I'm currently running an 8core 3,1 with a 5870 1gb gfx card. I run bootcamp for games and am wondering if I simply buy a regular 980 or equivalent for this whether I can use one of the upper PCI slots. Will there be enough power? How will win7 recognize I want to use one card over the other etc? I'm mostly just interested in the upgrade for some newer games and am fine without flashing it and creating potential problems on the OSX side which I use regularly as well.
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3,1 GFX Card question
- Thread starter SebastianFQR
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There is not enough power to run both cards.
Also the upper slots will slow down the card, although with a 3,1 you are probably CPU limited anyway so might not notice the difference.
Also the upper slots will slow down the card, although with a 3,1 you are probably CPU limited anyway so might not notice the difference.
I guess I need some advice then on an upgrade. I'm stuck on OSX 9.5 due to some software I don't want to upgrade. I have 3.0ghz processors. Again the upgrade is mostly for the bootcamp win7 gaming side.
If the card is not flashed and I hold down the command key, are the drives there on screen (technically) but I just can't see them to select? Does anyone have a 3,1 they've upgraded the gfx card in that they could recommend? And is Macvidcards the only guy flashing cards? I don't see any cards for sale on his site at the moment.
EDIT: Apparently I was wrong, so I've deleted my response here.
If Macvidcards is out of stock, you could always buy a PC card and send it to him for flashing service. It's cheaper than buying an in-stock card from him anyway.
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Maxwell GPUs won't work in 10.9, they require Yosemite or higher.
And no, the boot manager won't load at all without EFI GPU. Yon can't select the drives blindly, the system will boot straight into the pre-selected OS.
And no, the boot manager won't load at all without EFI GPU. Yon can't select the drives blindly, the system will boot straight into the pre-selected OS.
I've had an email into him since the beginning of Nov. with no response. While I wanted to use him I don't want a headache.
I'm thinking of just going for the 7950 mac edition and being done with it even if it is less for more. Has anyone reported any problems with it for 10.9.5?
Thanks for the heads up. I guess I would ask you the same question as well (above) about the 7950.
The official (!!) 7950 Mac Edition is actually poorly supported in the 3,1. Mavericks introduced a nasty power management bug, which will cripple the performance down to ~30%. This can be "solved" by trashing some power management kexts, which requires disabling SIP in newer OS (10.11+).
I can still be a good option, but I'd flash the card myself. It's pretty easy for those cards, the Mac Edition isn't worth the premium.
Hmm you're not talking to someone who's not informed enough to even know what a kext is. I suggested the mac edition only because it's new from owc and avoids the potential problems of used/refurbished.
I guess I'll have to make my peace with finding a gtx 780 or 660 (to use with osx10.9.5) on ebay and send it out to be flashed if there isn't someone reputable on ebay selling them that way already. Any suggestions on where to find these cards unused (new) - if that's even possible? I've looked at the obvious places amazon, ebay, newegg, b&h. I'm not sure if there are others I may not know about.
I'll go with ebay then. Has anyone here had any problems with any particular sellers they might want to let everyone know about?