5770 at a reasonable price or alternatives (pro 1,1)

[Snowshiro]

Due to the old one dying, I need to replace the graphics card in my Mac Pro 1,1.

Anyone know a place where I can get a HD 5770 for a *reasonable* price. It's utterly ridiculous that Apple is still selling this thing for 23,800 yen here in Japan, when a new 5770 PC version goes for about 7,500 yen - less than a third of the price.

I've heard they can be flashed, but I simply don't have any way to do it, since my only available machine is the Pro, and it's out of action at the moment.

Alternatively, I've heard that unflashed (PC) 6XXX series cards will work out of the box with Lion excluding the 6890/6990. Is this correct? If so, is there any way I can get this to work, because my Pro is currently running Snow Leopard.

I'm kinda confused about the best route to go down, or what is and isn't possible, so any advice would be appreciated.

 

[tayloralmond]

Due to the old one dying, I need to replace the graphics card in my Mac Pro 1,1.

Anyone know a place where I can get a HD 5770 for a *reasonable* price. It's utterly ridiculous that Apple is still selling this thing for 23,800 yen here in Japan, when a new 5770 PC version goes for about 7,500 yen - less than a third of the price.

I've heard they can be flashed, but I simply don't have any way to do it, since my only available machine is the Pro, and it's out of action at the moment.

Alternatively, I've heard that unflashed (PC) 6XXX series cards will work out of the box with Lion excluding the 6890/6990. Is this correct? If so, is there any way I can get this to work, because my Pro is currently running Snow Leopard.

I'm kinda confused about the best route to go down, or what is and isn't possible, so any advice would be appreciated.

Here's where I purchased mine. I purchased the single slot version for $200 US (16280 Yen according to Yahoo currency converter). I'm not sure if he (the owner of the website) sells internationally but I'm quite satisfied with this card.

http://old-macs.com/pages/Video_Cards/XFX5770ZMF3/

 

[MacVidCards]

Due to the old one dying, I need to replace the graphics card in my Mac Pro 1,1.

Anyone know a place where I can get a HD 5770 for a *reasonable* price. It's utterly ridiculous that Apple is still selling this thing for 23,800 yen here in Japan, when a new 5770 PC version goes for about 7,500 yen - less than a third of the price.

I've heard they can be flashed, but I simply don't have any way to do it, since my only available machine is the Pro, and it's out of action at the moment.

Alternatively, I've heard that unflashed (PC) 6XXX series cards will work out of the box with Lion excluding the 6890/6990. Is this correct? If so, is there any way I can get this to work, because my Pro is currently running Snow Leopard.

I'm kinda confused about the best route to go down, or what is and isn't possible, so any advice would be appreciated.

An EVGA 8800GT can be flashed in OSX. You will need to have 10.7.3 and Magic Drivers. If you had screen sharing turned on, you can do this from another Mac.

5770 will also work in 10.6.8 and later using stock OSX. Better if flashed but same basic +++'s and ---'s as 6870. XFX 5770s should be avoided

 

[Snowshiro]

So I tried out my PC's unflashed 5770 in my Mac Pro 1,1 and got nothing but a black screen. I believe this is because it died before I upgraded Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 so it doesn't have the necessary drivers.

I tried booting off a Lion install CD that I made myself, hoping it would load the necessary drivers, but still no joy - just a black screen.

Here are my two issues:

Is the boot screen OS dependent? Surely at the initial point of booting, the OS hasn't yet been loaded, so it shouldn't make a difference what drivers it contains because they're not yet being used (forgive my ignorance if this is totally incorrect - it's just a naive assumption).

If I have a pre-10.6.8 Snow Leopard Mac Pro, how the heck can I get a card to work in it, because I can't upgrade it (no display output). If I could upgrade it to Lion I think I could make progress, but there seems to be no way out of this problem.

 

[gpzjock]

You need to see to install.

Buy a card off MacVidCards that will run on your 1.1, then upgrade to Snow Leopard once you can see the screen.
After that look for a suitable replacement when it fails eventually too.

This one looks favorite: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nvidia-Geforce-8800-Ultra-1st-Gen-06-7-Mac-Pro-X1900-FASTEST-Nvidia-Choice-/230664957840?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item35b4b3ef90 and only $200 + postage.

This one is cheaper but a bit slow compared to a 5770: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nvidia-Geforce-8800-GTS-320-MB-for-1st-Gen-Mac-Pro-7300-/230647472322?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item35b3a920c2 but only ¥10,500.

Both will be visible in your Mac Pro under Leopard or better.
Even if you flash a PC 5770 in another machine your Mac Pro can't use it till you have installed Snowy 10.6.5.
Have you checked it isn't the PCI slot that has died? Try the cards you have in the other slots.

 

[Snowshiro]

If I buy the official Apple 5770 will it work (at least enough to upgrade the OS) even if I have a 10.6 vanilla Snow Leopard machine, or will I get a black screen until I have the necessary version of the OS?

All I want is the boot screen so that I can put a DVD in and upgrade OS X to the last version of Leopard and then buy the Lion upgrade from the Mac Store.

To be honest, much as I appreciate your help, if the next best alternative is $200, I might as well just bit the bullet and get the Apple 5770.