NVIDIA 7300 vs ATI HD 2600 (on iMac)

Trying to compare the current top-end iMac to the current bottom-end Mac Pro. It's quite tricky! My particular area of interest is editing High Def videos in FCE. Also running Parallels with Windows XP.
I'm curious to know how the iMac's ATI Radeon HD 2600 compares to the NVIDIA 7300 GT. I know that the ATI 1900 is supposed to run rings around the NVIDIA, but what about the HD 2600?
Also, how can one compare the 2.8GHz Core2 extreme to a pair of 2.66 "Woodcrests"?
I really like the expandability of the Mac Pro (the first thing I'd do is sling a couple of 1TB disks in).
Of course I'm also watching what upgrades come out this quarter, but money IS an issue, and I'm hoping that we'll see a lot of cheap current generation Mac Pro's around that I could buy with 24" screen for a similar amount of money as a comparable iMac.

The 8800GT is known to be a killer performer, only being around 10% slower than their fastest card, the 8800 Ultra.
It is also, roughly, 2X faster than the X1900 XT. I can;t wait for Apple to sell the upgrade.
The rest of the Mac Pro's - comparing the 3.0 GHz Harpertown vs my current 3.0 Clovertown shows almost no difference - 10% or so. I am surprised with all the extra memory bandwidth and the greater cache and the faster dividers and all that the speed difference is so low.
The 2.8 Harpertowns are essentially as fast as the 3.0 Clovertown's, perhaps even faster. Faster still with the 8800GT card, yet almost $1,000 cheaper than the 3.0 system was yesterday - and with BT and an extra GB of RAM to boot.
I'd say that's a great move by Apple.

Similar Messages

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

ATI HD 2600 PRO WINDOWS 7 64 BIT BOOTCAMP DRIVER ERROR

as with the windows xp bootcamp insatllation my grahics card the ATI RADEON PRO HD 2600 shows up under device manager as the Ati MOBILITY 2600 XT, this is NOT correct and wasnt correct when i had windows xp installed via bootcamp but the online trick/fix worked by installing the newer updated drivers for the ATI RADEON HD 2600 PRO by manually pointing the installer to the newly download drivers for xp and once that was done my card read correctly under the device manegr in xp and my performance was quadrupled !!!! however since i have now installed Windows 7 64 bit,the same problem appears agin but when i download the correct 64 bit windows 7 drivers form the ati site and even the dedicated bootcamp windows 7 64 bit drivers nad attempt to point the installer to them the error appears "This driver does not appear to work with this version of windows" so basically the old xp bootcamp fix doesnt work with windows 7 64 bit with bootcamp running. There has got to be an easy workaround or fix for this! Tons of windows 7 64 bit bootcamp users are experienceing this install error and without the driver being installed and updating the card to what it truly is and NOT THE MOBILITY VERSION THAT IS BEING DETECTED, we can all run games like before in xp with way better performace. until then we are all screwed and are forced to run the updated drivers for the mobility XT card. PLEASE PLEASE HELP US IF YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I AM SAYING. look around on the apple bootcamp forums and you will see a bunch of people complaining about the same thing with no solution for over 2 years. i have sent an email to AMD formerly ATI requesting assistance but i am sur ethey will just blow me off. this is a very easy problem that could be fixed by a tech savy person. WHoever can fix this problem at least for me personally,i will gladly sned you at least $100 via paypal for your hard work and time. without this being fixed i have no choice but to buy anothermac with a better graphics card since the imac i have is not upgradeable beyond RAM. Like i said this was the same problem with windows xp in bootcamp before i installed lion. the fix worked. i dont want to hear that the card is NOT a true hd 2600 PRO whn i know it is and have succesfully used the driver hack before with awesome results. it is NOT a mobility card whatsoever. it is an ATI RADEON 2600 HD with 256 megs of VRAM,not the best but still ok to run even the latest pc games with bootcamp. Please please help me! Thank you very much in adfvance for reading this!

