New (to me) Mac Pro 1,1 Need Video Card Help ATI Radeon X1950XTX

[ORTOX]

Yesterday I purchased an original Mac Pro 1 1 for $500. Pretty great find. Works perfectly. Completely stock.

I'm primarily going to it for Bootcamp to run a video game frontend called HyperSpin. So I've been looking in to what upgrades I should make that are within my budget.

I found an ATI Radeon X1950XTX for $30 and will be buying it tonight. I've done a lot of searching whether or not this card will work in my Mac Pro, and I still can't quite find a definitive answer.

So it seems once I have Bootcamp installed, this card should work with no issues in Windows. But while searching for information on using it in Mac OS, I'll I've found so far is a rom by JCool that allows this card to work in Mac OS 10.5 on a Hackintosh.

Does anyone have a definitive answer as to whether or not I'll be able to use this with Mac OS X 10.7? If not will my Mac OS install default to using my stock 7300 GT? If that's the case it's not a huge problem because I won't need to use updated graphics while using Mac OS, but it would be preferred if I could.

Thanks guys.

 

[MacVidCards]

The X1900 cards are a special item for Mac Pro 1,1.

The Apple folk were new to the whole "EFI ROM" thing so they did the best they could...but it wasn't good enough.

For both the X1300 and X1900 they wrote a simple EFI ROM...ONLY.

This meant that the cards would NOT function in Bootcamp AT ALL.

To solve this, they updated the Mac Pro firmware to include a PC BIOS of an X1900.

I don't know if we all ever figured out exactly what triggers the Mac to use this BIOS.

If your X1950 is of the GDDR4 variety (red clear plastic fan) then it likely won't flash into Mac version. Please link this JCool post so I can look into what he did.

The X1900 cards that used 512 Megs of GDDR3 were the flashable ones. All other configs ended in disaster, as I recall.

While most other ATI cards can be flashed by combining the EFI and a PC BIOS, this was never done with X1900, due to the PC BIOS being in Mac Pro EFI. It may very well be that the PC BIOS is used to run the card in OSX, as that is how every other ATI card works.

You may want to look at the other cards...certainly an X1900 is VERY old tech.

A used 6870 from Craigslist might be a better choice if you can live without bootscreen.

 

[ORTOX]

I would agree with you about the 6870, but funds aren't available for a card like that yet. I did end up picking this x1950xtx up last night. It was only 30 bucks so if I can't get it working I'll out it up for sale somewhere.

Here's some photos of the card.

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/2782/img0055mh.jpg
http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/7279/img0058rt.jpg

It didn't come with the power cord for the card but I installed it anyway and Mac OS detected it. I put my 7300 in slot 2 and hooked my monitor back up to the 7300 and the Mac Pro is recognizing it as a VGA enabled ATI card, but that's it. I ran software update but no updates were available.

On a side note is this the correct power cord?
http://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-12-Inch-Express-Extension-PCI-01/dp/B004VR7UJM

I shutdown and rebooted with my monitor hooked up to the 1950 but didn't get any video to display. I then boot into Mac using the 7300 then unplugged my DVI cable and plugged it into the 1950: no video.

I then tried installing one of JcCool's packages. Here's the forum post I was referencing.

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=37175

Like I said that's for hackintosh. not sure if we can get it working for my setup?

Another problem I'm having: I installed lion from a usb disc that I created of the operating system and now when I boot up I have to leave the USB disc in and hold option to see my boot up disc. Otherwise I get an error that says no boot up drive has been detected? Any tips as to whats happening?

UPDATE: I think it's saying no boot device detected because I created a partition for windows but never actually installed it... Could this be a cause?

Thanks.

 

[ActionableMango]

On a side note is this the correct power cord?
http://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-12-Inch-Express-Extension-PCI-01/dp/B004VR7UJM

No, the above is an extension cable. You need one of these:
http://www.svideo.com/x1900.html

 

[ORTOX]

Thanks Mango. ordered one cause I know I'll need one eventually.

 

[MacVidCards]

won't work without power

and that is the GDDR4 version

Jcools packages had replacement drivers for OS 10.4 and 10.5 to enable various ATI X1xxx cards.

problem is, you most likely aren't running the ancient OS 's he was writing those for.

Also, since you aren't on a hack, you still need an init for those cards.

I can promise you that flashing with the Mac X1900 rom isn't going to work.

I think you need to move on to something more in your technical range.

A used Mac card from Craigslist or EBay would be best choice.

FYI, just like your toaster and your TV, video cards don't work without power hooked up.

 

[ORTOX]

Yeah I'm running Lion.

I've never had a graphics card that's required its own power cable. Ordered one.

I'm considering just throwing this x1950xtx into an older pc and getting a pair of 5770s for crossfire. Inexpensive and still good cards.

What is an init.

And I have no problem flashing a vid card, but seeing as it seems no one has a working rom for the x1950xtx with a mac, there's no way I'll be able to create one.