

 

[tsialex]

Ok so you recommend this over say the

NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600

One that is already setup for mac

This one is a G80GL card and only works up to 10.13. It's from 2007 and it's the Quadro version of 8800GT.

NVIDIA GTX 680 is a 2012 GPU and you can install a patched Mojave into MP31. Even if you don't want to do it now, it's nice to have a card that you can use in a later Mac Pro and current version of macOS.

 

[cg1983]

i think I have 10.6 running. not sure it can update any further than that.

have no intention of getting another mac. Would be too expensive to get all the software I have on this, and it all still runs fine.
[doublepost=1540667527][/doublepost]This??

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Electron...4:g:bEcAAOSw-HRbyERP:rk:4:pf:1&frcectupt=true

 

[tsialex]

i think I have 10.6 running. not sure it can update any further than that.

have no intention of getting another mac. Would be too expensive to get all the software I have on this, and it all still runs fine.
[doublepost=1540667527][/doublepost]This??

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Electron...4:g:bEcAAOSw-HRbyERP:rk:4:pf:1&frcectupt=true

If you going continue to run 10.6, you have to buy a card that has driver support for 10.6. So, NVIDIA GTX 680 is a no go, since support starts with 10.8. Your options are severely limited.

GPUs support with Snow Leopard:

• Apple NVIDIA 8800GT,
• Apple NVIDIA Quadro FX5600,
• Apple ATI 2600XT,
• Apple NVIDIA GT 120,
• Apple ATI 4870,
• Apple ATI HD 5770/5780 (only after 10.6.4).

If I was buying for Snow Leopard use, I'd pick an Apple NVIDIA GT120 (no need for auxiliary mini PCIe 6-pin power cable) or an Apple HD 5770 (need one mini PCIe 6-pin power cable).

You can buy PC flashed cards too, but this complicate the matter a lot.

 

[cg1983]

on a 2008 mac pro, i didnt think I could update past snow leopard??

 

[tsialex]

on a 2008 mac pro, i didnt think I could update past snow leopard??

Official Apple support:

• MP1,1/2006 & MP2,1/2007 = 10.7.5
• MP3,1/2008 = 10.11.6
• MP4,1/2009 = 10.11.6
• MP5,1/2010/2012 = 10.14

If you change video cards, use patched installs, firmware upgrade (4,1 to 5,1), etc:

• MP1,1/2006 & MP2,1/2007 = 10.11.6
• MP3,1/2008 = 10.14
• MP4,1/2009 = 10.14
• MP5,1/2010/2012 = 10.14