Cheapest “office” video card for Mac Pro 1,1

[Flash SWT]

Cheapest “office” video card for Mac Pro 1,1

Apologies for starting a new topic on what has been discussed over and over. I’ve read through a lot of the threads here and the amount of information is just overwhellming.

I’m looking for the cheapest but still reliable video card upgrade to get a group of ten or more Mac Pro 1,1’s running Yosemite/El Cap and then hopefully at least through 10.12.

The main different in my situation is that I’m not looking for performance or gaming ability like many here. These are machines I’d like to pass down from our creative departments to one that does simple office work. Web, email and Microsoft Office. Nothing fancy or graphically demanding.

Is the GT 120 from from MacVidCards the cheapest option out there?
http://www.macvidcards.com/store/p25/Nvidia_GT_120_.html

I saw this GeForce 210 card mentioned in another thread, would it work?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121422

EFI boot would be nice but isn’t an absolute necessity (I’ll still have the original cards if needed). I’m also not scared to flash the cards myself.

I appreciate any and all help y’all can offer.

TL;DR: What is the cheapest video card for simple office work in a MacPro1,1?

 

[Machines]

Cheapest “office” video card for Mac Pro 1,1

Apologies for starting a new topic on what has been discussed over and over. I’ve read through a lot of the threads here and the amount of information is just overwhellming.

I’m looking for the cheapest but still reliable video card upgrade to get a group of ten or more Mac Pro 1,1’s running Yosemite/El Cap and then hopefully at least through 10.12.

The main different in my situation is that I’m not looking for performance or gaming ability like many here. These are machines I’d like to pass down from our creative departments to one that does simple office work. Web, email and Microsoft Office. Nothing fancy or graphically demanding.

Is the GT 120 from from MacVidCards the cheapest option out there?
http://www.macvidcards.com/store/p25/Nvidia_GT_120_.html

I saw this GeForce 210 card mentioned in another thread, would it work?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121422

EFI boot would be nice but isn’t an absolute necessity (I’ll still have the original cards if needed). I’m also not scared to flash the cards myself.

I appreciate any and all help y’all can offer.

TL;DR: What is the cheapest video card for simple office work in a MacPro1,1?

Go onto eBay and grab an ATI 2600 XT from a Mac Pro 3,1 (2008) . You should have full EFI and boot screen support when installed in a Mac Pro 1,1 (2006) running Yosemite and El Cap . If you like the performance , grab some more . I would strongly recommend rebuilding these cards as they are getting quite old . The genuine Mac Edition of this card looks like this :

 

[TheStork]

Go onto eBay and grab an ATI 2600 XT from a Mac Pro 3,1 (2008) . You should have full EFI and boot screen support when installed in a Mac Pro 1,1 (2006) running Yosemite and El Cap . If you like the performance , grab some more . I would strongly recommend rebuilding these cards as they are getting quite old . The genuine Mac Edition of this card looks like this :

View attachment 619461

Wont the 2600 have the EFI64 which won't work on the MP1,1 unless the Mac has the firmware fix?

 

[Machines]

Wont the 2600 have the EFI64 which won't work on the MP1,1 unless the Mac has the firmware fix?

It's an ATI card with EFI . They act differently than the nVidia EFI cards in this situation . I have installed ATI 5770 EFI cards in Mac Pro 1,1 (2006) workstations and they work fine . There may be a minimum OS X version required . ATI 2600 EFI cards should perform properly as well in a 2006 . See this thread :

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...avericks-yosemite-would-it-work-well.1836275/

I'm not certain what firmware fix you are talking about , but it would be a good thing to upgrade the bootrom of a Mac Pro 1,1 into a 2,1 anyways . It will improve your case fan control , especially with dual quad core processor configurations .

 

[netkas]

it's call EBC - Efi Byte Code. It's cpu arch independent and works on both 32-bit and 64-bit efis. Might even work on some arm efi heh.