Scream for Help on HD 7950 For Mac 3,1

[cocawater]

Dear Mac Rumorers:

I really really really didthe research on HD 7950, and I am confused now simply because I dont quite understand hardware. According to this thread (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1505726/Hi ), some one was asking which vendor of 7650 recommended. However, according this link (http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sapphire/100352MAC/), Mac edition is white one, right?

Therefore, I did my search on Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...&field-keywords=7950+3g&rh=n:541966,k:7950+3g), there are so many version of 7950 3G.

After all, which one I should pick, thank you so much for help (I have spent all day on understanding hardware terms, 6 pin 8 pin or whatever).

Mac Pro 3,1 2.8 GHz 8 Core Xeon
Apple ATI Radeon 5770 Video Card
512GB Solid State Drive
32 GB GDDR3 SDRAM 800 MHZ
Dual Quad Core E5462 Xeon Processors
Apple Superdrive 8X DL

 

[Macsonic]

Dear Mac Rumorers:

I really really really didthe research on HD 7950, and I am confused now simply because I dont quite understand hardware. According to this thread (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1505726/Hi ), some one was asking which vendor of 7650 recommended. However, according this link (http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sapphire/100352MAC/), Mac edition is white one, right?

Therefore, I did my search on Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...&field-keywords=7950+3g&rh=n:541966,k:7950+3g), there are so many version of 7950 3G.

After all, which one I should pick, thank you so much for help (I have spent all day on understanding hardware terms, 6 pin 8 pin or whatever).

Mac Pro 3,1 2.8 GHz 8 Core Xeon
Apple ATI Radeon 5770 Video Card
512GB Solid State Drive
32 GB GDDR3 SDRAM 800 MHZ
Dual Quad Core E5462 Xeon Processors
Apple Superdrive 8X DL

You can find the white colored 7950HD here
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sapphire/100352MAC/
You may also check out MacVidcards Radeon 7950 for Mac at a lower price:
http://www.macvidcards.com/store/p12/AMD_Radeon_7950_3_GB.html

I think in Amazon the Mac Edition is no longer in stock.

 

[h9826790]

The white one is the official Mac Edition card.

The other so call Mac Edition card are all flashed card, which should a bit cheaper.

As long as you get the flashed card from a trustable seller (e.g. MVC), the card should works exactly the same as the official card (or even faster).

Be careful don't go for some unreliable seller for this type of product. Flash the card is not that hard. However, flash it correctly, and test it accordingly is not everyone will / can do. Without proper modification, the flashed card can draw too much power from the motherboard and may cause permanent damage. On the other hand, the official card won't do that because it's power consumption is limited by the factory setting.

Also, without the resistor mod, a normal flashed card will stay at PCIe1.0, but the official card is PCIe2.0. Evethough it makes almost zero difference in real world performance, but it's good to know.

 

[TheStork]

That's exactly why I had MacVidCards flash and setup my Sapphire 7950 (Reference Design) card I got off of eBay. I use to flash my own PC cards for my early Macs, but I realized that just flashing the card's BIOS wasn't enough for the more modern cards. So, lesson learned from me, sometimes it's best to let a more experienced person flash the card.