MacPro Graphics Card Options

Do any of the graphics card up-grades available for the MacPro justify the expense? Does FCE utilize the GPU or only the CPU?

If you're running multiple monitors a graphics upgrade will help quite a bit for those effects. Otherwise maybe not so much. It depends entirely on what you're doing and how much you're using those effects and what else you're doing with your video.

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Mac Pro Graphics Card Options

So... I am about to purchase a Mac Pro and have a few questions regarding the graphics card options.
I plan on using two 19" flat screens that I already have for my monitors. Obviously this can be accomplished without a card upgrade, but I would prefer to have as much video RAM as possible. If I went with a second GeForce 7300, in addition to the stock card, and output only one monitor from each card, would that in effect enable 256 mb of RAM per display? As upgrading to the X 1900, which has 512 mb of RAM, would be the same amout of RAM per display (512mb/2 displays).... I realize that the cards have different chips, engines, etc... I'm just trying to get the most bang for my buck and am wondering if that extra hundred dollars is really worth it. Much thanks, cheers!

I have a NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 on my MacPro with two ACD 30" connected to it. No glitch, works perfect. But I would say that the X1900 is the best value to get when you'll perchase your MacPro. You don't say enough details about the usage you want from your computer (i.e. 3d or just e-mails...). But if it's just for internet browsing and e-mails, a NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT is more than enough to handle your two 19". If you think one day you'll have two 30" on you video card, go for the ATI card. If you do video rendering that needs VRAM or play 3D games, take the ATI card. If you have a lot of money to blow or just a geek take the FX4500. Anything else, just stick to the 7300 GT, it's more than enough for average users, less heat, quiet, and less electric consuption than the two others.
Cheers,
Hai Au

No Graphics Card option with new MBP 17"

I have a new MBP 17" laptop, and I can not change my graphic card options. I've looked at the support document (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3207) about changing the settings, but my problem is that the Energy Saver system pane does not give me the Graphics option in the top left of the window as shown in the support document. I've tried disconnecting the power supply to see if that would bring up the option, but to no avail.
Anybody else experience this or have any suggestions? I can't even tell which video processor the machine is currently using.

Take the computer to an Apple retailer or back to where you purchased it and have the problem fixed. The computer is under warranty. Otherwise the only thing you can try is to erase the hard drive and reinstall OS X or do the following if possible:
How to Perform an Archive and Install
An Archive and Install will NOT erase your hard drive, but you must have sufficient free space for a second OS X installation which could be from 3-9 GBs depending upon the version of OS X and selected installation options. The free space requirement is over and above normal free space requirements which should be at least 6-10 GBs. Read all the linked references carefully before proceeding.
1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then quit DU and return to the installer.
2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update.

Graphics Card Options on iMac 20 and 24 inch

I hate thelack of consumer graphics cards options for the iMac. I was going to buy the 20" iMac and upgrade the memory to 256MB when I decided to check out the 24".
On the Canadian site, to upgrade the 20" X1600 card to 256MB is $150. On the 24", to go from the Geforce 7300 128MB to the Geforce 7600 256MB is only $90. Ram 'AND' better(slightly?) graphics card upgrade.
Can someone explain as I asked an Apple retailer and they couldn't.
I went into CompuSmart afterwards and they actually had a X1600 card but it had 512MB on it. (For $150, I'd think I'd get an upgrade to 512, not 256).
I guess us consumers don't need more powerful graphics cards.
iMac Core2Duo Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Let me see if I can explain this to you.
The grahics card in the iMac 20" is an ATI Radeon X1600. It comes standard with 128 MB of VRAM. You can upgrade the VRAM to 256 MB for $75 on the U.S. store. That's $150 on the Canadian store.
The standard graphics card in the 24" iMac is an NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT with 128 MB of VRAM. The upgrade option here is not just adding more VRAM, but putting a whole new card in the iMac. The 256 MB VRAM option for the iMac 24" is a NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT with 256 MB VRAM. That upgrade is $125 on the U.S. store. That's $90 on the Canadian store.
The only way I can think that this is possible is because, in Canada, ATI's cards might be more expensive than NVIDIA's cards.
There is no option on any iMac to get any graphics card with 512 MB of VRAM in it.
Hope this Helps

