Graphics card upgrade options for Mac Pro (early 2008) Model 3.1

Hi,
What are my options if I wish to upgrade the stock graphics card? I seem to remember there being one that was about £80 but I can no longer check as the site is only listing the 2009 mac pros now.
Any assistance would be gratefully received!

Your current options are:
ATI 2600
Nvidia 8800
Nvidia 5600
Or third-party ATI 3870 Mac/PC Edition.
Presumably the new ATI 4870 will work in the Early 2008 MP, but requires OS X 10.5.7 which is not yet released. You can find benchmarks at Bare Feats.

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Upgrade advice for Mac Pro early 2008 needed

I've upgraded to 14 GB ram but my old 2008 Mac Pro (2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-core) now definitely needs replacing. As I want to keep my high end NEC monitor (I work with print design and don't like glossy screens) I wonder if a new Mac Pro is the only realistic option? They're a bit above my budget really but not sure that the top end Mac mini (2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7) will be a lot more powerful than what I have now.
I'm working mainly in the Adobe creative suite. Any advice much appreciated.

Just canceled the order. However I finally got to speak to a tech support guy that seemed a bit more knowledgeable. For less money, and (he said) a better way to go, he recommended the Mercury Accelsior_E2
PCI Express SSD. The 120 GB is $299.
Specs here:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/PCIe/OWC/Mercury_Accelsior/Buy_Now
I'll look into the Tempo Pro and compare. Grant mentions that some users have been having trouble getting a PCIe SSD mounted strategy to boot consistently - that concerns me. Grant, can you point me to reports? How have you come by this info?
Hatter - I probably will only use one SSD to get me through the next year or two. Then I'll upgrade. Hatter, the Tempo Pro appears to only be a card adapter, and the SSDs are addtional, correct? The card itself runs $234.
I am looking at the MacRumors review of the OWC and Tempo products too.

Upgrade options for Macbook pro (early 2008-15 inch, 2.4 ghz)

Hi, i recently got a second hand early 2008 macbook pro 15 inch (2.4ghz) and i was wondering what my options were to upgrade the ram & hard drive. i'm fairly new to macintosh architechure so any help would be awesome! thanks

Sweet! thanks!
and i have my eyes on this kit because i can put the current drive in there and not let it go to waste
750 GB 2.5 SATA this will work yeah?
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/HGST/Y0J11563/

ESata card for Mac Pro (Early 2008)

I am looking for another two port eSata card for my Mac Pro (Early 2008) model. The card I ordered before Christmas from Amazon (UK) has just arrived but doesn't fit (Lacie eSATA PCI CARD)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/LaCie-130823-eSATA-PCI-Card/dp/B001O9KEKM/ref=sr11?ie=UTF8&qid=1294318895&sr=8-1
It's only for two drives I use from time to time to back up my HD Video (personal family stuff only).
Any recommendations?
Many thanks, Matt

I have the Sonnet E2P in my Mac Pro Early 2008. Also available in UK from here:
http://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/productinfo.php?productsid=421
And "Yes": that arrangement is the PCI-Express card connector - that's what you need.
!http://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/images/381-img-main.jpg!
It's definitely a Mac card - Sonnet product page here has latest drivers, etc.:
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/temposatae2p.html
(Currently = v 1.2.5)
Edit: you could always use one of these:
http://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/productinfo.php?productsid=511
!http://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/images/466-img-main.jpg!
It extends the unused motherboard SATA ports to the back panel. Cheaper, but requires you to partially disassemble your Mac Pro to install it, and the drives thus attached are NOT swappable while your Mac Pro is powered on - necessitating a power-cycling of your Mac to mount/unmount drives connected to this card.
With the E2P you can mount/unmount drives without powering off your Mac. I'd go with the E2P!

