Cheapest replacement GPU (Locally)

There is no BIOS in a MAC, the card has to have apple EFI code, so either you buy a card specific to mac, new or used, or you buy a flashed card from someone like macvidcards which you can find on ebay. When these guys flash a card, the add the code the mac is looking for to the card ROM.

Typically apple is the only store that will stock the mac video cards.

The A1186 is like 2006 vintage?

 

If you don't care about the initial boot screens then you can use just about any Nvidia pc video card. I'm using an Nvidia gt 440 that I paid about 50 bucks for on newegg. You just need the Mac drivers off their website....

Edit: I did the octo core upgrade. Got a pair of used x5355s on eBay for 100 bucks. Took all of 30 minutes to swap if you have the proper tools!

 

With 10.7.4 and the Nvidia drivers installed from their site, you can use any 8000 series or newer Nvidia card in your mac pro (up to the 500 series for Lion). And I mean any (as long as it's PCIE, of course).
Only thing is there's no grey boot screen, so nothing until you reach the desktop. For many that's fine, if you want to switch to windows just use Startup Disk or bootchamp.

Only thing to keep in mind is that the Mac Pro has its own power cables for Cards (google 'Mac Pro PCIE Cable'), and getting the drivers installed initially.

 

This thread was all the way down on page 5:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1330964

Also:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1385329
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1360927

 

Great job.

For people who aren't unhinged by lack of boot screen/EFI enviroment using PC cards is now a fairly good choice.

Is the card id'd as "n140" or something like that? Or Radeon 6000?

you might find that DVD Player won't work.

And Steam games may have issue, but I am not ATI/AMD guy so perhaps I am remembering incorrectly.

 

Look in my signature. I have created a database software with Mac compatible firmwares for PC cards. There is one there for 6870 with a comment that suggests it works really well.

You can use Windows to flash them or burn a "bootcd" with atiflash.exe (there is lots of tutorials).

This will give you bootscreen and steam compatability...

 

6850/70 seem to be the bang for the buck cards.

 

But not in 1,1 that OP has

OP: To cure DVD player and Steam issue install ATY_init from netkas.

 

Not to capture this thread, but a quick question..

I'm contemplating a GTX 570, and would love the hassle-free MacVidCards version. Being in Europe, though, the mark-up in customs, taxes and fees makes it quite expensive.

Would using the ROM by th3joker shown in Freya bring the exact same benefits as a MacVidCards flashing? There's boot screen, but will it also raise the speed to PCI-E 2.0? Will there be any difference in the two "solutions".

(Again, I think MacVidCards provides a great service, it's only due to customs I'm afraid of ordering a card that way)

 

The Jok3r is an actual clown named Adrian Stowe who has "borrowed" our roms. He asked for the rights to distribute our products and I turned him down. Much like the Joker as played by Heath Ledger, he has nothing to offer the world, he just wants to see it burn.

His "work" on them has been solely limited to yanking our name from them.

We have lower cost 570s and cards are valued at lower levels on customs forms.

Please support the people who actually make these cards happen, not the clowns and wannabes.

 

No offense intended. I recommend your cards broadly. And in the end, I'll probably buy it from you anyhow to avoid hassle.

 

Yup.



Thesandman: wait for next beta, eta next week

 

Well yeah. But to not keep you waiting:
Here is the relevant firmware from freya:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/Firmwares/83/firmware.rom

And here is a comment someone made on it:

 

set you up? all you need to do is to flash it.

boot windows with card

download this

maybe download this to backup your current firmware

then flash and try boot OSX

you can try my 6000-series version of Zeus to flash in OSX but it will probably say "card not compatible with zeus"