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Getting power to a 6870 in a Mac Pro 1,1?

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peoplemover

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 23, 2011
5
0
Hey everybody,
I've got a Mac Pro 1,1 with the original GeForce 7300 GT and I'm looking for a video card upgrade. Now that Lion's out, I've seen various reports that the Radeon HD 6870 will work out of the box, and that sounds amazing. Assuming that it does work as advertised, I have one question that I'm curious about: how do you get power to the thing?

Since my current card doesn't have any auxiliary power inputs, I heard I'll need some kind of adapter? Can anybody help direct me to what I need? And where in the box should I take the power from - the SuperDrive maybe? Most of the detailed install directions I've seen for this (and other) cards are from newer Mac Pros that already have power plugs hanging around in the area from original installs.

Thanks!
 
handheldgames said:
You are looking for the PCI Express Power cable for the Mac Pro. The cable is the same for all current revisions of the Mac Pro.

Have fun shopping: http://www.google.com/search?client...c.r_pw.&fp=3d1d6ba273eae076&biw=1400&bih=1162

Great deals under $9.00 shipped. If you are inclined to pay more... You can pay 2x+ the price at OWC/MacSales when you includes shipping costs.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apple/9227128/
Click to expand...
If you want to go on the feebay then you can get them for a couple of dollars a piece from hong kong/china the couple I bought took less than a week to get here (Canada) from there .
 
MacUser2525 said:
If you want to go on the feebay then you can get them for a couple of dollars a piece from hong kong/china the couple I bought took less than a week to get here (Canada) from there .
Click to expand...

Am I to surmise from this that you se running something other than the 8800GT mentioned in your signature?
For those in the UK, there is a British based seller on eBay, slight markup to £5 but nothing major.
 
OracleRedux said:
Am I to surmise from this that you se running something other than the 8800GT mentioned in your signature?
For those in the UK, there is a British based seller on eBay, slight markup to £5 but nothing major.
Click to expand...

No I am running the 8800gt just that I had a 6870 laying around in my hackintosh when I bought that machine used on the feebay and got a bonus surprise on the video card so I had ordered the cables in anticipation of putting in the 6870 to replace the card in it which I thought would be a 2600xt but was not. Almost made up for the $100 the scumbag stole from me for the proper professional packing I paid for only to have my Mac Pro arrive in a freakin Dell monitor box enclosed in couple of pieces of bubble wrap for christ sakes..
 
Awesome, thanks for the info. These must plug into the ports on the motherboard all the way to the left of the PCIe area, right?
 
6870 works on mac natively out of the box for OSX Lion ? I've yet to see one. Can someone verify this.
 
I can use the 6870 to make a clean install of Lion? my GT7300 dies and the boot disk is a new one too!

I´m thinking of buying the 6870 to replace the GT7300 but i don´t know if my MacPro 1,1 can work with it natively, with out a prior MacOs installed.

How many power cables do i need for a card as the XFX 6870?
 
degl said:
I can use the 6870 to make a clean install of Lion? my GT7300 dies and the boot disk is a new one too!

I´m thinking of buying the 6870 to replace the GT7300 but i don´t know if my MacPro 1,1 can work with it natively, with out a prior MacOs installed.

How many power cables do i need for a card as the XFX 6870?
Click to expand...

I don't know for sure about the clean install question, but I can't imagine it would be a problem. It should work just fine, I think?

The XFX 6870 has two power connectors, so you'll need two power cables.
 
peoplemover said:
I don't know for sure about the clean install question, but I can't imagine it would be a problem. It should work just fine, I think?

The XFX 6870 has two power connectors, so you'll need two power cables.
Click to expand...


Thanks peoplemover!
I will try then.
 
10.6.7 --> 6870 needs drivers, pkg available at groths.org
10.6.8 --> drivers are present, 6870 works out the box (if I recall correctly)
Lion --> drivers are present, 6870 works out of the box

issues:
  • no bootscreen
  • problems with dvd player and steam games, to fix, use aty_init from pkg @ groths.org
 
jabbawok said:
Wil a Mac Pro 1,1 actually boot with just this card in it? Doesn't it have to have a mac specific firmware?
Click to expand...

For you to see the boot screen/message yes it needs the EFI firmware but the way it works with these is the PCID for the 6870 series is in the .plist of the relevant driver so when it sees that on loading the OS it will use a PC card with the that ID on/in it only used when the graphics loads so you get what is called a blind boot ie. nothing until desktop appears.
 
poster123 said:
6870 works on mac natively out of the box for OSX Lion ? I've yet to see one. Can someone verify this.
Click to expand...

Yes. If Cindori says it works then it works. I've done it on my Mac Pro 1,1 with 10.6.8 and it's fine.
 
Regarding the 6870 out of the box support, I use rEFIt to switch between OS X Lion and Windows - will I be able to see that screen (I have seen reports of no boot screen with the 6870)?

Cheers guys.
 
HawkEye40 said:
Regarding the 6870 out of the box support, I use rEFIt to switch between OS X Lion and Windows - will I be able to see that screen (I have seen reports of no boot screen with the 6870)?

Cheers guys.
Click to expand...

no, as its still a efi bootloader
 
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