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Upgrading old Mac Pro to 8800 GT graphics?

xraydoc said:
Installed mine last night (came on Monday but was too busy to install).

Runs nearly silently. Much quieter than the X1900XT that fried itself 6 months ago. OS X's eye candy (gene effect, dock stacks/grid, etc.) are nice and silky smooth.

Quake 4 Demo (OS X) ran at 1920x1200 with everything cranked up to highest detail and was smooth as can be. Unreal Tournament 3 Demo (Win XP) also ran at highest settings and the card didn't even rev up its fans after a full hour of game play. Must buy UT3... very cool. UT2004 for OS X at 1920x1200 plus a dozen bots of course was no challenge for the card whatsoever.

Using the latest ForceWare XP drivers for the card under Windows XP, downloaded from guru3D.com. No problems under Windows so far, either.

I don't run any Apple pro-apps (have Aperture 1.5.x but no longer use it), so I can't speak for performance here, but otherwise the card seems to be quite happy - and so am I.

Worthy upgrade.
Click to expand...

we need values of ut2004 and settings
 
Just installed.
I only run OSX
Here are my World of Warcraft Findings.

WITH OLD CARD INSTALLED
System
Mac Pro 2.66 with 5G RAM
Nvidia 7300

Position:
Standing in the middle of the practicing Shattered Sun Trainees in front of the flight point in Shattrath Facing south with my camera just behind my character also facing south. This area is rather active which is why I chose it in order to see what a somewhat heavy load would mean for the card. I did not move and just used the close animations in that fairly busy zone play on the video settings.

Settings:
Full screen mode
1920x1200 resolution
24 bit 1x multisampling
60hz refresh
hardware cursor on
smooth cursor off
desktop gamma

Terrain Distance: Max
Environment Detail: Max
Texture Resolution Max
Terrain Detail: Max
Ground clutter density: Minimum
Texture Filtering: 1/5th from Minimum
Spell Detail: Max
Ground clutter radius: Minimum
Weather intensity: Max

Specular lighting: On
Full screen glow: Off
Death effect: Off
Cinematic subtitles: Off
Character shadows: On
Level of detail: Off

= 17.9 to 18.6 Frames per Second

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WITH NEW CARD INSTALLED
System
Mac Pro 2.66 with 5G RAM
Nvidia 8800 GT
Settings and Position: Same as Above

= 38.3 to 40.2 Frames per Second

~ Turned on Full Screen Glow = No significant frame reduction. Seems to hover at a 40 Frame average.

~ Dialed texture filtering to Max. Average is now hovering between 43 and 45 FPS.

~ Turned up ground clutter density and radius to max. 39-45 FPS still.

~ Turned on 2x multisampling Frame rate drops to 29.5 to 32.8.

These settings seem good to me and I'm pleased with the performance overall. The multi sampling seems to hit things the hardest for me so far but I'm not dialing it all the way and so far is acceptable to me.
Keep in mind I wasn't moving at the time. Just keeping an eye on all the animation around me.
Plus I am coming from a 7300.
8800 doesn't seem to make any noise.
 
Got mine today. Install was a bit of a pain in the ass. Broke the little plastic tab for the PCI-E slot. Damn. Not a big deal tho.

I'm using the beta drivers for Vista 32 bit. Crysis runs really smooth giving me slow to 30 fps on almost all very high settings at 1280 X 7XX (can't remember the numbers). The computer, under Windows, has frozen twice on me while playing Crysis tho. I felt the card to see hot hot it was getting and the thing felt like it was boiling.

I noticed that when I installed mine I was lacking a PCI access cover - I had an X1900 XT in before and it took up two slots. This card only takes one. I had to grab an extra PCI access cover from an old PowerMac that's not in use anymore.
 
I've had mine for a couple days now. I can run Crysis at 1900x1200 with everything set on high now and it is way better than the X1900 XT was with lower settings. Not that much slower than the 8800GTS 512 OC I tried. The 8800 might be quieter than the X1900 XT.

One thing to watch out for - I had to put the X1900 XT back in to upgrade OSX to 10.5.2 so I could use the 8800. My machine booted into Windows on one of the OSX restarts - I didn't hit the option key quick enough. When I put the 8800 back in it ran great in OSX but kept blue screening in Windows. It turns out that the ATI drivers reinstalled themselves on the one boot into Windows when the ATI card was in. Once I uninstalled the ATI drivers, everything was fine again.
 
