Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
At least 10.7.5 with 64bit kernel and Sapphire drivers would be needed. Since Apple doesn't allow booting a 64bit kernel on MacPro1,1 by default, I'd go right up to Yosemite. Tutorial for this should be easy to find.
 
At least 10.7.5 with 64bit kernel and Sapphire drivers would be needed. Since Apple doesn't allow booting a 64bit kernel on MacPro1,1 by default, I'd go right up to Yosemite. Tutorial for this should be easy to find.
Well, I can't boot Yosemite due to my current video card. It's a weird paradox but let me try explaining it.

In order for my Mac to boot Yosemite, it needs a video card that is compatible with Yosemite, right? Well, I got this Sapphire HD 7950. BUT, the 7950 is not operat-able on Lion's OS.

It's a very annoying conundrum and I think my only way of getting it to work is if I use the ML Poster installer thing to go from Lion to Mountain Lion, then to Yosemite. I think that's my only way, any help is appreciated though!
 
If your current card has an EFI (e.g. 7300GT from Apple) it should provide basic video output in Yosemite. No accelleration, but you should be able to boot.
 
If your current card has an EFI (e.g. 7300GT from Apple) it should provide basic video output in Yosemite. No accelleration, but you should be able to boot.
I have that card but have not been able to boot into Yosemite. i'M USING THE SFOTT boot method. In fact, in mostly all of the tutorials I've watched, it usually makes it clear that you cannot use the stock video cards in the Mac Pro 1,1, even spesifically naming the Nvidia Geforce 7300 GT.

I'm not trying to upset you or even argue, I just have tried most means to try to get this to work. It's super nerve racking but I think my only option is to have a friend loan me his video card to boot with and then using either the sapphire or 7300 after Yosemite is booted, or go to Mountain Lion then SFOTT boot into Yosemite.
 
Did you try booting in safe mode or setting the bootflag nv_disable=1?

Btw, when you've already installed Yosemite, why don't you insert your 7950 then? Should work OOB...
 
I'm not sure what exactly you're talking about, and that's the thing. The installer will NOT boot up unless you have the correct video card, but the video card won't work until Yosemite is fully installed on there.

I'm now on 10.8.4 so I should be good to go but my 7950 still isn't working. I haven't hooked up any PCI 6 pin adapters though so I'm unsure if that's what's been holding me back.
 
The 7950 won't work at all without those two power plugs inserted.

I thought Yosemite was already completely installed because you said something about "booting Yosemite", sry. I'm quite sure though that the 7950 should work when booting the installer, too.
 
You're fine! I probably didn't explain it clearly. Well I used MLPost to get to Mountain Lion, and it's currently working with the original Nvidia 7300GT. Amazon Prime'ed the two 6 pin adapters so those will be here soon, then I'lll update you guys on how everything turns out.
Had I known it would've been this much trouble to get the PC Version of the Sapphire HD 7950 to work, I might've just purchased the ATI Radeon 5770, but it wouldn't have been nearly as powerful (and as good of a deal) as my Sapphire was.
Oh well, I'll keep you guys posted on the status of my Mac Pro 1,1! Thanks!
 
Okay, so I hooked up the two 6 pin connectors to the video card and now the fans are spinning. The Mac actually recognizes that the 7950 is in a PCI slot. But I wasn't able to boot from that card alone, I had to use my original 7300gt. Kinda need some help!
 
what's the symptoms of "unable to boot from the 7950 alone"?
Well, the 7950 card should be able to work in 10.8.4 without having any other video card hooked up. But it stays indefinitely black and i know good and well there's not supposed to be an apple boot screen but the login screen never even pops up ever! I don't know, I need some help.
 
The 7950 won't work at all without those two power plugs inserted.

I thought Yosemite was already completely installed because you said something about "booting Yosemite", sry. I'm quite sure though that the 7950 should work when booting the installer, too.
Hey man, so I got the 6 pin connectors latched on the graphics card. Thing stays at a black screen and doesn't go past it. When I also leave my original card with it and use my orginal as the primary video card, I get a pop up showing me that PCI ports taken and the only thing it describes the 7950 as is "display". I need MAJOR help.
 
How about setup a remote desktop? e.g. Chrome Remote Desktop.

Then you can "see" what's happening on your machine. Or double check if there is actually a login screen but just not showing via the 7950?
 
How about setup a remote desktop? e.g. Chrome Remote Desktop.

Then you can "see" what's happening on your machine. Or double check if there is actually a login screen but just not showing via the 7950?
That's not the problem. If I want to see what the screen is showing, I'd just use my old Nividia 7300GT. I'm trying to get the 7950 to work on it's own.

