PC GTX650Ti in Mac Pro - to flash or not?!

[macgeof]

Hiya,

OK, I'm running a Mac Pro 4.1, Quad 2.66GHz, 16GB RAM. It came with a GT120 and I have just put in a Gigabyte GTX650Ti (cheap and cheerful and fulfils my needs completely). As expected, no boot screen - no problems there as I have the GT120 as fallback.

So, my questions are:

1) Aside from no boot screen, what else am I losing out on by using an off-the-shelf PC GPU
2) As a relative noob, how easy is it to flash this card (if at all)
3) I have currently removed the GT120 but can I put it back in alongside the GTX650Ti and only hook my DVI cable to it if I actually need the boot screen.

If it matters, I am running 10.9.1

Thanks in advance

 

[jaxhunter]

I have the 650Ti Boost and the main problem I've had is that I cannot find the EFI firmware anyware. I'm not sure anyone has ever worked with these cards; if they have they haven't posted the firmeware anywhere.

 

[Robert Davies]

1) Aside from no boot screen, what else am I losing out on by using an off-the-shelf PC GPU

After it has booted? Nothing I can think of…

I do not know if that card even has a ROM big enough to flash an EFI component onto it with out breaking out some pretty fancy soldering gear.

 

[ActionableMango]

AFAIK Nividia cards do not have a ROM large enough except for the GTX 680. That one is very easy to find and flash.

MACVIDCARDS has a service where he can replace your card's chip with a higher capacity one and flash it for you.

 

[macgeof]

Thanks for the responses. I'll just leave it well alone then - me and a soldering iron is not a good combo- as it fits the job already as is anyway