2008 iMac GeForce 8800GS just died...replace it with 8800GT?

[insomniac34]

Hello apple fans! My mother-in-law's late-2008 iMac's video card died this morning. She's a professional graphic designer and is in the middle of several jobs, so this is just terrible timing.

Now, I am a tech savvy individual (CS student, build my own gaming PCs for fun, etc...) and I have an EVGA GeForce 8800GT 512mb PCIe graphics card laying around in perfect condition.

My question is, will this 8800GT fit inside of her iMac? From what I have researched, the 8800GT has the same power requirements, and appears to have similar/the same physical dimensions to the 8800GS used in this iMac. As someone who has replaced logic boards in several mac laptops, I have no qualms about opening up this machine and peforming the repairs, if they are possible.

Thanks a lot!

EDIT: Here is her exact model: http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...24-inch-aluminum-early-2008-penryn-specs.html

 

[Guiyon]

First of all, the iMac has no PCIe expansion slots (or really any expansion slots of any type) so you won't be able to do anything with the third-party card. Second, the graphics chip is soldered directly to the motherboard so, short of having a spare GPU, a SMD reflow oven and a huge amount of patience, luck and SMD expertise, you will need to replace the motherboard.

Edit: So it looks like I was half-right. The GPU in your model is on a daughter card (and may be electrically compatible with PCIe) but the physical format is specialized and not compatible with any other cards on the market except ones from other similar iMac models. So, no, you cannot upgrade you card but it looks like you can fix it without having to replace the entire motherboard.

 

[Sped]

I don't know about replacing the card with something else, but you can definitely buy replacement cards online. I replaced mine without too much difficulty.