Og Oggilby said:
I've had mine for a couple days now. I can run Crysis at 1900x1200 with everything set on high now and it is way better than the X1900 XT was with lower settings. Not that much slower than the 8800GTS 512 OC I tried. The 8800 might be quieter than the X1900 XT.

One thing to watch out for - I had to put the X1900 XT back in to upgrade OSX to 10.5.2 so I could use the 8800. My machine booted into Windows on one of the OSX restarts - I didn't hit the option key quick enough. When I put the 8800 back in it ran great in OSX but kept blue screening in Windows. It turns out that the ATI drivers reinstalled themselves on the one boot into Windows when the ATI card was in. Once I uninstalled the ATI drivers, everything was fine again.
Click to expand...

Does yours freeze at all when you're playing Crysis? After about 10-15 minutes into a game mine locks up. I am using the beta drivers. Freakin' annoying.
 
New Nvidia 8800 GT on Mac Pro slower than 7300????

I need some help. I have a 1st generation Mac pro, and had a stock Nvidia 7300 on it. I would have to turn most of the graphics settings at low to play Battlefield 2142 with a framerate of about 20-30. I got the "new" Geforce 8800 GT installed and figured I would now be able to run everything at the high settings. Man, was I wrong. It actually seems to be running slower than the stock 7300 card. I can't believe it. Frame rate goes down to 15-20 at times. Maybe get 5-7 frames at high settings.
I followed these steps as I found in this forum (they were all done already):

1. Have, install OSX Leopard 10.5.2 (update if needed)
2. Critical: Install Leopard graphics update using software update
3. Install EFI update 1.2, MP11.005C.B08
4. Install SMC update to 1.7f10 (don't know if this is really required?)

My 8800 is in PCIx slot 1 (x16 lane graphics slot), power cord is connected.

I ran XBench with the old card:
Quartz Graphics Test 232.24
Line 183.94 12.25 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 249.31 74.43 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 200.83 16.37 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 201.55 5.08 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 467.02 29.21 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 205.28
Spinning Squares 205.28 260.41 frames/sec
User Interface Test 377.60
Elements 377.60 1.73 Krefresh/sec

and then with the new 8800:
Quartz Graphics Test 238.17
Line 186.17 12.39 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 255.17 76.18 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 207.54 16.92 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 204.56 5.16 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 501.03 31.34 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 153.93
Spinning Squares 153.93 195.27 frames/sec
User Interface Test 394.20
Elements 394.20 1.81 Krefresh/sec

Quartz graphics is barely better, and Open GL graphics test is worse.
Does anyone have a clue what the problem is. Apple support us useless since my Mac Pro is almost a year old, and I can't find any support at Nvidia.
Guess the card will be going back.
 
macmaranzana said:
I need some help. I have a 1st generation Mac pro, and had a stock Nvidia 7300 on it. I would have to turn most of the graphics settings at low to play Battlefield 2142 with a framerate of about 20-30. I got the "new" Geforce 8800 GT installed and figured I would now be able to run everything at the high settings. Man, was I wrong. It actually seems to be running slower than the stock 7300 card. I can't believe it. Frame rate goes down to 15-20 at times. Maybe get 5-7 frames at high settings.
I followed these steps as I found in this forum (they were all done already):

1. Have, install OSX Leopard 10.5.2 (update if needed)
2. Critical: Install Leopard graphics update using software update
3. Install EFI update 1.2, MP11.005C.B08
4. Install SMC update to 1.7f10 (don't know if this is really required?)

My 8800 is in PCIx slot 1 (x16 lane graphics slot), power cord is connected.

I ran XBench with the old card:
Quartz Graphics Test 232.24
Line 183.94 12.25 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 249.31 74.43 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 200.83 16.37 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 201.55 5.08 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 467.02 29.21 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 205.28
Spinning Squares 205.28 260.41 frames/sec
User Interface Test 377.60
Elements 377.60 1.73 Krefresh/sec

and then with the new 8800:
Quartz Graphics Test 238.17
Line 186.17 12.39 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 255.17 76.18 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 207.54 16.92 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 204.56 5.16 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 501.03 31.34 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 153.93
Spinning Squares 153.93 195.27 frames/sec
User Interface Test 394.20
Elements 394.20 1.81 Krefresh/sec

Quartz graphics is barely better, and Open GL graphics test is worse.
Does anyone have a clue what the problem is. Apple support us useless since my Mac Pro is almost a year old, and I can't find any support at Nvidia.
Guess the card will be going back.
Click to expand...

