Compatible graphics cards for the early 2008 Mac Pro 3,1?

I have an early 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 with the 2.66Ghz Quad core processor that is running Lion. I had an ATI Radeon Card in there that didn't last very long (I've read not great reviews about them recently) and now I need a replacement that will be compatible with my system and that will last me longer than my previous card did. The problem is I don't know what my options are. Can anyone reccomend me a viable replacement? I do video/audio production so something high end would be nice.
Thanks,
-RH

There are some good ideas, comments and tests just how much difference and in what applications.
The differences between 2.5GT and others are less than you might think.
There is no-compromise performance for some areas of CS6 and CUDA with ML and GTX 570 or above. The new EVGA GTX 660-Ti FTW w/ 3GB $330 looks to be very popular and that is the "mid-range" today, compared to $400-500 where GTX 680 sits or ATI 79xx series.
If you have to use 10.6.8 that is a bigger factor and some cards require 10.7.4 or later.
The 5x70 were average cards when they came out. There is no reason to have a system where early boot is totally dependent upon firmware and couldn't do basic video. Anyway some people are willing to swap out the 5770 and keep it just for debugging.
As to the original question: can't tell if you were interested in asking if a MacBook Pro Retina or something else... kind of hard to argue. A 12-core 3.33GHz with 48GB and 5 internal hard drives - it is hard not to do whateer you throw at it esp. if cost is not the primary concern but work is and it is suppose to pay for itself.

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I need an "Open CL compatible graphics card for an early 2008 Mac Pro with 1 gig of V-Ram", any recommendations? Thanks.

I need an "Open CL compatible graphics card for an early 2008 Mac Pro with 1 gig of V-Ram", any recommendations?
Thanks.

BlackList:
Final Cut Pro X, Motion 5, Compressor 4: Graphics card compatibility
WhiteList:
Final Cut Pro X, Motion 5, Compressor 4: Using OpenCL-enabled graphics cards
OpenCL graphics cards available now, for any Mac Pro model, for a reasonable cost:
Apple 5770 US$250 Avail: in stock
Apple 5870 US$450 Avail: 2-3 weeks

What is the best video card for an Early 2008 Mac Pro

I have an early mac pro with a solid state drive. I use Adobe CC 2014. The old video card is not working. I loaded Yosemite and have bad problems using Prem Pro CC.
Any suggestions on the most suitable video card?

We love it when people want us to guess what video card and other items you have .... price is no object of course right.... and you want CUDA? so that means a GTX this time instead of what you have (5770 upgrade? no, the original 2600XT that really should have been ditched long ago).
Yosemite also makes more demands on the GPU.
The GTX 680 Mac Edition EVGA would be the first, though people are using even newer graphic cards in the Nvidia line.
New Nvidia GTX 970 and 980 - cMP? ( 1 2 3 4 5 6)

Why are there so many problems with the early 2008 Mac Pro ???

Hi everybody out there using Mac Pro's early 2008,
I found out there is a lot of problems with the early 2008 Mac Pro.
My early 2008 Mac Pro has been repaired ones under warranty and now it stopped working again ! Also see under: Mac Pro early 2008 no chime and does not start up. Why is this ????
It worked well for about 2 years and then it just fails and i had this failing issue twice already !!! Is this just a BAD Apple product or how do you think I need to approach this. Let’s face it, these machine don’t come cheap and you at least expect them to work without problems for 4-5 years. What is happening here ???
Cheers, Kavango

go to a black screen after 15 minutes or a couple hours
That is probably an indication that you need to find a new graphics card.
RE: Mac Pro Replacement Graphics cards
1) Apple brand cards,
2) "sold in the Apple store" cards, and
3) "Mac Edition" cards ...
... show all the screens, including Boot up screens, Safe Mode, Installer, Recovery, debug screens, and Alt/Option boot screens. At this writing, these choices include:
1) Apple brand cards:
• Apple-firmware 5770, about US$250** works near full speed in every model Mac Pro, Drivers in 10.6.5
• Apple-firmware 5870, about US$450
2) "sold in the Apple store" cards
• NVIDIA Quadro 4000, about US$1200
• NVIDIA Quadro 5000, about US$2500
3) "Mac Edition" cards -- REQUIRE 10.8.3 or later:
• SAPPHIRE HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 MAC Edition, about US$480** Vendor recommends Mac Pro 4,1
• EVGA GTX 680 Mac Edition, about US$600
The cards above require no more than the provided two 6-pin aux power connectors provided in the Mac Pro through 2012 model. Aux cables may not be provided for third-party cards, but are readily available.
If you are Meet ALL of these:
• running 10.8.3 or later AND
• don't care about "no boot screens" etc AND
• can re-wire or otherwise "work out" the power cabling, THEN:
You can use many more cards, even most "PC-only cards"

Will OSX support Adaptec PCI Express scsi cards in an early 2008 Mac Pro?

