Mac Pro - GeForce 7900GTX works in Boot Camp

[JNaut]

Although the Mac OS doesn't see this card at all (no video at startup), once Windows is loaded, it works well on my Mac Pro. I was able to install the Nvidia reference drivers and play a game to test it out. It does run slower, though, as I don't have the necessary motherboard power cable that feeds it the extra juice it needs to run at full speed. I'm going to try rigging something up, we'll see how it goes.

 

[Laslo Panaflex]

Although the Mac OS doesn't see this card at all (no video at startup), once Windows is loaded, it works well on my Mac Pro. I was able to install the Nvidia reference drivers and play a game to test it out. It does run slower, though, as I don't have the necessary motherboard power cable that feeds it the extra juice it needs to run at full speed. I'm going to try rigging something up, we'll see how it goes.

Cool!

You should put the 7900 on one slot, and the 7300 in the other to see if you can use the 7300 for OS X and the 7900 for windows

 

[Anonymous Freak]

How'd you get Boot Camp working?

You're the first report of someone successfully getting Boot Camp to let them load Windows. Did Apple release a new version that I don't know about?

 

[Lord Blackadder]

This is good news - although the holy grail is to get an off-the-shelf PC video card flashed so that it works with both OSs.

 

[tobyg]

Although the Mac OS doesn't see this card at all (no video at startup), once Windows is loaded, it works well on my Mac Pro. I was able to install the Nvidia reference drivers and play a game to test it out. It does run slower, though, as I don't have the necessary motherboard power cable that feeds it the extra juice it needs to run at full speed. I'm going to try rigging something up, we'll see how it goes.

It doesn't see the card at all?

I just tried my 7800GTX, OSX sees the card under graphics adapters (in system profiler) but says no display is hooked up and I get no video out of it. Yet to try it in bootcamp, but that is my next step.

 

[JNaut]

It doesn't see the card at all?

I just tried my 7800GTX, OSX sees the card under graphics adapters (in system profiler) but says no display is hooked up and I get no video out of it. Yet to try it in bootcamp, but that is my next step.

Right, I can boot the Mac OS while both the 7300 and 7900 are installed (using the 7300). The Profiler sees the 7900 but doesn't know what to make of it. Windows, on the other hand, severely bugs out if both cards are installed at the same time and will not boot correctly (I get no video from either card).

 

[tobyg]

Right, I can boot the Mac OS while both the 7300 and 7900 are installed (using the 7300). The Profiler sees the 7900 but doesn't know what to make of it. Windows, on the other hand, severely bugs out if both cards are installed at the same time and will not boot correctly (I get no video from either card).

I am still playing with SiSoft Sandra right now... but I also do have an adapter that converts a normal 4 pin molex (used for optical drives in this case) into the 6 pin power needed for the 7800 GTX. I am going to use the cables from the optical drives to power the 7800 GTX. I sure hope I can get it to work with both cards installed... I want to game with the 7800 GTX under Windows but theres no way I want to swap video cards every time I want to game.

 

[tobyg]

Oh and I also tried an Asus X1600 XT silent edition video card. This card doesn't even need any additional power like the 7800 GTX does. Again, OSX can see the card but doesn't know what to do with it.

 

[Laslo Panaflex]

You're the first report of someone successfully getting Boot Camp to let them load Windows. Did Apple release a new version that I don't know about?

No, boot camp works, the CD with the supplied drivers doesn't, you need to install your own.

 

[tobyg]

No, boot camp works, the CD with the supplied drivers doesn't, you need to install your own.

Actually, I didn't even touch bootcamp itself. I slapped a 300GB HD in there and put my XP CD in and rebooted. It saw the 300 and I installed XP to it just fine.

So that answers my other question, you can install XP to a different HD and not have to touch your primary OSX hard drive.

 

[purelithium]

Nice to know!

 

[JNaut]

I am still playing with SiSoft Sandra right now... but I also do have an adapter that converts a normal 4 pin molex (used for optical drives in this case) into the 6 pin power needed for the 7800 GTX. I am going to use the cables from the optical drives to power the 7800 GTX. I sure hope I can get it to work with both cards installed... I want to game with the 7800 GTX under Windows but theres no way I want to swap video cards every time I want to game.

Ah, good plan! I forgot I had one of those adapters too- and it seems to work fine. (Well, it's short so I have to keep the SuperDrive hanging out of the case to reach.) I don't get the error message that the card isn't receiving enough power in Windows, though.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Thanks for the Boot Camp/XP info! I thought one report said Boot Camp wouldn't run at all, but it's nice to know that it's just the Driver CD that's the issue.

And the fact that it will boot from an XP CD 'natively' is interesting news indeed. I know my MacBook Pro wouldn't until I installed the updates when Boot Camp came out.

