Mac Pro 1.1 Nvidia Quadro 4000

[antoke]

Hey guys,
i´ve got an old MP1.1 and want to update it a bit. I want to buy new Processors (2x Xeon X5355), new Ram (32GB) an SSD and a new Graphicscard, to run it unter OS X 10.11. I thought about the Quadro 4000 PC-Version and googled a bit, but i found different answers. Some say it works, some say it doesn´t. Now i wanted to get a clear answer, if there is any option (flashing etc) to get it to run on my old MP1.1.
Thanks for answers
Antoke

PS: Sorry for the bad english :S

 

[LightBulbFun]

a PC Quadro 4000 should work in your Mac Pro you will just lose boot screens (you dont need any web drivers or such with this card)

while it might be possible to flash the card, the only Mac EFI For it, is EFI64 therefor wont work in your Mac Pro anyways so theres no benefit to flashing the card

so if you have one lying around it will work however if your buying a graphics card for the machine there are much better options then the Quadro for the same price or less

hope this helps

 

[orph]

the Quadro 4000 is an odd card to upgrade to, iv got a Quadro 4000 (mac) and it's slower than my (pc) GTX 660 (the Quadro 4000 is a GTX 5xx gen card aka a Fermi card https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_(microarchitecture) )
if your willing to flash then a GTX 680 is the ideal card and they can be found on ebay vary cheep and are easy to flash with a mac rom for boot display.

 

[antoke]

Well i've got the opportunity To geht tge quadro for about 25€ and i don't want To spenden that much on it, because i don´t know, if i´m going to use it that much. I just wanna test OS X on a Mac a bit. Will the quadro be enough for that? And is it possible to install a new OS X with it or do i need a nflashed card for that?

 

[Asgorath]

Well i've got the opportunity To geht tge quadro for about 25€ and i don't want To spenden that much on it, because i don´t know, if i´m going to use it that much. I just wanna test OS X on a Mac a bit. Will the quadro be enough for that? And is it possible to install a new OS X with it or do i need a nflashed card for that?

Be aware that you'd be using a ~7 year old graphics card in an ~11 year old computer. It's going to be very slow, and might not give an accurate feel for what macOS can do.

 

[LightBulbFun]

Be aware that you'd be using a ~7 year old graphics card in an ~11 year old computer. It's going to be very slow, and might not give an accurate feel for what macOS can do.

a Quadro 4000 and Mac Pro 1,1 aint THAT bad, trust me I have run el cap on MUCH worse hardware and it ran surprising well

the only thing that might harm the experience is if he has a really slow hard drive.

 

[owbp]

if your willing to flash then a GTX 680 is the ideal card and they can be found on ebay vary cheep and are easy to flash with a mac rom for boot display.

Looking at the "newer" (5 year old) cards only AMD HD79xx cards will give boot screens if flashed in 1,1/2,1. GTX 680 has 64bit EFI, so even flashed (or original Mac Edition for that matter) will behave same as regular PC card in first gen Mac Pro.

 

[Asgorath]

a Quadro 4000 and Mac Pro 1,1 aint THAT bad, trust me I have run el cap on MUCH worse hardware and it ran surprising well

the only thing that might harm the experience is if he has a really slow hard drive.

If all you're going to do is run Safari and Mail, then sure, it might not feel too slow. If you actually stress your CPU or GPU, the system will show its age very, very quickly.

For reference, I used a 2010 Mac Pro for many years until I switched to a Haswell-based Hackintosh in 2014 or so. The difference in CPU speed was staggering, games like WoW ran so much faster on the newer CPU.

 

[antoke]

But My question was
Is it possible To install OS X with a non-flashed card or are the drivers loaded later?
I'm completle New To OS X and the Apple world

 

[orph]

lol this got of topic, and iv been away.

