Mac Pro 1,1 10.9.2 (Tiamo) Graphic Card Suggestions

[jamgold]

I know there are entire threads about NVIDIA graphic cards (PC), but I wanted to hear from MacPro1,1 or 2,1 (2006-2008) owners who recently patched their boot.efi with Tiamo's solution and are running 10.9.2 and use an upgraded Graphics Card. Unfortunately my box still has the stock NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 9 MB and lack of OS support makes the flickering unbearable (particularly with Mail.app and Safari.app)

Could some kind soul post which (cheap) card to get, preferably because they have it working in their rig already?

This is not for gaming or graphics intensive stuff, just Mavericks Desktop and your occasional full screen video.

Thanks

Edit: This is the official list by Apple I believe
Edit: Similar post on MacRumors
Edit: List of working cards in MacPro1,1

• ATI Radeon HD 7950 (flashed)
• SAPPHIRE HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 MAC Edition
• ATI Radeon 4870 flashed
• ATI Radeon 5770 Mac Edition
• NVIDIA GTX 660
• NVIDIA 8800 GT Mac

UPDATE: I got a NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 2048 MB (unflashed) and it works fine
UPDATE: it worked in Mavericks (tiamo), and it works in Yosemite (pike)

 

[funwithdesign]

Just buy a used GT120 from the millions of people who are upgrading their 4.1s. If that's all you are doing with it, this card will be more than capable and cheap too.

 

[makaveli559m]

I was able to have two different Nvidia running on my 2.1 not only in Windows but also in Mavericks. One is a GT610 and the other one is a GTX 650, both work pretty well.

 

[Sko]

I'm super happy with my Radeon HD 4870, 1GB XFX-brand, PC-Bios flashed to EFI.

Maybe it draws a bit more power than newer cards, but it has no issues with with sleep, boot screen or ports not working and it's fully supported by the OS up to OpenGL 3.3 and OpenCL 1.2.

And it's cheap now. Read the 4870 ROM thread to know what to look for when obtaining one.

 

[hundehoved]

Graphics card

I upgraded my Mac Pro 2.1 Octocore 3ghz Xeon late 2007 model by following the card upgrade advice in this forum and installing Mavericks using Taimo's intructions and pkg. Thanks again. I bought a used ATI Radeon HD 5770 on eBay and it works like a charm now with 10.9.2. I am running Audio software and would advise getting a SSD for the boot drive though as that might speed things up a notch.

I know there are entire threads about NVIDIA graphic cards (PC), but I wanted to hear from MacPro1,1 or 2,1 (2006-2008) owners who recently patched their boot.efi with Tiamo's solution and are running 10.9.2 and use an upgraded Graphics Card. Unfortunately my box still has the stock NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 9 MB and lack of OS support makes the flickering unbearable (particularly with Mail.app and Safari.app)

Could some kind soul post which (cheap) card to get, preferably because they have it working in their rig already?

This is not for gaming or graphics intensive stuff, just Mavericks Desktop and your occasional full screen video.

Thanks

Edit: This is the official list by Apple I believe

 

[teameurox]

MacPro1,1 10.9.2 (Tiamo) Graphic Card Suggestions

Just buy a used GT120 from the millions of people who are upgrading their 4.1s. If that's all you are doing with it, this card will be more than capable and cheap too.

Not this ----As your machine has a 32bit efi and the last nvidia card with 32bit efi was the 8800gt. If you purchase and plan to use someone's OEM gt120 it will not work in your machine. If you buy MacVids custom gt120 32bit card then your fine. If you want AMD graphics go for a 4870 or 5770. I had dual 5770's and they were great boots screens etc. I just recently upgraded to Nvidia and am running a flashed 8800gt for boots screens and a GTX760

 

[jamgold]

Thanks for the response so far. I just found the following page on apples support pages, and they explicitly list these cards for my Mac Pro (Original)

• NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT
• ATI Radeon X1900 XT
• NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 (part number 630-7532 or 630-7895)
• NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT (part number 630-9492), offered as an upgrade kit

Is the AMD 5770 also 32bit EFI or why would it work?

