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x1900xt upgrade kit recieved
- Thread starter mactree
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It you get it with your MacPro, they do. It's $250 if you get it with the MacPro, but $400 if you get it separate. Only place that I've seen that matches Apples price is expercom.com.
MovieCutter said:
Care to share how you got such a great deal? With edu discount, best I can get is $359.99
I had a slight discount, but spent $400 on it.
I have to say though, I've got it installed now, a big big difference. I opened up Motion just to give it a workout and it's night and day using the 1900 vs the stock card. Well worth it.
MA631Z/A ATI RADEON X1900 XT GRAPH 1 1 367.00 367.00
002 SHIPPING14EXPEDITED SHIPPING CHARGE 1 1 10.00 10.00
Subtotal 377.00
Tax 24.22
Shipping Charges
TOTAL USD 401.22
I have to say though, I've got it installed now, a big big difference. I opened up Motion just to give it a workout and it's night and day using the 1900 vs the stock card. Well worth it.
MA631Z/A ATI RADEON X1900 XT GRAPH 1 1 367.00 367.00
002 SHIPPING14EXPEDITED SHIPPING CHARGE 1 1 10.00 10.00
Subtotal 377.00
Tax 24.22
Shipping Charges
TOTAL USD 401.22
ATI X1900XT arrives
I just received mine last night too! I don't think I really came out so bad buying my Mac Pro with the nVidia card and ordering this seperately. For one thing, it's a real pain if your video card ever fails on a Mac. You can't usually just run out and buy a replacement - since even the Apple retail stores never seem to have what you want in stock. I can re-use the nVidia board in a PCI Express slot of a Windows PC - and know it's got firmware that allows it to work in my Mac Pro if my Radeon should ever die.
And on a related note, that X1900XT will develop problems in a matter of only *minutes* if the on-board fan should ever quit spinning on it! I did something incredibly stupid during the install which gave me that information. I was distracted by my kid and in sort of a rush to get the ATI card put in my Mac Pro, so I forgot to remove the metal slot cover over the slot adjacent to the bottom slot. Since the ATI card takes up 2 spaces, it needs that second slot cover removed so it can vent air through it. I got it installed anyway though, so its vent was completely blocked off.
Everything powered up fine, but as soon as I went to a 3D game to test it out, the fan started whirring loudly and then my Mac froze up with a black screen. I wasn't able to get any video again, even after unplugging the machine from the wall for about 30 seconds and trying to zap the PRAM, etc.
That's when I decided I better take the card back out to look at it more closely, and I realized I left that slot cover on! I had to let everything cool down for about 15 minutes before I was able to get the card to come back up with video after I fixed everything and put it back together again. (I figured I probably killed the card, but I guess it just needed to cool down.)
I just received mine last night too! I don't think I really came out so bad buying my Mac Pro with the nVidia card and ordering this seperately. For one thing, it's a real pain if your video card ever fails on a Mac. You can't usually just run out and buy a replacement - since even the Apple retail stores never seem to have what you want in stock. I can re-use the nVidia board in a PCI Express slot of a Windows PC - and know it's got firmware that allows it to work in my Mac Pro if my Radeon should ever die.
And on a related note, that X1900XT will develop problems in a matter of only *minutes* if the on-board fan should ever quit spinning on it! I did something incredibly stupid during the install which gave me that information. I was distracted by my kid and in sort of a rush to get the ATI card put in my Mac Pro, so I forgot to remove the metal slot cover over the slot adjacent to the bottom slot. Since the ATI card takes up 2 spaces, it needs that second slot cover removed so it can vent air through it. I got it installed anyway though, so its vent was completely blocked off.
Everything powered up fine, but as soon as I went to a 3D game to test it out, the fan started whirring loudly and then my Mac froze up with a black screen. I wasn't able to get any video again, even after unplugging the machine from the wall for about 30 seconds and trying to zap the PRAM, etc.
That's when I decided I better take the card back out to look at it more closely, and I realized I left that slot cover on! I had to let everything cool down for about 15 minutes before I was able to get the card to come back up with video after I fixed everything and put it back together again. (I figured I probably killed the card, but I guess it just needed to cool down.)
mactree said:
Thanks for the info kingtj, and congrats on the new card.
How are the overall noise levels with the fan on-board the X1900XT? Are there different levels like a high or low or off setting, or is it just on constantly?
For those interested, i did a bit of searching around:
[url=https://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-230151.html]More comments (dump of entire thread, search for noise)
Just wanted to hear your personal take on the noise level.
Abulia, if you're reading this, I noticed from one of your postings that you got a replacement cooler for the ATI card. How is that working out?
How are the overall noise levels with the fan on-board the X1900XT? Are there different levels like a high or low or off setting, or is it just on constantly?
For those interested, i did a bit of searching around:
[url=https://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-230151.html]More comments (dump of entire thread, search for noise)
Just wanted to hear your personal take on the noise level.
Abulia, if you're reading this, I noticed from one of your postings that you got a replacement cooler for the ATI card. How is that working out?
I hear you kingti, I did something I rarely do when installing this stuff and read the directions, or I would have missed that same thing (removing the additional pci slot cover above. Also, you're right, I feel pretty good about the decision of getting the upgrade kit. I got to buy my mac right then at the apple store and upgrade when I had the cash to do it. It worked great with the stock card, and just was that much more exciting to throw this in there.
