Cheap graphics card to upgrade from noisy 8800GT

[Melvin Frohike]

Hi,

I have a Mac Pro 3,1 still using its original Geforce 8800GT.
The card is very very noisy when gaming.

I would like to cheaply upgrade to a less noisy card that is also more powerful than my current one. The card should work out of the box without any flashing.
I was hoping for something less than 70$. The cheaper the better.

I want to do gaming mostly in OS X and i don't care if the Boot Camp screen doesn't appear.

I do not have a preference regarding ATI or NVidia cards, whatever works best.

What can you recommend? Does such a card even exist?

 

[pastrychef]

I managed to get an Nvidia GT 640 1GB DDR5 from ebay for about $60 that worked great in my my Mac Pro 5,1. Of course, there's no boot screen.

 

[MacsRgr8]

Any *Mac-version* of the ATi cards work perfectly:
Radeon 4870
Radeon 5770
Radeon 5870

Maybe a used 4870 is about right considering your budget?

Many Mac Pro 3.1 folk have upgraded their GPU to the Radeon 5XXX-series or higher. So, it wouldn't surprise me that you can find a used Mac-edition of the ATi Radeon 4870 for cheap.

 

[gpzjock]

If you have Mountain Lion installed.

Any low budget Nvidia card should work in your Mac Pro.

http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-GeForce-PCI-Express-Graphics-GV-N650OC-1GI/dp/B00942TJFC/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
Over $100 but very quiet and much more grunt than the 8800GT it would replace.

http://www.amazon.com/NVIDIA-GeForce-PCI-Express-Video-GT630-DCSL-2GD3/dp/B00BU3ZNGC/ref=sr_sp-btf_title_2_28?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1380619961&sr=1-28&keywords=GT640
Silent but a bit low powered, $75.

8800GT

GT 630

GTX 650