Early 2008 iMac 24" GPU Upgrade Options

[TechInit]

Hi there,

I've just got an old 2008 24" iMac for £30, and I want to use it for some older-title gaming, web browsing and all the other stuff you do with an older iMac. My only problem is, it has the Radeon HD 2600 Pro which isnt all that great. I've been looking at images of the 2600 and I've tried to find some MXM HE cards that have the same connector layout as the 2600. I am aware that the heatsink compatibility needs to be taken into account, because the more RAM chips the more heatsinks surface area required yada yada yada.

Anyhow, I was thinking about the QuadroFX 770M, since I also want to use it for some lighter video/photo work, and a Quadro would fit my needs nicely. I dont really want to put in an 8800 GT because its destined to fail at one point and I dont have the money to throw around buying new graphics cards every living second.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Hi there,

I've just got an old 2008 24" iMac for £30, and I want to use it for some older-title gaming, web browsing and all the other stuff you do with an older iMac. My only problem is, it has the Radeon HD 2600 Pro which isnt all that great. I've been looking at images of the 2600 and I've tried to find some MXM HE cards that have the same connector layout as the 2600. I am aware that the heatsink compatibility needs to be taken into account, because the more RAM chips the more heatsinks surface area required yada yada yada.

Anyhow, I was thinking about the QuadroFX 770M, since I also want to use it for some lighter video/photo work, and a Quadro would fit my needs nicely. I dont really want to put in an 8800 GT because its destined to fail at one point and I dont have the money to throw around buying new graphics cards every living second.

Any help would be appreciated!

There would be no help to serve your purpose.
All because the incompatibility issue.

 

[TechInit]

There would be no help to serve your purpose.
All because the incompatibility issue.

Are you sure? There are macOS drivers for this card, and it uses the same MXM III (HE) form factor, and the way the pins are arranged are the exact same. The RAM chips are also aligned exactly like the 2600. It also uses the same G96 CPU that the 9600M GT uses, except this one doesn't fail.

Below is an image of both the cards, except the particular card I'm looking at has a slightly different layout as the RAM chips are rotated 90 degrees to match the layout of the 2600.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Are you sure? There are macOS drivers for this card, and it uses the same MXM III (HE) form factor, and the way the pins are arranged are the exact same. The RAM chips are also aligned exactly like the 2600. It also uses the same G96 CPU that the 9600M GT uses, except this one doesn't fail.

Below is an image of both the cards, except the particular card I'm looking at has a slightly different layout as the RAM chips are rotated 90 degrees to match the layout of the 2600.

If you don't believe, just buy some cards and try it yourself. You may open a new approach for upgrading Core 2 Duo iMac, whether or not they are worth upgrading.

 

[TechGeekNZ]

Are you sure? There are macOS drivers for this card, and it uses the same MXM III (HE) form factor, and the way the pins are arranged are the exact same. The RAM chips are also aligned exactly like the 2600. It also uses the same G96 CPU that the 9600M GT uses, except this one doesn't fail.

Below is an image of both the cards, except the particular card I'm looking at has a slightly different layout as the RAM chips are rotated 90 degrees to match the layout of the 2600.

If you did try this, please report back with the results, positive or negative. Having recently acquired an early 2008 iMac8,1 myself (given away because of one single column of dead pixels), I am also looking for ways to make it more useful.