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Upgrading old Mac Pro to 8800 GT graphics?
- Thread starter Fezzy
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Yes works fine, OS X can be made to see it but needs drivers, see here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/445094/
Wow !!!!!! Everybody tired, and quitting it looks like. Too bad
I don't know about tired and quitting. I am looking into running an ATI 3870 X2 (which is faster than the 8800) in Windows with a 7300 GT for booting up. Thats not being tired.
Hmmm... but I guess I might be quitting after all - just on OSX, which is a shame. Problem is, to me the most important software I use on the computer are the applications, not the operating system. The video card plays a big part on how well those apps run. If Apple won't make an effort to support the people who purchased the "most expandable" mac ever, I don't see the point of supporting Apple. So if something doesn't happen with the video card situation soon (which will surprise me at this point), I will hold my nose use my first gen Mac Pro as a Windows only machine and this will be my last Mac computer.
One thing about the 3870 is that you need those ATI 1900 power cables in order to draw power from your motherboard. The cables that come with the card will not work. This may not be a problem for some but those ATI cables are hard to get a hold of outside of the US.
Also, I noted that this upgrade issue made it to the rumors part of this site which is the closest thing to an official word we have received yet. Its worth waiting a month I think to see if they come through.
As a side note, I did buy that card for the Mac and could not use it for the power cable issue so i installed in my old Pentium D which is basically in semi retirement as a home media server. I picked up a 4500 core 2 duo for very cheap over recently and simply replaced the PD. Both the card and CPU simply just worked (to steal an Apple ad). I tested HL2 Episode 2 on it and it ran beautifully on highest settings. I had been sitting on that game for months because it plays like a slideshow on my Mac Pro 7300 at lowest settings. Th game plays beautifully on the PC.
Thanks for the info on the power cables. Do you know if I can use my 1900 XT and the 3870, or do I need to get a 7300 GT which doesn't need a power cable? I don't know if the power supply can handle both the 1900 and 3870 or if there are 3 places to plug the cables in.
It would sure make people forget about the 8800 fiasco if Apple surprised us and released an ATI 3870 X2 for the 2007 and 2008 Mac Pros, but I would be shocked if they did.
That works fine (with certain cards: see this thread), but all you end up with is a card that only works in new Mac Pros. The firmware is the problem.
I personally found out just how easy it was to install Kalaway 10.5.1 on my friends a crappy P4, single core, 1 gig ram. Thus, this could be done on any other high end multi-core box with any graphics card you can afford. Problem is, I've heard that Apple Pro-Apps wont work on the Kalaway install. Have not tested that theory though.
I just came from the Apple store in my area. The guys in there claim they haven't heard anything about the 8800, and I was like the 5th person in an hour to inquire about it. I paid good money for my Mac pro, and my Leopard install disk was paid for too. Stick an Apple logo on a Boxx Workstation and you can have it all. My friend removed the Kalaway install, and destroyed the media.
He just had to try it.
I just came from the Apple store in my area. The guys in there claim they haven't heard anything about the 8800, and I was like the 5th person in an hour to inquire about it. I paid good money for my Mac pro, and my Leopard install disk was paid for too. Stick an Apple logo on a Boxx Workstation and you can have it all. My friend removed the Kalaway install, and destroyed the media.
He just had to try it.
Guys, Steve said it's being worked. We should close this thread until he releases another statement on 8800gate.
Pro apps run fine on kalyway. IE Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro as well as Aperture.
Cool, This makes it much easier to make a decision if we don't get some upgrade opportunities. I figured they would. Guess you would want 'Lil Snitch to block the calling of home......? 
Guess you would want 'Lil Snitch to block the calling of home......?
Why bother install the Kalyway to make sure the machine is compatible then throw in another hard drive and use an image of your retail disk to install with it, simple enough to do plus you have paid for the OS your running..
I'm not sure I understand your point. The kalaway would be on non-mac hardware so that I could have any gpu including the 8800gt we're talking about here. How would one install a retail version on that type of machine? Isn't that what kalaway is all about ?
Alright you install Kalyway to make sure that your machine works with OSX then once you have done this since you know it will run properly then you can take and install a plain retail disk that you have made an image of and mounted/started the installer while in the Kalyway install. When doing this you need a second hard drive to install too as you cannot put the EFI bootloader that is needed to boot OSX on non Apple hardware on a mounted/in use hard drive when the install completes you copy/replace a few .kext on the retail disk install unmount the drive to install the EFI bootloader then can boot to the retail disk hard drive install that is as close as is possible to a plain install of OSX on real Mac hardware. This among others things like saving a pile of money allows you to run a 8800GT for the video card like I do right now, my machine has a Gigabyte P35-DS3L mtherboard, Q6600 G0, 8gb ram, 500gb SATA HD, SATA DVD +- R/RW, already mentioned 8800GT, couple of Dynex 3 port firewire cards, Griffin Firewave and iMic. It has worked rock solid for about the 2 months I have been running it with the retail install I ran the Kalyway for about a month before I decided I wanted to buy the retail disk to install with it.
OK this looks interesting. Can you provide detailed instructions on the install method you used? Also are you able to simply do OS upgrades right off Apple's site? meaning 10.5.1 to 10.5.2 etc etc
For the 10.5.2 upgrade you had to download the standalone .dmg then type a one line entry in the terminal to delete a file as soon as it appeared during the install of it and edit one line in a post install script before allowing it to reboot other than that everything works fine even the stealth kernel upgrade Apple slipped in during the last round of upgrades. It is a little long to post here and as the polite moderators have already pointed out to me it is against forum rules to post links to using OSX on PC hardware but OK for hacking the iPhone so what I can do is suggest a search term in Google "retail install guide gigabyte site:insanelymac.com" without the quotes.
Did he say it officially?
Then he didn't really say it, and it could just be a ruse to shut us up.
Close this thread? are you mad? Do you work for Apple Forums?
Yup,
Steve has not said anything officially, nor anyone in apple for that matter. We need to keep the heat on and hopefully we can get something.
Why in the world should this thread be shut down? Mr. Jobs has said a few things unofficially during the course of this ordeal, but none of them have resolved the issue and each time his information has changed. This thread should and will stay active until this issue is resolved. If you find it offensive or redundant, don't read it. If you are jealous that it is the most active thread on the board, start a new topic that people are interested in. I really don't understand the obsession with quieting this issue. Is it really that bad to speak openly about Apple's blunders?