Mac Pro with GTX 285

[resmypc]

I am going to buy a Mac Pro, with the 2.66Ghz Intel Xeon's I am wanting to run Bootcamp with OSX and Windows 7 on the unit. If I have a GTX 285 right now for my Windows Box could I just move the graphics card over to the Mac Pro and use it on both sides of the spectrum of OSX and Windows or am I going to have to buy the Mac Edition of the Nvidia GTX 285. Thanks very much.

I hope I do not have to use the GTX 285 on Windows 7 and use the 7300GT on the OSX Side.

Thanks in advance.

 

[blackwoodfx]

I am going to buy a Mac Pro, with the 2.66Ghz Intel Xeon's I am wanting to run Bootcamp with OSX and Windows 7 on the unit. If I have a GTX 285 right now for my Windows Box could I just move the graphics card over to the Mac Pro and use it on both sides of the spectrum of OSX and Windows or am I going to have to buy the Mac Edition of the Nvidia GTX 285. Thanks very much.

I hope I do not have to use the GTX 285 on Windows 7 and use the 7300GT on the OSX Side.

Thanks in advance.

Your existing GTX should work but drivers are hit or miss. It's easy enough to test however. Make sure you download and install drivers to your Mac Pro before shutting down and swapping cards however. Forget this step and your monitor will not give you a screen to look at on the 285.

 

[resmypc]

Thanks very much for the reply, I will get a chance to try it tomorrow. Will update accordingly. Anyone else have anything to add?

 

[Mackilroy]

It's a bit more complicated than that. You might want to read through and also look at netkas's blog.

 

[xgman]

I'm pretty sure you need the mac version of the card to work on the mac side unless you find some sort of rom mods out there.

 

[goMac]

Your existing GTX should work but drivers are hit or miss. It's easy enough to test however. Make sure you download and install drivers to your Mac Pro before shutting down and swapping cards however. Forget this step and your monitor will not give you a screen to look at on the 285.

This is incorrect. Existing GTX will not work, even if you download the Mac drivers.

I would see the thread linked above for reference.

 

[CaptainChunk]

Most PC GTX 285s need a ROM chip swap (to a bigger one) to accept the EFI-64 ROM required for operation under Mac OS. For most people, it's a lot less trouble to simply use EVGA's Mac GTX 285, though the card is no longer produced and commands a pretty big price premium.

Outside of flashing... I'd say unless you have a specific need for CUDA, the Apple 5870 card is actually cheaper in a lot of cases and faster than the EVGA Mac GTX 285.