MacPro 2,1 "8 Core" Graphics Card Options

I have the MacPro listed below with the ATI Radeon 1900. I'm on my second ATI Radeon 1900 and now this one is starting to have heat problems. If I keep the door open with a fan on, I'm fine. I'm sick of these 1900s. What other after market graphics cards can I put in this puppy. I don't seem to be able to find this information on my own.
Thank You!
Hardware Overview:
Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro2,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 8
L2 Cache (per processor): 8 MB
Memory: 6 GB
Bus Speed: 1.33 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MP21.007F.B06
SMC Version (system): 1.15f3
Serial Number (system): 157140G6UPZ
Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-0019E3668B1A
ATI Radeon X1900 XT:
Chipset Model: ATY,RadeonX1900
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x7249
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-A52027-202
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.202
Displays:
Cinema HD:
Resolution: 1920 x 1200
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Rotation: Supported
Cinema Display:
Resolution: 1680 x 1050
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Rotation: Supported

I also have the 2,1 Mac Pro and have used a number of Apple and reflashed GPU's and am still looking at others as well.
Here's my way oversimplified take:
1900X - Apple - Stable but a bit lost in Windows Ultimate 32.
8800GT - Apple - Stable, hot and slow by today's standards
8800GTS - Reflashed - Stable, hot and medium fast - Good option for the money
3870 - Reflashed - Stable and medium fast, but hot and noisy
4870 - Reflashed - Stable unless pushed to limits, fast, but hot
4890 OC - Reflashed - Stable and very fast - Not so hot as others - Reasonably quiet.
I'm now looking into a 285GTX which will need a "helper" GPU next to it due to the EFI32 issue. Interested in verifying this possibility and its heat consequences...
A couple of solid reputation reflashers out there are:
http://discussions.apple.com/post!reply.jspa?messageID=10669026
http://shop.ebay.com/paulslatest/m.html?nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&trksid=p4340
But there are more.
FYI
tyvol

Most appropriate graphics card option

Hi everyone.
I have an early MacPro (v1.1). I opted for the ATI X1900XT card upgrade when I purchased it. Like most other people on this forum, I encountered annoy issues such as lines appearing on screen, 'sparkly artifacts' and constant freezing. Even after cleaning out the dust from the graphics card's heatsinks and fans the problem persisted. So I then decided to install a thrid-party cooler system for the card. This changed nothing - I think the card has baked. Upgrading to snow leopard has seen some reduction in freezing but thats probably cause I'm running SMC fan controller at full blast, with the door open (not too crazy on that btw).
Enough is enough. I'm upgrading. However I'm a wee bit confused.
Yes I know that some "unsupported" cards such as the ATI HD4870 work with my mac.
Should I play it safe and go with an old GeForce 8800? or the HD3870? or the HD4870? or.. shudder purchase another X1900XT (that would have to be last resort, the price is outlandish for such an old card).
I will need to run two monitors for a bit (unfortunately both are VGA, via DVI adapters). One poster on another forum warned against the HD4870 for that reason. That sounds remarkable that the adapters wouldn't be compatible.
I'm using this machine primarily for editing. Gaming is of no interest here. Unfortunately, my knowledge of graphics card's inner workings are limited.
Many Thanks,
Dave.

I also understand that my MP would be PCIe v1.0 where as these cards use v2.0 - this is backwards compatible (please, correct me if I'm wrong) and in the worst case, I might not get the full bandwidth of the card. Still, a working, decent card is enough to satisfy me.
Price has become a factor - its looking more like I'll wind up getting the slightly older HD3870. That goes for AUD$475. These "mac tax" prices are ridiculous! Or the other option is go get a HD4870 via eBay, or OWC (which with shipping is still cheaper then any store in Australia).
8800GT is still available at one online store in Australia, for the ripe price of $500. Considering the price of it, I'd rather not invest in an older card.
I guess what I'm asking is people's experience and opinion on the HD3870 vs the HD4870.
And a clarification - the whole VGA thing; my monitors are LCDs, they just run through a VGA interface. The "analogue" support issues seem to be CRT related (again, please correct me if I'm wrong).