I need to move my scsi interface scanner from a G4 machine and the old PCI Adaptec AHA 2930 CU card won't fit. I was using Snow Leopard on the G4 unit - it still supported the Adaptec card and all was good. My 23" Cinema display then bit the dust and I replaced it with with a 24" Cinema display with the mini display port connector. I purchased an adapter from Kanex to make it compatible, but the adapter was defective - so I returned it. Their reviews aren't very good - seem to have a lot of D.O.A. adapters - not sure I want to deal with the frustration, but it would be the least expensive option.
I do have, however, an early 2008 Mac Pro that I can use, provided that it supports the newer PCI Express scsi cards that Adaptec makes. I'm not sure which one to get yet, either. I'd rather not buy one and find out it won't work. I can make a partition on the boot drive for Snow Leopard in case scsi isn't supported in later versions of OSX. In case you're wondering, I did use a scsi to firewire adapter to run the scanner on my laptop for a while - but it stopped working and I can't locate any replacements (or the company - 2nd Wave Technologies - for that matter). I haven't tried locating a scsi to usb adapter, but from what I can see, they are getting pretty scarce. I'd replace the scanner, but it is fairly pricey and the newest model retails at the price of a small car - so that really isn't an option at this point.
Thanks in advance for any info.
Message was edited by: Jakob Richardt
Changed name of display adapter manufacturer.

Thanks for the response - I guess the question I should have asked is "Will OSX support scsi cards in an early 2008 Mac Pro and if so, which ones?" I didn't realize Apple and Adaptec weren't working together - my G4 tower arrived with an Adaptec card in it when I bought it in 2000 (from a third party vendor, not directly from Apple). It came with either OS 8.* or OS 9. When I updated to OSX, everything continued working, so I didn't think much about it until I pondered using the Mac Pro for the scanner - at some point the G4 is going to stop working - need to have a solution before that happens. The manuals I've been reading refer to the slots in the G4 machines as PCI. The manual for the Mac Pro refers to the slots as PCI e. These slots have fewer connectors, so I thought that the "Express" part of the name referred to this particular card configuration when compared to the longer card connectors in the G4 type of machines.
Can you tell me what scsi card brands will work in the Mac Pro? I'd still like to pursue this option. As I mentioned in my original post, buying a new scanner isn't in the cards right now - it costs more than the computer, so, although pricey, the card option is still less expensive.
Thanks!

What upgrade graphic card do i need for a early 2008 mac pro

I have a early 2008 Mac Pro. ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256 MB is what i have now. What is a good upgrade graphic card to get.

The GTX 780 6GB runs fine on the dual PCIe internal power cables -- as does the GTX 680 and Radeon HD 7950. The same can't be said of the GTX TITAN or GTX 780 Ti or Radeon R9 280X -- all of which require an auxiliary power feed to avoid a nasty power down of your tower at the worst moment when too much wattage is demanded of the Mac Pro's factory power supply.
Did I mention that the GTX 780 with 6GB of GDDR5 matches the 6GB of GDDR5 in the TITAN?
The one fallacy to my 'sweet spot' award has to do with OpenCL. In case you hadn't noticed, the AMD Radeon GPUs smoked the NVIDIA GeForce GPUs running Photoshop's OpenCL accelerated Iris Blur filter and rendering LuxMark's OpenCL accelerated Room scene.
- http://www.barefeats.com
So depends on budget, whether you want a PC card for less but no "early EFI boot screen" prior to drivers loading, and what apps and needs you have.
The one thing for sure is that 2600XT should have been retired ages ago and even more so with 10.8.3 and above, it could be trouble or just... PITA/POS.

