3870 X2 1GB on a 2007 Mac Pro in Windows?

[Og Oggilby]

Is it possible to run an ATI 3870 X2 1GB as the only video card on a 2007 Mac Pro if it is only used as a Windows machine?

 

[Tallest Skil]

I believe that you have to have an OS X card to boot into so as to be able to get past the EFI bootloader and get to Windows. It's possible to use a 3870 x2 in a Mac Pro, I just think that you have to have an OS X card.

 

[Og Oggilby]

I believe that you have to have an OS X card to boot into so as to be able to get past the EFI bootloader and get to Windows. It's possible to use a 3870 x2 in a Mac Pro, I just think that you have to have an OS X card.

Thanks for the quick reply. So I could pick up a 7300GT (I have the 1900XT) and run it with a 3870?

 

[Tallest Skil]

I'm fairly sure that would work. Mind, I don't have a 3870 x2, or a Mac Pro for that matter, but Mercurial Oxide runs one in his (2008) and I don't think that he's had much difficulty...

 

[pipomolo42]

Hi,

For your info, I have a 2006 Mac Pro with a PC only 8800GTS card, and it works fine as a Windows/Linux machine.

You might want to keep a Mac OS X installation somewhere, to be able to do firmware updates, if any is available.

1/ using a EFI/Mac OS X card, install rEFIt, and configure it to boot your legacy OS first
2/ remove the EFI/OS X card, install your PC only card.
3/ reboot. The screen will stay blank during the EFI phase, but the PC vgabios will get executed once rEFIt boots the bootcamp EFI App

You can then chainload to a BIOS GRUB or LILO, to have a second boot selector, to choose among your different BIOS based OSes

If a firmware update is available for your machine, just plug the EFI/Mac OS card instead of the PC one, and reboot to Mac OS X through rEFIt's menu