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Mac Pro (Early 2008)/3,1 NVIDIA Card Options

Yebubbleman

Yebubbleman

macrumors 603
Original poster
May 20, 2010
6,047
2,622
Los Angeles, CA
I have a friend who has an Early 2008 Mac Pro (3,1) and his stock video card just died on it. He's got a few MacBook Pros and he's apt to replace his Mac Pro in a couple years. For now, he's looking for a video card to throw into it that is better and cheaper than what Apple sold stock (up to and including the Radeon HD 5870 that Apple had on high-end 2010/2012 Mac Pros).

I figure his best Aftermarket options are the Saphire Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition and the EVGA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition.

What might his options for PC video cards that can either have their firmware flashed or just work (either out of the box or with KEXT modifications) be? He has a preference for NVIDIA, but it's, by no means, a must. I've been following the Mac Pro PC graphics card modding thread as well as other stuff here and there. Figured it'd be easier to ask here for more up to date options and to know what some favorites are.

EDIT: It looks like NVIDIA cards, provided his version of OS X has the stock drivers will just work out of the box, albeit with no boot screen (unless the card's firmware is flashed). Is there a recent NVIDIA card of choice that you guys like more than others that I can flash? The card itself doesn't need to be super-mega powerful, a GTX 650 or a low-mid-range GTX 7xx series would definitely suffice here.
 
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I have the 650Ti and it works fine on 10.9 - no boot screen mind.

Afaik its not flashable - if it is i'd certainly give it a try.

I managed to upgrade to 10.9 using the old supported card, so not sure how you'd upgrade without a working card and boot screen
 
GTX 660 & 670 cards will start to drop in price and availability shortly, grab one for cheap.
 
I'm in a similar situation. My 880GT died for the fifth or sixth time yesterday. Tired of going through the hassle of baking it for shorter and shorter periods of use.

I'm not as tech savvy as some folks here (regarding flashing), and would like something that I could just pop in and have it work. Ideally with a boot screen. What are the downsides of not having a boot screen?

Any ideas would be appreciated.
 
617arg said:
I'm in a similar situation. My 880GT died for the fifth or sixth time yesterday. Tired of going through the hassle of baking it for shorter and shorter periods of use.

I'm not as tech savvy as some folks here (regarding flashing), and would like something that I could just pop in and have it work. Ideally with a boot screen. What are the downsides of not having a boot screen?

Any ideas would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

You can buy flashed Mac versions of PC cards if you don’t want to buy the official PC version; you just may want to check and see what ports they provide. I got a flashed 7950 offline about two months ago and haven’t had any issues; it acts like any native Mac card. As for not having a boot screen, it’s not an issue for normal use; it becomes an inconvenience or pain if you need to do troubleshooting, however. I prefer less hassle overall so I prioritized a boot screen. There’s plenty of good cards to be had.
 
fuchsdh said:
You can buy flashed Mac versions of PC cards if you don’t want to buy the official PC version; you just may want to check and see what ports they provide. I got a flashed 7950 offline about two months ago and haven’t had any issues; it acts like any native Mac card. As for not having a boot screen, it’s not an issue for normal use; it becomes an inconvenience or pain if you need to do troubleshooting, however. I prefer less hassle overall so I prioritized a boot screen. There’s plenty of good cards to be had.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Is there a vendor that sells flashed cards, or did you find yours on eBay or something?
 
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