New card for Mac Pro 1.1 with EFI BL

[HackerTuga]

Hi there guys, my 7300GT just broke and I desperately need to buy a new one!

I want to have EFI bootscreen, don't want to use chameleon bootloader at all.

From my search here I read that ATI 5870 has the last EFI 32bits support for my mac, and what about nvidia? What is the best card that I can use?

Many thanks for the help!

 

[ActionableMango]

If you want boot screens, your choices for new cards are limited to either Apple brand 5770 and 5870, or flashed PC cards. I know at least one flashed card, the 6870, won't provide boot screens on a 1,1 because it's based on a 64EFI firmware.

There is no reason to go with a 5870 on a 1,1 because benchmarks show your 1,1 cannot get much benefit out of it despite the much higher cost.

There are several older, used cards you can get, but I don't know much about that. Most Nvidia cards, even some Apple ones, won't work on a 1,1 with boot screens because they are 64EFI, but I don't know which do and which don't.

If you don't mind not having boot screens, you can get an AMD 5770, 5870, 6870 for Snow Leopard and Lion, or some Nvidia cards for Lion (for a list, see #6 in the Nvidia FAQ).

Nvidia Kepler and AMD 7000 series are no-go for you because they are Mountain Lion only.

 

[Mr.Noisy]

HD 5770 from Apple works fine in the 1,1 MP, check eBay apple want too many $$$'s

 

[MacPoulet]

HD 5770 from Apple works fine in the 1,1 MP, check eBay apple want too many $$$'s

Funny enough, whenever I see eBay listings, they're always higher than apple. Maybe it's country specific?

 

[PowerPCMacMan]

ATI/AMD and EBC

All video cards by ATI/AMD use something called: EBC firmware.. the bottom line to what this means: Dual EFI support for 64/32 based Mac Pro machines. Nvidia's cards only support EFI64 and thus won't work on the 1,1 or 2,1 Mac Pro.

Now, if you can find it.. seek out the Nvidia Geforce 8800(forget what the code is) which was a special BTO card to run in the 1,1 and 2,1 Mac Pros. Your best bet to ask AppleMacanix on ebay if he can get this nice card for you.

Otherwise, a 5770 or 5870 will have to do.

AMD/ATI developed the EBC firmware to work in all generations of the Mac Pro and its a way to give Apple the middle... AMD/ATI is in the business to make money and what better way than to support all Mac Pros and not just the newer models.

 

[Genghis Khan]

As far as I'm aware, your choices are strictly limited to...

(from 1,1)
nVidia GeForce 7300 GT
ATI Radeon X1900 XT
nVidia Quadro FX 4500
(from 3,1)
ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
nVidia GeForce 8800 GT
nVidia Quadro FX 5600
(from 4,1)
nVidia GeForce GT 120
ATI Radeon HD 4870

and then the EVGA GTX285 Mac Edition and any flashed PC cards (most common are thee ATI 4000 series)

 

[MacVidCards]

I want to have EFI bootscreen, don't want to use chameleon bootloader at all.

From my search here I read that ATI 5870 has the last EFI 32bits support for my mac, and what about nvidia? What is the best card that I can use?

The very best Nvidia card that offers bootscreen from Nvidia is a special one we have made.

It is an 8800GT but has one special twist, it has 1GB of RAM, unlike the Apple one which only has 512 Megs.

So while standard Apple 8800GT and even the much pricier Quadro 5600 for EFI32 (another one of our babies) are nice, they will NOT enable MPE engine in CS6. Ours can, making it the ONLY Nvidia card that can do this.

The Apple 5770 is a very nice compromise card, the big plus is it works in ALL Mac Pros.

 

[Tesselator]

As far as I'm aware, your choices are strictly limited to...

(from 1,1)
nVidia GeForce 7300 GT
ATI Radeon X1900 XT
nVidia Quadro FX 4500
(from 3,1)
ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
nVidia GeForce 8800 GT
nVidia Quadro FX 5600
(from 4,1)
nVidia GeForce GT 120
ATI Radeon HD 4870

and then the EVGA GTX285 Mac Edition and any flashed PC cards (most common are thee ATI 4000 series)

The 8800GT works flawlessly in the MP1,1 without any modifications or anything. Just install the card and reboot. Perfect!

Cheap too! Myself I'd rather have 8800GT over anything from ATI. ATI's cards are just missing too many features. As a developer we had to support both of course and oh what a poor implementation AMD's are! GAR!

If you don't mind forgoing the boot-screen there are many other NVidia options as well. Some are really sweet!

 

[GP-SE]

depending where you're located I have an ATI 4870 from my 2009 Mac Pro for sale.