Hardware for Mac Pro early 2008

Hi there
We have very old Macs at our university. We will renew them next year, however we need to hook up our magnificent video monitors to Premiere Pro CC. There is only DVI and FireWire signal out, no thunderbolt. Inputs on the monitor are HD SDI and HDMI.
I´m sure there must be Hardware for this Mac Pro (2008) in order to connect to monitor digitally. I´m sure there were options when Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 was the current version back in 2008. Any ideas?
Jon

I have already connected two monitors via a DVI “hub”. So they are up and running fine.
The hub don´t have any more outputs of any kind. Also I´m not sure if the quality would be good enough for the monitor output.
Now I also realised that there is no HDMI input on the monitor, only HD SDI.
Please look at photo here for info on my current graphics card.
Best,
Jon
Fra: RoninEdits <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Svar til: "[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Dato: Thursday 19 February 2015 11:40
Til: Jon Berntsen Huseby <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Emne: Hardware for Mac Pro early 2008
Hardware for Mac Pro early 2008
created by RoninEdits<https://forums.adobe.com/people/RoninEdits> in Hardware Forum - View the full discussion<https://forums.adobe.com/message/7209429#7209429>

Best graphics card for Mac Pro Early 2008?

I have a Mac Pro Early 2008 with the default graphics card (ATI Radeon HD 2600), and would like to make an upgrade to a better graphics card that will run games smoothly. I'm not an expert with computers at all, but all I know is I would like to buy a graphics card for around $200-$300 (If it's more expensive then that's ok, but preferrably this price range) that will get me the best performance possible. I play games like Minecraft, Skyrim, and Team Fortress 2. Thank you for any help/recommendations you can provide!
Also, I wasn't sure which section to post this in, but feel free to move this thread.

Also, to provide more information (not sure if needed), I have dual monitors and the following specs:
Processor 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Memory 16 GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256 MB
My two displays are LG ULTRAWIDE Display (2560 x 1080) and LED Cinema Display (24-inch, Late 2008, 1920 x 1200)

External graphic card for mac pro (early 2008)

I have a Mac Pro (early 2008) where the graphics card seems to be dead.
I have no replacement and a new one is a little too expensive for what I'm gonna use it for. (400$).
Also the harddrive died.
So now I have an unconfigured Mac Pro with no display.
I can't figure out if there is a way to boot it and have it somehow share its screen during a first install?
Is there an external USB/firewire graphics card that will act as a master display output already when plugged in?

macvidcards on ebay can held on gpu, and disk drives are easy and shouldbe aregular yearly upgrade

Thoughts on Inateck 4 Ports PCI-E to USB 3.0 Expansion Card for Mac Pro (Early 2008 to 2012 Late Version)

Anyone adding USB 3 ports to the older Mac Pro desktop towers?
I looked at HighPoint, Orinico and StarTek but I'm leaning towards Inateck given their recent PCI-E board update specifically for Mac Pro.
Anyone have any USB 3 recommendations or horror stories? I've got all 4 internal drive bays taken so I don't think I can easily get power to the board, so I'm hoping the internal PCI-E power will be enough for most USB 3 devices.
thanks,
Stephen

There is one that seems to be popular that works with 10.8.2 and above.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1501482&highlight=usb3+pcie

Upgrading a Video Card for Mac Pro (Early 2008)

I have little experience upgrading systems hardware and I was hoping to get some input as I try to figure out a cost effective card for my 2008 mac.
What I have:
* 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel
* ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
* with OSX 10.10.2 Yosemite
. . . so far I am looking at the 5770 HD to be a likely replacement if I buy the right one (some, if I'm understanding correctly, aren't compatible because they were flashed for older systems or are simply defective and so require selective shopping— hence, they were not officially supported). Also, I am unsure if OS Yosemite runs the older cards.
I work with Photoshop, Illustrator, and play games like Starcraft2 and WoW.
My question is:
Which video cards are compatible with my system and what would be the best replacement? . . . and will I have to downgrade from OS Yosemite to run certain cards?
Thanks in advance!

