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DjWoody · Jul 27, 2010, 11:14 PM

I have an old Mac Pro that's been a workhorse for several years. Currently it has an NVIDIA GeFORCE 7300GT graphics card.

I wanna play the new Starcraft 2 game, but the graphics card is incompatible.

Anyone know of any compatible upgrades? It needs to be an GeForce 8600M GT or better, or an ATI Radeon X1600 or better.

Thanks!

cgc · Jul 28, 2010, 01:06 AM

How old is it? I installed an 8800GT in my 2006 MacPro a couple years ago and it runs great.

mkerr64 · Jul 28, 2010, 11:57 PM

are the new graphics card compatible with the Nehalem, the ones released on the new 12core beast?

Mac Write · Aug 5, 2010, 01:03 AM

I would love to add a 1GB 5870HD to my 2006 Mac Pro. Will this be possible (and I will get the Mac version, no modding for me).

Waragainstsleep · Aug 5, 2010, 07:42 AM

Mac Pros are a bit funny about their graphics cards. As I understand it, there are two versions of the official Mac 8800GT. One is supposed to work in the first Mac Pro, the other is supposed to work in the later two versions (Obviously not thinking about the brand new ones here). I believe they tend to be interchangeable but even Apple seem quite confused about these cards. There was an ATI X1900 XT for the original Mac Pro but I gather they are noisy and run very hot. I think the failure rate was a bit over the odds too if I am thinking of the right card.
Other than that there is a Quadro FX but you could replace the Mac Pro for the cost of one of those I expect. Or you could look into flashing a card, though probably easier to buy a PC card and get the Windows version of the game.

This should do the trick:
EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 High Performan... (01GP31080TR) at OWC

skyals80 · Aug 5, 2010, 08:31 AM

Hello everyone!

There are lots of ways on how to upgrade, and i think there are two versions of it. Just tryb to look for its best compatibility.. tnx.
Since, I'm new here i would like to ask if when could i put sigs here? are there any limits?

Thanks a lot!

reader50 · Aug 5, 2010, 12:45 PM

You can use a signature right away. Our sig rules appear in our general rules.

It goes without saying that if a new member uses a spam sig, it may result in a spammer ban. So it's a good idea for new members to not link to commercial products & services.

cgc · Aug 5, 2010, 02:59 PM

You may want to wait until Apple releases the ATI HD Radeon 5770 and 5870 cards with the new MacPros but that nVidia GTX 285 is solid.

Mac Write · Aug 5, 2010, 06:08 PM

Will the new ATI cards work on the Original Mac Pro? If not, what is the best card supported on the original Mac Pro?

Waragainstsleep · Aug 7, 2010, 02:34 PM

Currently its that GTX 285.

Mac Write · Aug 7, 2010, 02:38 PM

How about in the ATI Camp? I am after CoreVideo/Image/Animation and OpenCL not gaming performance.

l008com · Oct 8, 2010, 04:08 AM

So the 5770 is out, I hear that it's compatible with all Mac Pros, even the first gen (which is what I have). But then I read that theres some issues, like with a 1st gen Mac Pro, you can only use one video port. Anyone actually install one yet? Know whats up? Apple's addiction to glossy screens has really forced me to keep this Mac Pro for a lot longer than I'd like. Soooooo this 7300GTs gotta GO.

vegumkoho · Oct 8, 2010, 07:15 PM

I have the 5770 installed on my 1st gen 2006 Mac pro. It works perfectly, I have only used one monitor though. Plug and play. I also use it with bootcamp with windows xp and after a couple driver downloads it also works just fine. Other thread about this has several links to sites showing it working and may better answer your monitor question.

Side note, my startup seems faster with this card.

l008com · Oct 8, 2010, 11:23 PM

Hmmm. Do you have a second monitor around that you could try, just for shits n giggles?

vegumkoho · Oct 9, 2010, 09:52 AM

Radeon 5870 and 5770 on 2006 Mac Pro

I do not have a second monitor but this article at the bottom talks about it a little and contains a link to a apple help article also.

l008com · Nov 3, 2010, 07:56 PM

I just installed my 5770. I connected monitor number one with a miniDP to DVI adapter (that I already had from my macbook pro) and connected monitor number two directly to the DVI port. I powered it up and everything worked perfectly. No problems at all. Mine is a 1st gen 4x2.66 GHz Mac Pro1,1. Expose is a little faster, but I realized I don't really have anything that uses OpenCL to really test the card out. And I don't really play any games either (though I might in bootcamp in windows). I kind of wonder why I even bought this thing? But it seems to work no problem at all.