Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Multiple cards in an early 2009 Mac Pro 4,1

cloudnoize

cloudnoize

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 15, 2015
51
2
Burbank, CA
Can I run 2 video cards (1) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660, main slot, and (1) GT120 in a 2009 Mac Pro? Reason being, every time there's an OS X update, I have to install the GT120 being that the GTX 660 does not have the normal boot up screen. Not that it's a big deal but if the Mac can handle my 120, why not keep it installed..

The big question.. Are there an downsides, sluggishness, crashes, etc? Also, I probably won't have any monitors plugged into the 120 as both of which I have now, are plugged into the 660.

Thanks!
 
I have two cards, one Nvidia with 2GB VRam and the original with 256GB and one 30" Apple cinema display and I just connected the display to the original card to try something and no problem. You can have 4 videos cards with two DVI ports on the Mac Pro. We used to use it as a video server to feed 8 different screens for live shows. That computer can do way more than you think. You haven't even started to use it yet.
 
ProjectManager101 said:
I have two cards, one Nvidia with 2GB VRam and the original with 256GB and one 30" Apple cinema display and I just connected the display to the original card to try something and no problem. You can have 4 videos cards with two DVI ports on the Mac Pro. We used to use it as a video server to feed 8 different screens for live shows. That computer can do way more than you think. You haven't even started to use it yet.
Click to expand...
you can have 3 double wide 6 display amd cards with an external psu for a total of 18 1080p displays concurrently.

without external psu you can do 3 of the new gtx 950 single 6 pin, 2 from the motherboard an 1 from a sata to 6 pin. Only a 90w tdp for each. that can do 9 4k displays and 3 1080p displays concurrently.

Pixel Pimpin.
 
Last edited:
cloudnoize said:
Can I run 2 video cards (1) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660, main slot, and (1) GT120 in a 2009 Mac Pro? Reason being, every time there's an OS X update, I have to install the GT120 being that the GTX 660 does not have the normal boot up screen. Not that it's a big deal but if the Mac can handle my 120, why not keep it installed..

The big question.. Are there an downsides, sluggishness, crashes, etc? Also, I probably won't have any monitors plugged into the 120 as both of which I have now, are plugged into the 660.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

There was a time with 10.I.x that 2 GT120s or nVidia caused trouble, was awhile before it was fixed, odd because 4,1s were sold as TO with up to 4 GTWW0s.

Why a w20 though doing nothing? For rare need for boot screen as 660 is not flashed?
 
Where is all this Windows and Boot camp? extraneous to original question.
 
IowaLynn said:
There was a time with 10.I.x that 2 GT120s or nVidia caused trouble, was awhile before it was fixed, odd because 4,1s were sold as TO with up to 4 GTWW0s.

Why a w20 though doing nothing? For rare need for boot screen as 660 is not flashed?
Click to expand...

The reason why the 120 isn't doing anything, other than the rare need of a boot screen is because with the 660, I'm forcing a 1920 x 1200 monitor to go 2560 x 1600, under SwitchResX. I'm not able to do this with the 120 card.

I don't have a need for bootcamp so no issues there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back