Mac Pro 1,1 - GPU After Upgrades?

[Smack2k]

Hey all,

First post on the forum...

Have a Mac Pro 1,1 that I just upgraded the EFI Firmware on to 2,1. Have a couple questions I am hoping you can answer as I cant find these exact answers in the FAQ's...

1. I want to upgrade my Mac Pro to a GeForce GTX 660 Card. Can I do this? I am planning on upgrading the boot.efi and OSX to El Capitan as well, so I didntk now if the OS upgrade would allow me to use this Kepler card. Otherwise, I will have to look for a GTX 570

2. In terms of the El Capitan Upgrade, can I do it with the stock 7300 that is in the Mac currently? I am upgrading to 32 GB RAM as well, but dont know if I can do the upgrade with that card

3. Basically, which comes first, the chicken or the egg? The upgrade or the card installation? Or do I pretty much have to install a 570 first to be able to upgrade to El Capitan and give up on the 660?

4. What about AMD Cards? Anything worth it better than the two GTX I listed that I could use and be compatible?

I have seen a video where a user installs a GTX 970 in a 1,1 Mac Pro, so that confused me even further!!

Thanks for your assistance on this....confused on what exactly I can do.

 

[owbp]

Welcome to MR

1. Boot.efi is just a part of the OS X you're installing, so every card that is supported in that OS will be supported in your Mac Pro.

2. Yes you can. GT7300 isn't supported in 10.8 or later, but since it has Mac EFI BIOS you'll have screen output even in unsupported OS. You won't have QE/CI, full acceleration or drivers, but you'll be able to finish all your installation and setting up of the system.

3. You can install everything you want on your Mac with GT7300 (from Tiger to El Capitan) and then swap the GPU.

4. AMD HD7950, HD7970 (or R9 280 and R9 280X) are THE best cards that you can flash to give you boot screens in your 1,1/2,1 Mac Pro if you use 10.8 to 10.11.6. That is what i would do (and what i have done) if i don't use specific apps that require or shine with nVidia GPUs.

One more time, once you install El Capitan on your Mac you can use what ever card that is supported by El Capitan (if you don't need boot screens, that's almost any card you can think of).

 

[Smack2k]

Hey, thanks a ton for the information, I really appreciate it......clears it all up...

For Graphics card, I am really looking to be able to play Minecraft with my son via the LAN from his PC and this Mac Pro....he runs with a GTX 660 on that PC and Minecraft seems to run fine.....not sure if AMD is better / worse for that game or not....

Price wise, I'd love to get something newer than a 660. but the cost starts to shootup once you hits the 700 series....

 

[grooby]

so I did something similar and was able to get my GTX 460 working fine. However, if I put in my EVGA GTX 970, my mac 1,1 won't even boot up. Not sure if it's a PCIE v1 vs v2 issue or what, as the EVGA card requires PCIE V2.0.

 

[Smack2k]

I got a 660Ti in mine and its running pretty good....has a strange reboot issue where it doesnt go all the way down sometimes, but outside that, it books up and into El Capitan without issues...

I have seen a video on Youtube where someone put a 980 in their 1,1 and it worked:

 

[grooby]

yeah..I've seen videos too. I am wondering if I have purchased a bad card as it was purchased from Craigslist.

 

[Smack2k]

Does it work in a PC?

 

[h9826790]

so I did something similar and was able to get my GTX 460 working fine. However, if I put in my EVGA GTX 970, my mac 1,1 won't even boot up. Not sure if it's a PCIE v1 vs v2 issue or what, as the EVGA card requires PCIE V2.0.

Never heard of this. E.g. the EVGA 970 SC, it only require PCIe, or PCIe 2.0, or PCIe 3.0.

 

[Smack2k]

Never heard of this. E.g. the EVGA 970 SC, it only require PCIe, or PCIe 2.0, or PCIe 3.0.

View attachment 752942

PCI-Express 2.0 is normally backwards compatible with a 1.0 slot, just runs at 1.0 speeds, so that shouldnt be an issue unless Mac's PCI-E slots are setup different?