Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Upgrading old Mac Pro to 8800 GT graphics?

Mine is due to be delivered tomorrow, though its going to my office so I may not get it until Tuesday.

Hopefully getting it running under Windows will be easier than some of the posts above.
 
makatak88 said:
ok mine arrived this morning. Was about to install when I read you need leopard for this.:mad: Ok.. annoying but I'll do it anyway. My question is do I put this in the x16 slot where my 7300 currently is? and when I do, where do I put my 7300 if I want to keep it in the machine? in a x4 slot?

thanks
Makka
Click to expand...

Slot 4 will work nicely for the 7300 video card.
 
xraydoc said:
Hopefully getting it running under Windows will be easier than some of the posts above.
Click to expand...

I already have mine since 2 days. You will need to install the ForceWare Nvidia beta drivers ( http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_174.74.html ) . The latest official Nvidida driver will not install via the installer but you may manually from the extracted directory. However, it seem that in only delivers decreased performance. I don't have any issues with the beta drivers though so far but awaiting something official as well ;)
 
installed mine today, comes with cable(PITA to put in), but slot 1 880, slot 4 7300, will the MP automatically make slot 1 16x and slot 4 1x? or is there a utility for it?

cheers
 
Pappnase said:
Hi,

just a short question regarding the upgrade pack.

Was a new power cable enclosed or do I need to use the power cable of my current card, the X1900?
Click to expand...

1x GeForce 8800GT
1x Power Cable (not needed if you still have the x1900 one)
1x DVI to VGA adapter
1x male DVI to female DVI cable (I think that's what it is anyway!)
1x basic instruction booklet for installation

There's no driver CD - the drivers are built into Leopard.
 
OZMP said:
installed mine today, comes with cable(PITA to put in), but slot 1 880, slot 4 7300, will the MP automatically make slot 1 16x and slot 4 1x? or is there a utility for it?

cheers
Click to expand...
Check this out: System/Library/CoreServices/Expansion Slot Utility. :)
 
mmulin said:
I already have mine since 2 days. You will need to install the ForceWare Nvidia beta drivers ( http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_174.74.html ) . The latest official Nvidida driver will not install via the installer but you may manually from the extracted directory. However, it seem that in only delivers decreased performance. I don't have any issues with the beta drivers though so far but awaiting something official as well ;)
Click to expand...

So, 8800GT works in Vista, but the drivers are only beta? Does Crysis work?

And I ask once again; how's the noise level when NOT gaming or doing GPU-intensive tasks?
 
OK! I finally got the Geforce working under Windows XP. Apparently the card is NOT recognized as legitimate hardware by the official Nvidia drivers for some bizarre reason so I had to download the latest "forceware" drivers (I used version 174.93) at...

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/

... and after running them, the proper Windows XP drivers loaded and everything works great now.

Hope this helps anyone else having trouble!

Douglas

:)
 
nurfen said:
So, 8800GT works in Vista, but the drivers are only beta? Does Crysis work?

And I ask once again; how's the noise level when NOT gaming or doing GPU-intensive tasks?
Click to expand...

The Noise level is VERY quiet! If you have a Radeon x1900xt now you will be THRILLED with how quiet the new card is!!!

Douglas

:)
 
AdeptRapier said:
The Noise level is VERY quiet! If you have a Radeon x1900xt now you will be THRILLED with how quiet the new card is!!!

Douglas

:)
Click to expand...

I have the 7300GT today, which is passively cooled. I think I'll buy the 8800GT and return it if it doesn't make me satisfied. Thanks for your reply!
 
Just installed the card

My review of the 8800GT after a couple of hours.

Installation was clean and quick. OS runs fine right away but you need to run the beta gforce driver linked a page or two back. Fortunately, these drivers work fine.

Except for a roar on the first start up for a couple of seconds, the fans are quiet. No louder than the 7300.

Performance was not at the level I expected. I ran HL2, episode 2 on ultra high graphics and it played fine where it would barely run at all with the 7300 in low settings. However, I noted that my core 2 duo PC with the ATI 3870 card seems to be noticeably faster and smoother. It my well be a driver issue..but that 3870 is a great card.

I am curious how the card would do with something more current such as Bioshock which I am eager to try out.
 
Wow...........I have not read anything about this card yet that makes me want to part with my x1900. Maybe I will leave mine boxed until I hear something good. Should get mine Wed. or Thursday. Why the f@!# can't Apple make a card like the Quadro 3700 or 4700 x2 work. OK, I have a $3000.00 Mac, I could justify a $700.00 gpu. All this time and it seems we still don't have a solution unless you want to run a few games in Windoz :mad:

I'm not rich.....I contract home remodeling, I would purchase a kick-butt gpu solution for say $900.00 or less. Apples Quadro at almost $3k is a joke. :eek:
 
Cindori said:
With Nvidia launching the next generation graphic cards this summer, i'm going to wait and see.
Click to expand...

And with Apple and Nvidia releasing the next generation cards for mac in Summer 3010, I too will wait and see ;):D

Seriously though in this day and age it shouldn't be too hard to get a decent 'new' gpu as soon as it is released pc side for the mac.

With speeds / benchmarks as they are so far from the 8800GT over X1900XT, I simply cant justify spending €220 when I don't use windows.
 
MacRumorUser said:
And with Apple and Nvidia releasing the next generation cards for mac in Summer 3010, I too will wait and see ;):D

Seriously though in this day and age it shouldn't be too hard to get a decent 'new' gpu as soon as it is released pc side for the mac.

With speeds / benchmarks as they are so far from the 8800GT over X1900XT, I simply cant justify spending €220 when I don't use windows.
Click to expand...

I rarely use windoz..........if I don't see anything short of WOW, mine will never leave the comforts of its packaging.......then I'll be thinking Kalaway again. LOL :eek:

Then I can have the say kick butt quadro 3700.........
 
dreamof3d said:
I rarely use windoz..........if I don't see anything short of WOW, mine will never leave the comforts of its packaging.......then I'll be thinking Kalaway again. LOL :eek:

Then I can have the say kick butt quadro 3700.........
Click to expand...


If you have the machine why not Kalyway anyway?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back