The "PC graphics cards in a Mac Pro?" Thread

[MovieCutter]

Anybody care to speculate on if we'll be able to pop in a PC graphics card and use it in Boot Camp? The X1900 is a sweet card, but I don't want to do my usual pattern of upgrading my tower by selling the old and buying the new over 6-8 months.

 

[Abulia]

That's a very good question and I suspect we won't know the answer (for certain) until the first Mac Pros are in the hands of early adoptors.

 

[michaeldmartin]

I wouldn't be suprised if they had special firmware to stop that from happening; nonetheless quad 7950's (8 GPU's) would be pretty frickin' sweet!

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

Depends on the drivers. Still a little surprised Apple went so cheap with the base card in a $2500 machine. The 7300 Gt get 44 FPS in the base machine at 1280 x 1024 the upside to that is you could just pop in another card I guess. The ati X1900 gets 106 FPS and the Quadro 4500 gets 110.

 

[Josias]

Depends on the drivers. Still a little surprised Apple went so cheap with the base card in a $2500 machine. The 7300 Gt get 44 FPS in the base machine at 1280 x 1024 the upside to that is you could just pop in another card I guess. The ati X1900 gets 106 FPS and the Quadro 4500 gets 110.

It's just ignorant, since the ACD's with their 14 ms, won't be able to display either 106 or 110 fps...

 

[topgunn]

I asked the following question to Rob-ART Morgan at Barefeets...

Up until now, you could flash PC video cards with a Mac ROM to make it Mac compatible. This is all well and good to get the card to work in Mac OSX but how will this work when we have Intel-based Macs running BootCamp?

His response...

My guess is that Apple will still need special firmware in the cards to "talk" to the video card unless, because they are promoting Boot Camp and Parallels, they convince ATI and nVIDIA to put cross platform firmware in a larger ROM.

 

[spicyapple]

Just how much faster or slower is the stock GeForce 7300 card compared to the old GeForce 6800 Ultra that were bto options with the previous PowerMacs?

I'm unsure if I should keep the 7300 or spend $350 to get the ATI X1900?

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

Just how much faster or slower is the stock GeForce 7300 card compared to the old GeForce 6800 Ultra that were bto options with the previous PowerMacs?

I'm unsure if I should keep the 7300 or spend $350 to get the ATI X1900?

With 7300 think of the 6600. In otherwords its quite a bit slower then the 6800 line. The 7300 is a hundred dollar card that Apple sells for $150

 

[spicyapple]

Cool, thanks. These model numbers are confusing.

 

[ipacmm]

I guess if you have a PC graphics card I would give it a try to see if it will boot, my guess is that within a month someone will have it figureded out how to run...if not you can always buy the Quadro FX 4500 512MB.

 

[speakerwizard]

yes, im dying to know this, i love apple but god damn does the graphics card situation tick me off, in the past ive tried flashing but its like rocket science sometimes. Apple if you intend to aim products at high end graphics users and scientific visualisation SORT OUT THE GRAPHICS CARD SUPPORT / PRICING!, rant over lol

 

[YoYoMa]

I hope this works, I am NOT looking forward to having to pay the Apple premium on my future cards.

 

[ender78]

There are a number of card related threads in the Mac Hardware forum. Check them out for specific details.