Which of these two cards is the best?

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Hi everyone,

I'd just like to know which of these two cards is the better one. If I am correct, the 8800GT is favored among 1,1 Mac Pro owners; and while most have 512MB of video memory, this has 1GB.

There is also this 8800GTX, which this guy says is better than the 8800GT/S... but is this guy referring to the 512MB version when he says that?

I'd just like to know which card is the better card. I am scared that the 8800GT 1GB is kinda old, but they say that these are great cards for 1,1/2,1 Mac Pros...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nvidia-GeFo...a913ae&pid=100204&rk=1&rkt=30&sd=181685650941

========================

http://www.ebay.com/itm/nVidia-8800...753?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27e6ba12e1

 

[Pieterr]

If I am correct, the 8800GT is favored among 1,1 Mac Pro owners.

There are much better videocards available for MacPro1,1 owners.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1740775/

 

[Macsonic]

Hi everyone,

I'd just like to know which of these two cards is the better one. If I am correct, the 8800GT is favored among 1,1 Mac Pro owners; and while most have 512MB of video memory, this has 1GB.

There is also this 8800GTX, which this guy says is better than the 8800GT/S... but is this guy referring to the 512MB version when he says that?

I'd just like to know which card is the better card. I am scared that the 8800GT 1GB is kinda old, but they say that these are great cards for 1,1/2,1 Mac Pros...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nvidia-GeFo...a913ae&pid=100204&rk=1&rkt=30&sd=181685650941

========================

http://www.ebay.com/itm/nVidia-8800...753?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27e6ba12e1

Though I don't have first hand experiences on the 2 GPUs on the eBay links, I'll probably clarify with the seller how hot the card gets under heavy load and is the cooling fan quiet. I was using the Nvidia 8800GTX on a 2008 Mac Pro and the card performed well. This is the Mac edition card and not flashed.

Somehow I am leaning more on the first eBay seller, http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nvidia-GeFo...a913ae&pid=100204&rk=1&rkt=30&sd=181685650941

On the second seller, the card design seems harder to clean from dust accumulation. Probably best to ask these sellers the strongest points of the cards.

 

[IowaLynn]

Hi everyone,

I'd just like to know which of these two cards is the better one. If I am correct, the 8800GT is favored among 1,1 Mac Pro owners; and while most have 512MB of video memory, this has 1GB.

There is also this 8800GTX, which this guy says is better than the 8800GT/S... but is this guy referring to the 512MB version when he says that?

I'd just like to know which card is the better card. I am scared that the 8800GT 1GB is kinda old, but they say that these are great cards for 1,1/2,1 Mac Pros...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nvidia-GeFo...a913ae&pid=100204&rk=1&rkt=30&sd=181685650941

========================

http://www.ebay.com/itm/nVidia-8800...753?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27e6ba12e1

Apple version 8800GT card was single slot, weak fan, and weaker solder joints causng many user to bake theirs in an oven to bring them back to life! I had hoped I could somehow use a 9800GTX card in mine instead but failed to.

A dual width and one with better fan or even some come with or add on cooling fan or copper pipe to whisk the heat away.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Apple version 8800GT card was single slot, weak fan, and weaker solder joints causng many user to bake theirs in an oven to bring them back to life! I had hoped I could somehow use a 9800GTX card in mine instead but failed to.

A dual width and one with better fan or even some come with or add on cooling fan or copper pipe to whisk the heat away.

This 1GB 8800GT here takes up two slots; I am pretty sure that this one won't have heating issues, right?

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Though I don't have first hand experiences on the 2 GPUs on the eBay links, I'll probably clarify with the seller how hot the card gets under heavy load and is the cooling fan quiet. I was using the Nvidia 8800GTX on a 2008 Mac Pro and the card performed well. This is the Mac edition card and not flashed.

Somehow I am leaning more on the first eBay seller, http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nvidia-GeFo...a913ae&pid=100204&rk=1&rkt=30&sd=181685650941

On the second seller, the card design seems harder to clean from dust accumulation. Probably best to ask these sellers the strongest points of the cards.

That's what I was thinking; I decided to go with this card! I am going to sell my ATI 2600XT - the card my brother gave to me when he upgraded his 2008 Mac Pro. Hopefully this will cool better and will run silently. Looking at the 768MB GTX, I can see that it's a single-slot card with an older-style fan. Hopefully the one I just bought will be good, especially since it's a double-slot card.

