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Upgrading old Mac Pro to 8800 GT graphics?

Tallest Skil said:
But it can't. That's why it's a problem. Max power draw is 300 watts, four 8800 GT would be 440.
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That's the max allowable power draw for PCIe cards through the PCIe bus. 8800GT cards also have direct connections to the power supply. So they should not actually need to draw all their power through the bus. Of course the Apple power supply doesn't have 4 graphics card power connectors...

The previous Mac Pros had 1kW power supplies. I expect these ones have similar...
 
toke lahti said:
Offtopic, but since "green it" is in fashion, has anybody tested MP's power's efficiency? What company manufactures them?
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Not sure if anyone has measured the efficiency of the power supply, but clearly a 1kW power supply doesn't actually draw they much power a lot of the time: it's there for the worst possible case (4 high-power draw hard drives, two super drives and all 300W being drawn on the PCIe bus).

Apple provide these figures for the old, base spec 2.66Ghz Mac Pro...
 
astroboi said:
Wow.. that'd be sweet. I'm not holding my breath though...
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I read the article and it's hardly to be considered proof. Someone put a pc card in with his mac card and the mac saw it. All well and good. Why didn't they then take out the mac card and try with only the pc card and prove if that would work instead of saying it might without trying!
 
robbieduncan said:
That's the max allowable power draw for PCIe cards through the PCIe bus. 8800GT cards also have direct connections to the power supply. So they should not actually need to draw all their power through the bus.
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No 300W is the max total power of the PCIe slots and the aux power connectors. As per this article: http://developer.apple.com/document...le_ref/doc/uid/TP40003937-DontLinkElementID_3

As well there are only 2 aux power connectors on the motherboard, which means you can only have 2 Geforce 8800's.
 
toke lahti said:
More news:
http://macscoop.com/articles/2008/02/01/latest-mac-pros-supporting-pc-graphic-cards

If this is true it might mean that 2006-2007 MP's will be left quite alone and maybe after 8800, there will never come any gpu upgrade...
...or could it mean that with future firmware update even 06-07 MP's could use any GPU without EFI?
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yea i'm waving the BS flag in this one. People are forgetting that apple makes the drivers. So without the drivers the cards wouldn't work. Also ATI may have included the Bios Rom AND the EFI rom. Which would make it a cross capable card. But doing that would also make it compatable with the 06-07 ones if they made the efi in 32. Its not entirely up to apple if they make the card completely compatible. Everything will eventually change over to EFI and when it does then all apple would have to do is lease the rights to make a driver or make the driver for the card. The previous not likely based on the past.
 
To be honest, it might appear that Apple has no intention on providing us with a video card upgrade. NVIDIA and other manufactures will say anything to get that person(s) off their back. We all have heard the 'empty promise' speech before. I hate to be pessimistic, but the below article and editors note hits that proverbial nail on the head.

http://www.insanelygreatmac.com/news.php?id=8296

"Editor's note: Both ATI and nVidia have promised quick turn around on upgrades in the past and disappointed more often than not. But, it's encouraging that at least a promise has been made..."
 
Colossus said:
To be honest, it might appear that Apple has no intention on providing us with a video card upgrade. NVIDIA and other manufactures will say anything to get that person(s) off their back. We all have heard the 'empty promise' speech before. I hate to be pessimistic, but the below article and editors note hits that proverbial nail on the head.

http://www.insanelygreatmac.com/news.php?id=8296

"Editor's note: Both ATI and nVidia have promised quick turn around on upgrades in the past and disappointed more often than not. But, it's encouraging that at least a promise has been made..."
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At the end of the day we wont know for sure until the first 8800's start trickling out to the public. Im still confident that an upgrade kit will be made available for users with older Mac Pro's. Over on the World of Warcraft Mac Forums, Blizzard employees have hinted that work on an upgrade kit is in progress.
 
Mark Fletcher said:
At the end of the day we wont know for sure until the first 8800's start trickling out to the public. Im still confident that an upgrade kit will be made available for users with older Mac Pro's. Over on the World of Warcraft Mac Forums, Blizzard employees have hinted that work on an upgrade kit is in progress.
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Like I said a little earlier in this thread, that this is all hearsay. Neither Nvidas PR, nor Apples PR, has released any documentation (proof) to the public pertaining to the new 8800 Video Card. It's great to read Blizzard has heard some form of confirmation. Shelling out almost 3 grand for a 2006 MAC PRO (more or less for others) its funny that its people like us that helped Apple obtain their latest and greates sales figures.
 
Colossus said:
Like I said a little earlier in this thread, that this is all hearsay. Neither Nvidas PR, nor Apples PR, has released any documentation (proof) to the public pertaining to the new 8800 Video Card. It's great to read Blizzard has heard some form of confirmation. Shelling out almost 3 grand for a 2006 MAC PRO (more or less for others) its funny that its people like us that helped Apple obtain their latest and greates sales figures.
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And your unfounded insinuations and speculations are worth more than this "hearsay" from Nvidia's PR dept (via Engadget); Blizzard, who are in professional contact with Apple and Nvidia over this; as well as the Guvner himself via email. Get real and keep the faith.
 
cal6n said:
And your unfounded insinuations and speculations are worth more than this "hearsay" from Nvidia's PR dept (via Engadget); Blizzard, who are in professional contact with Apple and Nvidia over this; as well as the Guvner himself via email. Get real and keep the faith.
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Then we shall see. Thanks for the input.
 
I will put trust in Nvidia for now, but im going to keep a close eye on this situation. Hopefully that "few weeks" thing will be arriving soon.
 
LOZER said:
I will put trust in Nvidia for now, but im going to keep a close eye on this situation. Hopefully that "few weeks" thing will be arriving soon.
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I'm hopeful that your (and my) trust is founded. After all, I felt that the 6800 Ultra was the best Mac graphics card of its time, with the GT not far behind. There's no reason to suppose that the 8800 will be any different. Some patience is all that's required.
 
Denial isn't just a river in Africa you know....

We aren't getting crap from Apple. Bend over and take it.
 
This thread is awesome.

I bet the amount of people who play world of warcraft on a Mac Pro number less than 1000. But I am sure Blizzard is putting all their weight behind this cause.
 
Sean Dempsey said:
This thread is awesome.

I bet the amount of people who play world of warcraft on a Mac Pro number less than 1000. But I am sure Blizzard is putting all their weight behind this cause.
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Ah the troll returns...

I wouldnt be surprised if Blizzard were trying to get some kind of solution - All those Mac Pro's that they use for development, and they cant test the game with a newly released video card.

Apple: "Oh Hai, Blizzard! Yup, we thank you for almost single-handedly keeping gaming on the Mac alive, but now we need you to throw all those machines in the trash and shell out for some new ones. Kthxbye!"
Blizzard: "Really? Siooma Apple!"
 
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