 

[tobyg]

Thanks for the Boot Camp/XP info! I thought one report said Boot Camp wouldn't run at all, but it's nice to know that it's just the Driver CD that's the issue.

And the fact that it will boot from an XP CD 'natively' is interesting news indeed. I know my MacBook Pro wouldn't until I installed the updates when Boot Camp came out.

It's the firmware update that allows it to boot the XP CD. It has nothing to do with the bootcamp application itself.

 

[damado]

So would the X1900XT that apple offers work in windows then? I guess if the 7300 GT now works in windows, the X1900XT would too eh?

It seems that the compatibility goes only one way.

 

[tobyg]

So would the X1900XT that apple offers work in windows then? I guess if the 7300 GT now works in windows, the X1900XT would too eh?

It seems that the compatibility goes only one way.

Agreed. I suspect the X1900 XT they sell would work just fine in Windows.

Oh, and for the fun of it, I took the 7300 GT from the Mac Pro out and put it in my Pentium D 820 PC. PC booted up just fine and went into Windows. I didn't install the nVidia drivers but I suspect it will work. So the 7300 GT appears to work in a regular PC too.

 

[damado]

Hmm...wonder if the OSX drivers are for specific models...like I wonder if this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814195002 might work. If I had mine already I'd get one of those to try it out and if not, return it. Hell, it's the same price as the upgrade.

Maybe OSX is ready for any X1900XT but not an X1800, or 7300 but not any other 7000 series etc.

It just doesn't seem to be a bios thing if the 7300 works perfectly in a windows PC.

 

[kevin.rivers]

Hmm...wonder if the OSX drivers are for specific models...like I wonder if this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814195002 might work. If I had mine already I'd get one of those to try it out and if not, return it. Hell, it's the same price as the upgrade.

Maybe OSX is ready for any X1900XT but not an X1800, or 7300 but not any other 7000 series etc.

It just doesn't seem to be a bios thing if the 7300 works perfectly in a windows PC.

Maybe the 7800 from the Powermac will work as well?

 

[damado]

I was looking on the ATI website and there are several older ATI cards that have a special "Mac" version. The X1900XT however does not have a special mac version. Hmm...

 

[hadleydb]

I was looking on the ATI website and there are several older ATI cards that have a special "Mac" version. The X1900XT however does not have a special mac version. Hmm...

I noticed that earlier myself... Interesting isn't it?

 

[aiongiant]

Actually, I didn't even touch bootcamp itself. I slapped a 300GB HD in there and put my XP CD in and rebooted. It saw the 300 and I installed XP to it just fine.

So that answers my other question, you can install XP to a different HD and not have to touch your primary OSX hard drive.

sorry if this is a stupid question but still rather new to this
but ive always thought you needed bootcamp to install windows???

but it seems all you did was put in another hdd.. ntfs or fat32? and put in your windows xp sp2 cd in and booted to disc and installed iwndows jsut fine?
i thought the purpose of bootcamp was that it puts a fake EFI partition or soemthing??

 

[CyberDoberman]

sorry if this is a stupid question but still rather new to this
but ive always thought you needed bootcamp to install windows???

but it seems all you did was put in another hdd.. ntfs or fat32? and put in your windows xp sp2 cd in and booted to disc and installed iwndows jsut fine?
i thought the purpose of bootcamp was that it puts a fake EFI partition or soemthing??

Nah, all BootCamp does is install a BIOS compatible layer in the EFI BIOS System, allowing you to boot anything that needs a regular BIOS... such as the PC video cards... but only in XP, NOT in OSX, as they are apparently NOT installing the BIOS level for OS X???

 

[aiongiant]

so when my Mac Pro arrives i don't need to even bother downloading bootcamp?
just plug in another drive and pop in my xp cd and go?

 

[timb]

My Mac Pro should be in Monday. I have a 7800 GT (not GTX) I will try. Here's my thought:

A 7900 is not recognized at all. A 7800 GTX is recognized but doesn't work. Perhaps a 7800 GT will be recognized *and* work under OS X, because there is a native driver for it (since there are 7800 GT cards for the G5s, should be the same driver).

At any rate, this is good news indeed, and progress.

-timb

 

[tobyg]

Nah, all BootCamp does is install a BIOS compatible layer in the EFI BIOS System, allowing you to boot anything that needs a regular BIOS... such as the PC video cards... but only in XP, NOT in OSX, as they are apparently NOT installing the BIOS level for OS X???

Actually this is incorrect. The firmware update that was needed on the other systems (Macbook Pro, iMac) was independent of Bootcamp itself. In fact, Bootcamp required you to install that firmware before you could install Bootcamp. The firmware update is what allows you to boot Windows XP.