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Upgrading old Mac Pro to 8800 GT graphics?
- Thread starter Fezzy
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Thanks, timb. I'll calm down now and wait for my card to be delivered. Then we'll see what we'll see. It'll be after Macworld and 10.5.2 if the rumours are correct.
TBH, I will get this card working! If hacking is required, then so be it. And once I start having to hack my system to make it work, I might not stop when I eventually need to upgrade. Can I say Hackintosh clone?
That would be utterly unbeliveable ,****ish and moronic behiavour from apple!
Nowhere in the uk or europe pages is stated that this "update card for you Macpro" doesnt work on older macs. It is allready being ordered by people with older MPs. I about ordered it yesterday.
How on earth is apple planning to sella update card that doesnt work in the first place??!
Takes a deep breath..
Sooo...I think that the card has to keep both EFIs in the card,or at least the EFI that is there is compatible in either direction.
Sheesh...Apple would get hosed by the consumer groups for this kind of actions..
Update : Just checked the some europes apple stores info about the card.
Nowhere could I find any info that the card cant be used in old Macpros.
So,just for the fkuk of it, I ordered it!
Store said : Estimated shipping time 7-10 days.
In the final order there was that
Estimated shipping date is : 22.Jan
Estimated date of arrival : 24th.Jan.
Price : 320€.
Mmmm....
Edit: The part number in the european stores seems to be MB137 instead of the american MB137Z/A. Dont know if that matters.
Nowhere could I find any info that the card cant be used in old Macpros.
So,just for the fkuk of it, I ordered it!
Store said : Estimated shipping time 7-10 days.
In the final order there was that
Estimated shipping date is : 22.Jan
Estimated date of arrival : 24th.Jan.
Price : 320€.
Mmmm....
Edit: The part number in the european stores seems to be MB137 instead of the american MB137Z/A. Dont know if that matters.
barefeats.com
"i to all. It's me, Rob-ART, at BareFeats.com.
I got the info on the EFI issue from Rob Barris at Blizzard (WoW). They wanted to upgrade all their Mac Pros with GeForce 8800s but were informed by Apple it would not work. They are very bummed.
Meanwhile, I've asked my contacts at ATI/AMD to look into this from their perspective since they have the new Mac Pros in house. In other words, is this an nVidia issue or does it affect ATI/AMD cards as well?
Meanwhile, I'm not canceling my order for the GeForce 8800 GT kit either just in case it can be addressed by a firmware patch or some such thing.
"
"i to all. It's me, Rob-ART, at BareFeats.com.
I got the info on the EFI issue from Rob Barris at Blizzard (WoW). They wanted to upgrade all their Mac Pros with GeForce 8800s but were informed by Apple it would not work. They are very bummed.
Meanwhile, I've asked my contacts at ATI/AMD to look into this from their perspective since they have the new Mac Pros in house. In other words, is this an nVidia issue or does it affect ATI/AMD cards as well?
Meanwhile, I'm not canceling my order for the GeForce 8800 GT kit either just in case it can be addressed by a firmware patch or some such thing.
"
lol I registered here in order to post Robs reply from Apple Discussions. You beat me to it
I'm still hoping it'll work though, I'm not 100% believing anything that doesn't come directly from Apple and as others have said nowhere on Apples store does it say that this upgrade kit is only for the new Mac Pros
I don't know too much about company law but I would have thought that if the card is not compatiable then I think it's a clear abuse of market position.
From what has been said on this thread with regard to there being no technical reason why it need not be compatible, Apple would have only made it incompatiable to put pressure on current Mac Pro users to upgrade computers. They would not have done that if their customers could buy computers from someone else.
I think it's a fine line because the mac/PC market is quite unique but they would have overstepped it in this case.
Anyone want to take on Apple!!
(I bought a Mac Pro about 4 months ago with the standard graphics card with the intension of upgrading when a more up to date one became avaialable - like others on this forum I bought the Mac Pro and, and not an imac, because of it's upgradeability)
From what has been said on this thread with regard to there being no technical reason why it need not be compatible, Apple would have only made it incompatiable to put pressure on current Mac Pro users to upgrade computers. They would not have done that if their customers could buy computers from someone else.
I think it's a fine line because the mac/PC market is quite unique but they would have overstepped it in this case.
Anyone want to take on Apple!!
(I bought a Mac Pro about 4 months ago with the standard graphics card with the intension of upgrading when a more up to date one became avaialable - like others on this forum I bought the Mac Pro and, and not an imac, because of it's upgradeability)
We'd have a better chance of taking Apple on based on the fact that their website doesn't say that these cards can't be used on "old" Mac Pros.
Or rather that they're not specifically for the new Mac Pros.
Anyway, I'm sure they'll work
After doing more research, I don't see any technical limitation to those cards working on our Mac Pros. If the new units (MPs) have UEFI 2.0 (or it might be 2.1 now, I'll have to look) and the cards require that, we should be able to get a flash for our systems.
I'm hoping they will work as well.
Sorry but I'm already wound up on this. I've spent ages on the phone to apple, ages in their main shop in London and ages on the internet with conflicting answers everywhere I turn.
It's not rocket science. I'm sure there are people in apple right now with a new MP on there left, an old one on their right and one of these cards on their desk and they know whether it will work or not. It's a hot issue, they must know that, and they are selling the card without being clear on whether it will work or not.