 

[Robert Davies]

Thanks for the response so far. I just found the following page on apples support pages, and they explicitly list these cards for my Mac Pro (Original)

• NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT
• ATI Radeon X1900 XT
• NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 (part number 630-7532 or 630-7895)
• NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT (part number 630-9492), offered as an upgrade kit

Is the AMD 5770 also 32bit EFI or why would it work?

It was never officially sanctioned, but yes it does have 32 bit efi - I used one myself till late Nov' 2013 - and it is completely compatible with the 1,1 - 2,1.

The 5770 is the fastest Apple card for the Mac Pro 1,1 that shows full boot screens, and is still fully supported in FCP X btw.

 

[jamgold]

It was never officially sanctioned, but yes it does have 32 bit efi - I used one myself till late Nov' 2013 - and it is completely compatible with the 1,1 - 2,1.

The 5770 is the fastest Apple card for the Mac Pro 1,1 that shows full boot screens, and is still fully supported in FCP X btw.

Thanks a lot for that feedback. Off I go to eBay ...

 

[Mr. Zarniwoop]

The 5770 is the fastest Apple card for the Mac Pro 1,1 that shows full boot screens, and is still fully supported in FCP X btw.

Although it's not from Apple, the fastest and most modern graphics card for the 2006/2007 Mac Pro 1,1/2,1 that shows full boot screens, and is fully supported is the SAPPHIRE HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 MAC Edition or an AMD Radeon HD 7950/7970 that's been re-flashed with the SAPPHIRE HD 7950 Mac EBC firmware. The best summary of why that is can be found in Rominator's post on netkas.org.

 

[jamgold]

Although it's not from Apple, the fastest and most modern graphics card for the 2006/2007 Mac Pro 1,1/2,1 that shows full boot screens, and is fully supported is the SAPPHIRE HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 MAC Edition or an AMD Radeon HD 7950/7970 that's been re-flashed with the SAPPHIRE HD 7950 Mac EBC firmware. The best summary of why that is can be found in Rominator's post on netkas.org.

Thanks, Rominator's post says it all. Now I have to see if that card is in the budget

 

[lumo60]

I upgraded my Mac Pro 2.1 Octocore 3ghz Xeon late 2007 model by following the card upgrade advice in this forum and installing Mavericks using Taimo's intructions and pkg. Thanks again. I bought a used ATI Radeon HD 5770 on eBay and it works like a charm now with 10.9.2. I am running Audio software and would advise getting a SSD for the boot drive though as that might speed things up a notch.

Hey I bought a 5770 from ebay within the last week it works fine the only issue I have is that it doesn't show the boot screen it just goes right into the login window. Is yours allowing you to see the boot screen with the apple logo? just curious I am trying to see it there is a way to fix this on mine.
I am running it on a mac pro 1,1 with Mavericks (Tiamos workaround).

 

[jamgold]

If I understand correctly, only cards with Mac specific firmware generate output during boot. Since I am in the market for a card myself I tried to google the answer for you, and it seems the answer how to flash the card yourself can be found on the netkas forum

 

[lumo60]

If I understand correctly, only cards with Mac specific firmware generate output during boot. Since I am in the market for a card myself I tried to google the answer for you, and it seems the answer how to flash the card yourself can be found on the netkas forum

Hey thanks, Ill check that link and see if fixes my problem.

 

[jeanlain]

If I understand correctly, only cards with Mac specific firmware generate output during boot. Since I am in the market for a card myself I tried to google the answer for you, and it seems the answer how to flash the card yourself can be found on the netkas forum

I don't think you get any boot screen from those cards, even when flashed. I've not been following things closely since I've initiated that thread at netkas but at the time no one had managed to get dvi boot screen for the 5000 series. Flashing was just to make the card work at all on OS X (unflashed cards have various problems with itunes and games). I don't think you can get a boot screen from the 6000 series either. In fact, I think it only works for the 7950/7970 cards flashed with the sapphire firmware.

 

[666sheep]

.
The 5870 is the fastest Apple card for the Mac Pro 1,1 that shows full boot screens, and is still fully supported in FCP X btw.

Fixed that for you

In fact, I think it only works for the 7950/7970 cards flashed with the sapphire firmware.

