Non-Apple 8800GT in new Mac Pro

[Rintel]

Would it all be possible to use a 3rd-party 8800GT in the new Mac Pro's? Would it only need a bios flash or does Apple do something to the hardware in their video cards?

 

[newtech]

Likely to need 64K flash EEPROM replaced with 128K flash EEPROM. Also card design must use same memory design and config. as Apple's card to work without modifications.

 

[aLoC]

It doesn't work. I took the Inno3D 8800GT out of my gaming rig and put it in the Mac Pro to see what would happen (yes, I hooked up the additional power connector).

The machine boots, you get the startup chime, but there's no video output whether you are booting in to OS X or Windows. The card sits there with it's fan on full blast all the time and the monitor is completely black.

I didn't expect it to work in OS X, but was kind of hoping that if I boot in to Windows it would work but it didn't. Until someone figures out a way to rip the firmware off the Apple 8800GT we won't be able to use 3rd party ones.

 

[noi375]

It doesn't work. I took the Inno3D 8800GT out of my gaming rig and put it in the Mac Pro to see what would happen (yes, I hooked up the additional power connector).

The machine boots, you get the startup chime, but there's no video output whether you are booting in to OS X or Windows. The card sits there with it's fan on full blast all the time and the monitor is completely black.

I didn't expect it to work in OS X, but was kind of hoping that if I boot in to Windows it would work but it didn't. Until someone figures out a way to rip the firmware off the Apple 8800GT we won't be able to use 3rd party ones.

Only way to get it to work is you have "Connection" and flash the bios of the 8800GT with the Mac version of the 8800GT, which sadly, not that people have access to. Remember, this is not a "hack" OSX, where it will take almost everything.

 

[knome]

It doesn't work. I took the Inno3D 8800GT out of my gaming rig and put it in the Mac Pro to see what would happen (yes, I hooked up the additional power connector).

The machine boots, you get the startup chime, but there's no video output whether you are booting in to OS X or Windows. The card sits there with it's fan on full blast all the time and the monitor is completely black.

I didn't expect it to work in OS X, but was kind of hoping that if I boot in to Windows it would work but it didn't. Until someone figures out a way to rip the firmware off the Apple 8800GT we won't be able to use 3rd party ones.

You might want to wait till apple actually releases the drivers to come to that conclusion. i.e. software update.

 

[noi375]

You might want to wait till apple actually releases the drivers to come to that conclusion. i.e. software update.

Unless you have a hack version of OSX, it just will not work - Mac OSX will query the EFI to see what card it is before it does anything - unless the 8800GT you use somehow has the correct EFI (old Mac read one type of EFI while the new Mac Pro uses a different one), it won't even display anything.

 

[OhFrenchman]

nVidia just announced that they are going to release an updated card (8800GT) for the "old" Mac Pro soon.

Update: Nvidia's Director of PR emailed us to let us know that the company is "in the middle of bringing out an upgrade kit based on the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT solution for all Intel-based Mac Pros." What's more, this upgrade kit "should be out in a few weeks." So there you have it, folks. We'll see if they deliver as promised.
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/18/geforce-8800-gt-upgrade-causes-headaches-for-some-mac-pro-users

 

[Cindori]

Please see my thread

 

[thagomizer]

Bump.

So... title of this thread. Has anyone tried?

 

[aLoC]

The machine boots, you get the startup chime, but there's no video output whether you are booting in to OS X or Windows.

I was wrong about this (sort of). There's no video output if you're booting off an XP install disk, because it tries to display some kind of text mode screen I think. If you already have a HD with Windows installed on it then it will indeed work fine (in Windows, not OS X).

 

[thagomizer]

It will probably work fine in Windows, provided you find the proper auxiliary power cable (Mac motherboard has a slightly different PCIe power connector than what a PC-spec card expects).

What I was getting at is... anyone want to try flashing a PC-spec 8800 GT card with the Mac card's EFI firmware, so it will be usable in OS X? People did this successfully with the ATI x1900XT cards.

And if that works, I wonder if a PC 8800 GTS (G92 revision) could be flashed with the same EFI firmware. The new G92-based GTS is a little faster than the GT.