Adding a 2nd gfx card to a Mac Pro

[Simon R.]

I am thinking about getting an extra gfx card for my Mac Pro to add a third output - I need this to go to a monitor which has HDMI, but I guess I could add a DVI>HDMI connector to take care of that.

The thing is... what kind of gfx card can I buy? It doesn't need to be anything fancy, since I will only need one extra output and no extreme 3D features. Currently I have the standard nVidia 7600GT card that comes with the Mac Pro. Can I just buy another one of those and slap in? What about BIOS/EFI? Do all 7600GTs come with EFI, so they will all work in a Mac Pro?

 

[Simon R.]

I checked nVidias site and it says I can only buy extra gfx cards that will work with Mac Pro directly from Apple. But I haven't found where in the store to order just a gfx card. Hmm.

 

[yagran]

best solution in my eyes would be to just book an appointment at yourlocal store and take your mac pro down there and ask them to put another 7600gti n there for you, i think im right in saying they dont charge for installation? also im pretty sure the ones apple put in there are specific to mac, not just the average 7600gt you can get on ebay..so be careful if you do do it yourself

 

[Cromulent]

NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT graphics with 256MB memory (US Apple Store)

Should be in the same place for all the other Apple stores.

 

[Simon R.]

Thanks but that is not very easy for me to get my Mac Pro to a store. And I am not sure any store would want to help me out with that

I will have to order the 7300GT from Apple - at almost twice the cost of a standard PC 7300 card

 

[4nr-]

Thanks but that is not very easy for me to get my Mac Pro to a store. And I am not sure any store would want to help me out with that

I will have to order the 7300GT from Apple - at almost twice the cost of a standard PC 7300 card

Watch out with this, I think you have to use two identical cards if you want to be able to use them together. At least that's how it is on PCs.

 

[cube]

Watch out with this, I think you have to use two identical cards if you want to be able to use them together. At least that's how it is on PCs.

That's just for SLI.

 

[Fortis]

I will have to order the 7300GT from Apple - at almost twice the cost of a standard PC 7300 card

Unless you successfully flash a standard PC 7300GT that has the EXACT specs as the one used in the Mac Pro, it will only work in Windows and not OS X. You have to buy a Mac edition video card because it has EFI, which is required for it to work in OS X.

 

[dkoralek]

Watch out with this, I think you have to use two identical cards if you want to be able to use them together. At least that's how it is on PCs.

and in the old windows days (e.g. win98), i believe that you had to have two of the same graphics card to be able to use two at the same time.

cheers.