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superorc · 02:21 AM

Just got my Mac Pro just a little over a week ago. Well I had my pc up to play a game because I didn't get the Boot Camp SATA problem dealt with yet. When I took it down I was like what the hell ill take the eVGA 7800GT from my PC and throw it in my Mac Pro for when I get Boot Camp working. So I startup in Mac OS with the display hooked into the 7300GT ( I moved it to the top slot). But then I moved the video cable over to my 7800 GT and low and behold it was working in Mac OS X.

Please stick to the image posting guidelines, people -- OreoCookie

I ran glxgear and glxinfo in Apple's X11 version and when the display was hooked into the 7800GT it was at least 2x faster then the 7300GT could put out. I dunno if the 7300GT's EFI firmware was helping the 7800GT load up but even World of Warcraft was running ALOT better.

Some glxinfo:

GLX_EXT_visual_rating
OpenGL vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
OpenGL renderer string: NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT OpenGL Engine
OpenGL version string: 2.0 NVIDIA-1.4.36

Merc248 · Sep 4, 2006, 01:10 AM

Sexcellent

If I end up getting a Mac Pro sometime, I'll probably consider throwing in my 7800 GT in there as well. EVGA ftw

mjgunn · Sep 4, 2006, 02:37 PM

Very Nice! Question though, I thought the PCI-E power connecter in the mac pro was different from the standard connector on most video cards, is that true, and if so, are you just leaving the 7800 without the extra power?

Also, can you just leave the video cable plugged into the 7800 all the time, and have the computer boot up (without video for a minute or two, I guess), while the 7300 intializes things and loads you into the OS?

superorc · 03:28 PM

It seems the 7300 GT has to have a display connected to it in OS X before the 7800 GT works, so that involves some cable switching at reboot, but since I usually leave my computer on, thats usually no problem. As for the power connector, right now I got my old PC sitting right next to my Mac Pro giving it the nessessary power. I plan on taking care of the power connector either by using the spare power connector for the Superdrive or see if i can use the spare SATA power connectors and get a power adapter. Also, I did nothing to the Mac OS X system files.

Merc248 · Sep 4, 2006, 05:06 PM

I'm guessing that you could just throw a KVM switch on the monitor and the two video cards and just press the KVM switch button when rebooting (for those who reboot all the time.)

mjgunn · Sep 5, 2006, 12:32 PM

Have you put boot camp on it yet? Wondering how windows reacts with two video cards plugged in

Cadaver · Sep 5, 2006, 02:44 PM

Superorc, what model # of eVGA nVidia 7800GT are you using? Please be as specific as you can. There are several different models listed on eVGA's website.

superorc · Sep 5, 2006, 10:57 PM

Well looking at my eVGA 7800GT box I got a part number of 256-P2-N515-AX. I made a post about this on Macrumors and it seems someone else has gotten this to work. Mac Forums - View Single Post - PC PCIe Video Card Experience with a Mac Pro

EDIT: Part Number may be 256-P2-N516-AX. There are some cuts on the sticker right near that number and ink has sorta faded away.

mjgunn · Sep 5, 2006, 11:28 PM

Superoc, I was looking at this for the mac pro

PowerMax: Mac Pro taken apart!

And unless I'm mistaken, it looks like theres 4 standard power connectors sitting un-used somehwere, I can't quite place them based on that picture though.

http://powermax.download-files.net/m...ower_cords.jpg

Or am I wrong, and thats a different kind of connector?

superorc · Sep 6, 2006, 03:06 AM

If you're talking about getting power to the card, there are 2 power connectors on the motherboard itself, however it looks to be an Apple non standard connector. http://powermax.download-files.net/m.../mainboard.jpg

Its the 2 6-pin connectors near the top right of that picture.

davidtx · Sep 11, 2006, 08:06 AM

I can confirm two points by superorc:

1. My evga 7800GT works fine driving my 30" cinema display. Played WoW at 2560x1600 and it looks gorgeous. Frame rates markedly improved over the 7300.

2. The power connectors on the motherboard are indeed non-standard. They look like normal PCIe connectors, but the plugs are about 50% of the size of a normal PCIe power plug, rendering them useless without the Apple connectors.

Two other notes, if I may:

1. Routing power down from the optical drive bays is problematic. I can't see a way to do it without cutting the case, which I'm not prepared to do.

2. There appear to be some driver issues running the 7800GT. I've noted that some dialog boxes don't draw/redraw correctly and some other screen corruption. No crashes or anything drastic, but be forewarned.

Cadaver · Sep 11, 2006, 04:09 PM

Originally Posted by davidtx

I can confirm two points by superorc:

1. My evga 7800GT works fine driving my 30" cinema display. Played WoW at 2560x1600 and it looks gorgeous. Frame rates markedly improved over the 7300.

...

2. There appear to be some driver issues running the 7800GT. I've noted that some dialog boxes don't draw/redraw correctly and some other screen corruption. No crashes or anything drastic, but be forewarned.

Under Windows or MacOS X??

Big Mac · Sep 11, 2006, 05:02 PM

Sounds like he's talking about OS X. . .

superorc · Sep 12, 2006, 05:30 AM

I routed a cable from the optical drives to the card finally. I didn't have to resort to cutting up the case or anything, but the cable was a tight fit and took some messing around near the 1st SATA drive bay.

ciparis · Sep 20, 2006, 01:25 PM

No luck so far with a Leadtek 7800 GTX 512. It's recognized, but OSX won't output to it, even when switching cables after booting:

Code:
G70 Board - p348h3:

  Chipset Model:	G70 Board - p348h3
  Type:	Display
  Bus:	PCIe
  Slot:	Slot-1
  VRAM (Total):	512 MB
  Vendor:	nVIDIA (0x10de)
  Device ID:	0x0090
  Revision ID:	0x00a1
  ROM Revision:	3004
  Displays:
Display:
  Status:	No display connected
Display:
  Status:	No display connected