Hi there, welcome to the community.
My advice to you, to achieve cost effective performance, would be to use any vanilla NVIDIA graphics card. Newer versions of Mac OS X have drivers that should be compatible with the card out of the box. The only downside to using a non-mac specific card is that you wont see the boot up process, as the graphics card wont be initialized until the system is completely loaded. If this concerns you, leave your old card in one of the slower, unused slots if possible.
If you are worried about compatibility, I would recommend purchasing at Best Buy, where you can take advantage of their return policy.
For more info, check out:
How to breathe new life into a dying Mac Pro | iMore

Dual Monitor not working for Mac Pro (Early 2008)

Upon upgrading from Lion to Mountain Lion yesterday I lost the ability to use my secondary monitor. Checking in System Preferences it indicates that it only sees one monitor, but nothing has changed with my hardware configuration. Is anyone else having this problem?
Hardware specs:
Processor 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Memory 26 GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM
Graphics ATI Radeon X1900 XT 15 MB
Software OS X 10.8 (12A269)

Not sure if this has any relation to yours, but I thought I would throw it out there...
After installing Mountain Lion, the secondary monitor for my 27" iMac would not wake up after the computer slept. In the System Preferences, there was only the main display listed. The secondary monitor was visible from a cold boot, but disappeared once the computer slept and was woken up.
I found that waking the system with the Magic Trackpad would not also wake the second monitor. When I wake the computer by using the keyboard, the second monitor wakes normally! I've repeated this several times... Strange.

Reviews for ATI Radeon HD 4870 Graphics Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro?

There's no review at the Apple Store on this [ATI Radeon HD 4870 Graphics Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro (Early 2009 or Early 2008)|http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB999ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA5OQ&mco=NDE4NDMx OA]. Googled and found nothing related to the Mac kit. Mostly PC based.
Should I consider this card? I need a spare/replacement graphics card for my Mac Pro (early 2008). The NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT card has failed me twice.

Just came out on barefeats:
http://www.barefeats.com/nehal14.html
Shows new drivers with 285, also compares 4870.
If you play a lot of games on the windows side, you might also want to consider the 4890. I has recently became flashable (if you're into that kinda thing). It has a lot more leeway to be overclocked. Close to (or if your lucky) hitting the 1 Ghz core clock speed, gives very close comp to the 285, and at fraction of the price. You can get an XFX 4890 on newegg for $195.

Graphics card Mac Pro (Early 2008) What is supported

I desperatly need a new Graphics Card for my Early 2008 Mac Pro.
Bellow are the listed and supported graphics cards from apple site.
None of the cards listed for early 2008 is possible (Very hard) to get here in Norway.
I've read some treads here saying that ATI Radeon HD 5870 will work on Early 2008 Mac Pro.
- Can someone please verify that this will work?
- On the Note for early 2009 The radeon HD 5870 card requires Mac OS X v10.6.4 or later and it requires the use of both auxiliary power connections?
Both auxiliary power connections. Do Early 2008 Mac Pro have this possibility?
Graphics cards for Mac Pro (Early 2008)
ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT (part number 630-9191 or 630-9897)
NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600
ATI Radeon HD 4870, offered as an upgrade kit
Note: The Radeon HD 4870 card requires Mac OS X v10.5.7 or later for use with the Mac Pro (Early 2008).
Graphics cards for Mac Pro (Early 2009)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
ATI Radeon HD 4870
ATI Radeon HD 5870, offered as an upgrade kit
Note: The radeon HD 5870 card requires Mac OS X v10.6.4 or later and it requires the use of both auxiliary power connections.

Robban1978,
I have 27 Apple Mac Pro's (between work/office, home, and clients), and have four Apple Mac Pro's (just at home) and I have purchased the Diamond Radeon HD 7970 graphics cards (7970PE53GHZ) for each of the 27 computers and the graphics cards do work great in all of my Apple Mac Pro computers (2008, 2010, and two 2012 Apple Mac Pro).
The only problem is that I have to boot directly into Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8 to use the graphics cards because Diamond/Radeon/AMD have not released graphics drivers for the Radeon 7970 for OS X 10.8.x Mountain Lion (as of yet?)
See here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/20289120
See here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/20289931
See here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4391012
Hopefully AMD/Radeon/Diamond will release updated graphics drivers for OS X 10.8.x Mountain Lion, and I believe the Diamond Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition graphics card is probably the best graphics card out on the market (based on it's price/performance), the only problem/issue is there are no OS X 10.8.x Mountain Lion drivers for the Radeon HD 7970 series graphics cards yet.
Hopefully AMD/Radeon/Diamond will work on developing and releasing OS X 10.8.x Mountain Lion drivers.

