Worry-free Mac Pro graphic upgrade?

[LEOMODE]

Hi I have 2010 June Mac Pro.

Spec is:
Single 6 core 3.33ghz
Manually updated Samsung 16GB of RAM
ATI Radeon 5870 single with 2 power cables
Manually updated Plextor M5 pro 512GB SSD

These days my main task is gaming. I like dual booting OS (Windows 7 SP1 and OSX 10.8.2, but I'm planning to downgrade to Snow Leopard latest update) so I am very satisfied with my mac pro as my main system. No plans on getting pc desktop.

Since most of the games these days require more power from VGA, I can't seem to run anything smooth these days.

But prior to upgrading my VGA, I would like to have these points secure so that I won't have to worry if anything goes wrong:


1) Having boot EFI screens at all times
2) Having not changing my power source hardware (2 pins at max without frying anything)
3) working both for Windows and Mac
4) being able to work in Snow Leopard if I do downgrade

I know that ATI 7950 is coming soon. But would that be the only choice that I will have?

I've read Macvideocards' thread about using Nvidia VGA's, but they wouldn't work in Snow Leopard I believe because of the drivers. And as I see it, it looks like there always has to be manual process of flashing VGA if there is any upgrade from Mac OSX. (Since I just always update everything to the latest versions)

Please enlight me on this as I didn't fully understand of the manul upgrade with VGA other than Apple is providing.

Thanks a lot.

 

[derbothaus]

Search Brotha:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1360927/

 

[phoenixsan]

Seems to me....

what based in your list of requirements, not too many options fit the bill. And just using my memory (so I hope you and any can forget me), these are the options:

nVidia Quadro 4000 via PCI-E
ATI Radeon 5770 HD or 5870 HD with more RAM onboard?

 

[LEOMODE]

Search Brotha:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1360927/

Thanks I did read that and it wasn't clear brotha

 

[MacVidCards]

We have GTX470 and GTX480 that work with 10.6.8.

All you need to do is install the Nvidia Quadro 4000 drivers from Nvidia's website on top of 10.6.8 and you will be good to go.

 

[xcodeSyn]

1) Having boot EFI screens at all times
2) Having not changing my power source hardware (2 pins at max without frying anything)
3) working both for Windows and Mac
4) being able to work in Snow Leopard if I do downgrade

Your criteria remind me of this thread but with even more contradiction with the downgrade to Snow Leopard. Unless you are willing to compromise, your best bet is probably to wait for the Radeon 7950 for Mac version.

 

[LEOMODE]

We have GTX470 and GTX480 that work with 10.6.8.

All you need to do is install the Nvidia Quadro 4000 drivers from Nvidia's website on top of 10.6.8 and you will be good to go.

Hi but gtx470&480 will be less power than newly coming out official 7950 correct?

To be safe ive read your post and you mentioned that default power setting with 2 6pins is radeon 7950 so i guess i just have to wait for that one.

But just out of curiosity, whats the best graphic card for the watts my mac pro can hold? (I also read somewhere here that as long as power is ok with 225w, then 1 6pin and 1 8pin vga card is still ok..?) if thats still not safe then what would be the most powerful vga card for 2 6pins currently in the market?

----------

Your criteria remind me of this thread but with even more contradiction with the downgrade to Snow Leopard. Unless you are willing to compromise, your best bet is probably to wait for the Radeon 7950 for Mac version.

Yeah.. Im leaning towards that.. But sucks that 7950 is not the top graphic card at the moment.. Shoulve been 7970 at least or even 7990... And that they would be perfectly power-compatible with mac pro!

 

[ActionableMango]

There is nothing that improves upon the 5870 that also meets all of your requirements, and it is unlikely any future card will either.

I don't know why people are mentioning 79xx series cards as those drivers from Apple are showing up in ML only. There is no reason to believe they will backport the drivers all the way back to Snow Leopard. I suppose it is possible that Sapphire will make Snow Leopard drivers, but I haven't heard of this and it seems unlikely.

There are a plethora of choices if you are willing to give up Snow Leopard compatibility.

 

[deconstruct60]

....
These days my main task is gaming. I like dual booting OS (Windows 7 SP1 and OSX 10.8.2, but I'm planning to downgrade to Snow Leopard latest update) ....
4) being able to work in Snow Leopard if I do downgrade

This doesn't make alot of sense. I know folks complain about how OS X Lion is "too iOS" or whatever but gaming is a full screen mode app. That is 100% aligned with the trend to full screen apps as being made the mainstream.

Furthermore all graphics improvements are going to be made in the newest OS X release. Apple isn't going to back-port support for newer OpenGL or OpenCL to older releases. The number of folks running that older release is likely going to drop like a rock when 10.9 arrives. ( it is already declining but always declines much more after get 3 releases back. Apple is likely to cut off all non security essential updates to 10.6 pretty soon after 10.9 releases. ).

Hunkering done Snow Leapard doesn't buy much if anything when it comes to gaming. Bluntly, it just seems a plot twist to squeeze out the new cards that are arriving.