I think it has to do with the drivers in OSX. In my Mac Adobe After Effects is giving me "card unknown" when i try to turn on Open Gl. I expect alot of power with this card when 10.5.3 comes out.
 
Getting a run around with tech support.

I'm getting the run around at Nvidia tech support and apple tech support. I don't get it...I was expecting a great improvement with Battlefield 2142....I don't know much about graphics, so not even sure what Open GL is or Quartz really is...
All I really care about is a smooth framerate for my game.
Do you think this is isolated to this game?
 
Just installed my 8800. Over all appearance before any game play looks nice. Someone said the text and the icons in the dock look clearer. This is true. As for gameplay I play on the MAC side. Doom 3 and Prey runs kinda choppy at all settings, must be they were created prior Intel and this evaluation was with the game upgrades for Intel. Harry Potter [don't laugh] and Need For Speed Carbon runs good at max and at high settings, but both lag a fuzz. Overall its a 30-40% improvement over the 7300. I installed the 7300 in bay 4 and the 8800 in bay one. The power cable was tricky to get it installed. Overall I am pleased. Hopefully these beta drivers will get updated to utilize the 8800 full potential. :cool:
 
I am having a problem with my 8800 GT. It's crashed about five times on me now when playing Crysis.

The game stops and the sound begins to stutter. The computer then restarts automatically after waiting about ten seconds. The card is extremely hot to the touch. Could this be a heating issue?

So far this has only happened with Crysis. I played Gears Of War on absolute max settings and at 1680 X 1050 without any problems at all. I am going to reinstall Doom and see if it happens during that game too.

Is anyone else having similar experiences?
 
Mine runs Crysis at 1920x1200 at 146 fps while rendering an animation in Maya, and ripping a dvd. Just kidding lol

Mine will arrive Fri.......Read some news about the next leo 10.5.3. Read this small portion........it clearly speaks of a graphics fix too....late April (almost now) or sometime in May.

Apple has released yet another build of its upcoming maintenance update for Mac OS X Leopard users, just three days after the last build seeded to devs. This time around, Apple has also issued the seed notes that talk about the known issues (there are none as of this build, by the way), focus areas, and areas of change. Build 9D23 is a clear
sign that Mac OS X 10.5.3 is less than two weeks away.

Seed notes say that known issues count "None." Focus Areas for eagle-eyed developers are Active Directory/Directory Services, AFP, AirPort, Audio, Back To My Mac, Dock, Finder, Graphics, Installer, Mail, Spaces, Time Machine.

9D22 contained 15 new bug fixes bringing the full list of tweaks to above 170. The build had no known issues and contained improvements and fixes to Macs failing to properly rejoin wireless networks after being disturbed from their beauty sleep, and for systems failing to shut down properly, crashing when enabling system mode.
:rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
Og Oggilby said:
I've had mine for a couple days now. I can run Crysis at 1900x1200 with everything set on high now and it is way better than the X1900 XT was with lower settings. Not that much slower than the 8800GTS 512 OC I tried. The 8800 might be quieter than the X1900 XT.
Click to expand...

Is this in a newer or older Mac Pro? I have the original, and I'm having real problems.

Maury
 
Wow, I am VERY disappointed. I just played BF2142 for the first time with this card (8800) and it is WAY slower than my 1900xt. I didn't change any settings (run high quality settings at 1024x768) and it was so choppy I couldn't hardly even play. I mean frame rates probably in the low teens.

I'm totally bummed - one of the main reasons I bought this card was I was thinking about getting a 30" aCD and wanted to up my graphics ability for higher resolutions and it's WAY slower.

I don't know how to actually pull up a FPS in the game, but it was night and day horribly slow.

ARGH!

This is a 4x3ghz/8gb mac pro 2007.
 
pprior said:
Wow, I am VERY disappointed. I just played BF2142 for the first time with this card (8800) and it is WAY slower than my 1900xt.
Click to expand...

