I just wanted to share a really great experience I had with an eBay seller who sells flashed ATI video cards for Mac Pros.
I am very competent when it comes to working with hardware and firmware both on PCs and Macs (I have several certifications in both areas.) However, in the interest of time I really didn't want to have to mess with flashing an ATI card to enhance my 2006 Mac Pro, which I was getting ready to upgrade/update from 10.7.5 to 10.9.1.
While looking for ATI cards, ideally a 5770, for my Mac Pro I came across this seller on eBay:
andrzejko
He has over 800 100% feedback and appears to deal in flashed ATI graphics cards regularly.
I paid $150 for an ATI 5850, which is a 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCIe card with dual DVI, Display Port and HDMI outputs. It is flashed to provide a boot screen through various means.
I got the card, a Display Port to DVI adapter cable, a dongle to "force" the boot screen under certain configurations, an HDMI to VGA cable, a VGA to DVI adapter, and very clearly written instructions for a number of ways to get the boot screen on startup, if desired.
It was very well packed and shipped quickly (two days via USPS Priority Mail.)
Granted, I could have probably purchased this card for a bit less without it being a flashed version and had to do the firmware flash on my own. I wouldn't have had the cables required to connect a monitor to see the boot screen, however.
I used the bot screen feature this morning when I upgraded my Mac Pro to Mavericks and it worked flawlessly.
My point is that if you are looking or an ATI graphics card to upgrade your Mac Pro, I would highly recommend this seller. They did a great job with the card I purchased and made it clear that they were paying attention to detail for the end user.
They also offer a guarantee as well.
MacDann
I am very competent when it comes to working with hardware and firmware both on PCs and Macs (I have several certifications in both areas.) However, in the interest of time I really didn't want to have to mess with flashing an ATI card to enhance my 2006 Mac Pro, which I was getting ready to upgrade/update from 10.7.5 to 10.9.1.
While looking for ATI cards, ideally a 5770, for my Mac Pro I came across this seller on eBay:
andrzejko
He has over 800 100% feedback and appears to deal in flashed ATI graphics cards regularly.
I paid $150 for an ATI 5850, which is a 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCIe card with dual DVI, Display Port and HDMI outputs. It is flashed to provide a boot screen through various means.
I got the card, a Display Port to DVI adapter cable, a dongle to "force" the boot screen under certain configurations, an HDMI to VGA cable, a VGA to DVI adapter, and very clearly written instructions for a number of ways to get the boot screen on startup, if desired.
It was very well packed and shipped quickly (two days via USPS Priority Mail.)
Granted, I could have probably purchased this card for a bit less without it being a flashed version and had to do the firmware flash on my own. I wouldn't have had the cables required to connect a monitor to see the boot screen, however.
I used the bot screen feature this morning when I upgraded my Mac Pro to Mavericks and it worked flawlessly.
My point is that if you are looking or an ATI graphics card to upgrade your Mac Pro, I would highly recommend this seller. They did a great job with the card I purchased and made it clear that they were paying attention to detail for the end user.
They also offer a guarantee as well.
MacDann