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Upgrading old Mac Pro to 8800 GT graphics?
- Thread starter Fezzy
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Never said it was.
But running it at 1900x1200, everything at high, does drive it hard. at least the fan should speed up somewhat and it never did.my avg fps was about 40. not that great. I expected better.
Does anyone know if these issues (with general speed and overheating) are isolated to the '1st generation' card or have our 08 MacPro Brethren also been having these issues - haven't been following their threads and bit lazy to search!
Bearfeats made a posting in another forum saying it's a strong Open GL card but poor for Pro Aps. I think as far as FCP is concerned that means the level of Dynamic RT and RT Extreme you're going to get. It maybe better than the stock 7300 but if you already have an X1900, stick with it. I may just buy an 8800 as back up incase my x1900 blows as I've read so many reports about them dying.
BF 2142 not working, and how to show the framerate
I am having the same problem with BF 2142. See my previous post. The performance is worse than the stock 7300 card. I couldn't believe it. Here is how to show the framerate.
I made the frame rate show via
"Open the "config" file in ~/Library/Preferences/Battlefield 2142 Preferences, look for "ShowFPS" and set it to 1." Please let me know what you get for a framerate. I am using low setting and when the screen is busy it goes into the teens.
I am having the same problem with BF 2142. See my previous post. The performance is worse than the stock 7300 card. I couldn't believe it. Here is how to show the framerate.
I made the frame rate show via
"Open the "config" file in ~/Library/Preferences/Battlefield 2142 Preferences, look for "ShowFPS" and set it to 1." Please let me know what you get for a framerate. I am using low setting and when the screen is busy it goes into the teens.
Mine hasn't frozen up, but I haven't played Crysis for more than a half hour at a time with this card. One thing I do notice with the 8800GT is that the fan is really cranking compared to the overclocked 8800GTS 512 I tried. Probably from the single slot cooling on the GT. Crysis is tough on any system.
It is great that Apple got the 8800GT working in the "older" Mac Pros but we would have been better of if they had used the 8800GTS 512. Oh well, it's a step in the right direction...
Sorry, I posted my impression on those elsewhere at Dpreview.
Final cut express seemed faster - was able to more realtime without having to render.
Aperture is exporting faster, but I never really had any speed issues there with the 1900 and don't have any way to benchmark.
that's all I can say.
Photoshop runs well on the 8800. Smoother rendering. As for this card getting hot, I played Doom 3, Prey, and NFS Carbon for about 5 hours and the card was luke warm. It barely warmed up my Pop Tart. 1900XT makes a great Pop Tart warmer. 🙄 I hope Apple and/or Nvidia updates the 8800 with a solid driver. This card is not at its full potential. 😡
3ds Max, Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, and Rhino run well...
I agree with Colossus that the drivers could take better advantage of the card. Since the current drivers are beta's I would think that the 8800GT will open the performance gap between it and the X1900 XT when newer drivers are released.
I agree with Colossus that the drivers could take better advantage of the card. Since the current drivers are beta's I would think that the 8800GT will open the performance gap between it and the X1900 XT when newer drivers are released.
Let's hope that update 10.5.3 has over written the beta driver for this card with a legitamate driver. I ran all my games at the highest resolution and graphic details where applicable. As for the gamers playing PC games under Windoze, that's creating a different issue all together. To me Microfluff (er soft) and Nvidia will have to produce a driver for that platform. Apple doesn't offer technical support for Winblowz.
I though exporting was CPU related, not GPU. I've got mine sitting in its box, debating whether it's not worth it since I use so much Aperture (and I have a 2600 in my 1st gen Mac Pro).
Redneck1089
macrumors 65816
Well, I'm on the phone with an Apple rep. trying to get this thing replaced. Ugh, I'm sure it cant be over heating. The card never gets above 65 degrees C. That's nothing.
Redneck1089
macrumors 65816
Apple is replacing my card, taking $50 off the price, and upgrading my shipping to overnight. 😀 Isn't supposed to ship until May 1, however. 🙁
My 8800 installed
OK, installed the 8800 in slot 1, moved the 7300 to slot 4.
In WoW with my old 7300 (everything maxed but ground clutter and full screen glow OFF) I got between 20-40fps most of the time with spikes as high as the mid 80's.
With the 8800 with the same settings, I get slightly more FPS. More like 30-45, with spikes as high as 117. However, if I turn on the full screen glow, it doesn't drop my frame rate in half. In fact, it doesn't drop it at all.
So, for me I am getting 30-45fps most of the time and the game looks MUCH better.
OK, installed the 8800 in slot 1, moved the 7300 to slot 4.
In WoW with my old 7300 (everything maxed but ground clutter and full screen glow OFF) I got between 20-40fps most of the time with spikes as high as the mid 80's.
With the 8800 with the same settings, I get slightly more FPS. More like 30-45, with spikes as high as 117. However, if I turn on the full screen glow, it doesn't drop my frame rate in half. In fact, it doesn't drop it at all.
So, for me I am getting 30-45fps most of the time and the game looks MUCH better.
You may wish to invest a few $$ in an aftermarket cooler. I got one for my old 1900, and will likely do the same for this 8800 if I decide to keep it.
Maury
Sounds like problems specific to bf 2142, i haven't tested ant games in os x but I tried bioshock for a few minutes last night, with all settings on max, and it was completely smooth, definitely an improvement over the x1900. Needless to say the 7300 should be much much worse than the 8800.
I didn't notice any commotion like this from people who got the card for/with their 2008 MacPro. Does anyone know if they are having the same issues or is it just our version of the card/drivers?
I have 8800 in slot 1 and 7300 in slot 4 and they both function just fine. 8800 is not what some of us had cracked it up to be. Wonder if it has to do with it being PCI Express 1.0 and EFI 32.😕
i have the same results, wow everything max, resolution 1680x1050
7300: 15-40 fps
8800: 30-50 fps
doesnt this seem like a very small improvement? i expected to get at least 80 fps or so, especially if you compare with the barefeats wow test they did with all cards