Pre 2008 Mac Pro Graphics Card Upgrade

[topcat777]

Hi

I was wondering if anyone could offer me some advice on upgrading my graphics card on my Mac Pro. It’s a pre 2008 model and currently runs a NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT card (256mb I think).

I run CS5 on it with no real problems but I also like to play a few games like Football Manger 2010 and Civilisation 5. The latter I have to run through Bootcamp using Windows 7 as this was the only way I could upgrade the NVIDIA drivers on my machine. It runs OK but as the game goes on and there’s more of a strain on the graphics is slows down on it refresh rate quite a bit.

I also have a HD 1080p TV connected to it through a DVI to HDMI cable to watch movies. This performs with no problems.

I know the pre 2008 models are not compatible with some graphics cards as the later models are. I want to avoid shelling out on a card that won’t be compatible with my machine so any advice would be helpful.

Thanks in advance.

Thom

 

[applereviewguy]

Cards

well you can get a used 8800GT 512MB here for $159 http://www.ebay.com/itm/GeForce-880...737?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item3a591421b1

Both the 5770 and the 5870 work with the latest updates of lion and snow leopard 10.6.8 the 5770 is $250 and the 5870 is $450
5770: http://store.apple.com/us/searchres...r=/us/product/MC742ZM/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY&t=Ati
5870: http://store.apple.com/us/searchres...r=/us/product/MC743ZM/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY&t=Ati

So for heavy games with bootcamp id get the 5870 if just CS5 and other stuff you mentioned get a 5770. Hope this helped.

 

[topcat777]

Thanks. Will check them out and post back!