7300 GT to ???

Mac Pro with original NVIDIA 7300 GT with 256 Meg VRAM and considering options.
Should I spend time and resource on something like this?
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-95GT1
The cost with a gig of DDR2 seems trivially awesome?

As for memory, this is what I would choose if I was buying:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/TechWorks/A2F667E1GX2/
Radeon 3870 -
http://eshop.macsales.com/Item_XLR8YourMac.cfm?ID=10876&Item=ATI100435928

Similar Messages

OEM Apple nVidia GeForce 7300 GT is on Adobe's list of unsupported GPUs for Open GL rendering-

My Mac Pro's Radeon X1900 XT is retired to my computer grave yard, in my basement, but going back to the OEM Apple nVidia GeForce 7300 GT, which shipped with my Mac Pro, brought some encouraging results.
When I first got the 2007 Mac Pro, in 2009, I was running it in Mac OS 10.4.4.11 Tiger and Photoshop CS4 (11.0.0) would disable Open GL rendering when it detected the stock nVidia GeForce 7300 GT card, which was on Adobe's list of unsupported graphics GPUs. So, I purchased a refurbished Apple Radeon X1900 XT. This card allowed Photoshop CS4 and Bridge CS4 to enable Open GL Rendering. Over the last year, the Radeon X1900 XT graphics card has been creating stripes on my screen when it is running hot and sometimes the dual displays would just shut off while I was working. Also, the computer was doing hardware freezes about once a day. This morning the Mac Pro shut down it's dual displays, while I was working, and I had to do another cold shut off in order to restart. I then manually shut the computer down and did a manual boot-up so that Snow Leopard would employ disk maintenance.
I shut the computer off and pulled the Radeon X1900 XT card and re-inserted the OEM Apple nVidia GeForce 7300 GT card. Now I'm running Mac OS 10.6.8 Snow Leopard with Photoshop CS4 (11.0.2) instead of Photoshop CS4 (11.0.0).
Now, the updated Photoshop CS4, under the newer OS, is enabling Open GL rendering instead of disabling it. This graphics card's hardware limitation is now fixed, so I see no reason to buy the ATI Radeon HD 5770 Graphics Upgrade Kit for my Mac Pro:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apple/6615718/
Some who have purchased the Apple ATI Radeon HD 5770 say they still got the striping on their display when the Radeon HD 5770 card was running hot, just like with the Radeon X1900 XT.
So far, the OEM Apple nVidia GeForce 7300 GT is working fine and I'm not getting any striping on my displays with no display shut-offs or hardware freezes.
I'm glad to have Adobe's Open GL rendering enabled with an OEM graphics GPU that runs cool and requires no imbedded cooling fan. Apples OEM nVidia GeForce 7300 GT, for the Mac Pro, is on Adobe's list of unsupported GPUs for Open GL rendering under Photoshop CS4, so why is it supported now? Is that just one of the benefits of the Photoshop CS4 11.0.2 update?

Chirs, thanks for your info but you are talking about Photoshop CS5, which does not support OpenGL drawing on the Mac nVidia 7300 or the Mac Radeon X1900. As long as I am using Photoshop CS4 and have not yet upgraded to CS5, I can continue to use the Mac nVidia 7300 and get limited OpenGL drawing support from Photoshop. And it is working fine.
Today I found out that Adobe has updated their OpenGL support information and apparemntly when I upgraded my Mac from Tiger to Leopard, and later, I gained Photoshop's Open GL support for the Apple nVidia GeForce 7300 GT:
Supported video cards (Mac OS)
Intel-based Macintosh, tested on Mac OS X 10.4.11 and 10.5.4
17-inch iMac x1600, 128 MB
ATI HD 2600, 256 MB
MacBook Air intel GMA X3100
Nvidia Quadrofx 4500, 512 MB
Radeon x1900, 512 MB
Intel-based Macintosh, tested on Mac OS X 10.5.4 only
8800 GT, 512 MB
iMac 8800 GS, 512 MB
Nvidia 8600M, 256 MB
The following Power PC cards work in Photoshop CS4: Nvidia 7800 (256 MB), Nvidia GeForce 7800 GT, and the Nvidia Quadro FX 4500.
Note: OpenGL is enabled for the GeForce 7300GT, but Advanced Drawing and 3D Acceleration are disabled.
So, when I upgrade to Photoshop CS5, I will need to replace my video card with something compatible with Photoshop CS5s OpenGL drawing engine. Do you think the ATI Radeon HD 5770 Graphics Upgrade Kit, for my Mac Pro, will get Photoshop CS5 to make OpenGL drawing availible and active?
I appriciate an Adobe employee, like yourself, providing the information I need to make the right hardware choices when upgrading to Adobe CS5.