Need help with graphics card options for an early 2008 mac pro

Hello,
   I have an early 2008 mac pro with 2 x 3.2 GHz quad core Intel Xeon and 6Gigs of ram, currently running with an Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT with 512mb.
    It is also running 10.7.2.
   I would like to either add a video card on top of the one I am currently running or replace it completely if necessary.
   I do video editing on the Mac, no gaming and only a small amount of photoshop, and as the resolutions get larger I would like to have my machine keep up.
   My questions are,
     1. What cards would you the community suggest?
     2. Can I add a whole other card to my system or do I have to replace the current one?
     3. If I can hold two cards what special accomidations would be needed in regards to final cut performance if any?
    Thank you for any help you would like to give.
Rob

The two main cards for mac pros are the apple versions of the ATI Radeon 5770 and 5870.
The 5770 requires one aux power adaptor and the 5870 requires two. So generally you could only have one 5780 or two 5770's.
Video cards which don't require aux power should be able to coexist with these cards so log as it's all within the power supply maximums of course.

Where and what type of solid state drive should I buy for my early 2008 Mac Pro Desktop??

where can I buy and what type of solid state drive should I use to upgrade my early 2008 Mac Pro Desktop??

Rick,
When you get a chance.... DSLReports is off line: their SQL server decided to take its indexes and access to data. Power. Not enough of the right kind of UPS. Same happened to StorageReview's "Drive Reliability Database" about 8-9 yrs ago.
dslreports.com is offline
Fri Apr 20 09:05:55 EDT 2012
SSD: Loading CS5 plus other little monsters might matter.
Lots of small I/Os
latency of 1/100th where nanoseconds replace those "long" milliseconds
System: Small and fast.
DLLoyd even goes for short-stroking drives to get and maintain highest I/O
The new 10k VRs hit 200MB/sec - I still use them and still find them useful, long lasting, feel responsive with whatever I ask of them. I know they get criticized and "cost too much"
Just bought a new WD Black and yes it is better than the 2008 model I was using.
600GB 10K $200 vs $150-220 for WD Black. your choice
I can destroy a 7.2k drive, I have brought ever 10K drive back after a simple WD Extended Test in Lifeguard.
I don't really care about $$/GB or I wouldn't have just bought Intel 128GB $149
Database: the pros put the index in memory and page fix (virtual volumes in memory; cache; hold disk drive index in memory). Caching storage has been around for almost 40 yrs.
Today you can use SSDs as front end cache to hold DB indexes and frequent data for web servers and such adn use slower secondary storage.
SSD + SAS + 4TB storage
Separating the system from data: #1 must
Having data on array: been what I use
I put a large photo library on 2 x 10K VRs vs SSD and couldn't tell much difference (SSD is soundless of course) But my WD Blacks make as much noise and run 15*C hotter than those 10K (not what you expect?)
While 10K and 7.2K are in the 140-180MB/sec range, they are in 3.0 to 12.0 ms seeks, not 0.01 ms.
People wonnder why shrink a drive to 2.5" (or why not go down to 1.8".
How long does it take to reposition a disk head? how often? the 10K VR travels on outer tracks at 70 MPH. Really trying to fly off into space.
It uses one step to find the "zip code" and then another DSP to find the "house."
True of any high density perpendicular recording mechanism.
And of course while the Raptor-X tried to find a home with famers, Cheetah buyers, the WD 10K line has more of a home where servers and small form factor drives - and 100s of them - can fit in a rackmount server I imagine.
Anyway.... if SR and DSLReports can drop out of site due to power and hardware failure and loss... we can learn some and hope to protect our own data and investments.

What is the best Video Card I can get for an Early 2008 Mac Pro?

What is the best Video Card I can get for an Early 2009 Mac Pro3,1?

A 3,1 is "Early 2008" with DDR2 FBDIMMs, Intel 54xx Harpertown, and not 2009 Nehalem with DDR3.
http://www.barefeats.com bench tests. A 3,1 does not improve as much due to its old PCIe 2.0 implementation for one thing.
"Best" is hugely subjective. For what? cost versus performance and whether you need CUDA support or AMD - dual AMD's for FCP-X for instance.
I think GTX 970 right now is close to "best".
And of course shop here:
http://www.macvidcards.com

What happened to the 8800 GT upgrade cards for the first-gen Mac Pro?