I am assuming that this card will be good for newer OSs? I want to get either Mountain Lion or Yosemite on this thing (with one of those custom installers, of course). This is an older card, but it seemed to me that better ones were tons of money - as though there are select cards that would work in these 1,1 Mac Pros (which I think is true, right?). I hope I couldn't have gotten a better card for less money or something.

 

[MacVidCards]

Hi, as the developer of BOTh of those EFI roms I will clarify.

The GTX is G80 based and has minimal CUDA and OpenCl support.

The 1 GB 8800GT is the card we are more proud of, it is G92b and has support for Mercury Playback Engine in some versions of Adobe software. It is much faster and a better card. Both are Dual Slot, the GTX uses much more power.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Hi, as the developer of BOTh of those EFI roms I will clarify.

The GTX is G80 based and has minimal CUDA and OpenCl support.

The 1 GB 8800GT is the card we are more proud of, it is G92b and has support for Mercury Playback Engine in some versions of Adobe software. It is much faster and a better card. Both are Dual Slot, the GTX uses much more power.

Alright; well I just bought the 8800GT w/ 1GB of memory... HOWEVER, for $20 less, I found an AMD Radeon 5770 1GB on eBay. Isn't this a much better card? It has a boot screen as well. Maybe I should cancel my order and get the 5770 instead?

The guy says that you get a boot screen if you use the adapter he gives you. I could probably just use this adapter for my second display, if I really care to see the boot screen.

 

[Macsonic]

Alright; well I just bought the 8800GT w/ 1GB of memory... HOWEVER, for $20 less, I found an AMD Radeon 5770 1GB on eBay. Isn't this a much better card? It has a boot screen as well. Maybe I should cancel my order and get the 5770 instead?

In my opinion I'd get the Nvidia 8800GT 1Gb card as it can be hooked to HDMI and if I understood correctly, you don't need a VGA adapter to get the boot screen. For the AMD 5770 1gb, unless I am wrong, it needs VGA to get the boot screen and only one port works. Also, MacVidcards explained that the 8800GT is good for Adobe apps since he has experienced working on this card for quite some time.

----------

Apple version 8800GT card was single slot, weak fan, and weaker solder joints causng many user to bake theirs in an oven to bring them back to life! I had hoped I could somehow use a 9800GTX card in mine instead but failed to.

A dual width and one with better fan or even some come with or add on cooling fan or copper pipe to whisk the heat away.

Yeah. From my usages of single slot GPUs, they seem to run hotter than double slot cards. Although single slot cards save more space, double slot cards have bigger cooling fans, bigger heatsinks.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

In my opinion I'd get the Nvidia 8800GT 1Gb card as it can be hooked to HDMI and if I understood correctly, you don't need a VGA adapter to get the boot screen. For the AMD 5770 1gb, unless I am wrong, it needs VGA to get the boot screen and only one port works. Also, MacVidcards explained that the 8800GT is good for Adobe apps since he has experienced working on this card for quite some time.

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Yeah. From my usages of single slot GPUs, they seem to run hotter than double slot cards. Although single slot cards save more space, double slot cards have bigger cooling fans, bigger heatsinks.

Yeah, the guy said that you need to use the enclosed DVI-VGA adapter on the lower DVI port. However, he says "triple monitor support." Can't I just hook my second display up with VGA (since that doesn't matter too much) and then plug my main display into the other DVI one? Or maybe that DVI port at the top doesn't work WHATSOEVER? I was leaning towards this card since it's much better and two years newer (and $20 less), but maybe the 8800GT is the one to stick with after all. (I also like these over AMD cards.)

 

[Macsonic]

Yeah, the guy said that you need to use the enclosed DVI-VGA adapter on the lower DVI port. However, he says "triple monitor support." Can't I just hook my second display up with VGA (since that doesn't matter too much) and then plug my main display into the other DVI one? Or maybe that DVI port at the top doesn't work WHATSOEVER? I was leaning towards this card since it's much better and two years newer (and $20 less), but maybe the 8800GT is the one to stick with after all. (I also like these over AMD cards.)

Hi PowerMac G4 MDD. You can try inquiring with the 5770 seller about hooking up 3 monitors. No harm in asking. I also tend to lean towards Nvidia cards though AMD is also fine.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Hi PowerMac G4 MDD. You can try inquiring with the 5770 seller about hooking up 3 monitors. No harm in asking. I also tend to lean towards Nvidia cards though AMD is also fine.

