Questions Regarding Specific Graph Card Compatibility

Hi all,

First let me say yes, I did read through the sticky up top and there's a lot of information that doesn't apply to my particular mac so in the interest of me not ruining a nice piece of equipment I wanted to start a thread:

I'm running a Mac Pro 3.1 model on Snow Leopard currently with an Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT graph card. Performance is starting to get bad given the current graph requirements for most games. I run a boot camp partitioned hard drive on Windows 7 and I use it 95% of the time. Everything works great except the graph card, which I intend to upgrade. I really don't want to pay a crazy amount for the mac enabled graph cards and I don't particularly want to risk bricking a new card by fixing the firmware to be EFI compatible, it seems like it's risky. I've spend several days dredging through Google looking for concise information about upgrading the graph card and everything is very very muddled for me given the circumstances.

I am under the understanding that upgrading to OS X Mountain Lion will enable my comp to support some standard windows graph cards and that those cards to not have to be hacked to enable EFI firmware on the card (I'm not even sure I said that right). As I understand it I can buy one of these cards -> plug it in -> ??? -> graphical profit?

So what I'm asking is, am I correct in saying that if I upgrade this 3.1 mac pro to OS X Mountain Lion I can buy one of these cards, plug it in and go?

And if yes, is there a definitive list, as of recently, of graph cards that will work that someone could link me to?

Thanks in advance for any help

DanielCoffey said:

It is a great little tool which helps flip from OSX to Windows without having to use the grey boot screen.

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I actually just have windows installed on a separate hard drive and have that set as the main boot so it does that already. Is there any other advantages to this program?

pastrychef said:

support up to the Nvidia GTX 600-series cards. Just plug it in and go.

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when you say 'up to' where does the model line start? I'm trying to stay int he $250 range and all the 600 series cards seem to be about $350+

pastrychef said:

From the Nvidia FAQ thread:

Note that while cards like the GTX 480 and GTX 580 technically work, they have a TDP of 245-250W which is above what the Mac Pro can officially support (225W). If you want to use these cards, you'll probably have to drive them with an external power supply. In general, a card like the GTX 570 would be a better choice, since it has a TDP of 219W.

The rule of thumb is this: if the card has one or more 8-pin power connectors, it might draw too much power and you should check to see what its TDP is. It is generally safer to stick with cards that have one or two 6-pin power connectors. Note that many GTX 680 cards do have both a 6-pin and 8-pin power connectors, though their TDP is down in the 190W range and should work fine."

With your budget of about $250, you have many very good options. I believe you can find GTX 670 at around that price range and it's a very good all round card.

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so what about something like THIS which says HERE that it's a 110 watt card? Am I reading that right?


But in terms of card comparison I'm looking at THIS and THIS in terms of comparison. Both 2gb of ram and one is 128 bit versus 192 bit and with a difference of $100, is there really that big of a difference? I mean I know one is considered mid range (according to wikipedia anyway) and one is higher end. But is it worth it?

tldr; I want to play Arma 3 and actually be able to see things in the distance before they shoot me.

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pastrychef said:

I forgot to add that you will need Mac Pro to video card power cables for cards that require auxiliary power.

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Can those be bought as simple adapter cables? or are we overhauling the power supply here?

pastrychef said:

The Gigabyte card you linked to will require one of the Mac Pro to video card power cables and the Asus will require two.

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Ok so mine is already running a four pin and as he said there's one spot open for the cable on the mobo, can I switch out the four pin cable that's already there for a six pin cable or is there a second place on the mobo to run another six pin?

Sorry for all the tedious specific questions but I want to make sure I've got it all down before I start spending money.