Yes. Most Nvidia cards will work without flashing. I am using a GT 610 in my kids hackintosh and it worked out of box great. Flashing an Nvidia card doesn't give any benefit to newer cards.
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Mac Pro 1,1 10.9.2 (Tiamo) Graphic Card Suggestions
- Thread starter jamgold
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Yes. Most Nvidia cards will work without flashing. I am using a GT 610 in my kids hackintosh and it worked out of box great. Flashing an Nvidia card doesn't give any benefit to newer cards.
I have used a GTX 570, GT 610 and a GTX 970. All have worked out of box. I might have even used a GTX 285 with Mavericks but I can remember if I sold that before or after I updated the Mac Pro to Mavericks. The GTX 970 and GT 610 have only been used in Hackintoshes.
Your 5770 should have worked with Yosemite. I had a 3870 that worked with Yosemite but it doesn't support the graphics acceleration needed so I had to replace it. It would boot the machine fine though.
I believe the only firmware I've seen for the Geforce GT 640 is EFI64 so if flashed for Mac it won't behave any differently from non-flashed PC card in the EFI32 MacPro1,1.
The AMD Radeon HD 5770, flashed or not, works through the latest 10.10 Yosemite. I cannot guess why you might be having an issue.
Non-flashed PC cards get no display until the OS X desktop loads.
Mac Pro 1,1 10.9.2 (Tiamo) Graphic Card Suggestions
Sorry for all the questions but after that pc 5770 didn't work in Mavericks or Yosemite and was recognized as 5000 series and had no hardware acceleration I'm hesitant to get a PC Card.
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Sorry for all the questions but after that pc 5770 didn't work in Mavericks or Yosemite and was recognized as 5000 series and had no hardware acceleration I'm hesitant to get a PC Card.
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A 640 is a 640. I am using a 600 series with Yosemite 10.10.1.
The 5770 is also fully supported by Yosemite and Mavericks. The fact that it was showing up as a 5000 series just means the driver wasn't loading which is also why you didn't have graphics acceleration. The card itself was working though.
I got a PC version (unflashed) of an ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 2048 MB for $99 at Fry's and it worked in Mavericks and Yosemite no problems, other than no boot screen. I "fixed" that by getting a SSD, so now it boots in 17 seconds, which makes the lack of a boot screen much more bearable
GTX 660 + Full Upgrade Writeup
Seeing as it's my first post, I guess I owe everyone a hello!
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.
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:
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
Seeing as it's my first post, I guess I owe everyone a hello!
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.
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)
- Yosemite OS X 10.10.1 / SFOTT (FREE)
- SSD TRIM support & Optimization for OS X (FREE)
- 2x Intel Xeon x5355 Quad core CPU ($70 pair/ebay)
- Samsung 840 EVO 250GB boot drive ($128/Amazon)
- 2.5" to 3.5" HDD conversion sled ($8/Amazon)
- 2x WD Green HDD 3TB ($99 each/Amazon)
- EVGA GeForce GTX 660 GPU ($107/ebay)
- 32GB Samsung RAM 8x4GB ($130/ebay)
- Inateck 4-Port USB 3.0 PCI-e card ($28/Amazon)
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:
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
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Like most on here I'm looking at doing some upgrades soon. I've done most of what FrankenPro has mentioned about a year back but wanting some better graphics performance with a new video card.
Something around the <$200 mark would be good. I'm kinda thinking something like the GTX670 / 680 or a AMD HD7950, any recommendations which way I should go?
I'd be upgrading from a HD5870 Mac edition, and using it mostly for gaming under Windows 7 (but a bit of video/graphics work in OSX).
Something around the <$200 mark would be good. I'm kinda thinking something like the GTX670 / 680 or a AMD HD7950, any recommendations which way I should go?
I'd be upgrading from a HD5870 Mac edition, and using it mostly for gaming under Windows 7 (but a bit of video/graphics work in OSX).
The HD5870 is already more card than a PCIe 1.0 slot can take full advantage of. Upgrading to a higher performing card on this board won't produce faster graphics, but a card with more memory (>1GB) may improve texture handling.
Also, here's an article concerning the limitations of your current GPU and gaming performance in a MP 1,1:
http://barefeats.com/wst10g5.html
Hope this helps.
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For gaming this isn't really true. PCIe 1.1 x16 is the same bandwidth as PCIe 3.0 x4. You will only see a small performance gain from switching to a PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, 5-10 FPS. While that could be the difference between playable and not playable you could always dial back the settings a bit for better FPS.
Here are some bandwidth comparisons using PCIe 3.0 and you will see the difference between x2-x16.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5458/the-radeon-hd-7970-reprise-pcie-bandwidth-overclocking-and-msaa
Obviously this isn't and article about a GTX 680 but it still shows the point.
Ahh understood.
Thanks for that article – very enlightening since my graphics knowledge/needs have always been workstation based rather than gaming oriented. I forget how lucky I am for not having to care about my fps, haha.
I'll revise my previous conclusions about your HD5870 to a simple "I don't know enough to speculate." Sorry!!
The higher bandwidth only really comes into play with multi-gpu single cards like a GTX 690.
Thanks for the links, I didn't know that either about PCIe versions and gaming, I've always thought the faster the PCIe the better.
Any thoughts on a GTX 670/680 vs AMD HD7950? I've always gone with ATI but keep reading that Nvidia is better for gaming (quieter/less power draw)?
680 > 7950 > 670
The 680 is going to be the fastest at stock speeds. I put the 7950 over the 670 because it has more vram but they will generally perform similar. The 7950 draws quite a bit more power though. I personally prefer NVIDIA but I haven't used an ATI card since going through three X1900XTs in my Mac Pro. I ran a GTX 570 in my Mac Pro and could run BF3 @45FPS average with settings at high and ultra with no AA or HBAO on 1080P.