Yeah, I will ask. I am usually tentative when it comes to asking questions, since it's not my personal account (my dad's), but I'll make sure to clarify. BTW, I was silly not to link you all to the card:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-ATI-R...581?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20f95c1395

 

[Macsonic]

Yeah, I will ask. I am usually tentative when it comes to asking questions, since it's not my personal account (my dad's), but I'll make sure to clarify. BTW, I was silly not to link you all to the card:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-ATI-R...581?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20f95c1395

Sorry I did not know the account belonged to your Dad. I guess for his privacy might as well not ask. In my case, I usually ask the seller for the purpose of getting to know the seller, the manner he replies and if he replies promptly. I am sometimes hesistant to deal with some sellers who don't reply. But not generalizing on this.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Sorry I did not know the account belonged to your Dad. I guess for his privacy might as well not ask. In my case, I usually ask the seller for the purpose of getting to know the seller, the manner he replies and if he replies promptly. I am sometimes hesistant to deal with some sellers who don't reply. But not generalizing on this.

I ended up just getting the 8800GT. It's doing pretty well, but it is rather loud. It's not loud in the same way that my 2600XT was, though; that thing sounded like a lawnmower. This, however, gives off a great amount of white noise. I was hoping that it would have the modern kind of GPU fan, but it has that old propellor type. Part of me wants to just get a 5770, but the other part of me doesn't want to bother with this anymore. In all, the card does perform well--I am satisfied with how it's handling things. I also like how I can easily connect two displays to it and have a boot screen. I wouldn't want to put anymore effort or money into this thing. (Hopefully I can flip my 2600XT for a similar price, as these things actually go for a good amount of money.)

Next up on the list is getting this thing on Mountain Lion. Why Mountain Lion? I like it better than Mavericks and I am not entirely set on Yosemite yet.

Thanks for your input on all of this.

 

[Macsonic]

I ended up just getting the 8800GT. It's doing pretty well, but it is rather loud. It's not loud in the same way that my 2600XT was, though; that thing sounded like a lawnmower. This, however, gives off a great amount of white noise. I was hoping that it would have the modern kind of GPU fan, but it has that old propellor type. Part of me wants to just get a 5770, but the other part of me doesn't want to bother with this anymore. In all, the card does perform well--I am satisfied with how it's handling things. I also like how I can easily connect two displays to it and have a boot screen. I wouldn't want to put anymore effort or money into this thing. (Hopefully I can flip my 2600XT for a similar price, as these things actually go for a good amount of money.)

Next up on the list is getting this thing on Mountain Lion. Why Mountain Lion? I like it better than Mavericks and I am not entirely set on Yosemite yet.

Thanks for your input on all of this.

Congrats on your 8800GT. I could not comment on the fan noise though I was expecting the GPU to be quiet. When I was using the Radeon 2600XT on my 1,1 2006 Mac Pro it was quiet. For now I think the 8800GT is fine.

I am also on Mountain Lion. I tried Mavericks but I went back to Mountain Lion. The drawback with Mavericks is the List View, the column for the file name is too wide that the column "Date Modified", "Size", Kind etc are too far to the right. I always have to adjust manually the column width that slows down my workflow when I am in a rush. I deal with 50-100+ files and I use the List view often. With Mountain Lion this is not a problem.

For Mountain Lion, there is a hack to make the sidebar colored instead of in black and white.

 

[Synchro3]

For Mountain Lion, there is a hack to make the sidebar colored instead of in black and white.

Could you post more details/link about this hack?

Update: I guess this hack was meant: http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/10/put-colorful-finder-icons-back-in-mountain-lion/

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Congrats on your 8800GT. I could not comment on the fan noise though I was expecting the GPU to be quiet. When I was using the Radeon 2600XT on my 1,1 2006 Mac Pro it was quiet. For now I think the 8800GT is fine.

I am also on Mountain Lion. I tried Mavericks but I went back to Mountain Lion. The drawback with Mavericks is the List View, the column for the file name is too wide that the column "Date Modified", "Size", Kind etc are too far to the right. I always have to adjust manually the column width that slows down my workflow when I am in a rush. I deal with 50-100+ files and I use the List view often. With Mountain Lion this is not a problem.

Image

For Mountain Lion, there is a hack to make the sidebar colored instead of in black and white.

Image

Yeah, Mavericks is something that's ideal for newer hardware anyway. I used to think it was completely slow and buggy, but it did run well on that 2.93Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Dell of mine. On 2006 processors, though, (regardless of their speed) it's something I personally chose to avoid. Anyway, I am currently installing Mountain Lion on this thing, as I type this! I used the 'Sixty Four On Thirty Two' key creator to create a boot-able key for Mountain Lion. It does all the EFI-editing (etc.) for you. This is in conjunction with Tiamo's custom boot EFI.