Sorry but I'm already wound up on this. I've spent ages on the phone to apple, ages in their main shop in London and ages on the internet with conflicting answers everywhere I turn.
It's not rocket science. I'm sure there are people in apple right now with a new MP on there left, an old one on their right and one of these cards on their desk and they know whether it will work or not. It's a hot issue, they must know that, and they are selling the card without being clear on whether it will work or not.
It's a little early to be talking about legal action, seeing as these cards aren't even in the wild yet. For all we know, the upgrades and the firmware required to run them may be announced at Macworld next week. That would also account for the shipping times that we're seeing (over here in Europe, anyway).
I spoke to Apple UK technical support yesterday and he said that the 8800 should work fine in my first gen 3Ghz Mac Pro. However there is clearly a lot of conflicting advice at the moment.
I may be wrong here, but since we're talking about EFI on the graphics card, then at most won't all it take is an OS update (10.5.2) for compatibility with 1st gen Mac Pros?
More out of desperation than any actual belief that either a)I'll get a reply or b) it'll actually work I've fired an email off to steve.jobs(at)apple.com asking for clarification on the whole damn issue lol.
You never know we may just get a reply lol
You never know we may just get a reply lol
Face it, there are probably less than 100 thousand Mac Pros out there (and a third of them are in Cupertino -- joking). If everybody upgraded (highly doubtful that the number would be anywhere close to 50%), Apple would stand to make <$10MM in profit. They'll make more than this if just 10% of the installed base gives up and buys a new MP. So why would Apple even care about a few of us throwing a temper tantrum?
This isn't simply a case of technology changing, how can you think it is?
It has been shown that the 8800GT as a PCI-E 2.0 device can and will work fine in a PCI-E 1.0 or 1.1 slot. The evidence of this is everywhere thanks to our PC loving brethren.
If the Apple 8800GT proves not to work in our "old" Mac Pros then it isn't because, as you say, technology changes it is because Apple has purposefully decided to cripple things. Which is abominable if true.
Of course it does. But the new MP, is relatively speaking, only minor evolutionary change to the existing platform. It's far less dramatic a change than going from the G5 to Intel. There is no compelling reason to trade up your 1st gen MP for the newest ones, unless it be for bragging rights. The 1st gen MP's still have far more horsepower than even the most 'pro' of users will ever use.
So it'd be all the more galling if the rumor was true that your just-superseded-by-a-hairbreadth 3.0GHz 8-core MP rev1 wouldn't be compatible with a graphics card of it's own generation.
Hmm, a bit suprising comment coming from you,Movie?
So you support that apple about intently cripples the card and uses false advertizing to sell it to users that cant install it to their machines,like me?
As Advocate (and others have in other posts) stated,there is should not be direct reason the card couldnt be compatible with previous systems.
Intrested to hear your opininons why people should take that kind of shafting AND buy a new MP to replace a powerfull and wonderfully working unit.
Cheers.
You comment is neither relevant nor useful.
It's too early to draw conclusions yet but this technology is supposed to be backwards and forwards compatible. If Apple deliberately blocks graphics upgrades in the last generation Pros by not adhering to the relevant standards, how is this different from the shadiest of microsoft's business practices?
In a nutshell, unlike problems caused by the PPC/Intel transition, this issue is not a function of changing technology. It appears to be planned obsolescence by stealth and neglect.
I got this mac pro because technology changes and I wanted a machine that is upgradable. The whole point was to get new video cards as they become available.
I ordered an 8800GT and hope by the time it gets here (5-7 weeks?) that a solution will appear.
I ordered an 8800GT and hope by the time it gets here (5-7 weeks?) that a solution will appear.
I imagine come next week a mac pro firmware update alongside the 10.5.2 (with updated GPU drivers included) will be released and all the whining will be over...
I have ordered an 8800GT regardless. Spoke to customer service rep before ordering it just to check if it doesn't work could I return it. She checked and there will be no problem returning it so not much risk for me I just hope it's an improvement over the X1900 otherwise it was a bit of a waste
I have ordered an 8800GT regardless. Spoke to customer service rep before ordering it just to check if it doesn't work could I return it. She checked and there will be no problem returning it so not much risk for me
I just hope it's an improvement over the X1900 otherwise it was a bit of a waste
False advertising? I don't remember Apple saying anything about the 8800GT being able to work in older Mac Pros. You guys can bitch and moan all you want, and yeah it sucks, Apple's not gonna change it for you. It's like a new BMW coming out with a feature that simply won't work in last year's model. It's been 18 months since the Mac Pro came out.
"Shafting". Wow you guys sound like the old Mac Pro has been forced to use an ATI Rage 16 or something. The old Mac Pros have a GREAT video card that ran Motion 3, and all my games beautifully when I owned one. Would it be nice to have the 8800GT in the old Mac Pros...sure, but I don't see how Apple promised you anything about it working or is "shafting" you as you so eloquently put it.
My comment is PERFECTLY relevant as it addresses the pointless bitching and moaning on this issue. I'm sorry it wasn't "YEAH, I AGREE WITH YOU 100%. LET'S MARCH ON CUPERTINO AND GIVE EM WHAT FOR!!!!"
Lemme guess...in 2010 when USB 3 comes out, y'all are gonna be complaining that it doesn't work in the Mac Pros that were released this week. Or when FW1600 comes out, it's gonna be "Apple screwed us by not making FW800 forward compatible to FW1600, I'm switching back to Windows!"