Mac Pro Early 2008 not booting

Hey guys!
I walked into a problem with a Mac Pro early 2008 model.
I got this Mac Pro from somebody since it wasn't working anymore. I was told there could be a graphic card (Nvidia) issue which I think should at least be correct but I am also having trouble with loading EFI. The following things happen:
When I turn on the mac using a DVI to VGA adapter i have no screen at all. (I don't have any other options atm)
There is no HD inserted.
PRAM and SMC reset won't do anything, i'm not even sure it reads keyboard commands.
The fans all work even the one on the GPU.
Front LED just burns steady.
No lights on my USB (non Apple) Keyboard turn on.
The lights of the mouse just flashes on start up.
RAM LEDS light up on startup.
Motherboard reset button doesn't make anything change.
When I Press the button for the diag LED's, the Trickle Power and the Good Power led come on, the GPU LED stays off. The EFI LED is off aswel.
No RAM errors show up. Tried switching RAM and disconnecting RAM and GPU.
No startup chime what so ever.
I figured there could be something wrong with the EFI firmware (or logic board is just broken). I am trying to restore the firmware with a firmware restoration cd, but I can't get the cd tray to open. I pressed the on button and kept pressing it for a long time. All it does is makes my status LED flash a couple of times real fast, but then it goes back to normal state. No cd tray is opening and its not flashing 3 times fast, 3 time slow, 3 times fast as it probely should be doing.
You guys have any idea what to try next or how to restore the firmware?
Thanks in advance.

there's a boot code to run with the older machines
Pike wrote this code
Using this code will get you around the efi/boot issue and move on to OS 10.10.02
Installing Yosemite just prior to entering the efi/boot, then restart twice.
You'll need to research Pike's code, but your 2006 to 2008 machines are long ways from trash.
I'm upgrading my 2006 to 8 cores, Yosemite and 32 gig of ram.
Long live these early Mac Pros
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&v ed=0CB8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fforums.mac…
maybe your issue is not related

Maximum Size of Hard Drive in Mac Pro (Early 2008)

What is the Maximum size of Hard Drive that I can install in drive bay 3 or 4?
Computer info below:
Model Name: Mac Pro (Early 2008)
Model Identifier: MacPro3,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 8
L2 Cache (per processor): 12 MB
Memory: 14 GB
Bus Speed: 1.6 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MP31.006C.B05
SMC Version (system): 1.25f4
Hardware UUID: FF121465-84A1-52F2-A94A-58A60A20F4AF

WE don't know, all there are today are 2TB and those are fine. I think you could RAID 6 for 10TB and maybe then?
Serious, there are none. Do you really expect to hit some ceiling?
http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/drivedb/search.drivedb.lasso

What's the best graphic card for FCP X and a Mac Pro (early) 2008?

I have a Radeon HD 3870 in my Mac Pro, it seems that I cannot use this configuration with Final Cut Pro X. Then what's the best graphic card for FCP X usable in a Mac Pro (early) 2008?
Thx,
Phil

You can get a 5770 radeon ATI MAC card
Avoid the 5770 cards on ebay and Amazon - many are black market or manipulated cards.
Buy it from Apple online store or B&H photo or Macconection
And in my case, I was able to sell my old 2600 XT card on ebay for $65 and put that money toward a 5770 card (Which was about $230 minus the $65)
I installed the 5770 in my early Mac Pro 2 x 2.8 and it works great

Graphics card upgrade options for Mac Pro (early 2008) Model 3.1

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