Nice - I will take a look at that hack... I cannot begin to imagine what Apple was thinking when they decided to make the icons grey. I also hate the new tags. I don't care whether the tag is 'Hot' or 'Essential.' I like all of the text to be highlighted with a color, since it makes the file stand out better.

 

[m4v3r1ck]

I use TotalFinder for doing that amongst other handy-candy options. Highly recommended.

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/33373/totalfinder

Cheers

 

[Macsonic]

Could you post more details/link about this hack?

Update: I guess this hack was meant: http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/10/put-colorful-finder-icons-back-in-mountain-lion/

Yep You hit the target right. Snow Leopard was the last OS with the colored sidebar. Another change I noticed with Mavericks is when you color tag a folder or file, only a colored circle appears on the left. With the older OS the whole line is color tagged so it's more prominent and easily sorted out. I handle hundreds of graphic and video files and needed the whole line to be color tagged. I know that to most users of Mavericks, this is not an issue.

With a black and white sidebar, if you are rushing a project and placing files it's hard to differentiate if the icons are not colored.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Whelp, the installer has completed. Mountain Lion is now up and running on this machine! Quick question: I found it to be snappy, but it has been having some odd, concerning hiccups. Could it be from Spotlight indexing or something? It still has a long way to go. In addition, looking at Activity Monitor, some other things are running - just because this is a new installation.

Do you think Spotlight indexing would really make this much of an impact? Sometimes an application will take a little bit longer to open than usual (even if it is already in the RAM), and I briefly get the wheel on occasion. Otherwise, it's snappy. I am praying that these hiccups are just simply from the current indexing that's going on... but what do you think?

 

[Macsonic]

Whelp, the installer has completed. Mountain Lion is now up and running on this machine! Quick question: I found it to be snappy, but it has been having some odd, concerning hiccups. Could it be from Spotlight indexing or something? It still has a long way to go. In addition, looking at Activity Monitor, some other things are running - just because this is a new installation.

Do you think Spotlight indexing would really make this much of an impact? Sometimes an application will take a little bit longer to open than usual (even if it is already in the RAM), and I briefly get the wheel on occasion. Otherwise, it's snappy. I am praying that these hiccups are just simply from the current indexing that's going on... but what do you think?

Hi PowerMac G4 MDD. So far I have not encountered any hiccups here ( knock on wood ) I am on 10.8.3. I could not comment if the source of the problem is Spotlight Indexing. Maybe try a repair permissions. I also use Disk Warrior as a maintenance utility in optimizing the HD directory. In case you encounter the spinning rainbow wheel, jot down what app was running and what were you doing. When I had the spinning wheel problem, it was traced to Firefox page loading causing the wheel. Switching to Google Chrome everything was fine.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Hi PowerMac G4 MDD. So far I have not encountered any hiccups here ( knock on wood ) I am on 10.8.3. I could not comment if the source of the problem is Spotlight Indexing. Maybe try a repair permissions. I also use Disk Warrior as a maintenance utility in optimizing the HD directory. In case you encounter the spinning rainbow wheel, jot down what app was running and what were you doing. When I had the spinning wheel problem, it was traced to Firefox page loading causing the wheel. Switching to Google Chrome everything was fine.

Yeah, I'd better check out my disk. As an update, though, the indexing has finished. I think things are back to normal now - hopefully the updates don't bog anything down. I got the wheel when I went to log in, but I think that that may have been from my other HDs spinning up. But, of course, I'll be monitoring it as I prepare my 2600XT to be listed on eBay!

IDK whether or not this will be over yet, but I'd like to thank you for your input on this thread. I got this Mac Pro recently (a steal at $50), and it is my first time dealing with Mac Pros (in spite of the fact that I have over 30 Macs). Ehh, I'm a PowerPC guy! I didn't get an Intel Mac until 2012.

 

[Macsonic]

Yeah, I'd better check out my disk. As an update, though, the indexing has finished. I think things are back to normal now - hopefully the updates don't bog anything down. I got the wheel when I went to log in, but I think that that may have been from my other HDs spinning up. But, of course, I'll be monitoring it as I prepare my 2600XT to be listed on eBay!

IDK whether or not this will be over yet, but I'd like to thank you for your input on this thread. I got this Mac Pro recently (a steal at $50), and it is my first time dealing with Mac Pros (in spite of the fact that I have over 30 Macs). Ehh, I'm a PowerPC guy! I didn't get an Intel Mac until 2012.