What is the best Graphic Card Option for me?

I have a first generation Quad Core Mac Pro with a Radeon X1900XT with dual DVI Connections for my two older Apple 24" LCD Displays. I want the best card to run Adobe CS5 and support dual DVI for my 2 monitors. I was told maybe the ATI 4870 or 5770. What would be the best card for CS5 and Final Cut Studio?

300 dollars.. 250 for the backplane board(661-5706), and for the single processor tray(661-5707) - your price may vary.. I got mine for 50 dollars.
so, for 300 dollars.. you can make your 2009 mac pro into a 2010.. and yes, you can use the same existing processors.. the good news is that 1333 mhz memory works with the following processors in the new board: W3570, W3580(High end 3.33 2009 mac pro quad which was 1400.00 extra as a configure to order on apple's store from a 2.66 quad-core at 2499.99), and finally the W3680.
I am running still my w3580 with now 8GB of DDR3 1333 mhz memory.. it was 1066, but i got 1333 for a great price..
If you want to know more information about this, please send me a private email.
I can help you if you want..
Please note: if you have the 4870 HD Apple version, and not pc flashed, the sensor reading is too high for the 2010's firmware... you will need the GT120 or the 5770 graphics card.. 5870 is not going to be available for sometime and there is rumor from AMD themselves stating the card might be EOL..

HP Pavilion 500-424 Graphics cards options

I recently bought a HP Pavilion 500-424 and was interested in upgrading the graphics card for gaming purposes and wanted to know which graphics cards are compatible before I purchase a graphics card that doesnt fit or is not able to be used with my computer.

Hi,
No, nothing is compatible because
(a) No video card, it is AMD graphics (combined with the processor),
(b) Processor socket: None (processor is soldered to the motherboard)
http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04453602
That means if you wish to upgrade video "card" you have to upgrade CPU and if you wish to upgrade CPU you have to upgrade motherboard ===> buy a new machine.
Regards.
BH
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Make it easier for other people to find solutions by marking a Reply 'Accept as Solution' if it solves your problem.

MacPro Graphics card NVidia. 7300GT

Somewhere I saw a reference to Firmware updates for Graphics Cards. Where do I find these please?
Thanks

Roy Bradshaw wrote:
Somewhere I saw a reference to Firmware updates for Graphics Cards. Where do I find these please?
Thanks
Firmware upgrades are often treated differently from software upgrades. What you're looking for is here http://support.apple.com/kb/DL285. I suspect that if it's somehow already been installed, it won't install again.

Best MacPro Graphics card upgrade

I want to upgrade the graphics card of my MacPro1,1 for better performane when editing video. Can somone recommend the best card?

ATI/AMD 5770 works very well in my 2006 MP 2.66. Got it from Apple.
Michael

Graphics card options for MacPro

I was just curious if anyone knows if Apple will provide any other option for the video cards in the MacPro (i.e. ATI Radeon cards)?
Most of the Autodesk products (3DSMax and Revit) require an ATI FireGL Pro card ...yes I run evil Win7 via Bootcamp (works great if you have to be in the evil Win environment!).
I am just considering buying the MacPro (vs. an ugly PC box of some kind) and was wondering if anyone has substituted the Radeon cards for another?
I've been using my MBPro17 for 2 years now (Bootcamp, Win7, Revit, etc) and it has worked like a champ (something I cannot say for the PC laptops in the office), so this has led to the desire to get another Mac instead of a PC to work in the Windows environment.
Thanks

I understand why people run Windows through a virtualized environment, or even in Boot Camp... But it seems silly to purchase a Mac and then use it almost exclusively in Windows. Granted the build quality of most consumer PCs is quite less than that of a Mac -- but there do exist well-built PCs, as well. If you're a serious-enough user to need a FireGL card and a Windows environment, I would think a PC workstation would better suite you.

