Mac Pro Vs. PC Graphics cards, whats the difference?

[big_malk]

I was looking into getting a Blue-Ray drive (perhaps support will be announced on the 15th), and I got into ready about HDCP, and I was checking if my graphics card (ATI Radeon X1900 XT) supported HDCP (which it doesn't seem to ).

I looked on eBay to see what they're worth now, and came across this one, which says it ISN'T Mac compatible? As far as I can tell it's the exact card I have, has the person selling this made a mistake, or is there a difference in Mac graphics cards?

 

[Eidorian]

Any video card will work in Windows on a Mac Pro.

The problem is OS X might not have the drivers and the video card more then likely won't support an EFI boot mode.

I'd at least look for a HD 2xxx/3xxx or 8 Series for HDCP support.

Are you going to need dual link as well?

 

[big_malk]

At the moment I have two Formac displays (both 1600 x 1200), so I would need two DVI port, but wouldn't need them to be dual DVI.

Would I actually need a new card with HDCP to play Blue Ray DVDs? Then I'd need new display(s) with HDCP as well?

 

[Eidorian]

At the moment I have two Formac displays (both 1600 x 1200), so I would need two DVI port, but wouldn't need them to be dual DVI.

Would I actually need a new card with HDCP to play Blue Ray DVDs? Then I'd need new display(s) with HDCP as well?

The video card and displays would need to support HDCP.

 

[big_malk]

If they didn't won't it just scale down? Not that it would be worth while that way anyway

I was hoping to just stick in a Blue Ray at some point, but it's looking a lot more expensive now. Still, if Apple are going to introduce Blue Ray, they'll need to add HDCP support in their displays, right? And I'v always liked the look of them... good excuse to buy a 30" maybe? (I'm off to re-mortgage my house)

 

[Eidorian]

They'll scale down on non-compliant hardware and displays.

 

[synth3tik]

The difference sadly is for the most part just the firmware rev. But as stated your Mac Pro video card will work under windows, whether running a VM or bootcamp.

 

[big_malk]

How would it work under VM? Two graphics cards, windows would use one in a virtual machine on a second display?

Is it possible to buy a graphics card which doesn't support Mac, and update the firmware so it does?