Well Halo runs perfect, and fast, if that's any consolation. However, it also shows various graphics crud. :-(

Maury
 
Has anyone tried ANYTHING that is not a game? Like Maya.......Modo.......Cinema4d..........Aperture.........Final Cut........Motion........Tetris........Pac Man

Did anyone purchase this card besides me that does any creative 3d art work or photo processing? Asteroids.......Pong.......Come on man. How is it working with productivity software? :confused::confused:
 
Redneck1089 said:
I am having a problem with my 8800 GT. It's crashed about five times on me now when playing Crysis.

The game stops and the sound begins to stutter. The computer then restarts automatically after waiting about ten seconds. The card is extremely hot to the touch. Could this be a heating issue?
Click to expand...


Yes. This is 100% a heat issue. Crysis stresses your card in ways that no other game even comes close to doing. You'll find every game will run fine, but Crysis will freeze after 10-15 minutes. There's no driver update that will fix it. It's not a software crash. It's simply that the card gets too hot and malfunctions causing the freeze and reboot.

It's been very well known about in the Windows world for a while now especially with 8800 series cards. The only real solution is as follows:

1. Install RivaTuner - it allows you to monitor the core and ambient temperature of the card as well as set fan speeds.

Download here: http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163

2. Set the fan speed to 100% (maximum cooling) during gameplay - sorry it's a bit noisy at this speed, but it's either that or fry the card - and it's still quieter than the Radeon. Wear headphones if it annoys you.

3. Run the game in windowed mode so that you can adjust the graphics settings until the temperature stays more or less even. Some in-game effects (e.g. a lot of water) will stress the card more than others. Try not to let the card go above about 65 degrees - that's when you're getting close to freeze territory. 50-60 degrees is ok.

Be aware that fullscreen mode also causes a lot more heat than Windowed mode. If you want to figure out your settings for fullscreen, you'll have to alt-tab every couple of minutes to go back to the desktop and check the temperature until you're sure you have stable settings. If you can bear to have the game in a Window - do it. It's a lot easier to watch the temperature and you'll notice immediately when it starts to rise. I've been able to have 3-4 hour game sessions without a freeze by doing this. If I just launch the game without taking these measures, it dies after 10 minutes.

Be warned Crysis can make your card temperature rise at about 1 degree per second! No single game is worth taking chances on damaging your hardware. Get yourself setup properly first at whatever settings your system can bear, and then enjoy the game.

Personally my system (2.66Ghz 1st Gen with 4 Gig RAM) seems stable at the following settings:

Textures: High
Objects Quality: High
Volumetric Effects: High
Game Effects Quality: High
Everything else: Medium
Anti-aliasing: 2x
Resolution: 1280x800

Believe me - there's virtually no noticeable difference between this, and everything on high.

The alternative is to install a 3rd party cooling system. For that you're on your own.
 
Snowshiro said:
Yes. This is 100% a heat issue. Crysis stresses your card in ways that no other game even comes close to doing. You'll find every game will run fine, but Crysis will freeze after 10-15 minutes. There's no driver update that will fix it. It's not a software crash. It's simply that the card gets too hot and malfunctions causing the freeze and reboot.

It's been very well known about in the Windows world for a while now especially with 8800 series cards. The only real solution is as follows:

1. Install RivaTuner - it allows you to monitor the core and ambient temperature of the card as well as set fan speeds.

Download here: http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163

2. Set the fan speed to 100% (maximum cooling) during gameplay - sorry it's a bit noisy at this speed, but it's either that or fry the card - and it's still quieter than the Radeon. Wear headphones if it annoys you.

3. Run the game in windowed mode so that you can adjust the graphics settings until the temperature stays more or less even. Some in-game effects (e.g. a lot of water) will stress the card more than others. Try not to let the card go above about 65 degrees - that's when you're getting close to freeze territory. 50-60 degrees is ok.

Be aware that fullscreen mode also causes a lot more heat than Windowed mode. If you want to figure out your settings for fullscreen, you'll have to alt-tab every couple of minutes to go back to the desktop and check the temperature until you're sure you have stable settings. If you can bear to have the game in a Window - do it. It's a lot easier to watch the temperature and you'll notice immediately when it starts to rise. I've been able to have 3-4 hour game sessions without a freeze by doing this. If I just launch the game without taking these measures, it dies after 10 minutes.

Be warned Crysis can make your card temperature rise at about 1 degree per second! No single game is worth taking chances on damaging your hardware. Get yourself setup properly first at whatever settings your system can bear, and then enjoy the game.

