"Any" Graphics card for MP 1,1

[Frozenhell2010]

Hi!

I just joined, as I just got an old, defective MacPro 1,1. During boot, the screen is garbled and pixelated, so the graphics card (Radeon X1900XT) is most probably defective. I already tried to bake it with no effect.

As most people try to "upgrade" their video card, I just found information on the web on how to get something better than the original cards (Radeon 4870 etc.), but I just need any graphics card that works. Before I buy a used Mac card, I wonder if any of these old PC cards could be flashed with a Mac compatible firmware, as I have them laying around: X1900GT/256M, HD2600Pro, HD3650, X1950GT?

I read about the 64K-vs.128K Flash size thing, ist this still an issue for these cards or is that a topic from the older G5 times? If now, is it acceptable here to ask for firmware images?

Thanks!

Martin

 

[FluxMaven]

If you are running snow leopard or lion there are a lot of PC cards that work OOB if you don't mind not having the gray apple screen.

I have a non flashed PC Raedon HD 5770 that I can swap from my Mac Pro 1,1 or back to the PC without changing anything. On the Mac it runs just fine but just shows a black screen until you hit the desktop. I'm sure you can do this with most 4xxx 5xxx and some 6xxx series cards. I don't know what all needs to be done on Nvidia cards but you can search around.

Here is some info on flashing cards https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/877441/

 

[spacedesign911]

I had those issues wit the 1900, a good dusting and compressed air clean of the card always got it running again for a week or 2!

This card never gave any trouble.

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-8800-gt-for-mac/

 

[Frozenhell2010]

Hi!

Thanks for the link, but it's more about newer cards (Radeon 4xxx series). I assume there's nothing for older cards...

I would actually like to have a fully compatible card, including boot screen, etc., as I want to reinstall the OS. I assume installing MacOS X requires a fully supported card? Or can I start the installation from DVD "blindly" and get a video signal during the installation?

I already cleaned my X1900GT completely prior to baking it, so it seems not to be a dust problem (probably one of the memory chips is broken).
Unless I find a way to flash one of the old cards I have, I'll probably grab some used card from eBay.

Ciao

Martin