I have a first-gen Mac Pro (System Profiler says model identifier is "MacPro2,1" which I think still makes it a first-gen model), and I was considering upgrading to the 8800 GT so I could take advantage of OpenCL, since the 7300 GT I have is not supported, according to Apple's page. ( http://www.apple.com/macosx/specs.html )
However, I can't seem to find the card anywhere on Apple's store site, or anywhere else, for that matter. Does anyone know what happened? Can I still buy the 8800 GT for my Mac Pro? If not, what OpenCL-compatible card can I upgrade to? Apple only seems to have the ATI X1900 XT in their store.
Thanks in advance for any advice!

{quote:title=Malcolm Rayfield wrote:}
ATI Radeon HD 4870 (Despite what Apple says, it works in any Mac Pro.)
<http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB999ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA5OQ&mco=NDE4NDMxOA>
Have you done it, or know someone that has put it in a 1st gen Mac Pro?
I'm just double checking so I don't waste my time.
Message was edited by: JeffDM2

Where can I find a wireless card for my early 2009 Mac Pro (MB871LL/A, MacPro4,1)?

Where on on earth can I purchase a wireless card for my Mac Pro?
Apple is of no help. Their "Geniuses" told me that it is impossible for them sell one to me because Apple will not supply wireless cards or memory for previous generation computers. That is totally absurd. If I want to get a wireless card for my 2 year young computer I can't? I have to buy a brand new computer with one previously installed. Ridiculous!
Any help or suggestions would be of great value to me.

Well I found what I think is the correct card on B&H.
Hopefully it works....
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/682954-REG/Apple_MB988Z_A_AirPort_Extreme_ Card_for.html

What is the right HD drive for the new (2008) mac pro

what's exactly the difference between Sata I, Sata II, sata 150, sata 300, sata 3gb ???
what drive's should i use in the new mac pro ? any advice / clearification would be great !

Thats a very good drive, I've been using them in Sony Vaios and laptops for years in various forms and they are blazing fast, never had one problem with them.
I think they have software on the website which lets you config the drive for acoustically quieter operation or 'full bore' speed. Been awhile since I've bought one so maybe thats not available anymore.

Early 2008 Mac Pro and the 5870

Several sources has stated that this card will work in the Early 2008 Mac Pro, but I am having issues. The card tests as bad and on restart the card is not seen as being installed. I can Screen Share and verify through System Profiler that the card is not seen by the system. Is anyone else having this issue, or is it just my luck?

and this is an Apple version card, right? not a PC.
What other video card did you have etc?
Apple ATI 5770 and 5870 work with 10.6.4+ in all Mac pro models.
ATI Radeon HD 5870 Upgrade
Radeon 5870 vs 5770 GTX 285 4870

Early 2008 Mac Pro + Mini Displayport?

Is there a way to upgrade the video card in an early 2008 Mac Pro to support Mini Displayport? I'd like to get the LED Display but I'd like to avoid using a DVI to Mini DisplayPort adapter in favor of simply getting a new video card.
I noticed the new 2009 Mac Pro's have NVIDIA cards that support Mini DisplayPort; will these work in an early 2008 Mac Pro? Is there any option for this?

by 2nd generation mac pro, do you mean the pre - early09 version?
if so, how certain are you that this card will work on it? apple site states only early09 compatibility with no mention of prior generations. pls clarify, as i'm looking into buying a displayport card and have a mac pro of a generation right before the early 09.
i also found this alternative:
http://pcworld.about.com/od/desktops/Mini-DisplayPort-Faster-Graph.htm

Are there two versions of early 2008 Mac Pro ?

Hello.
I recently got a new fans set for my early 2008 Mac Pro apple part 922-8497.
When I wanted to replace the front double fan thing I learned that my case uses screws to fit the fans element.
The fans element I got was without screws and doesn't fit.
Even though it is called "early 2008 Mac Pro front fans"
What was I doing wrong ?

Following fan is the same fan as you got?
http://www.gomacpro.com/mac-pro-front-fan-w-pci-card-guide-922-8497/
They say the fan is for Mac Pro Late 2006 and Mac Pro Early 2008.

Compatible graphics cards for the early 2008 Mac Pro 3,1?

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