The alternative is to install a 3rd party cooling system. For that you're on your own.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for the input. I am running in window mode. I lower some settings and I'll set my fans to 100%. Thanks again.
 
Alright, I download the fan program, and lowered some of my settings. The card got to 57 degrees C with the fan at 100% and then it crashed again. I am thinking about returning this damned thing. At least my 1900XT never stopped me from playing a game before. I also broke the damn PCI release tab when installing this card because it's cheap plastic. It's been a very frustrating day.
 
I tried one last time. I got to play for about 20 or so minutes. Turned the fans on at 100%. Turned a very settings down. The temperature got to 62 degrees C at one point and then dropped back down to 59 C. I just finished my mission and Psycho started to speak to me when it froze again. It's sooo damned frustrating. It's about the eight or ninth time it's crashed on me since I installed it this morning.
 
I don't know if this has been said yet or not, as I am kinda too lazy to read through the last couple of pages but......

Did all of you run a program on the Windows side called "Driver Cleaner" and remove ALL the ATI drivers before shutting down and installing the 8800GT, then booting into Windows? I assume with all the posts about poor Crysis performance we are talking about a Windows issue here. Granted, Mac video card drivers always suck and are always behind the times.

But Driver Cleaner (freeware) will eradicate all remnants of the ATI drivers on the Windows partition. I'd recommend only running it while in bootcamp with the ATI card installed. Once it erases the ATI drivers, shut down, pop in the 8800GT, and load the nVidia drivers. Perhaps before doing that, visit nVidia's site to d/l the latest 8800GT Windows drivers out there.

Report back any success you may have with this method. Using Driver Cleaner has saved me many Windows reinstalls in the past on my PC's. ;)

* also, I'd recommend keeping Rivatuner handy as well so you can control the fan temps if necessary. Good luck to all and I hope you get it sorted out!
 
dreamof3d said:
Has anyone tried ANYTHING that is not a game? Like Maya.......Modo.......Cinema4d..........Aperture.........Final Cut........Motion........Tetris........Pac Man

Did anyone purchase this card besides me that does any creative 3d art work or photo processing? Asteroids.......Pong.......Come on man. How is it working with productivity software? :confused::confused:
Click to expand...

I use Aperture extensively..
to be honest I can't tell the difference much.. I really got it for gaming.. i do know that it hasn't slowed down and if anything some transitions are slightly faster..
I ran cinebench opengl and I got a score of 5011 in OS X.. i don't know how that compares.
 
love the silence?

What I do love about the 8800 is the total lack of fan noise compared to the x1900..
anyone else noticed that?
 
eodp3 said:
What I do love about the 8800 is the total lack of fan noise compared to the x1900..
anyone else noticed that?
Click to expand...

Well, considering I've had to turn my fan up to a constant 100% just to play Crysis for 15 minutes before it crashes, I'd say it's pretty damn loud.

I am going to call Apple tomorrow and see if I can get a replacement. I put all my settings on just "high," which is what I normally run when using the X1900 XT (same resolution too), and the damn thing still crashes. Sure, there's about a 10-15 boost in fps, but it does me no good if it crashes constantly.

I'll say, however, that I have been playing Doom 3 and Gears Of War completely maxed out and the card didn't give me any trouble whatsoever. It's very strange.

This thread outlines a similar problem to what I am experiencing: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Threaded&catid=31&threadid=2114281
 
Redneck1089 said:
Well, considering I've had to turn my fan up to a constant 100% just to play Crysis for 15 minutes before it crashes, I'd say it's pretty damn loud.

I am going to call Apple tomorrow and see if I can get a replacement. I put all my settings on just "high," which is what I normally run when using the X1900 XT (same resolution too), and the damn thing still crashes. Sure, there's about a 10-15 boost in fps, but it does me no good if it crashes constantly.

I'll say, however, that I have been playing Doom 3 and Gears Of War completely maxed out and the card didn't give me any trouble whatsoever. It's very strange.

This thread outlines a similar problem to what I am experiencing: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Threaded&catid=31&threadid=2114281
Click to expand...

wow.. I never saw that.
I've just finished playing 4hrs worth of CoD4 and the fan was virtually silent all the while.
No artifacting or glitches. Sounds like a driver issue since its only with NVidia and Crysis in particular.
 
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