Kernel Panic caused by Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT after Upgrade

Kernel Panic caused by Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT after Upgrade
Mac Pro 2,66 Ghz Dual Core Intel Xeon
driving 2 Apple Cinema Displays 23 (out of order since update) and 30
running Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2
Hi I'm Phil from Germany,
and I have the same problem like many others here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1541589?tstart=0
caused by the Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT after combined Upgrade by Apple.
Started with frozen desktop, and ended with a permanent Kernel Panic after a reeboot.
- Safe mode is not running
- System CD is not running
- Apple Hardware Test is ok.
- tried the newest 7300 firmware update
- I have double checked the RAM, and HDD and disconnected all external equipment several times.
System.log at startup ends with the folling permanent Problem:
Previous Shutdown Cause:3
NVDANV40HALG7xxx loaded and registered.
DSMOS has arrived
After running my Mac Pro in Target Mode (Fire Wire Connection with my MacBook Pro) I found the Problem-Folder of the 7300 GT:
File: HD/SYSTEM/LIBRARY/EXTENSIONS/NVDANV40HalG7xxx inside my library and erased them......
NOW MY SYSTEM IS RUNNING AGAIN, but I can't run my System-CDs without a kernel panic,
Time Machine runs without the Starfleet-Background, and my second cinema display still doesn't work any more!
After spending several hours in front of my Mac Pro I'm sure that all of my hardware works fine.
NOW I THINK THE PROBLEM IS: I have to change my ROM-Version on my Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT and install the Firmware 3008.
So how does it work and where can I get this Firmware? Or how can I run an Downgrade from 3011 to 3008?
ANY IDEAS ....or similar cases?
WOULD BE GLAD TO GET SOME HELP!!!!!

Thanks Hatter
I'm sure that an ATI 5770 would solve my Problem...and maybe I could save a lot of my time?
But why I should spend 250 € on a new Graphic Board when the old one isn't broken?
Especially when the problem wasn't caused by me.
I need the old firmware, because my System runs with my GT 7300 after removing the software part listed above. Only one of the firmware components that had been updated won't fit in connection with the newer OS X Versions.
I'm also sure that the Problem must be on the Graphic Board, because my System-CD isn't running while pushing the "c" button.

4x NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT cards in a Mac Pro run below max supported speed

Hi,
We have 4 "identical" NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB cards in one Mac Pro (to support 8 DVI monitors for a Network Operations Center). One card came with the system, the other cards were purchased from Apple at the same time. This was a refurbished computer, so we didn't have the build-to-order option. I put identical in quotes because they seem to have different ROM revisions.
The system mainly shows graphs on webpages and HP OpenView (via X11), so no heavy-duty gaming or refreshes.
We have been running with 6 monitors for the past 4 months with the following monitors:
- 1x 42" LCD with 1280x768, 32 bit color, DVI
- 5x 22" LCD with 1680x1050, 60Hz, 32 bit color, DVI
When I restart the system, at least one of the 22" monitors takes 5 or 10 minutes of flashing on then off (mostly off) before it finally syncs up and shows a constant image. The 42" LCD won't go to its native resolution (can't recall what that is right now), so have to go down to a less optional 1280x768. In the next day or so, I'll be connecting one more identical 22" LCD and then soon after another 42" monitor, but am wondering if they will work. Yesterday, I saw a post about firmware update for this video card (http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/geforce7300gtfirmwareupdate.html). I also noticed that two of the cards have ROM Revision 3008 and two have 3011 ROM Revision of the cards (in System Profiler). I'm not sure yet if this firmware update increases the ROM Revision.
Running the Expansion Slot Utility (/System/Library/CoreServices/) shows that my PCI Express profile is set to Two x8 Lane + Two x4 Lane slots. All slots say that they are running below maximum speed.
The store.apple.com site still shows this configuration as a valid build-to-order, but I wonder if they do something different or extra.
Does anyone else have experience with 4 of these video cards with this many monitors?
Any experience with the Firmware Upgrade that I should know about?
Thank for any insight!