Graphics card options for 3x 2560x1440 displays

Point of cosideration:
Currenty have a 5770
Currenty have 3x 27" displays (WQHD). They have DP and DL/DVI so no adapters are needed even on a single card array
Display seems slightly laggy under certain conditions since upgrading my monitors
Would like to improve gaming performance in mac and bootcamp
Considering 5870, 2nd 5770, or 6870 (open to suggestions)
I don't want to run custom drivers or flash a card. My system is used primarily for development so as close to Apple approved spec is best for debugging. However since I hear Lion/ML added support for certain PC cards (6870 specifically) I'm considering that for the cost/performance gains since it shouldn't break with OS updates, etc.
Not interested in discontinued models, used, ebay, etc. as a means for a secondary display card.
Cost is a factor but not the only one. If the 5870 is a better peformance option all around than a 2gb 6870 then it's price is justified since it's also a standard Apple config.
Would 2x5770 be better for day to day work (photoshop, etc.) than a 5870 due to the extra VRAM? How would this compare to a 6870 2gb? Or is the desktop environment going to see a better performance gain from the 5870 since it's the most powerful GPU (though only 1gb of ram). Are there Nvidia options I'm overlooking (again, no flashing, compatible with standard OS install, no custom drivers required, CUDA driver addon acceptable since it's not required for the base system config).

Focusing just on the stock options of dual 5770 or single 5870:
5870 is obviously higher performance for a single screen, and works fine in OS X and Bootcamp, however with 3 screens would I be overall better off with dual 5770's? run the 2 side screens on one card, and the main screen on another providing more vram for each screen. In theory I could crossfire the 5770's for bootcamp (os x doesn't use crossfire, but my understanding is it just ignores it if you install a bridge...) which is similar (a little lower) than a 5870 in performance... if I'm right in these assumptions then dual 5770 seems to give the following advantages
Improved OS X system performance since each screen has more vram to work with
Improved OS X gaming again because the main screen has it's own vram
Improved Bootcamp gaming due to crossfire (single screen in windows)
Cheaper
Still standard apple config
Disadvantages
Much lower single screen performance vs 5870 in mac OS
Lower single screen performance vs 5870 in bootcamp (not as much lower due to crossfire though)
Still not as good a price/performance ratio vs. breaking from a stock config
What about newer ATI cards? Can't find anything confirming or denying that the 7xxx series is supported in Mountain Lion... if it is supported presumably it would be more stable than Nvidia since it would be using the same base drivers as the standard ATI cards which apple supports...

MacPro graphics card fan sounds like a buzz saw.

.MacPro3,1 stock ATI Radeon HD 2600. Constant and loud. For a couple of months would get this sound for a short period, usually when booting up, but it never persisted. Now suddenly it is constant, though once in a great while drops in level and chugs, sounding like it's laboring. Generally a steady whine. Computer functions fine (HD video editing) and has through heavy use for years. Have card in slot 1. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks

If I were in your situation, I would simply replace the card. It's just old.
Apple Radeon 5770 is the best upgrade option if you are running Snow Leopard. It's a much better GPU and 100% compatable.
If you must keep the 2600, then try cleaning the dust off of it.

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.

Do I need upgraded graphics card for photography with 24" iMac ?

I'm very close to ordering a new 24" iMac. I'm a photographer, shoot RAW & process in Adobe Lightroom beta, and can't seem to find out if I would benefit from the upgraded video / graphics card option. If this just for gaming and video or would I see some benefit from having it for my photo applications? I'm also debating on the value of ordering the higher speed processor for the iMac. I know RAM is the most important thing but not sure if I'm wasting $$$ on the graphics card and speed upgrades. Hope one of the experts here can help me make the right decision. I'm currently using a 20" G5 iMac with 1.5 gigs of RAM with decent success.

Here is my personall philosophy on purchasing computers. Buy the best you can with in your budget. If your budget allows the cpu upgrade and the video card upgrade get it. Once you order, you won't be able to upgrade again and who knows what the future holds. It will also help to future proof your computer. If you only buy once every 3 or 4 years then getting the better cpu and graphics card will help tide you over near the end. Also, your computing habits my change in the future. You might decide you like doing video and then the 9600 gt card will indeed help. I just don't like limiting my future use by my buying decisions today.
Glor

MacPro Graphics Card Options

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