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

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harvspecial

macrumors newbie
Oct 6, 2015
5
0
oh well. I guess it would be okay. I ended up spending $100 on it. So not too horrible. I also ordered 32gb of ram and the two 2.66 quad core processors. should be a speedy machine! *fingers crossed*
 
rmverdi

rmverdi

macrumors newbie
Oct 1, 2015
8
3
Rhode Island
Question regarding the Graphics card. Do you get Boot Screen access w/ the GTX 660? I have a spare EVGA 660 kicking around and was thinking about seeing if it will work in my Mac Pro 1,1 running Mac OS X El Capitan. I have FileVault enabled, and need to log in prior to OS booting. There is a UEFI Bios for my EVGA card, is it worth attempting to flash the card for Boot Screen Support?

Thanks!

FrankenPro said:
GTX 660 + Full Upgrade Writeup

Seeing as it's my first post, I guess I owe everyone a hello! :D

Here's a writeup of my experience modernizing a Mac Pro 1,1 (2006) with an emphasis on my GPU options, current configuration, and performance data. Hopefully someone will find it as useful as I would have when I started researching the best upgrades for this particular model.




Modernizing the Mac Pro 1,1
_________________________________________________________________________________________

This thread was a great resource while I recently overhauled my Mac Pro 1,1. I'm a graphic designer by trade and push the latest Adobe CC suite pretty hard on a daily basis, meaning peak multi-core CPU performance and maximum GPU utilization are a priority. Frankly, I was doubtful my elderly MP 1,1 had the upgrade potential to chug along for another year. After a week of research, and the discovery of the Tiamo boot efi / SFOTT combo, I figured I'd give the old boy a shot at redemption before shelling out for a new machine.

When I decided to keep/upgrade my MP 1,1 as a home workstation, I already had an installed 'ATI Radeon HD 2600,' which shipped stock in the slightly younger 2008 Mac Pro. (Side note: The ATI Radeon HD 2600 is the absolute minimum you need to run >10.7.5 with SFOTT on the MP 1,1, so if your pockets ain't got much jangle, you can pick one of these up for $20-35 on eBay at the moment.) Once I completed the Mac Pro 2,1 firmware update it was time to look for a budget GPU that wouldn't be a choke point for my graphics work. I ended up eBaying an EVGA GeForce GTX 660 (2GB) for around $100, and it runs flawlessly. Obviously no boot screen, but I just left the 2600 in the top PCI bay in case I need any boot options.

For now, the limiting factor as far as graphics performance is concerned is the 16x PCI-e 1.0 slot itself (max. 4GB/s @2.5GHz), which is inherent to the MP 1,1 logic board.

WcSWQ5P.jpg



Mac Pro 1,1 > 2,1 Upgrades List
Of course upgrading my machine didn't stop at the GPU, and neither will yours. Whose does? I didn't need my MP to simply have "compatible components," but rather to devour heavy graphics-intensive workloads by today's standards – So I've compiled the list of components now residing within my resurrected Mac Pro. The result is a nearly "maxed out" Mac Pro 2,1, with a little room to grow in the GPU category, and just one more CPU upgrade available (x5365). Personally, I don't think going above the components listed here is even close to being worth the steeper $/performance ratio, so I consider this rig "maxed."

My complete Mac Pro 1,1 to 2,1 upgrade kit included:
Item Name (My purchase price / store)


Admittedly, the total cost of $669 is likely more than most people are willing to spend on a 9 year old machine. But MAKE NO MISTAKE, my old-ass MP 2,1 now out-performs the 27" iMac (2012) I use everyday at my design studio under heavy graphics load. That being said, I was trilled to invest <$700 in a machine that I'll now be able to keep for possibly two more years. Once the logic board limitations (SATA I / PCI-e 1.0) are too painful to bear, I plan to use some of the new upgrade components in a hackintosh build (SSD, HDDs, USB3.0 card, and possibly the GTX 660 since it supports 4K).

It's a win-win.

I obsessed over learning every upgrade limitation of the MP 1,1>2,1 I could find (ie. Any SSD will be throttled at <275MB/s due to SATA I limits, etc.), and pretty much brought my machine to its maximum upgrade potential. That being said, I wholeheartedly welcome any questions if you plan to do the same.





Post-upgrade Performance Summary:
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Now, if you're like me, and tend not to take others' word for it - feast your skepticism on some solid numbers!


Geekbench3 Results:
Check out these upgrades in action by viewing my Geekbench3 benchmarks under the user "Macbookamateur." You'll be able to see the full system specs, and compare my before & after CPU upgrade scores.
http://browser.primatelabs.com/user/macbookamateur

Highest scoring result:
aIxRDh0.jpg



Xbench Results (with GTX 660):
Whether or not you believe in Xbench as a meaningful/consistent measure of overall system performance, some data is more useful than no data - so deal with it. I will however, preface these results by saying during the 7 or so times I've run this test, the results have been very consistent.

Overall Results 198.80

Now specifically for the graphics portion of the results (GTX 660):

Quartz Graphics Test – 184.58
Line – 223.52 @ 14.88 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle – 181.21 @ 54.10 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle – 161.34 @ 13.15 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier – 182.19 @ 4.60 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text – 184.87 @ 11.56 Kchars/sec

OpenGL Graphics Test – 158.50
Spinning Squares – 158.50 @ 201.07 frames/sec

.....Click here for Full Xbench Results



TL;DR – Yes, The GTX 660 works. It supports 4K. eBay yourself a used one for ~$107.


