GTX650 or 8800GT Upgrade for MP 1,1

[vizion]

Hello,

I'll be updating my GPU from the 7300GT. The 7300GT consumes about 25w and I could feel the heat in a small room along with stuffy air from the fans.

Will an 8800GT or Ultra (100w to 125w) with EFI32 really add more heat in a room ? I could also opt for a GT120 with EFI32 or a plain GT610 (30 watts) with no boot screen.

Cheerio !

 

[Neodym]

Seemingly the 7300 is not good enough for you anymore, therefore a GT120 won't bring much improvement (and the GT610 probably as well).

If you need more GPU power you probably have to deal with a higher heat dissipation, otherwise you could as well stick to the 7300GT and save the upgrade money for seomething else...

If also depends quite a lot on your usage profile. If you tend to use the desktop with "boring" 2D graphic work more often than games, the Idle TDP may be of more interest to you.

For example the 7300GT has an idle power consumption of 16.5W (according to this overview) and 23.9W under full (3D) load.

The same overview shows the 8800GT sipping idle/load around 32W/78 (1024MB) or 42W/111W (512MB), while AMD's Radeon 6850 has a load TDP of 127W, but idles at 19W (according to this Anandtech review).

A 5770 does idle around 18W (it's smaller sibling 5750 is even on 7300GT levels with its 16W, but i'm not aware of its driver support status in OSX) and burns through around 108W when loaded (all according to this review).

TLDR: More recent graphic cards may require more power for the plus in performance they offer over older graphic cards, but due to improved technology they will likely be less hot during idle times. It's (as so often) all dependant on your individual usage profile...

 

[gpzjock]

If you install a temperature monitor app you will probably discover that the rest of your Mac Pro runs at higher temperature than the GFX card.
My 3,1 reports the CPU and RAM compartments to be much warmer than the area around my PCI slots where the HD5870 sits. It gobbles power but actually makes less noise and heat nuisance than the previous cards I have used, a 8800GT and a HD4870.
Newer GFX cards tend to be more efficient and a low powered new one should impact your temps very little compared to older components in your tower.
If you are using ML I would look at lower end 600 series Nvidia cards but better than the 610.
www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-630/specifications

 

[vizion]

Thanks guys, I have a Mac Pro 1,1 2 GHz (8-core)

I'm leaning towards the GTX650. The card idles at 6 to 8 watts and maxes at 65 watts. Maybe I don't need a power cable for this card. I hope the drivers work with 10.7.5. No happy Mac boot screens of course. With 384 CUDA cores, Toast 11 will run.