Hi I do photography and some light video work with my macpro 3.1 with CS6, I use a nvidia GTX 660 from EVGA and it works fine. (Im on osx10.10.5 at the mo if that helps)
It's just an off the shelf PC card no flashing or anything. The only draw back is lack of boot screen but that makes no real difference in any way.
(when you have no bootscreen you cant do things like hold alt and chose a boot disc on start up but you can still do safe boots or recovery boots without any problems, if you need to switch boot disc chose the boot disc in system preferences then reboot)
with a change to a text file you can activate CUDA with adobe apps (CUDA dose less than you want 99% of the time & i dont think any of the app's you use use CUDA)
https://creatorup.com/enable-premie...eration-cuda-imac-macbook-geforce-video-card/
you can get the CUDA driver from nvidia's site
http://www.nvidia.com/object/mac-driver-archive.html
and to get the nvidia drivers go to the nvidia site and chose Getforce 600 series, product GTX680, then your version of OSX (chose the 680 as that gets you to the osx driver's even if your card is not a 680)
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
for the gtx660 you just need 1 power cable like this one (im in the uk)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-pci-e-video-922-7128-922-8446/dp/B002NPZSQ6/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1458445789&sr=8-3-fkmr0&keywords=apple+graphics+card+power+cab;e
if you do get a newer card check it dose not need more than two 6 pin power cable things.
if you are just using just Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Dreamweaver you dont need a fast card like a gtx680 but there fairly cheep now so i half think why not & i dont think you need to flash the GTX680 you just can (is that correct?)
(are the gtx760 or gtx960 just plug and play like the GTX660?)
One thing you want to do is install your new card in the second slot from the bottom not the bottom slot in the mac pro because it can overheat & I installed my GTX660 in the bottom slot and now cant pull it out as it's hard to reach the plastic latch holding it in which is a pain. (i dont overheat but might be a problem with hotter cards like the GTX680)
& do keep you old card as a backup just in case you ever have a problem.
are there any newer ATI cards which are simple plug and play? (i dont know as much about the ATI cards)
PS your mac pro 3.1 will keep working as long as the 4.1 & 5.1 keep working even the 1.1 & 2.1 work with new versions of osx if you put in a new graphics card and do a work around
PPS the bigger cards can make more nose
edit
just noticed your on 10.11.3 if you use a PC card then you may want to turn of auto update for osx as sometimes the graphic card drivers can lag behind the osx updates by a bit (is that still correct?)
It's just an off the shelf PC card no flashing or anything. The only draw back is lack of boot screen but that makes no real difference in any way.
(when you have no bootscreen you cant do things like hold alt and chose a boot disc on start up but you can still do safe boots or recovery boots without any problems, if you need to switch boot disc chose the boot disc in system preferences then reboot)
with a change to a text file you can activate CUDA with adobe apps (CUDA dose less than you want 99% of the time & i dont think any of the app's you use use CUDA)
https://creatorup.com/enable-premie...eration-cuda-imac-macbook-geforce-video-card/
you can get the CUDA driver from nvidia's site
http://www.nvidia.com/object/mac-driver-archive.html
and to get the nvidia drivers go to the nvidia site and chose Getforce 600 series, product GTX680, then your version of OSX (chose the 680 as that gets you to the osx driver's even if your card is not a 680)
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
for the gtx660 you just need 1 power cable like this one (im in the uk)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-pci-e-video-922-7128-922-8446/dp/B002NPZSQ6/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1458445789&sr=8-3-fkmr0&keywords=apple+graphics+card+power+cab;e
if you do get a newer card check it dose not need more than two 6 pin power cable things.
if you are just using just Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Dreamweaver you dont need a fast card like a gtx680 but there fairly cheep now so i half think why not & i dont think you need to flash the GTX680 you just can (is that correct?)
(are the gtx760 or gtx960 just plug and play like the GTX660?)
One thing you want to do is install your new card in the second slot from the bottom not the bottom slot in the mac pro because it can overheat & I installed my GTX660 in the bottom slot and now cant pull it out as it's hard to reach the plastic latch holding it in which is a pain. (i dont overheat but might be a problem with hotter cards like the GTX680)
& do keep you old card as a backup just in case you ever have a problem.
are there any newer ATI cards which are simple plug and play? (i dont know as much about the ATI cards)
PS your mac pro 3.1 will keep working as long as the 4.1 & 5.1 keep working even the 1.1 & 2.1 work with new versions of osx if you put in a new graphics card and do a work around
PPS the bigger cards can make more nose
edit
just noticed your on 10.11.3 if you use a PC card then you may want to turn of auto update for osx as sometimes the graphic card drivers can lag behind the osx updates by a bit (is that still correct?)
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