7870 will have the bootscreen as well.

 

[Robert Davies]

Fixed that for you

I do not have a genuine Apple 5870, more a Sapphire Vapor OC flashed with an efi.

I did some experimentation….

I run a pair of Dell P2214H normally connected via a pair of DVI cables - no boot screens. (Unlike my box stock Apple 2600xt which does boot screens with a DVI cable)

To get a bootscreen I need a DVI -> VGA adapter in DVI port 1 connected via a VGA cable to by Dell P2214H - it appears to be critical as to which VGA cable I use too. One cable produces boot screens, but I cannot set the correct resolution (1920x1080) whereas the other VGA cable senses the correct res, but no boot screens. The screen pic is however noticeably brighter/sharper/clearer when connected via a DVI cable, so it's back to the twin DVI setup and no boot screens for me.

That said, I so rarely reboot that the boot screen issue is a non-issue that can be worked around easily with the Startup Disk control panel.

So, thanks (sincerely!) 666sheep for reminding me that the 5870 does boot screens, but the compromises necessary for my setup to utilise them are greater than I'm prepared to make - that said, the Sapphire Vapor OC is one seriously quick bit of kit in MPs even after all this time - it blows my 3mb GTX 660 out of the water on pretty much every test I put them up against.

 

[Hennesie2000]

I am running a MSI GTX 570 TwinFrozr III and haven't had any issues. Don't have the boot screen though.

 

[Earl Urly]

Just ordered an eVGA GeForce GTX 750Ti for my MacPro 1,1 with the Tiamo mod and Mavericks 10.9.2.

Yes its kind of ridiculous but I can afford this card, and it's NIB not used, so we shall see. Plenty of PCs I can slap it into if it doesn't work out and I'll move the GT7300 to another slot if I need a boot screen.

Will report back after install, I will look at CUDA processing and PhotoShop.

 

[Robert Davies]

I don't think that drivers for the Maxwell based 750 cards have got into an OS X or web driver release yet - The card's just too new.

They're not in 10.9.2 or the 331.01.01 web drivers, and I cannot comment on 10.9.3 sorry.

 

[javimontero]

Just ordered an eVGA GeForce GTX 750Ti for my MacPro 1,1 with the Tiamo mod and Mavericks 10.9.2.

Yes its kind of ridiculous but I can afford this card, and it's NIB not used, so we shall see. Plenty of PCs I can slap it into if it doesn't work out and I'll move the GT7300 to another slot if I need a boot screen.

Will report back after install, I will look at CUDA processing and PhotoShop.

Fantastic! I would like to see a benchmark on openCL (like Luxmark app)

Javi

 

[fhenry]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1685478/

 

[Earl Urly]

I don't think that drivers for the Maxwell based 750 cards have got into an OS X or web driver release yet - The card's just too new.

They're not in 10.9.2 or the 331.01.01 web drivers, and I cannot comment on 10.9.3 sorry.

Then either I'll refuse the shipment or keep it around until they DO put in drivers. Maybe I'll just get a 650 Ti instead.

 

[javimontero]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1685478/

Thanks

 

[Earl Urly]

Add another one

Picked up a GIGABYTE GV-N650OC-2GI GeForce GTX 650 and it works just fine, make sure you have the PCIe power cable. All 2 GB of VRAM is recognized by CUDA at least.

Going to let it chew on some CUDA for a while as well.. I can already tell it's running CUDA stuff at least four times faster than the 8800 GT. Might go back to the store and get a reconditioned EVGA GTX 660 and see how that goes.

Will do Ungine Heaven and other tests later..

Some quick observations: was using the second gen 8800 GT before this (the long slim shady, not the fatter 1st gen) and the screen still felt slow and steppy, especially over Apple Remote Desktop. The newer 8800 card doesn't do EFI boot screen.

The Gigabyte card is whisper quiet even at startup and it hasn't done much to increase any temps as far as I can see. It's also much smoother than the 8800 was both live and over ARD.

The new card ships with port covers for all ports, and even the PCIe slot has a cover. Very nice for the price ($129), although it's not like I'm going to carry it around or store it a lot.