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Upgrading old Mac Pro to 8800 GT graphics?
- Thread starter Fezzy
- Start date
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Tapping into the SATA ports on your motherboard (not a BTO option) for two more drives.....$25.
Squeezing in 4 more GBs of RAM from OWC (instead of getting ripped off by Apple)....$230.
Plugging in a new RAID card (not BTO in '06) to get RAID5.....$800.
Dropping in 4 new 1TB hard drives (not BTO in '07)...........$1000.
Upgrading to a kick-@$$ 30" Apple Cinema HD Display (not BTO in '06)....$1800.
Upgrading your out-of-date-ghetto-@$$ PCIe graphics card.............priceless.
Squeezing in 4 more GBs of RAM from OWC (instead of getting ripped off by Apple)....$230.
Plugging in a new RAID card (not BTO in '06) to get RAID5.....$800.
Dropping in 4 new 1TB hard drives (not BTO in '07)...........$1000.
Upgrading to a kick-@$$ 30" Apple Cinema HD Display (not BTO in '06)....$1800.
Upgrading your out-of-date-ghetto-@$$ PCIe graphics card.............priceless.
Tapping into the SATA ports on your motherboard (not a BTO option) for two more drives.....$25.
Squeezing in 4 more GBs of RAM from OWC (instead of getting ripped off by Apple)....$230.
Plugging in a new RAID card (not BTO in '06) to get RAID5.....$800.
Dropping in 4 new 1TB hard drives (not BTO in '07)...........$1000.
Upgrading to a kick-@$$ 30" Apple Cinema HD Display (not BTO in '06)....$1800.
Upgrading your out-of-date-ghetto-@$$ PCIe graphics card.............priceless.
Kicking Steve Jobs in the Nuts if I ever see him.....priceless.
Any news?
Is this ever going to happen? Its been a couple of months and not a peep.
I just installed a 3870x2 in my old PC that is serving as a home media center and it gauls me to no end that this much more expensive quad core mac pro gets blown away by a pentium d...that right, a PENTIUM.
Is this ever going to happen? Its been a couple of months and not a peep.
I just installed a 3870x2 in my old PC that is serving as a home media center and it gauls me to no end that this much more expensive quad core mac pro gets blown away by a pentium d...that right, a PENTIUM.
Just to rub it in to the new mac pro owners...my 5 year old Pentium now has better graphics than your 3 month old octocore macs even with your crippled 8800s.
At least buddy has the option to take his 5 year old PC with the 8800GT and install OSX86 on it. People with legit Mac Pros from a year ago cant get the 8800GT working in OSX. How sad is that when a hackintosh gets better graphics support...
Rubbing WHAT in?
I flashed a PC version of the 8800GT and put it in my new Mac Pro. Saved me at least $60-70 off Apple's price, and I got a "Superclocked" edition of the card, which allowed me to edit the BIOS for higher clock speeds before flashing it. So nothing "crippled" here!
Besides, if you have a 5 year old Pentium, your bus speed SUCKS compared to a Mac Pro. There's no way a new, high-end graphics card is going to perform up to spec in that machine. The bottleneck isn't the graphics card.....
I flashed a PC version of the 8800GT and put it in my new Mac Pro. Saved me at least $60-70 off Apple's price, and I got a "Superclocked" edition of the card, which allowed me to edit the BIOS for higher clock speeds before flashing it. So nothing "crippled" here!
Besides, if you have a 5 year old Pentium, your bus speed SUCKS compared to a Mac Pro. There's no way a new, high-end graphics card is going to perform up to spec in that machine. The bottleneck isn't the graphics card.....
If you noticed the title of this thread... its called "upgrading OLD Mac Pro". Everyone knows the new mac pro is capable of having an 8800GT. No surprise there. Try shoving an 8800GT in an old mac pro and get it to work in OSX.
And ...
If you noticed his message I replied to, you'd see where he speaks of it being better than "3 month old octo-core Macs".
If you noticed his message I replied to, you'd see where he speaks of it being better than "3 month old octo-core Macs".
True but I'm pretty sure he's speaking of the last gen Mac Pro (meaning anyone that bought one up to 3 months ago). Everyone on the site knows the new ones can have 8800GT cards... if he was speaking of the brand new ones, then has a lot of reading up to do
Yeah, at this rate the early MP is going to be so old that it won't be worth upgrading the graphics card. Are you going to throw a $300 card into a machine that's worth maybe $900?
By that time the card would be worth about $100 unless of course you were getting it from Apple...
True but I'm pretty sure he's speaking of the last gen Mac Pro (meaning anyone that bought one up to 3 months ago). Everyone on the site knows the new ones can have 8800GT cards... if he was speaking of the brand new ones, then has a lot of reading up to do
I am speaking of the new Mac Pros. 3870x2 is a better card than the 8800. Even if it wasnt, the 9800 is out and not available for mac.
That may be a better card but its nothing more than a pair of 3870 on one card...with the power draw and heat output of the two cards anyway. Its still a crossfire setup and therefore suffers from any driver issues that may be involved in a crossfire setup.
The 9800 is a better as far as a single card goes but its nothing ground breaking. IMO its the same difference as the X1900XT to the X1950XT. In real world gameplay it may add up to a few FPS. If its the same price, then sure I say go for it, but for anyone with an 8800GT, there is no reason to dump the card and go for a 9800GT.
I've got the EVGA 8800GT Superclock in my Q6600 box and I have no desire in looking at the 9800GT for the marginal gain. If I was doing a totally new build, then I'd look at it if the price was close.
The 9800 is a better as far as a single card goes but its nothing ground breaking. IMO its the same difference as the X1900XT to the X1950XT. In real world gameplay it may add up to a few FPS. If its the same price, then sure I say go for it, but for anyone with an 8800GT, there is no reason to dump the card and go for a 9800GT.
I've got the EVGA 8800GT Superclock in my Q6600 box and I have no desire in looking at the 9800GT for the marginal gain. If I was doing a totally new build, then I'd look at it if the price was close.
anything yet
Any news on the release date or any progress? Looking into gettin the 8800 upgrade for my roomates old macpro, his bday is coming up soon any info fellas?
beretta
Any news on the release date or any progress? Looking into gettin the 8800 upgrade for my roomates old macpro, his bday is coming up soon any info fellas?
beretta
If the new card materializes, it'll be end of March or the beginning of April. I am holding my breath. I have a feeling it won't be a 8800 series card, it might be a 9XXX series. We shall see.
Apple would NOT give owners of an old Mac Pro a better card than owners of a new one.
Of course, Apple did give the old owners the shaft on compatibility, but so what? Apple gives them a 9600; that's still slower than an 8800 GT.
I'll tell you when
The day after I finally throw in the towel and buy the 1900 to replace my POS 7300 card.
The day after I finally throw in the towel and buy the 1900 to replace my POS 7300 card.
I never said that. I think it'll be a hybrid card, with EFI 32/64. At this point an upgrade of any kind would be appreciated by me. I will not buy a X1900. I had 2 of them fry on me in a PC.
If we get a card by the end of April, I will eat my words and buy Apple stock.