l_elephant wrote:
I notice that the flasher is connected to a card with ROM revision 3011, the later one.
I noticed this too.
now, to the slot profiles.
you say;
"The first one that I enter is the one to the right (looking from the back of the system)."
so you mean that the mac is laying on its side and your in the back, and what you call 'slot 1' is to the right? is that correct?
No, the system is upright, but the cards are horizontally seated. Pardon my ascii art, but here's the layout if I look from the back of the Mac Pro:
| DVI DVI ---->> slot 4
| DVI DVI ---->> slot 3
| DVI DVI ---->> slot 2
| DVI DVI ---->> slot 1
So, there are two DVI ports on each card (which is in a slot). I'm not sure which lane is which.
Either the left (as pictured) is lane 1, or the right (as pictured) is lane 2.
i ask because i'm wondering if your reproducing the way the expansion slot utility is graphically portraying it. I'm pretty sure the utility is showing the slots as if the mac is upright and the person is looking into the side of it with the access panel off.
Okay, sounds logical!
if you say that you have two x4 lanes and two x8 lanes, then i'm deducing that your flasher is on an x4 lane, and as it is, one of your x8 lanes has only one lonely monitor on it.
Probably correct.
In my utility window, it is the fourth configuration, so you would have at the moment;
slot4__x4__22" and 22"
slot3__x4__42" and 22" flasher
slot2__x8__22" and empty
slot1__x8__22" and 22"
I think that you have 2 and 3 reversed.
i would suggest trying the third configuration thusly;
slot4__x8__22" and 22"
slot3__x1__22" and empty
slot2__x8__42" and 22" flasher
slot1__x8__22" and 22"
in other words, check off the third configuration in the utility, then
exchange the connections on the second and third cards, leaving the first and fourth cards be.
Okay, will do.
as far as running below max speed, i figure as long as your workload doesn't suffer, then its fine.
Oh, and another question, does it always, always flash when you boot-up?
Do you guys shut down the system every night?
We rarely reboot it, and I'm not the only one that would see it reboot. This system is in a 24x7 Network Operations Center. I just know that rebooting takes a while for the monitor to come up all of the way.
Thanks for all of your help and guidance so far!
David

If I put my 7300 in slot4 at 8x, and a 8800GT at slot1, 16x, could I boot 10.4.11 on my mac pro 1,1 if I unplug the monitor from the 8800GT?

If I put my 7300 in slot4 at 8x, and a 8800GT at slot1, 16x, could I boot 10.4.11 on my mac pro 1,1 if I unplug the monitor from the 8800GT?
I have different os's installed on my different hard drives. I'm using 10.6.8 now, but I go back to 10.5.8 and 10.4.11 on accasion. Can I run 10.4.11 with the 7300 in the 8x lane? As long as I unplug the 8800GT but leave it installed in the 16x slot1? And attach a monitor to the 7300?
What about using the 7300 to run extra monitors or a monitor while running 10.5.8 and 10.6.8? Is that a problem? I have 10GB Ram and the 1,1 original machine.

I know the 8800 requires 10.5.2, but if it is installed (at 16x) but no monitor is connected, will it allow the 7300 to control one or two monitors in 10.4.11? When the 7300 is in the 8x lane? And will it boot?
I lost part of your train of thought. Are you telling me to get just an ATI 5770 to continue using this machine into the future?
I thought the original mac pro 1,1 needed cards of the same manufacturer. If I use the 5770, that eliminates the ability to boot 10.4.11, correct?
What if I keep the 7300 handy in a box and put it in when I have to use 10.4.11? ( select the start up disc, shut down, change the card, restart) Does the 5770 require a power cable to another board that I might damage with repeated changes?

