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Graphics Card Upgrade for Mac Pro 1,1

antipex

antipex

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 31, 2006
90
36
Portland, Oregon
I have a Mac Pro 1,1 running Yosemite (and maybe El Capitan soon) that I'm hoping to get a little more life out of... does anyone know which video cards are confirmed to work in the Mac Pro 1,1 out of the box? I've scoured some threads and found conflicting reports about certain cards. I'm trying to find something in the sub-$200 range that's better than my (dreadfully loud) Radeon HD 5870.
 
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antipex said:
I have a Mac Pro 1,1 running Yosemite (and maybe El Capitan soon) that I'm hoping to get a little more life out of... does anyone know which video cards are confirmed to work in the Mac Pro 1,1 out of the box? I've scoured some threads and found conflicting reports about certain cards. I'm trying to find something in the sub-$200 range that's better than my (dreadfully loud) Radeon HD 5870.
Click to expand...


The HD5770 and HD5870 are the best that properly support Lion + boot screens + newer OS like Yosemite, or El Capitan. I wanted Lion support for when there is an update, and the boot.efi breaks. Easy to just boot into Lion to fix it.

The Sapphire 7950 mac edition also works in a 1,1 with boot screens but Lion drivers dont work right. As long as you dont need Lion support, you can go with the 7950.

According to MVC, for nvidia cards in the 1,1 with boot screens, your limited to the 8800GT as the best one.

If you dont need boot screens, and are going to use yosemite/el capitan, then you can even just use a PC type nvidia, or AMD card.
 
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Surrat said:
If you dont need boot screens, and are going to use yosemite/el capitan, then you can even just use a PC type nvidia, or AMD card.
Click to expand...

I'm using Yosemite already and I'm not concerned about the lack of boot screen – I'm just curious which cards actually work with the 1,1 since there's conflicting evidence in some of the threads here.
 
I picked up a Gigabyte 750 Ti 4Gb for my 1,1 and it works for me in slot 2 w/ 8X which still runs circle around the stock 7300 GT, if your on a budget it is your best best, better would be a 960, 970, 980 etc.
 
HD4870's work well and most can be flashed I got mine off Craigslist for 40 dollars
 
I just ordered a GeForce GTX 950... it's got a 6-pin power connector so it should work. I'll report back with results!
 
Okay, so now in slot 2 with the Gigabyte 750 Ti: 4gb GV-N75TWF20C-4GI there is no signal! I was cautioned about the 750 Ti in Mac 1,1 running 10.10.5 but tried it and it's just not compatible! I put an old 650 Ti and the Mac booted fine AND ran the card in slot 1 16X whereas the 750 Ti ONLY ran in slot 2 8X...lesson learned now I will return and try this model EVGA 960 4GB one 6 pin: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487154, anybody running this in a 2006 Mac?
 
I installed the NVIDIA web drivers, then the GeForce GTX 950 in slot 1, rebooted, and besides no boot screen (which is expected and totally fine) everything is working perfectly. The card is virtually silent most of the time and is very quiet under load as well.
 
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brianbrook said:
Okay, so now in slot 2 with the Gigabyte 750 Ti: 4gb GV-N75TWF20C-4GI there is no signal! I was cautioned about the 750 Ti in Mac 1,1 running 10.10.5 but tried it and it's just not compatible! I put an old 650 Ti and the Mac booted fine AND ran the card in slot 1 16X whereas the 750 Ti ONLY ran in slot 2 8X...lesson learned now I will return and try this model EVGA 960 4GB one 6 pin: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487154, anybody running this in a 2006 Mac?
Click to expand...


Yes, I am running this along with 2 Xeon X5365's, 960gb SSD, El Capitan... Just installed it yesterday and it's working great.

https://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/5447586
 
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brianbrook said:
I needed a cheap 4GB card to run GPU based Davinci Resolve and it's working better that I thought it would with an SSD: 268 MB/Sec!
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Brian, did you figure out the best configuration for this? I have exactly the same goal.
 
irakly said:
Brian, did you figure out the best configuration for this? I have exactly the same goal.
Click to expand...


Hi guys. I will try to install this week the el Captain on my macpro 1.1. After all, which video card would you recommend to replace the one I have to make it work? As far as I could understand, the graphic card is the only hardware I´d have to change. I got an 16G ram macpro 1.1. Best regards.
 
antipex said:
I installed the NVIDIA web drivers, then the GeForce GTX 950 in slot 1, rebooted, and besides no boot screen (which is expected and totally fine) everything is working perfectly. The card is virtually silent most of the time and is very quiet under load as well.
Click to expand...

what do you recommend for a macpro firmware updated to 2,1 a geforce gtx 950 EVGA or MSI or ASUS version of the 950 to be most compatible?
 
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brianbrook said:
I picked up a Gigabyte 750 Ti 4Gb for my 1,1 and it works for me in slot 2 w/ 8X which still runs circle around the stock 7300 GT, if your on a budget it is your best best, better would be a 960, 970, 980 etc.
Click to expand...
Hi how were you able to do that as I am currently using the x1900 xt but I also have the 710 which I don't know how to use. I am on a Mac Pro 1,1 and I'm running snow leopard
 
antipex said:
I have a Mac Pro 1,1 running Yosemite (and maybe El Capitan soon) that I'm hoping to get a little more life out of... does anyone know which video cards are confirmed to work in the Mac Pro 1,1 out of the box? I've scoured some threads and found conflicting reports about certain cards. I'm trying to find something in the sub-$200 range that's better than my (dreadfully loud) Radeon HD 5870.
Click to expand...
Going Radeon 5770 1GB to 7950 3GB was a nice boost for my Pro
 
If I can piggy-back on this post... I have a 2008 that I upgraded, and as a result have an 8800gt that is doing nothing. I wanted to put it in a 2006 that I acquired, but for some reason I'm not getting any video from it in the 2006. I found this document at Apple support showing that the 8800 has a different part number for the 2008 versus the 2006/7. Are they not compatible? Has anyone seen this issue?
 
mryingster said:
If I can piggy-back on this post... I have a 2008 that I upgraded, and as a result have an 8800gt that is doing nothing. I wanted to put it in a 2006 that I acquired, but for some reason I'm not getting any video from it in the 2006. I found this document at Apple support showing that the 8800 has a different part number for the 2008 versus the 2006/7. Are they not compatible? Has anyone seen this issue?
Click to expand...
I vaguely recall that back in 2008 or so, one I think was a lot quieter and performed better, was sleeker. Is it a flashed 8800 or unflashed PC one, or definitely an Apple part?
 
Tried all ports. Had been using Snow Leopard. I just upgraded to El Capitan, but haven't tried the video card since upgrading.
 
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