And I know there's a login screen, it's just not gonna show it to me.

When I used both video cards at the same time to try to do some kind of dual boot, upon login a popup about the PCI ports popped up and it recognized that something is in one of the ports (besides the 7300GT) and just has it clearly labeled as "display". Even when I go into system settings and look at exactly what's hooked up, it senses the 7950 as "display"!

So here's my deal. I'm now running Mountain Lion on my Mac Pro 1,1 (8 cores, 16gb RAM) and I want to get this video card to work so I can use it for Yosemite. But at this point if I could just get it to work, I'd be set. I've come to understand that everyone who has done this used a slightly newer Mac Pro, but as long as I'm on the same OS it shouldn't make a difference. And also, another forum got his Mac Pro 1,1 to work with this card, I'm awaiting a response as we speak.
 
You have to flash the card first on a PC or on Windows partition on your Mac Pro first and then use it to install and use Yosemite. I've done it with my ATI 5770 Mac Edition back then (works on older OS X versions and Yosemite). The old nVidia card you have doesn't work on Yosemite, your 7950 is a non flashed PC version and can't work either with boot screen to install Yosemite.

So, first flash the card and then continue ;)
Read the guide I wrote some weeks back if that helps, it's for another PC version of 7950, so don't use the attached efi.rom.

Good luck!
 
The HD 7950 should definitely work in 10.8.4 without any other card, but maybe there is a problem with the automatic initialization of your unflashed card. Did you try other output ports? Are you 100% sure the card is working fine (e.g. boot Windows)?
 
That's not the problem. If I want to see what the screen is showing, I'd just use my old Nividia 7300GT. I'm trying to get the 7950 to work on it's own.

I mean use remote control to see what's happening when ONLY the 7950 inside your Mac Pro. If it still shows that as a display but not a GPU. Then we know this issue is not related to the 7300GT.
 
You have to flash the card first on a PC or on Windows partition on your Mac Pro first and then use it to install and use Yosemite. I've done it with my ATI 5770 Mac Edition back then (works on older OS X versions and Yosemite). The old nVidia card you have doesn't work on Yosemite, your 7950 is a non flashed PC version and can't work either with boot screen to install Yosemite.

So, first flash the card and then continue ;)
Read the guide I wrote some weeks back if that helps, it's for another PC version of 7950, so don't use the attached efi.rom.

Good luck!
Thanks for that, but honestly it's so above me. I really can't understand any of that, this being my first time flashing a card. I'll still give it a try!
 
The HD 7950 should definitely work in 10.8.4 without any other card, but maybe there is a problem with the automatic initialization of your unflashed card. Did you try other output ports? Are you 100% sure the card is working fine (e.g. boot Windows)?
I've tried the HDMI out put and one of the DVI out puts. I'll try the other one though, and I still haven't tried running Windows.
 
I mean use remote control to see what's happening when ONLY the 7950 inside your Mac Pro. If it still shows that as a display but not a GPU. Then we know this issue is not related to the 7300GT.
I used my iPhone 6 Plus as a second screen and when I looked at the what it said under graphics in the "About this Mac" window, there was nothing. Literally nothing.
 
You have to flash the card first on a PC or on Windows partition on your Mac Pro first and then use it to install and use Yosemite. I've done it with my ATI 5770 Mac Edition back then (works on older OS X versions and Yosemite). The old nVidia card you have doesn't work on Yosemite, your 7950 is a non flashed PC version and can't work either with boot screen to install Yosemite.

So, first flash the card and then continue ;)
Read the guide I wrote some weeks back if that helps, it's for another PC version of 7950, so don't use the attached efi.rom.

Good luck!
Oh, and if I flash it, does that mean it'll let me use it 100%? Cause as far as I was concerned, the point of flashing it was to get a video card that was already 100% operate-able and get it to display an apple logo.
 
So you bought a flashed PC version of Sapphire HD 7950? Doesn't seem flashed at all since it's not recognized in the System under Graphics or in PCI section in System Profiler. Return it to seller Simce it's not what advertised. Try it on another Mac Pro if you can just to verify that.
 
So you bought a flashed PC version of Sapphire HD 7950? Doesn't seem flashed at all since it's not recognized in the System under Graphics or in PCI section in System Profiler. Return it to seller Simce it's not what advertised. Try it on another Mac Pro if you can just to verify that.
No, I don't think it was flashed. I have no problem with trying to flash it on my own though, I just thought this card didn't need to be flashed to work. But I can give it a shot. I'm currently downloading a windows iso so it'll take a while.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.