Windows Vista 64 bit w/older 2 dual core 3.0ghz Mac Pro with NVIDIA 7300

I have read a variety of the posts that have appeared here on the use of Windows Vista 64 bits on a Mac Pro. I remain confused, and but want to do this. I have a Mac Pro purchased in the Spring of '07 with dual 3.0Ghz dual core Xeon cpus and 10gb of ram, using the NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT and running 10.5.1, with multiple drives. I want to run the 64 bit version of Vista Ultimate to use my ram, and to gain the performance this box should offer. It appears that I have three options:
1. Boot Camp: I don't know if the drivers are available, seems like the new Mac Pro drivers probably would not work, even if I could find them, since I have an older Mac Pro with a pair of the dual core Xeon CPUs. Don't know if there is an alternate source than Apple for the drivers, or a way to get around the problem in boot camp.
2. Parallels: I do not believe that 64 bit apps are supported by Parallels
3. Fusion: Their web site says they support Win Vista 64 bit, but it is not clear to me on the web site where the drivers are obtained, or perhaps they are built in to Fusion. Will I get the performance and memory benefits in fusion? Or is the OSX virtual overhead so high that this is a fools errand?
I do a lot of video editing, and fully 95% of my life is in the Mac world, but I have individuals who send files for editing, and occasionally they require Windows tools, much to my chagrin. I also have a small number of programs that need Windows 64. I occasionally am required to do some development work, and would like to use this machine for that purpose if it can indeed run Win Vista 64bit. I have XP loaded on a more modest box andit is running fine when I need it, which isn't very often.
Any help, or successful experience in running Windows Ultimate 64 bit on this hardware, utilizing its resources would be greatly appreciated.

Here are my results after further digging online and from my own experience.
Here is the procedure:
1. Check whether your Mac has the 32-bit EFI or 64-bit EFI
http://www.ihackintosh.com/2009/08/snow-leopard-106-and-64-bit-what-you-need-to- know/
2. Create a Boot Camp (BC) partition for Windows 7 x64. Resize the partition size using the slider in the BC app. Follow the instruction, insert the Windows 7 disk and reboot.
3. This will load the PC partition which is FAT formatted for now. Choose the Boot Camp partition on which to install Win 7, but choose in the option to format that partition. It will automatically format it in NTFS. Otherwise, it will not install on that partition.
Note : A "OEM System Builder" Windows 7 64-bit Professional UPGRADE install without any issues what so ever. The upgrade disk is a full install. Read this for further information:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/174288/windows7_upgrade_madecheaper.html
4. Run windows, then insert the Snow Leopard disk. It will tell you your hardware cannot support x64 version. Do the following procedure to manually install the driver:
http://michael.anastasiou.me/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22%3Aq boot-camp-x64-is-unsupported-on-this-computer-modelq-solution&catid=7%3Ahow-to&l ang=en
5. Then update Boot camp using Apple Software Update in Windows.
6. All hardware works fine except the sound. The sound only comes out of the internal speaker, even when headphone or speakers are plugged in the jack. Installing the Realtek High Definition Audio Codecs driver in order to fixe the problem. Shutdown and reboot to make it applicable. Try a second time if it still does not work:
http://218.210.127.131/downloads/downloadsCheck.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=14&PFid=24&Le vel=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false
That's it.

Problems with 3D Hardware acceleration on nVidia geForce 7300

I have a system with a Core 2 Duo CPU and a nVidia geForce 7300 graphic card. I am trying to run a 3D robotics simulation program (Webots 7.0.3) and its performance is abysmal. I never had graphic performance issues before---but then again, I never tried to run this particularly intensive simulation software. Other simulation software compiled from source (e.g. player/stage ) runs smoothly.
Where can I start to look to find out where the problem is?
Here is what I've been able to find out so far:
1. Hardware acceleration seems to be enabled:
[stefano@polus]$ glxinfo | grep -n5 "direct rendering"
1-name of display: :0
2-display: :0 screen: 0
3:direct rendering: Yes
4-server glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
5-server glx version string: 1.4
6-server glx extensions:
7- GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig,
8- GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_SGI_video_sync, GLX_SGI_swap_control,
2. glxgears reports very poor performance: about 60FPS. The software manufacterer says their product needs around 2000FPS to run smoothly
[stefano@polus]$ glxgears
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh. The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
301 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.157 FPS
299 frames in 5.0 seconds = 59.781 FPS
3. The software (i.e. Webots) is proprietary, and their linux version is built against libjpeg version 6.2. Archlinux currently runs libjpeg 8, so I had to manually install the older version.
4. The software runs satisfactorily on my Kubuntu laptop, an old Lenovo T61 which has similar (or similarly aged) hardware. In other words, the CPU seems to be adequate and the prolem lies with the graphic setup in my Archlinux system, I believe.
5. I read the nvidia pages on the Arch website, the nvidia-linux pages and the Xorg pages on how to set up xorg.conf. It did not help.
Some info on my system are appended below.
Any hint greatly appreciated.
Stefano
Hardware
CPU Version: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6550 @ 2.33GHz
Graphic card: nVidia GeForce 7300/Gt/Pci/SS2
RAM: 4 GB
Double monitor setup with Xinerama enabled
SW:
Archlinux 64 bits
Kernel: Linux 3.6.11-1-ARCH
Graphic driver: nvidia304xx