Thanks guys, and good luck.
- FrankenPro
Click to expand...
 
Hennesie2000

Hennesie2000

macrumors 68000
Sep 29, 2007
1,514
42
Maryland
rmverdi said:
Question regarding the Graphics card. Do you get Boot Screen access w/ the GTX 660? I have a spare EVGA 660 kicking around and was thinking about seeing if it will work in my Mac Pro 1,1 running Mac OS X El Capitan. I have FileVault enabled, and need to log in prior to OS booting. There is a UEFI Bios for my EVGA card, is it worth attempting to flash the card for Boot Screen Support?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

You will not get boot screens from flashing.
 
F

Fl0r!an

macrumors 6502a
Aug 14, 2007
909
530
Macs can't use UEFI. Besides that, there's no 32bit EFI for that card, so no, you can't get a boot screen on a MP1,1 with any recent Nvidia card.
 
T

TheAwesomeFellow

macrumors newbie
Aug 14, 2015
18
0
jamgold said:
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

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)
Click to expand...
 
T

TheAwesomeFellow

macrumors newbie
Aug 14, 2015
18
0
Do you think an unflashed GT 640 (or any of those cards) would work on a Mac Pro 1,1 running 10.11? I already have a Nvidia Geforce GT 610 which works fabulously, plays the Sims 4 and handles applications like Avid Media Composer very nicely. Only problem is that it struggles when trying to have 3 monitors, refusing to send an image another monitor, so I've had to revert to also keeping the original 7300 in there, plus it'll actually display a boot screen. But in turn, that makes applications like the Sims 4 and Avid Media Composer unusable since they sense the super weak graphic card.

I would get another GT 610, but it can be useful to have a boot screen. However, i always could just have 2 610s in there which would only cost me another $30 (power of eBay kiddos) and just add the 7300 if I need the boot screen.

Sorry I've rambled, but I'm actually so happy I got my Mac Pro 1,1 on El Capitan. It literally runs as fast as on a newer Mac Pro. Pisses me off how Apple would just put fake limitations on all their devices just so you can buy their newer devices. I'm just happy I got it at a garage sale for $20 ;)

Thanks!
 
star-affinity

star-affinity

macrumors 68000
Nov 14, 2007
1,999
1,334
TheAwesomeFellow said:
Do you think an unflashed GT 640 (or any of those cards) would work on a Mac Pro 1,1 running 10.11? I already have a Nvidia Geforce GT 610 which works fabulously, plays the Sims 4 and handles applications like Avid Media Composer very nicely. Only problem is that it struggles when trying to have 3 monitors, refusing to send an image another monitor, so I've had to revert to also keeping the original 7300 in there, plus it'll actually display a boot screen. But in turn, that makes applications like the Sims 4 and Avid Media Composer unusable since they sense the super weak graphic card.

I would get another GT 610, but it can be useful to have a boot screen. However, i always could just have 2 610s in there which would only cost me another $30 (power of eBay kiddos) and just add the 7300 if I need the boot screen.

Sorry I've rambled, but I'm actually so happy I got my Mac Pro 1,1 on El Capitan. It literally runs as fast as on a newer Mac Pro. Pisses me off how Apple would just put fake limitations on all their devices just so you can buy their newer devices. I'm just happy I got it at a garage sale for $20 ;)

Thanks!
Click to expand...

A GT640 should work fine in El Capitan. I have put it in a friend's MacPro1,1 using Mavericks and it works well there at least.

Not so sure about Apple putting ”fake limitations” this time. I guess it's about priorities. But it's true the MacPro1,1 is still a somewhat capable machine even if power consumption is quite high by today's standards.
 
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chris-plane

macrumors newbie
Jan 7, 2016
7
0
do thees work with MAC pro 1.1
running OSX 10.6.8
or OSX 10.7.5
MSI NVIDIA GTX 660
EVGA NVIDIA GTX 660
GIGABYTE NVIDIA GTX 660
ASUS NVIDIA GTX 660
PALIT NVIDIA GTX 660
 
C

chris-plane

macrumors newbie
Jan 7, 2016
7
0
ok but do thees companies
make graphics cards for mac
MSI
EVGA
GIGABYTE
ASUS
PALIT

I am wanting to get a graphics card for my mac pro 1.1 at least 1GB or above, between £10-£200
and I want to know if thees companies make graphics card's for mac, I have been on ebay but the NVIDIA GTX 660 is made by thees companies, I do not know if the NVIDIA GTX 660 will work on my computer if they are made by thees companies?
thanks
 
Last edited:
F

Fl0r!an

macrumors 6502a
Aug 14, 2007
909
530
No official vendor is currently making any Mac-specific GPUs. All of them should work in OS X Lion and above, but none of them can be flashed to show a boot screen on your MacPro 1,1.
 
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chris-plane

macrumors newbie
Jan 7, 2016
7
0
I gust bought a PALIT GEFORCE GTX 660 and put it into my computer and open 10.7.5 it crashed my computer when I turned on my computer, do you know what I might have don wrong, I did not install eny drivers
 
C

chris-plane

macrumors newbie
Jan 7, 2016
7
0
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