MacPro 5,1 graphics card questions

[Phillie14586]

I have a mid 2010 MacPro 5,1. The video card died and the Apple store wanted $300+ to replace with the same 5770 card. I was hoping to upgrade the card for about the same price. The only official mac addition card I could find was the Sapphire HD 7950. The problem with that card is the driver does not support audio over any of the video ports. I am not a gamer and do light photoshop work and video encoding. The computer is also used as a media center which is why I need audio over the HDMI or mini displayport. After reading things here it looks like I could get a PC NVIDIA card which are much cheaper. Does the NVIDIA driver support audio over the video ports?

The graphics card market is a bit overwhelming so I was hoping someone had suggestions of cards to look at. I would like to stay under $500 preferably less than $200. Like I said above I do mostly video and picture work not gaming. I also would like to stay with the stock power supply. Any help narrowing down my options will be greatly appreciated.

 

[h9826790]

Search, "HDMIAudio"

And NO, Nvidia card is not cheaper. It seems that you were comparing a Nvidia PC card to an Official AMD Mac Edition card. That's why the 7950 looks so expensive. If you get a PC 7950, that's very cheap now.

And if you compare the Official GTX680 Mac Edition, and the Official HD7950 Mac Edition, the 7950 is actually cheaper. However, there is no more new 680 Mac Edition card avail.

It really depends on do you need / want to have the boot screen. If yes, then basically 4 choices.

1) Stock card from Apple (the worse cost to performance ratio)
2) Official HD7950 Mac Edition card (very bad cost to performance ratio)
3) A flashed card, preferred from MVC (the most reliable source), you can get the best performance card from there.
4) Buy a PC 680 or 7950 and then flash it by yourself.

If you don't need the boot screen, then depends on the OSX version, you can simply use a supported PC graphic card (e.g. For 10.12, you can use RX460)

Also, if your main problem is just no HDMI Audio. Why not use simple work around e.g. a pair or speaker?

 

[Phillie14586]

Yes I was comparing the price of the Mac Edition cards to the PC version. Maybe PC versions of the AMD vs NVIDIA are not that different but i am not that knowledgeable about the cards. The reason I need audio over HDMI or MDP is that I have speakers plugged into the line out at the computer. I also have the computer connected to my TV in the next room.

I don't use bootcamp or another boot drive so I could live with no boot screen. I have looked at MVC but all their cards are listed as sold out in their store.

From what I have read it looks like NVIDIA itself is keeping up with drivers for each new OS build. DO these drivers support HDMI audio or do you still need the ktext?

 

[Murray M]

MVC gets new cards. Just check in with their site once a day. You might have to wait 1-3 weeks but it's worth it.

 

[ActionableMango]

Use his flashing service instead of buying a card directly. It's cheaper that way anyway.

 

[h9826790]

From what I have read it looks like NVIDIA itself is keeping up with drivers for each new OS build. DO these drivers support HDMI audio or do you still need the ktext?

Yes, Nvidia keep providing the driver. However, the most up to date 10xx card is not supported yet.

No, 3rd party kext is also required for Nvidia card to make HDMIAudio work. And I will suggest you to avoid the Nvidia Maxwell card if you don't know much about these stuff. Otherwise, you may end up have black screen only (after installation, or after every OS update).

 

[flowrider]

Use his flashing service instead of buying a card directly. It's cheaper that way anyway.

+1 on this suggestion!

Lou

 

[Phillie14586]

Thanks for the help. It looks like I will be keeping the over price HD7950. With the HDMIAudio kext it does everything I need. If macvidcards would have had something in stock I probably would have gone that route and gotten something a little faster for about the same money. Since my stock card is dead I really need something now and not wait another week or so for macvidcards to get something in stock. The wife also said this one works we are not changing now.