chris_l wrote:
stefano wrote:
2. glxgears reports very poor performance: about 60FPS. The software manufacterer says their product needs around 2000FPS to run smoothly
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh. The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
301 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.157 FPS
Why you get 60FPS? you have your answer there.
I noticed that and was wondering about it. I am not familiar with glxgear at all and I am not sure about the exact meaning of the statement about framerate. But one of the developers of the software I am trying to run sent me this glxgear output, obtained on a recent Ubuntu system running under VMWare (on a Windows host, I presume):
$ glxgears
11030 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2205.791 FPS
11492 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2298.289 FPS
What gives? Are they running a different version of glxgears or is there some hidden switch in glxgears that unties it from monitor refresh rate and makes it work as a benchmark tool (man glxgears did not report any)?

I have a new iMac and want to use my HP 7300 All in One and to use the "Fax"feature I need a phone port on computer and of course, this computer does not have one. Are there any aftermarket devices for USB to phone that would work in this case?

I have a new iMac and want to use my HP 7300 "All in One and cannot use the fax feature because there is no phone port is there a solution for this?BACellli

You don't need a phone port on the iMac. The HP 7300 DeskJet Pro has an internal modem, you connect the printer's modem connection directly to your phone line. Please re-read the install directions that came with the printer.

Trying to get my Lexmark 7300 printer to work on my iMac - how?

I have downloaded my Lexmark 7300 disk to my iMac and it recognizes the Lexmark printer, copier, fax. When I try to print an document or photo, or e-mail received from my iMac ISP connection (Cox.net), there is no response from the printer. Do I have to contact Lexmark to ask what setting to program in on the printer or is it an iMac omission because I did not download the Lexmark program correctly from the disk? How do I check this out on the iMac? I just purchased the iMac (24") and have the Apple Support which I will need to contact to capture my old G3 Adobe 7.0 programs that were transferred in a folder to my iMac but won't open.

Welcome to Apple Discussions ...
Check out this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1313583
Have you make certain that this printer is compatible with Leopard 10.5.x?
As for the G3 Adobe 7, I doubt that Leopard supports that version.
Can you drop the link here for the Lexmark 7300 disk you downloaded? Is it supported by Leopard?
Carolyn

OS 9.0.4 Won't install onto a 7300/180 apple says 7300 runs upto 9.1

I purchased a 7300/180/224MB Ram on Ebay. Installed on this machine is OS 8.6. It runs Great.
I want to hook up my HP Deskjet 3520 Printer, but the printer drivers won't run under anything less than 9.0.
I checked on the Apple Docs.com page to see if my 7300 would run 9.0, it said that I can run up to 9.1 on the PowerPc 604e.
I purchased (New) off of Ebay, OS 9.0.4, Marked for the iMac DV Model, I figured that since the Apple page said that I can run up to 9.1, then 9.0.4 would work. The OS CD ROM informs me that "This software won't work on this computer".
Can I get this to run, or did I waste my money on Software that won't run on my 7300?

Hi, Powrline99, and welcome to Apple Discussions. You wasted your money on a CD that is designed to install OS 9.0.4 on a particular iMac model. It is of no use to you. You need to buy a retail (not model-specific) installer CD. All such CDs are white with a big gold "9" on their labels, and the labels don't mention any Mac model at all. Any OS 9.x CD that mentions a particular Mac model on its label is the wrong disc for you.

Is it possible to boot a 7300 with a PCI USB card with OS 8.5 on a flash drive? Thanks

Just wondering if it's possible to run a PowerMac 7300/180 with the operating system installed on a flash drive which fits into a USB PCI card? The old hard drive finally went bad and was just wondering if there was any form of flash storage alternative to purchasing a new SCSI hard drive. I have an original OS 8.5 installation CD, would that install onto a flash drive if the computer is able to recognize it? Thanks!

