SLI on MAC Pro 2007?

[gab1982]

Hi all
I have a MAC PRO which I bought in 2007 (Mac Pro, Model Identifier: MacPro2,1, Quad-Core Intel Xeon, Processor Speed: 3 GHz, Number Of Processors: 2, 8 Cores, RAM: 5 GB, 3 nVidia GeForce 7300GT's) and I have bootcamp installed which is were I play all my games, in my Mac Pro I have 3x nvidia geforce 7300gt cards:


NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-4
PCIe Lane Width: x8
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0393
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: 3452
Displays:
HP w2408:
Resolution: 1920 x 1200 @ 60 Hz
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Rotation: Supported
Television: Yes
Display Connector:
Status: No Display Connected

all cards are in the PCIe Lane Width: x8 lanes

Is it possible for me to enable SLI in windows 7 via bootcamp for my cards? I updated my nvidia driver to the latest and checked out some tutorials on how to enable sli but it didn't seem to have the option when I looked but was wanting some feedback from some pro's.

On a side note in my mac pro I would like to eventually purchase a blu-ray 3d writer which I know I can only use in windows which is ok for now but do my cards support HDCP to play blu-ray movies and would they even play a blu-ray 3d movie?

thanks
Graham

 

[Mackilroy]

It wouldn't be worth putting your 7300 GTs in SLI – you'd be much better off selling them and upgrading to a 5870 (or 5770 if the 5870 is too much).

 

[gab1982]

Thanks I searched the forums for SLI and tried the patch i found but didn't work, in regards to graphics im wanting something to wow me when i play games on my mac pro via windows in boot camp and something i can do video etc by using in osx.

Could i not just buy a windows card eg: http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...0-4gb-black-edition-limited-introduction.html or http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Asus-HD-5870-...raphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW&hash=item2eb27eee66 or http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/XFX-Radeon-HD...raphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW&hash=item483948d8fe and would it work in my mac pro on both osx and windows?

thanks
Graham

 

[Mackilroy]

No. You'd have to flash the card to do that, and it's not easy (and I don't think it's possibly) to flash the 5970. You can flash 5870s, but I do not believe any of the cards with more than 1 GB are flashable. You should look at the netkas forums for more information about that.

 

[lewdvig]

Thanks I searched the forums for SLI and tried the patch i found but didn't work, in regards to graphics im wanting something to wow me when i play games on my mac pro via windows in boot camp and something i can do video etc by using in osx.

Could i not just buy a windows card eg: http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...0-4gb-black-edition-limited-introduction.html or http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Asus-HD-5870-...raphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW&hash=item2eb27eee66 or http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/XFX-Radeon-HD...raphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW&hash=item483948d8fe and would it work in my mac pro on both osx and windows?

thanks
Graham

After you get up to speed at netkas and get your cards set please post your results here. Personally I think it's overkill unless you are running games at native res on a 27" acd. But I am curious.