1. you can install osx with a 'pc' card but it depends on what version of osx your instaling as well as what GPU.
now i think you Quadro 4000 (which from memory is just a GTX 570? i think) will work fine as GTX-5xx/GTX-6xx/GTX7xx cards work with the native display drivers in osx

the Quadro 4000 is a nice card for what it is, low profile and nice solid construction.

now one problem will be installing osx10.11 on a MP1.1
so have a look at this it can be done
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2006-2007-mac-pro-1-1-2-1-and-os-x-el-capitan.1890435/


https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...out-nvidia-pc-non-efi-graphics-cards.1440150/

(iv installed osx from usb drives/HD's/a laptop in fire wire mode with PC gpu's GTX660/770 with no problems in the past on both my 3.1 & 5.1)

 

[antoke]

@orph
I found a reseller on eBay, who sells HDDs with a Gully modded OS X 10.11 for MP 1.1. So you just plug it in and end up at the installation of the OS.
And you say it should work with the Quadro 4000?

 

[orph]

you can DIY it, but if it's cheep then you can buy a per-loaded HD.
Id do it myself personally it's not hard to setup

im 99% shore it will work as the Quadro 4000 is a GTX570 which works natively. (or was it a GTX560? not 100% on that but you can google it if it's important)

only thing i do need to mention is a mp1.1 is slow compared to any computer now (even with upgraded CPU's)
so do compare the total price you will spend (with all upgrades included) to a mp4.1/5.1 or a macmin with an i3/i5/i7 as it will be faster (any computer with an i5/i7 will be a lot faster)

macpro cpu upgrades link chart/info
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-pro-cpu-compatibility-list.1954766/

 

[Asgorath]

And note that the Fermi generation GPUs like the Quadro 4000 do not support Metal.

 

[orph]

One thing that has not been mentioned is what you want to do with the macpro?
id assume for light web use, emails, word, photo editing, or light 1080p video work & retro games it will work fine.
the main problem is the single thread speed of the CPU's is slow and the power use/fan noise and space it takes compared to an i5 macmin.

yes one thing to mention is that the Quadro 4000 is a tad slow (works) but slow, my GTX 660 is a lot faster in it both in games and with CUDA apps & they dont cost much more (and a GTX 680 can be picked up for about £50 i see them on gumtree for about that)

o and the Quadro 4000 CUDA level is to low for some apps now

also if you dont have one you will need a mac 6 pin to pc 6 pin cable for the gpu
like this one
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/222680243195

 

[Nick Cox]

Hi All

I upgraded my Mac Pro 1,1 as follows:

- firmware flashed to 2,2
- 32GB RAM
- Mac-flashed Nvidia Quadro 4000 graphics card
- Pikified OS to 10.11

The upgrade worked fine for a week then the graphics card seems to not be recognised or is malfunctioning.
Graphics card light and fan still operating and 6 pin connector green light on.


I put the old factory graphics card back in and I can boot from 10.7.5.
I can also boot from the OS 10.11 disk.
So it seems 10.11 is working fine.

I have downloaded and installed Nvidia Drivers for both 10.7.5 and 10.11. But no signal to screen.

Any help/ideas gratefully received.

Cheers

Nick

 

[Borowski]

Try to reset PRAM and flash back the vanilla pc-rom.

Quadro 4000 is no good choice, because no boot screens in MP 1.1/2.1, the EFI is designed to work ONLY with MP 3.1-5.1, missing metal-support and it is running very hot. Many cards died because of the unefficient, overheating "thermi"-GPU and much to small designed heatsink/fan due to the single-slot-profile.

 

[Nick Cox]

Recommendations then please for fastest graphics card which I can install into an Mac Pro 1,1 updated as follows:

- firmware flashed to 2,2
- 32GB RAM
- Pikified OS to 10.11

Cheers

N

 

[Borowski]

Best choice in my opinion is HD7970: because it is easy flashable to get bootscreens, has 3GB memory and is the "latest" card you can get for this machine. Don't forget to order pcie-power-cables.

 

[Nick Cox]

Best choice in my opinion is HD7970: because it is easy flashable to get bootscreens, has 3GB memory and is the "latest" card you can get for this machine. Don't forget to order pcie-power-cables.

Thanks Borowksi