Unfortunately, USB support in the older "PCI" Power Macs isn't firmware-based, so it won't be found in the 7300's ROM code. If available, it's through the addition of a USB PCI card and is driver-based. You can't boot from a device, if the drivers needed for recognition of the bus (on which that device is connected) are loaded after the boot sequence has been initiated. USB flash drives are very useful for extra data storage in those old Macs, but you really need to be running OS 8.6 and download/install the "USB Adapter Card Support 1.4.1" for recognition of the PCI card itself. If running OS 8.6, I've found that the optimal database of supported USB peripherals is contained in the USB Support files, that are included in the OS 9.1 Update. The files need to be extracted with "TomeViewer" and placed in the OS 8.6 Extensions Folder. Again, this will only help with the recognition of a USB device when the computer is up and running. It cannot make a connected USB flash drive capable of booting the computer.

Can I upgrade my HP ENVY dv7-7300 Quad graphic card?

I've heard that most laptops graphic cards now a days can't be upgraded, but I have an HP ENVY dv7-7300 Quad and I was wondering if it is possible to upgrade its graphic card to Nvidia GT 635m?
Thanks

Hi,
Basically you can, nothing can stop you, with a cost and I believe this cost may be more expensive than buying a new computer because you have to take into account:
New card price, and WHERE you can buy it because laptop cards are not the same as desktop cards. You can't buy from any normal shop,
Need new system board (may be),
Need new cooling system because generally speaking more powerfull card pumps out more heat (you want more powerfull card don't you?).
May need new PSU because your current PSU may not suitbale to the card. (I ordered a machine with Nvidia card and I needed to order a 90W charger at the same time, not the normal 65W charger. They simply rejected my order).
Labor cost.
Many, many packets of Asprin.
Hope this helps.
BH
**Click the KUDOS thumb up on the left to say 'Thanks'**
Make it easier for other people to find solutions by marking a Reply 'Accept as Solution' if it solves your problem.

Late 2006, 24" iMac, 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Screen Tearing, nVidia 7300

