Mac Pro 4.1 video card options

[C. Alan]

All,
My Mac Pro 4.1 (2009) still has the GeForce GT 120 in it, and I would like to upgrade it. I know that there are several alternatives currently being worked on the forum (besides buying a card from Apple),but my system dual boots both Snow Leopard, and Lion, so having no boot up screen would be very inconvenient.

Are there any current home brew alternatives out there right now that would allow me to run a graphics card with more memory without having a blank boot up screen?
Thanks,
C. Alan

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

Mac Pro 2.1runs an ATI Radeon HD4870 with 1GB memory very satisfactorily with dual DVI ports and usual booting screen. Purchased it flashed from a Hong Kong dealer local338 and can recommend as have used several of his cards going back to a G4 MDD.


http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ATi-Rade...o_TV_Cards&hash=item3a70023093#ht_4721wt_1165

 

[CaptainChunk]

Aside from Apple OEM cards, there's not a ton of options if you need the EFI boot screen.

1. Practically all flashed Radeon 5770/5870 cards will only display a boot screen when connected to a display over VGA.

2. Flashed Radeon 6870s will display a boot screen over DVI, provided that there are no other displays connected to the card.

3. Properly flashed NVIDIA cards display the boot screen. Many newer NVIDIA cards aren't exactly easy to flash yourself, because they require swapping ROM chips (PC cards generally have smaller ROM chips that lack sufficient space for an EFI ROM). Macvidcards (a regular on this forum) sells several flashed NVIDIA (and ATI/AMD) cards for reasonable prices.

 

[C. Alan]

2. Flashed Radeon 6870s will display a boot screen over DVI, provided that there are no other displays connected to the card.

My setup has only one monitor connected to to a DVI port, so this may be viable alternative.

 

[Loa]

2. Flashed Radeon 6870s will display a boot screen over DVI, provided that there are no other displays connected to the card.

Can you tell me what happens when you use the mini display port?

Thanks

Loa

 

[CaptainChunk]

My setup has only one monitor connected to to a DVI port, so this may be viable alternative.

Indeed.

Can you tell me what happens when you use the mini display port?

Thanks

Loa

If you use MDP, there's no boot screen on the 6870. You only get one over single-display DVI. The card will still work once you get to the OS X desktop, however.