When the radeon first spun up I thought it was going to be considerably louder, but after that it seems to be almost as quiet as the nvidia. Maybe a very very slight increase in fan noise. It's consistent though, even putting the card through some heavy lifting doesn't seem to change the fan patterns or noises from the card. Which is something that was a big issue for me and the 9800 card on my G5. If I were scrolling around a 3d enviornment I could hear the card actually processing the information.
When the radeon first spun up I thought it was going to be considerably louder, but after that it seems to be almost as quiet as the nvidia. Maybe a very very slight increase in fan noise. It's consistent though, even putting the card through some heavy lifting doesn't seem to change the fan patterns or noises from the card. Which is something that was a big issue for me and the 9800 card on my G5. If I were scrolling around a 3d enviornment I could hear the card actually processing the information.
X1900XT fan noise?
As far as I'm able to tell, the fan must have both a "high" and a "low" speed. Like I say, when I first screwed up the installation by blocking the vent cover - I heard some fan noise/rattling, but nothing I would have really noticed if it weren't for the fact that the Mac is so quiet otherwise. But as the card started really heating up - the fan suddenly got a LOT louder, and stayed like that until it crashed on me.
After letting things cool down and reinstalling it properly, I haven't again noticed the video card making any noticeable noise. In fact, half of the fan noise I heard the first time was just due to me blocking the vent and causing the air to have nowhere to really go. I haven't been able to hear it spin up to the "high" speed even while playing UT2004 for an hour or so. I think I've heard it briefly (about 1 second) spin up during a reboot though. I guess that's some brief period of time where the system is initializing the card and its heat sensors?
As far as I'm able to tell, the fan must have both a "high" and a "low" speed. Like I say, when I first screwed up the installation by blocking the vent cover - I heard some fan noise/rattling, but nothing I would have really noticed if it weren't for the fact that the Mac is so quiet otherwise. But as the card started really heating up - the fan suddenly got a LOT louder, and stayed like that until it crashed on me.
After letting things cool down and reinstalling it properly, I haven't again noticed the video card making any noticeable noise. In fact, half of the fan noise I heard the first time was just due to me blocking the vent and causing the air to have nowhere to really go. I haven't been able to hear it spin up to the "high" speed even while playing UT2004 for an hour or so. I think I've heard it briefly (about 1 second) spin up during a reboot though. I guess that's some brief period of time where the system is initializing the card and its heat sensors?
Digidesign said:
Is the pci slot cover removed completely then when you get one built to order ? and doesnt that make your mac pro look pretty awful at the back ? with a gaping hole .....
Couldnt they have supplied a grilled pci slot so it at least looks nice ?
Couldnt they have supplied a grilled pci slot so it at least looks nice ?
MacRumorUser said:
The card is the same wether or not you order it in the machine or the upgrade kit. The Mac Pro has a double wide 16x PCIe on the bottom so that putting a graphics card with a big fan on it would not block the next PCIe slot. The card itself has a double PCI cover on the end of it, the bottom has the standard DVI connectors and just above that is the slotted cover for the fan to exhaust.
-Jerry C.
I dun see why not if you are concerned with fan noise of the 1900 that you could replace it with an aftermarket cooler such as a zalman cu 900 
? Can u do that with the mac pro's power supply?
? Can u do that with the mac pro's power supply?
jhero said:I dun see why not if you are concerned with fan noise of the 1900 that you could replace it with an aftermarket cooler such as a zalman cu 900
Actually, no, after the installation of the Zalman, the tuned X1900XT don't fit anymore in the MacPro !
( french site MacBidouille report it : http://forum.macbidouille.com/index.php?showtopic=188650 )
BUT, the Accelero X2 works great, I installed it on my X1900 XT few days ago
I got my 1900XT last Friday and installed the-biggest-card-I've-ever-seen into the Mac Pro. Probably the biggest difference from the stock 7300GT was noticed in games, like WoW where my framerate jumped from ~30 to 60fps, and no lag in crowded areas. Standard OS X usage like iPhoto and Safari felt about the same as the 7300GT. Adobe CS2 apps didn't seem that much faster, although the files I was working with were rather small in size.
It's a pretty robust card, although the card's stock fan sounds like a tiny model RC airplane flying around my room. When idle, it's quiet though so no complaints (quiet, not silent). If I save up a bit more, I might just spring for the Accelero X2 fan but only if I can confirm that it's much quieter than the stock. On a side note, I also checked on the little heatsinks that I attached to my Kingston fb-dimms and am glad to report that they have not fallen off, nor were they blazing hot or much hotter than the stock Apple heatsinks.
So far so good... now to start putting this baby to work instead of playing games.
It's a pretty robust card, although the card's stock fan sounds like a tiny model RC airplane flying around my room. When idle, it's quiet though so no complaints (quiet, not silent). If I save up a bit more, I might just spring for the Accelero X2 fan but only if I can confirm that it's much quieter than the stock. On a side note, I also checked on the little heatsinks that I attached to my Kingston fb-dimms and am glad to report that they have not fallen off, nor were they blazing hot or much hotter than the stock Apple heatsinks.
So far so good... now to start putting this baby to work instead of playing games.
Digidesign said:
thanks for the update.*
i'm debating whether to get the ATI card or the stock one. can someone give a link to benchmarks or give your own benchmarks? thanks*
The X2 is dead quiet. There's no real comparison between it and the stock cooler.Digidesign said:
I'm increadibly pleased. Excellent $20 investment.
MovieCutter said:
thanks for the links....i guess i'm not that good with google, cuz i couldn't find those