Late 2006, 24" iMac, 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Screen Tearing, nVidia GeForce 7300 GT
I've been suffering with screen tearing, strange screen artifacts, etc. followed by totally unresponsive freezing machine. This problem has been happening to varying degrees for about 9 months.
Initially, I was able to mitigate the problem with smcFanControl. Adjusting the fan speeds up helped keep the machine cool and prevent most of the problems. Recently, we had a spell of hot weather and the fans just couldn't keep up. If you're using smcFanControl, the only fan speed that will really make a difference is the CPU. The HDD and ODD fans are no where near where you need to be.
Also, I noticed the machine was LOADED with dust when I took it apart, including the heat sink fins for the graphics card. If you have time you may want to try a thorough cleaning with compressed air before replacing the card. You just need to get through step 11 below to access what needs to be cleaned.
Based on reading here and elsewhere, I decided to replace the graphics card. To give back to the community, I wanted to layout the procedure here.
Where to buy the card.
I had a tough time finding the right card. I did exhaustive web searches using every combination of Nvidia 7300 GT, etc. You really need to search by the Apple part number. The Apple part number for the 7300 is 661-4179, for the 7600 is 661-4180. I found it at We Love Macs and at dv warehouse. I paid $248 for the 7600 card. BE CAREFUL buying a "refurbished" card. At We Love Macs, "refurbished" means "pulled from a working machine." Could be a machine with as much mileage as yours and prone to the same failures as yours.
The card is an MXM style card (generally used in laptops), with a giant heat sink and heat pipe assembly. The card can be separated from the heat assembly. If I had time, I would have tried a generic, cheaper, MXM style card.
Dispelling some myths.
People here and elsewhere have said that no Intel iMac graphics card can be replaced, that they're wedded to the logic board. The one on this model can be replaced, I've done it. Also, some have said you can't put a 256MB, 7600 GT in a machine that originally had a 128MB, 7300 GT. Also, not true. That's what I did to my machine and it is working fine.
So here's the step-by-step on my take apart and replacement. This is just one user helping out others, PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK. This takes about 1 1/2 hours to take apart and 2 to put back together.
1) Install the iStat widget and monitor the temperatures for a few days and record the temperatures (to be able to verify that you've completed the repair correctly later)
2) Make a complete backup of any internal drives and make sure the backup will be bootable (use Carbon Copy Cloner)
3) Use static safeguards, like an anti-static wrist strap.
4) Get a pen a stack of paper envelopes to separate and label the pieces you remove.
5) You'll need a #2 Phillips and #6, 8, 10 Torx. Most of the screws at T-8. There are 8 T-8s holding in the LCD. They are about 1 1/4" down. You'll need a long, skinny T-8 to get to them.
6) Unplug the machine and place it on it's back on a large white sheet of paper.
7) Remove RAM door, #2 Phillips x 2.
8) Remove RAM.
9) Remove 4 T-8s along bottom.
10) Remove large rectangular plastic bezel surrounding the whole machine, tilt up being careful not to stress iSight cables. You'll need to stretch it around the RAM ejection tabs.
11) Detach two iSight cables.
12) Peel up black stickers at lower corners of speakers.
13) Remove LCD screws, T-8 x 8. You'll probably drop a few, they're pretty easy to retrieve.
14) Remove two retaining screws on right hand LCD cable. T-6 x2 Unplug cable.
15) Remove LCD inverter cable, left.
Start unplugging everything connected to the logic board.
16) Unplug cable coming from right speaker. Note cable routing, it is the only one that's a little tricky. Also, note that the left one plugs in on the right and the right one plugs in on the left.
17) Remove right speaker. T-10 Note: left and right speaker screws are different lengths.
18) Unplug ODD blower cable.
19) Unplug ODD temp cable and lift up tape.
20) Unplug HDD blower cable.
21) Unplug the HDD temp cable.
22) Unplug the camera & mic cable.
23) Unscrew the clamp securing the airport card (has two antenna cables going to it, labeled PCIE), T-6 x 2
24) Unplug SATA cable.
25) Unplug Power cable, thick black plastic harness, socket.
26) Unplug ambient temp cable.
27) Unscrew the bluetooth card, T-6 x2.
28) Unplug CPU blower cable.
29) Unplug power button cable, 2 conductor, tiny cable, bottom left.
30) Unscrew left speaker, T-10, unplug from logic board, but just leave dangling, no need to remove cable completely.
31) Remove logic board screws. Be careful to segregate them, they have different lengths and different thread pitches and thread types. Some are machine threads going into metal, some are coarse threads going into plastic.
31a) Heat sink frame to case T-8 x 2
31b) Logic board to case T-8 x 3
31c) Screws at heat sink from arrows T-8 x 3
31d) Logic board at bottom near RAM slot T-8 x 2
32) Unplug ODD ribbon cable, be extremely careful. Release plastic tabs on each side to remove. Be sure it is fully and evenly seated when you put it back later.
33) Remove logic board with attached graphics card.
34) Unplug graphics card heat sink sensor cable at logic board end.
35) Remove graphics card screws 2 x T-6
36) Remove single screw from small L-bracket on heat sink 1 x T-6
Replace graphics card.
Reverse steps, put everything back together. Be careful not to pinch any cables when you put the logic board back in. When you put the LCD back in, if you can't get the screws to stick to the driver, use some glue stick from your kid's art supplies.
Test everything. You've disconnected every cable in the system.
I torture tested the machine with a space heater on it, 5 different videos of different formats playing at the same time. No problems.
I took a lot of pictures inside the machine. As soon as I figure out a good place to post them, I'll try to add a link here.
Good luck

Greetings!
I know this is in response to your post from over 2 years ago, but I was searching on Apple's site for the max RAM I can upgrade our refurbed iMac too and it brought up this post.
Oddly enough, I've been experiencing the same screen issues and locking up on our iMac as well. I was concerned it was a bad memory module, but now I'm thinking it's the same issue you found.
Because I bought this some 2+ years ago refurbed from Apple, I'm not surprised that could be the actual problem.
I've pulled this thing apart once to replace the hard-drive which crashed about a year ago, so I'm not totally new at opening it up, but this process you mention sounds pretty intense...just wanted to get your second take on it based on what I've done thus far.
Thanks again for posting this...it was an eye-opener as to what might actually be causing our issues with our trusted Mac!
Joshua

