can you put in any pc graphics card to a mac?

[BFG]

Im looking to buy a mac pro, but im not happy about the graphics card in it. so i was wondering if i could buy any card and just put it in?
The one i was looking to buy is : BFG GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)

Would i come across any issues?

 

[speakerwizard]

from what i understand if you have bootcamp, it will pick it up, if not then it wont work (at least not without hacking, https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/247682/ may help, though when i got rid of my powermac, i went back to an imac so im not to 'up' on the subject

 

[MRU]

Yes you can put any card in but.....

They'll only work in windows not mac OSX

 

[crazycat]

I would like to see some kind of support for better graphics cards in OS X, i hope it comes in Leopard.

 

[slughead]

I would like to see some kind of support for better graphics cards in OS X, i hope it comes in Leopard.

It wont.

 

[mkrishnan]

If you google, I think there are firmware patches floating around for a lot of cards that will let you convert them to "grey market" Mac cards. But mostly only for the ones that are actually also officially available for Macs.

But I agree. It won't get better. OS X's stability and the fact that it supports a far more limited hardware set than Windows are not, taken together, coincidence.

 

[cynerjist]

OS X's stability and the fact that it supports a far more limited hardware set than Windows are not, taken together, coincidence.

true that.

i'm not sure how apple decides which vid cards to support, but i don't think i agree with it. would it kill them to add support for the few MOST popular, high-end cards as they are released? I don't think so.

 

[Dreadnought]

Apple will probably announce better cards next week. Now that the hardware is more "standard", it should be easier to keep up with technology.

 

[mkrishnan]

Now that the hardware is more "standard", it should be easier to keep up with technology.

Is this true? My impression was that Apple makes the video card manufacturers write drivers, and just oversees them? In that case, even though the core hardware is now Intel x64 / x86, the drivers are still being written to respond to Aqua/Quartz/CoreImage APIs, instead of DirectX APIs. Which I would think isn't substantially easier for a graphics card manufacturer when the OS is compiled for Intel instead of PPC?

 

[clevin]

true that.

i'm not sure how apple decides which vid cards to support, but i don't think i agree with it. would it kill them to add support for the few MOST popular, high-end cards as they are released? I don't think so.

the choosing of the cards is probably based on business partnership.

and if apple can support most popular hardwares in the market, it may well just release OSX for general market,

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

Not to throw a wrench into this but Apple has used inferior graphics as a tactic to get people to shed their old Macs for new Macs for years and years. There is two items that Apple doesnt like, one is the video card upgrade the other is the TV tuner. Apples History shows this.

 

[Fearless Leader]

I'm in the process of putting a nvidia 7800gs agp in my g5.
With the mac pro (well intel macs) it looks like it will be much easier to pc cards in mac. So just wait a while and you'll see some interesting stuff. also http://strangedogs.proboards40.com/ best place for this kind of stuff.

 

[killmoms]

Is this true? My impression was that Apple makes the video card manufacturers write drivers, and just oversees them? In that case, even though the core hardware is now Intel x64 / x86, the drivers are still being written to respond to Aqua/Quartz/CoreImage APIs, instead of DirectX APIs. Which I would think isn't substantially easier for a graphics card manufacturer when the OS is compiled for Intel instead of PPC?

Nonsense. Aqua/Quartz/CoreImage are all just APIs for OpenGL. And, it's actually the other way around—the reason there's such limited support is because Apple has to write the drivers based on the info given to them from the chipset manufacturers. This means they can only afford to support hardware they're shipping in their machines.