Welcome! Glad to be of help. I work with various design studios and some of them are still using a 2006 1,1 Mac Pro for their business. Still adequate for their needs. Enjoy your Mac Pro.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Welcome! Glad to be of help. I work with various design studios and some of them are still using a 2006 1,1 Mac Pro for their business. Still adequate for their needs. Enjoy your Mac Pro.

Thanks, I am enjoying it... but I guess it's not over yet. I had feared that this would happen; I downloaded the 10.8.5 combo update manually and installed it, and now my Mac Pro cannot boot from it. IDK what had led me to believe that it could be done, but I had heard of people successfully updating. Sadly, the installer I have for it is simply 10.8. *sigh* Is there a special update procedure for these special-case Macs?

EDIT: It appears that we have a 10.8.5 image, so I'm gonna just run the Sixty-four on Thirty-two patch on that and re-install.

Before doing all of this, I also ran into some hiccups again. Applications were failing to open while the update was going. I couldn't open Activity Monitor to see what it was. Don't know whether or not this update will fix that, but I'll definitely keep an eye on that - it's concerning and very frustrating.

 

[Macsonic]

Thanks, I am enjoying it... but I guess it's not over yet. I had feared that this would happen; I downloaded the 10.8.5 combo update manually and installed it, and now my Mac Pro cannot boot from it. IDK what had led me to believe that it could be done, but I had heard of people successfully updating. Sadly, the installer I have for it is simply 10.8. *sigh* Is there a special update procedure for these special-case Macs?

I was told that with 10.8.5 ML, certain Nvidia drivers get "broken" for a specific chipset, though I am not sure if this is related to your problem. It's the reason why I am still on 10.8.3. Try to go back to 10.8.3. I normally keep a clone of my previous OS HD so in case of problems after updates, it's easier to revert.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

I was told that with 10.8.5 ML, certain Nvidia drivers get "broken" for a specific chipset, though I am not sure if this is related to your problem. It's the reason why I am still on 10.8.3. Try to go back to 10.8.3. I normally keep a clone of my previous OS HD so in case of problems after updates, it's easier to revert.

Aw, that's disappointing. Well, I don't have a back-up or anything. I don't think you can go back and install an earlier version of ML over a newer version of ML, without wiping everything. Maybe the only thing I can do is upgrade to Mavericks.

EDIT: So I decided to test Mavericks on the machine. The only other HD I had available was my Windows one, and Windows never takes priority - so I wiped it w/o a back-up ;-). I am using it as a test dummy for Mavericks, just to see how the system runs. Apparently there are issues with the 10.9.2 update, but maybe the version of SFOTT I downloaded has already figured that out. Gonna try the combo update on the test dummy and see what happens.

EDIT (again): So I ended up getting the latest version ever of Mavericks up and running on the machine. I found the SFOTT guide on re-patching the system (since update 10.9.2 reverses the patch that makes it bootable on 32-bit EFI Macs), which really helped.... However, Mavericks is acting worse, in terms of the problems that I had stated with Mtn. Lion. I know it sounds stupid, but in addition to slowdowns with loading applications, I have an issue with the following: Minecraft runs at a laggy 15 FPS (at the lowest), when it should be running at around 95 FPS at most. Apparently, many others have had this issue with Mavericks.

Amidst all of these issues, I've decided to roll back to Mtn. Lion. Hopefully none of its updates cause re-patching to be needed, but at least I know how to do so if need-be. Question - I am still afraid of the 10.8.5 update, but I want things to be as up-to-date as possible, without too many updates lingering from within the 'Updates' section of the App store. You said that you were safely on 10.8.3, but what about 10.8.4? Are there any known issues with it? I am just trying to proceed with caution, given that I've been through hell and back with this so far.

Edit: So I ended up rolling back to 10.8.3; I won't try 10.8.5, and not 10.8.4 until I hear back from you about ITS safety. Things are running okay; the largest limitation seems to be the hard drive or something. The 'hiccups' I was referring to seem to happen with applications that haven't been opened for some time, or while the computer is under some CPU load; in said event, any given application will take a bit longer to open. It really bugs me. With an SSD, I am sure everything would be fine, but it's not likely that I'd get one. I actually decided, though, to go with a fresh installation, rather than keeping this old user that was even from an installation of the previous owner's. I'm hoping that there won't be any significant slow-down as the installation sees use, etc. But anyway, so far so good.