Two Cards/3 Monitor Setup w/ Vista + Bootcamp, 7300 GT problems

Hello all, I have a Mac Pro 32-bit OS running with Intel Xeon 5150 2.6 x2, 5 GB RAM, and originally, it came with the XT1900 video card. NVidia 7300 GT won't install in Vista! I wanted to run 3 displays, so I read around that people were adding an extra 7300 GT to accomplish this. I've ordered and installed one, but when using Vista via Bootcamp, the card simply will not install. I've checked device manager, there is an error code (43) saying it failed to start. I tried uninstalling drivers, reinstalling, patching, getting everything updated latest from nVidia for Vista, but to no avail, I've hit a dead end here. Also, I tried unplugging the XT1900 and running with just 7300, still didn't work. The card is installed in slot #4, and the original XT1900 is still in the #1 slot.
Anyone know how to get the card installed under Vista (I have SP1 too)? Everything runs fine in OS X Leopard, but mainly, I use windows so I was more concerned about that. I've never had this many problems getting a piece of hardware to install, EVER.
Also, I ordered the MAC version upgrade card whenever I purchased the 7300 GT. All the software updates and flashes, I was downloading for "Vista" Was that a problem or the right choice? If all else fails I may just ditch the 7300 and get another Xt1900 to roll with two. Hopefully that setup won't bunk out. Any help appreciated!
Message was edited by: CALfire

Problem is Windows not liking to mix two brands, ATI and Nvidia.
Check out the ATI Radeon 3870 instead of another X1900.
http://www.barefeats.com has graphics benchmarks in OS X and Vista.
I used 7300GT and 8600GS together in Vista. The 8600 is only seen and useable in Vista but does not interfere in OS X (just black). eVGA seems to be most compatible PC card on Mac Pro.
You could run 7300GT and order the 8800GT from Apple, the one for just the pre-2008 Mac Pro, which would get along and work also and nice card in Windows but iffy in OS X and weak drivers.
http://www.barefeats.com/harper11.html Vista performance
http://www.barefeats.com/harper15.html legacy 8800GT
http://www.barefeats.com/harper17.html 3870 in Windows
http://www.barefeats.com/harper18.html 3870 in OS X
The 3870 you have to install the drivers, reboot once, let the drivers load into cache, and then switch over - for card to work properly in OS X.

GeForce 7300 GT on 1.8 Ghz Power Mac?

I've got a spare GeForce 7300 GT coming off a Mac Pro tower. I cannot seem to find in depth information whether this card will work on a Power Mac 1.8 Ghz Dual tower.
If not, does anybody know of a decent trade to which I can trade the GeForce card for a substitute that would work on the 1.8 Ghz Power Mac?
I'm just trying to upgrade the video card on the 1.8 Ghz as well as getting a second monitor hooked up to it.
Any help and or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. TIA

Steve Boultbee wrote:
Whatever you end up getting, either through purchase or trade, make sure you get an AGP card. While you could stick in a PCI graphics card, it will be significantly slower than your existing FX5200.
I was thinking the same thing. I thought about posting an ad in eBay for the 7300GT but I'm having a hard time deciding on what to start the bidding cost at and what to use for a "Buy It Now" option. I'm hoping to generate enough change so as to at least get a 128 mb video card replacement. Or maybe have to cough up $20 more for a 256 mb video card replacement which would be nicer. You know, my 256 mb for another 256 mb. I get the feeling that isn't going to happen without having to fork over a bit more cash.

Adding a GeForce 7300 GT to my Mac Pro

I currently run two displays, a 24" Dell and a 30" Apple but want to add a Cintiq 12WX tablet. Hence, I am adding a GeForce 7300 GT video card to my Mac Pro's 7300 existing card to gain an extra connection. (Because my primary usage is for editing images, surfing the web, reading e-mail, etc., a GeForce 7300 is good enough for me.)
The 7300 is a 16x card but I can't set two slots to 16x. It appears that to use one at 16x and another at 8x, I need to put the second card in slot 4. (The Expansion Slot Utility only gives four choices (1) 16 1x 1x 8x; (2) 16x 1x 4x 4x; (3) 8x 8x 1x 8x; or (4) 8x 8x 4x 4x.)
My questions are--I think--simple: What slot should I put the extra GeForce card in? How should I set the PCIe expansion slots in the Mac Pro?

You could just as well put it in a 1X or 4X slot as you are probably not looking to do anything on the wx12 that requires much bandwidth for the graphics.

7300 GT to ???

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for