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8800 GT Question

A

airfang

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 12, 2007
169
0
According to this, older Mac Pros cannot handle 8800 GT...
My question might be naive but I still want to know: why?

Is it because older Mac Pros do not have PCI-E slots?
Is it because Mac Pros have different interface standards for videocards that those videocards are made to fit them?

Say if I buy a Mac Pro, can I use 8800 GT purchased from elsewhere (or even 2 of them for SLI)?

Thanks!
 
I have a good feeling you're not going to read this thread.

The Mac Pro (Mid 2006) is EFI 1.1 (EFI32) and the Mac Pro (Early 2008) UEFI 2.1 (EFI64). The video BIOS on the 8800 GT is only UEFI 2.1 (EFI64) compatible.

64-bit EFI is backward compatible with 32-bit hardware. Which is why the HD 2600 XT works on the current and previous Mac Pros.
 
If you buy graphic cards that are not from Apple, they are only going to work in Windows on your Mac.

Mac Pro supports SLI, but only in Windows.
 
Thanks guys for the info, sry for not doing a thorough research...I was in a hurry when I thought of the question. :apple:
 
StealthRider said:
SLI has been done in Windows on the MP using some of the 7xxx series of GeForce cards. Obviously, we won't know about the 8800 until it ships.
Click to expand...

I think that was made using hacked drivers. Whithout an nvidia chipset on board the forceware disables SLI.
Just for reference, the Intel skulltrail platform (which is equal to that of mac pro), in order to support sli, has a nvidia chip on the mb (the one used to enable sli on notebooks, if I remember right).
 
bubez said:
I think that was made using hacked drivers. Whithout an nvidia chipset on board the forceware disables SLI.
Just for reference, the Intel skulltrail platform (which is equal to that of mac pro), in order to support sli, has a nvidia chip on the mb (the one used to enable sli on notebooks, if I remember right).
Click to expand...

With special drivers you can do SLI sans NFORCE. (It's buggy though and has negligible performance gains.)

Crossfire, on the other hand, can easily be setup as it has a native mode that doesn't require special chipsets. You will need drivers direct from ATI instead of the ones that ship with Boot Camp.

Also, seriously. Do a search or read the first gorram page. This topic has been covered ad nauseam.
 
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