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Mac Pro 1.1, Mavericks and NVidia FX 4500 problem

S

sv1cec

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 16, 2009
25
1
Folks, I could use some help here, if you could.

A few weeks ago, I got a used Mac Pro 1.1 in excellent shape. It came with two video cards, one of which is in the system right now and it is an NVidia Quadro FX 4500, with 512 MB of memory. It had OX-X 10.6.something installed, I upgraded it to 10.7.5 without a problem and everything was running fine. My intentions for this machine was to use it for my photography, running Aperture. At this moment, I am using my iMac (early 2009) for this task, with Mavericks 10.9.5 and Aperture 3.5.1.

Now, the issue I have with 10.7.5 on the Mac Pro, is that it doesn't support Aperture 3.5.1, so every time I copy my Aperture library from the iMac to the Mac Pro, I have to rebuild it, in order to be usable by the Aperture version I have on the Mac Pro. That can be frustrating, so I decided to upgrade the Mac Pro to Mavericks and see how it would go.

After reading several article on the net, I've managed to create a bootable USB drive, which I used to install Mavericks 10.9.3 on a new disk on the Mac Pro.

Unfortunately, it appears that with 10.9.3, only 8 MB are recognized from the 512 MB that my NVidia card has. Of course, with so little memory Aperture refuses to run.

I also tried to install 10.9.5 on the Pro, again, everything works fine, except only 8 MB of memory are recognized. This time Aperture does run, but it doesn't work correctly. It doesn't show the photo in the main window, only the thumbnails in the browser strip.

I was wondering if there is a solution to this problem, in other words, if it is possible to convince the system to recognize all 512 MB of my video card memory.
 
sv1cec said:
Folks, I could use some help here, if you could.

A few weeks ago, I got a used Mac Pro 1.1 in excellent shape. It came with two video cards, one of which is in the system right now and it is an NVidia Quadro FX 4500, with 512 MB of memory. It had OX-X 10.6.something installed, I upgraded it to 10.7.5 without a problem and everything was running fine. My intentions for this machine was to use it for my photography, running Aperture. At this moment, I am using my iMac (early 2009) for this task, with Mavericks 10.9.5 and Aperture 3.5.1.

Now, the issue I have with 10.7.5 on the Mac Pro, is that it doesn't support Aperture 3.5.1, so every time I copy my Aperture library from the iMac to the Mac Pro, I have to rebuild it, in order to be usable by the Aperture version I have on the Mac Pro. That can be frustrating, so I decided to upgrade the Mac Pro to Mavericks and see how it would go.

After reading several article on the net, I've managed to create a bootable USB drive, which I used to install Mavericks 10.9.3 on a new disk on the Mac Pro.

Unfortunately, it appears that with 10.9.3, only 8 MB are recognized from the 512 MB that my NVidia card has. Of course, with so little memory Aperture refuses to run.

I also tried to install 10.9.5 on the Pro, again, everything works fine, except only 8 MB of memory are recognized. This time Aperture does run, but it doesn't work correctly. It doesn't show the photo in the main window, only the thumbnails in the browser strip.

I was wondering if there is a solution to this problem, in other words, if it is possible to convince the system to recognize all 512 MB of my video card memory.
Click to expand...

Did you try updated nvidia WebDrivers? These drivers aren't bundled with OSX and maybe they will have support to your video card. Please take a look at the following topic:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1748213/
 
You need at least 2600XT to run Mavericks with full GPU acceleration. 7300, X1900, FX 4500 lost driver support since Mountain Lion.
 
sv1cec said:
A few weeks ago, I got a used Mac Pro 1.1 in excellent shape. It came with two video cards, one of which is in the system right now and it is an NVidia Quadro FX 4500, with 512 MB of memory.

[...]

I also tried to install 10.9.5 on the Pro, again, everything works fine, except only 8 MB of memory are recognized. This time Aperture does run, but it doesn't work correctly. It doesn't show the photo in the main window, only the thumbnails in the browser strip.
Click to expand...

Read the "Unsupported original legacy graphics cards" section of the first post on 2006/2007 Mac Pro (1,1/2,1) and OS X Yosemite post, as it applies to Mavericks too.

Mr. Zarniwoop said:
Yosemite [and Mavericks] does not include 64-bit kernel extension device drivers for the original NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT, ATI Radeon X1900 XT, and NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 PCIe graphics cards that shipped with these Mac Pros, nor the ATI Radeon X1300 that shipped with the Xserve (Late 2006), so they do not work properly in Yosemite. These graphics cards display issues such as a very sluggish GUI with no QE/CI support, no framebuffer support (for DVD Player, Geekbench and other programs), graphics artifacts, mouse tearing, inability to change resolutions, bad refresh rates, and other system instabilities. If you need normal graphics support in Yosemite, you will need a newer PCIe graphics card, with popular options being the Apple ATI Radeon HD 5770 Graphics Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro, SAPPHIRE HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 MAC Edition, or many different options of stock and Mac-"flashed" PC cards.
Click to expand...
 
This is actually a good problem to have in that it is solve able. All of the other machines from 2006/7 that are stuck with soldered in GPUs are frozen in time. They can't update to 10.9 as the 9MB of RAM problem is permanent for them.

You have a variety of options, many under $100, and you will be back up and running.

Do a little research into the apps you use and if they benefit from GPU, then choose one that fits your needs and budget.
 
brdeveloper said:
Don't NVidia WebDrivers allow to circumvent the problem?
Click to expand...
No.

It's a circa 2005 DirectX 9 card, unsupported by Mac OS X since 10.8 Mountain Lion in 2012. There are no 64-bit kernel extension device drivers for that card.

Nvidia GT 120 is the least expensive recommended card that will give you boot screens. If you don't need boot screens, you have a lot more options.
 
Gentlefolks, thank you for your time and kindness, answering my question.

I guess that a new video card is needed if I want to use the Mac Pro as my photo editing machine.

OK then, the apps I want to use are basically Aperture and Photoshop and perhaps video editing applications in the future.

Other things worth mentioning.

My current display is a Philips 222EL with a resolution of 1920x1080 @ 60 Hz, 32 bit color depth and a DVI input (so the new card should have at least one DVI port, in addition to whatever else it has).

Given that I have no idea how to flash a video card, I need to buy a card that will support Mavericks (and possibly Yosemite) which will come from the manufacturer (or reseller) ready for my Mac Pro.

What would be your suggestions, please?
 
Last edited:
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