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MacPro + 8800GTX

B

b0redom

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 4, 2007
127
0
Hi,
I know this has been asked before a couple of times, but that was a while ago and I didn't see a definitive answer. I'm interested in getting a MacPro, and dropping a 8800GTX into it. I know it won't work with OSX, but it will be used for all sorts of OSes including:

Vista
XP
OSX
Linux
Xen

I'm not bothered about having to move the cable around and boot from a 7300GT in OSX, but I don't want to have to start plugging and unplugging cards.

Is this possible yet?

Cheers...
 
i have the same setup

you can NOT use 8800GTX with a 7300GT.. the mac won't boot
however you can use 8800GTX by itself.. ONLY in windows ppl are trying to get it to work in OSX but nothing yet not that i know of anyways
8800GTX however will work in Windows/vista whatever else that has the drivers
 
I'm not sure I understand you. You mean:

You cannot boot with both cards in.
You can boot Windows, but not OSX with the 8800GTX in.

Right?
 
8800gtx = No Osx

Your Mac Pro will not boot up in OSX with 8800GTX installed by itself or with other video card.

For you to use 8800GTX, you will have to forego OSX for now.
 
What the guy wants to know is can he leave both cards in the machine (i.e. plugged in) and swop the cable to boot into Vista (use the 8800) and OSX (use the 7300).
 
furious said:
What the guy wants to know is can he leave both cards in the machine (i.e. plugged in) and swop the cable to boot into Vista (use the 8800) and OSX (use the 7300).
Click to expand...

And the answer, for any 'standard' Intel motherboard, is no. You can't have two different video cards in the computer. The machine needs to know where to address video memory, and if you have two cards in it, it's not going to know which one to use (this is all before any OS loads).

jas
 
7300GT = Boots OSX and Windows
8800GTX = Boots Windows ONLY
7300GT + 8800GTX = NO BOOT AT ALL
7300GT + 6800GT = Boots Windows

i belive the 8800GTX grabs too much power off the board so by adding another card the mac pro doesn't have enough power to boot into any OS
maybe not 100% could also be a IRQ conflct maybe

However if you want 2 video cards.. which i'm looking into casue im planning to buy a cintiq so either get another 7300GT (Apple version) or 7300GT (PC version)
the advantage of the 7300GT (Apple version) is your can boot both osx and windows... while the 7300GT (PC version) you can only boot in windows

What i ended up doing is grabbing the 6800GT from my old dell machine and putting in the mac pro with the 7300GT.. and that works great! i can boot both Windows and OSX however the 6800GT doesn't work under OSX but i have the 7300GT still plugged in so only the displays thats plugged into the 6800GT stops working and i'm still fully functional with the 7300GT
 
aiongiant said:
7300GT = Boots OSX and Windows
belive the 8800GTX grabs too much power off the board so by adding another card the mac pro doesn't have enough power to boot into any OS
maybe not 100% could also be a IRQ conflct maybe
Click to expand...

Probably something else, it's not a power issue. Mac Pro has a 1kW power supply, enough to drive 2 8800GTX's.
 
Hmmm? i could have sworn i read where people used the 7300 in OSX and had the PC version of the ATI 1900 on the board at the same time so they could boot into XP, maybe not, but i thought people were doing that.
 
well yes it has 1k powersupply... however the 8800GTX grabs 230watts i belive or soemthing around there
plus x amount of harddrives you have and ram and motherboard and dvd drive etc and powering another video card.. i dunno if it's enough

maybe maybe not i'm not an expert in this

i do know running the 7300GT and a 6800GT at the same time runs well... as i have tried this myself why i think maybe a power issue?

i was hoping to also run my 7300GT and my 8800GTX at the same time
and just switch cables in the beginning but there doesn't seem to be any fix for this.. maybe if there was a really low powered vid card with it dunno
 
pictures of 8800 gtx

aiongiant said:
well yes it has 1k powersupply... however the 8800GTX grabs 230watts i belive or soemthing around there
plus x amount of harddrives you have and ram and motherboard and dvd drive etc and powering another video card.. i dunno if it's enough

maybe maybe not i'm not an expert in this

i do know running the 7300GT and a 6800GT at the same time runs well... as i have tried this myself why i think maybe a power issue?

i was hoping to also run my 7300GT and my 8800GTX at the same time
and just switch cables in the beginning but there doesn't seem to be any fix for this.. maybe if there was a really low powered vid card with it dunno
Click to expand...

can you show us pictures of your 8800 gtx in your macpro, does it work under windows only before i buy a 8800 gtx i want to see actual pictures please thank you
 
macpro8 said:
can you show us pictures of your 8800 gtx in your macpro, does it work under windows only before i buy a 8800 gtx i want to see actual pictures please thank you
Click to expand...

If I were to throw 600 bucks at a video card, I'd want absolute proof that baby works!
 
aiongiant said:
well yes it has 1k powersupply... however the 8800GTX grabs 230watts i belive or soemthing around there
plus x amount of harddrives you have and ram and motherboard and dvd drive etc and powering another video card.. i dunno if it's enough

maybe maybe not i'm not an expert in this

i do know running the 7300GT and a 6800GT at the same time runs well... as i have tried this myself why i think maybe a power issue?

i was hoping to also run my 7300GT and my 8800GTX at the same time
and just switch cables in the beginning but there doesn't seem to be any fix for this.. maybe if there was a really low powered vid card with it dunno
Click to expand...
A kilowatt power supply is beyond more than enough to run that, you could easily get by with quad SLI video cards + 4cpus and everything else. The power supply watt race is getting absolutely ridiculous. You can run 2 video cards easily on half that power.
 
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