video card upgrade

[hotrod351]

im going to be doing a video card upgrade and in doing so ill be removing 4 NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT's cards and going with a single ATI Radeon HD5870. but noow im going to have three open slots in the back of my 2006 Mac Pro. where ddo i get some of the original block off plates for the openings.

 

[ActionableMango]

Any Apple parts place will have them, or Ebay. The part number is 805-5396.

 

[hotrod351]

thanks, couldnt find them until you gave me the actually part number.

 

[DearthnVader]

Duct tape;-)

 

[JoSch]

These covers actually have the same size as the ones, which PCs have. You can probably buy them in some computer store.

 

[hotrod351]

ok, thanks. now as for upgrading to a ATI Radeon HD5870, am i going to see that much improvement. im stuck on OSX Lion now and would like to upgrade to something newer.

 

[h9826790]

ok, thanks. now as for upgrading to a ATI Radeon HD5870, am i going to see that much improvement. im stuck on OSX Lion now and would like to upgrade to something newer.

Why stuck?

 

[hotrod351]

from everything ive read the NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256 MB video card is what prevents an OS upgrade.

 

[Machines]

but noow im going to have three open slots in the back of my 2006 Mac Pro. where ddo i get some of the original block off plates for the openings.

Please send me a message with your address . I have a bin full of Mac Pro PCIe brackets and can send you some for just the cost of the postage .
[doublepost=1456936306][/doublepost]

from everything ive read the NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256 MB video card is what prevents an OS upgrade.

You need to have a 64 bit EFI video card to perform a modern (10.8.x to 10.11.x) OS X install on your 2006 Mac Pro . The video cards that shipped with your System are all 32 bit .

 

[JoSch]

The HD5870 should suffice for newer OSX.

 

[Fl0r!an]

You need to have a 64 bit EFI video card to perform a modern (10.8.x to 10.11.x) OS X install on your 2006 Mac Pro . The video cards that shipped with your System are all 32 bit .

Actually that's not the reason. Apple just dropped drivers for certain video cards (e.g. GT 7300 or HD 2600XT) when moving to 64bit kernel. You still need a card with a 32bit EFI (or EBC) if you want boot screens on a MacPro1,1.

 

[Machines]

Actually that's not the reason. Apple just dropped drivers for certain video cards (e.g. GT 7300 or HD 2600XT) when moving to 64bit kernel. You still need a card with a 32bit EFI (or EBC) if you want boot screens on a MacPro1,1.

I get full EFI support - including boot screens - with a Mac Edition ATI 5770 installed in a Yosemite upgraded Mac Pro 1,1 (2006) . Isn't the 5770 a 64 bit EFI card ? Isn't there some EFI handshaking necessary during Start Up ?

 

[Fl0r!an]

All official AMD cards are EBC (= EFI Byte Code, platform independent), so your 5770 works on all cMPs.
That "EFI handshaking" is necessary to get boot screens, but not for OS X. Three examples:

- GTX 680 Mac Edition is EFI64, so it won't show any pre-OS display output in a MacPro1,1, but OS X will work perfectly fine if you have drivers (Mavericks and up)
- 8800GT is EFI32, so it will show a boot screen on a MacPro1,1 (but not on 3,1+!) and works fine up to El Capitan
- 7300GT is EFI32 as well, but doesn't have any drivers in 10.8+, so you're limited to OS X Lion and below

 

[hotrod351]

well if i could figure how to send a private message to Machines with my address, but how
[doublepost=1456954456][/doublepost]so to upgrade to Yosemite i would need a ATI 5770 or 5870. the 5770 is cheaper, not much.

 

[Machines]

All official AMD cards are EBC (= EFI Byte Code, platform independent), so your 5770 works on all cMPs.
That "EFI handshaking" is necessary to get boot screens, but not for OS X. Three examples:

- GTX 680 Mac Edition is EFI64, so it won't show any pre-OS display output in a MacPro1,1, but OS X will work perfectly fine if you have drivers (Mavericks and up)
- 8800GT is EFI32, so it will show a boot screen on a MacPro1,1 (but not on 3,1+!) and works fine up to El Capitan
- 7300GT is EFI32 as well, but doesn't have any drivers in 10.8+, so you're limited to OS X Lion and below

What about the EFI 64 bit version of the 8800 GT , which shipped in the Mac Pro 3,1 (2008) workstations ? If we install that in a Mountain Lion OS X 10.8.x or later Mac Pro 1,1 (2006) , then I suppose we won't get a boot screen (or other EFI functions at Start Up) but the card will work properly since the drivers are built into these OSes .

 

[Fl0r!an]

Yep, that's what I'd expect.

 

[hotrod351]

well i just checked on some of the 8800 GT cards on ebay and they seem to be about the same price as the 5770 or 5870.

 

[hotrod351]

well just installed a HD5770 and what a difference. Yosemite works like a charm. havent tried the HDMI output yet.
[doublepost=1457982253][/doublepost]just checked HDMI output, works perfect. i do have longer boot times.

 

[Machines]

well just installed a HD5770 and what a difference. Yosemite works like a charm. havent tried the HDMI output yet.
[doublepost=1457982253][/doublepost]just checked HDMI output, works perfect. i do have longer boot times.

Out of curiosity , what's your boot time ? Cold boot to working desktop please and disable all login / fire vault features . A good configuration with a SATA SSD should be around 25-30 seconds .

 

[hotrod351]

ill have to time it next boot up, fire vault is disabled. but now i find that every time i boot into Yosemite ive lost all my settings. Safari opens with there induction page, my mouse is back to the factory settings, the dock isnt hidden anymore. i still have Firefox in the app. folder but missing from the dock and settings for it are as a new install. so im missing something or done something wrong. Yosemite works great but for saving my settings.

 

[Machines]

ill have to time it next boot up, fire vault is disabled. but now i find that every time i boot into Yosemite ive lost all my settings. Safari opens with there induction page, my mouse is back to the factory settings, the dock isnt hidden anymore. i still have Firefox in the app. folder but missing from the dock and settings for it are as a new install. so im missing something or done something wrong. Yosemite works great but for saving my settings.

That's very sad . These Macs are fully capable of running a modern (64 bit) OS X in a stable fashion . Did you verify that your Mac has a working battery ? This battery stores user preference settings .

 

[hotrod351]

i have four internal HD's. each one will boot with all the settings i have on them installed. its only Yosemite HD that looses its settings. now i did install Firefox in the app folder and it stays there but no other settings stay. yeah its a puzzle. im sure ill figure it out. cant think that when i shut down and start back up its suppose to forget all the settings.

 

[hotrod351]

problem solved. works perfect and save all settings.

 

[hotrod351]

well almost perfect, ive lost refit boot. my mac pro use to brring up the screen on startup and list all the HD's i have, giving me the option to pick which one i wanted to startup on. thats gone now.

 

[r6mile]

well almost perfect, ive lost refit boot. my mac pro use to brring up the screen on startup and list all the HD's i have, giving me the option to pick which one i wanted to startup on. thats gone now.

I think that's normal on the 1,1 if you use a 64 bit OS