GPU upgrade for 3,1 has head spinning

[G4DP]

So just a quick update -

I did wind up downloading Mavericks, and unfortunately, well...let's just say whatever improvements I noticed with the hardware upgrades are gone, and then some. Everything is running very very buggy (the preference pane up top will freeze when if I hit the drive icon and only a restart will fix it), dock vanishes, finder problems. Programs taking forever to open, safari can be up to 20 bounces. Lots of rainbow wheels, and a couple straight up crashes (which was so extremely rare up until now). Having never actually had to use time machine, I figured I would just ZAP! it back to 10.8, but I guess that's not how it works. So right now I'm just limping along.

Mavericks is a "bag of hurt" on my 08 Pro as well. It is slow, causes problems with the GPU (replacement 2600), also will not stay as the start up disk. Often turn on the machine and it boots to a Snow Leopard back up drive.

At first I thought it was a problem with the drive, so I swapped the contents over, still the same issue. Issue still occurred. Then did a clean install and happened straight away.

Sadly I missed out on ML and am having to run Lion. Thankfully the machine still runs like a dream in L.

If you can downgrade back, find a way. The machine feels almost like new when you remove Mavericks from it.

 

[gpzjock]

My 3,1 runs best on Snowy, I have far too many legacy applications in my software library to move it to anything without Rosetta. This is a primary reason I stick with 5870 gfx cards.

 

[ocharlas]

I agree...I have many fond memories of Snow Leopard. Definitely my favorite OS. Unfortunately now I use too much of the cloud-type stuff they introduced in Lion to go back to it.

 

[NOTNlCE]

Mavericks FLIES on my 3,1 - though I am booting from a PCIe Fusion Drive, and the system has only ever seen a Mavericks install. I bought it used in great condition from a lady who took very good care of it and only ever ran Snow Leopard. Wipe, installed the Mavericks GM1 (the Dev release at the time) and reinstalled all apps. A FRESH install rather than an upgrade might help you out there, but I doubt the graphics card is hindering your system. My 1,1 runs Mavericks great with my old Radeon 2600 XT. That, again, is a fresh install, however. I'd grab a spare hard drive, do a fresh install of 10.9.4 and see if you notice a difference.

Just my 2 cents. Good luck!

-N