Mac Pro (Early 2008) video card upgrade options

[nigelbb]

I can thoroughly recommend a GTX570 as I just got a used one off eBay for £125 ($200) & it has made a great improvement ti performance of Premiere Pro.

[sailmac]

Originally Posted by gpzjock

Keep your original HD2600 in another slot to allow bootscreen use if you need it.

Please will someone clarify for me?

I have an HD2600 (slot 1). Let's say I add a GTX650 (slot 2) and connect my display to it (DVI).

Will the two run in parallel, with the HD2600 automagically feeding boot screen display through the GTX650?

Or are we saying that for instances where I need bootscreen I actually reconnect the display to the HD2600? (I'm guessing this is the correct answer...)

And if it's the latter, once the system has booted can I safely swap the display connection back to the GTX650 while the system is up? Or would I have to shutdown, swap ports, then boot blind again?

I've been following these Mac Pro graphic card threads for awhile now, but missed if this has been explicitly answered already. Thanks!

[gpzjock]

The HD2600 is only needed if you have problems that require seeing the bootscreen, it will only display if that card has a port directly attached to the screen by a cable. If both your cards are connected to the same screen you should be able to switch between them with the monitor's controls.

AMD and Nvidia cards do not "play nice" together so they cannot be run in combination as a single GFX engine, this requires a Crossfire or SLI connection which is unavailable under OS X.

[sailmac]

Originally Posted by gpzjock

The HD2600 is only needed if you have problems that require seeing the bootscreen, it will only display if that card has a port directly attached to the screen by a cable. If both your cards are connected to the same screen you should be able to switch between them with the monitor's controls.

AMD and Nvidia cards do not "play nice" together so they cannot be run in combination as a single GFX engine, this requires a Crossfire or SLI connection which is unavailable under OS X.

Thanks for that, it makes sense.

I'm currently running an Apple Cinema Display which only supports a single DVI connection, so using the monitor to detect/switch between cards isn't a feature I have.

Sounds like I would do what most people here are doing -- store the HD2600 and simply reinstall it on the (hopefully rare) occasion when a boot screen is needed. And I suppose the GTX650 (or whatever I end up getting) will run a bit cooler if the unused HD2600 isn't perched in the slot beneath it.

Thanks again.

[klukkluk]

+1 for the 5770.

When I installed that card into my 3,1 Mac Pro, I threw a party to celebrate the rebirth of my machine.

(heavy Photoshop and Lightroom use)