Below is what I had to do to work around this issue - I've been running with the modified graphics drivers for over a week now, including running some games under Windows 7. Apologies if this is too basic, but I figured I would write it out step-by-step for anyone who needed the background, rationale, plus instructions:
Procedure to manually update iMac Radeon HD 2600 PRO video card under Windows 7 (64 bit).
Rationale:
> Boot Camp drivers incorrectly identify the video card my 24" iMac (24-inch Mid 2007 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo - the graphics card is shown as a "ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 XT") - this has been a long-standing problem when using my iMac under Boot Camp. You can find procedures online about how to update the drivers manually by obtaining them from AMD then installing them.
Background:
> When I was previously running Windows XP, I was able to perform the graphics driver update per the online instructions, without any problems.
> When I updated to Windows 7, 64-bit (because I updated my Mac OS to 10.7 [Lion] and Windows XP was no longer supported in Boot Camp), I could no longer update the graphic card drivers to the Win7 64-bit version (it was giving an error that the driver was not supported) using the same procedure.
> The solution I finally came upon was to modify the INF file that comes with the drivers from AMD. I take no credit for this, except for the fact that I adapted a procedure I found for doing this for graphics cards in notebooks. The original place I found this is here <http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/370695-guide-upda ting-your-ati-drivers-manually.html>.
NOTE & DISCLAIMER: This is the first time I have done something like this, so I don't claim to fully understand every step that is going on here, nor if every step is needed. I based this on the procedure referenced in link immediately above and it seems to be working for me (that is, my graphics card driver was ultimately updated for Win7, 64-bit just like had been previously under WinXP) - YMMV.
>> This procedure was done with the AMD Radeon™ Desktop Video Card Drivers for "64 bit Windows Vista/Windows 7 "; Version 11.7, posted 2011-07-27 (main page: http://support.amd.com/US/Pages/AMDSupportHub.aspx)
1. Driver only was downloaded from AMD.
2. Downloaded file was installed to default location: C:\ATI
3. Gather info about the graphics card:
3a. Open the Device Manager (Start>Computer [right-click]>Properties)
3b. Expand the "Display Adapters" item to reveal the GPU (mine was listed as "ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 XT", same as it was under XP)
3c. Right-click on the GPU and select "Properties"
3d. Click the "Details" tab in the Properties window.
3e. Click the drop-down under "Property" (top item should say "Device description) - find the item in the list that says "Hardware Ids"
>> There were four values for my card, shown below:
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9583&SUBSYS_0083106B&REV_00
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9583&SUBSYS_0083106B
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9583&CC_030000
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9583&CC_0300
3f. Right click on the first value and select "Copy" - paste it into a separate document. I actually copied all these items and pasted them into a separate text document, but only ended up using the first one.
3g. Go back and click the drop-down under "Property" - find the item in the list that says "Inf section" (it was far down the list).
3h. Copy the value shown there and paste into a separate document; my value read: ati2mtag_M76
4. Modify the INF file from AMD:
4a. First thing I did was make a backup copy of the directory containing the files that were installed in step 2 (located at C:\ATI) - my directory was called "11-7_vista64_win7_64_dd".
4b. Go into this path: C:\ATI\Support\11-7_vista64_win7_64_dd\Packages\Drivers\Display\W76A_INF
4c. Find the INF files (icon is a document with a gear on it), that start with "C7..." and "CH..." (mine were called "C7122569" & "CH122569").
4d. Open the "C7..." file (it opens in Notepad). Go down to the section called "[ATI.Mfg.NTamd64.6.1]".
4e. Do a "Find" command for "ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO" (if you search for a shorter phrase, be aware there are other "2600 PRO" cards in the list).
>> The exact line I found was <"ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO" = ati2mtag_RV630, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9589>
4f. Replace that line with the Inf section value and the first Hardware ID value, using the same format as the orginal line.
>> The new entry I made read:
"ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO" = ati2mtag_M76, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9583&SUBSYS_0083106B&REV_00
4g. Close the file, saving your changes.
4h. Repeat steps 4d - 4g, using the "CH..." file.
5. Updating the graphics driver using the modified INF files:
5a. Go back to the Device Manager and expand the "Display Adapters" item again to show the "ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 XT" GPU
5b. Right-click on the GPU and select "Update Driver Software..."
5c. In the resulting window, choose "Browse my computer for driver software".
5d. I navigated to the "C7..." file along the following path: <C:\ATI\Support\11-7_vista64_win7_64_dd\Packages\Drivers\Display\W76A_INF>
5e. At this point, I was shown a window that showed "ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO" twice (that's all that was in the list). I selected the first instance and it moved on.
5f. I got a warning that the driver was unsigned, obviously I allowed it to move forward with the installation.
5g. The updating proceeded and the screen momentarily went black, twice. After the second time the description in the Device Manager changed to reflect that the GPU was now "ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO".
FINAL NOTE: as of right now everything seems to be running properly and I have experienced no problems or graphical glitches. If anyone reading this sees an obvious problem with what I've done, please let me know.

NVidia 7300 GT

Hi,
I have a late 2007 model of Intel Mac Pro. It has a nVidia 7300 GT graphics card. I was wondering if i could add another one. Is there a Mac Specific 7300 GT ? or can i install the normal PC version of it?
Thanks In Advance.

You need a card made for the Mac Pro. (Are you really running OSX 10.4.1?)
Apple is no longer selling any NVIDIA cards that work with your Mac Pro, but their ATI card will work (despite Apple saying it's for only 2008 and 2009 Mac Pros) if you upgrade to OSX 10.5.7
<http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB999ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA5OQ&mco=NDE4NDMxOA>
The nVidia 7300 GT is available used
<http://cgi.ebay.com/Mac-Pro-PCI-E-Nvidia-GeForce-7300-GT-7300GT-Video-CardW0QQitemZ280371698116QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item41477499c4&trksid=p3286.c0.m14>
as is the NVIDIA 8800 GT. Be sure to get the one for the 2006-2007 Mac Pro. There is a different version for the later Mac Pros that won't work in yours. It also will require you update to OSX 10.5.7
<http://cgi.ebay.com/Mac-GeForce-8800-GT-512MB-Video-Card-intel-Mac-Pro-0607W0QQitemZ250470444658QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3a5133ae72&trksid=p3286.c0.m14>

ATI Radeon 2600 XT Fan Noise

I just received my new Mac Pro on Friday - it shipped with 10.5.4 installed. After looking at some of the new features of Leopard (had only used Tiger previously), I installed all the available updates -- these were:
Mac OS X Update 10.5.5
Aluminum Keyboard Firmware Update 1.0
Java For Mac OS X 10.5 Update 2
iTunes 8.0
Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 2.2
QuickTime 7.5.5
Remote Desktop Client Update 3.2.2
Front Row Update
All the updates were successful and no issues were apparent until this morning. The fan on the graphics card (ATI Radeon 2600 XT) now seems to be running at full speed, regardless of what is running. Just idling at the Desktop the fan still runs at full speed. A soft reset of the SMC has also been done - no change. Is this a known issue? Is anybody else experiencing this? I've also posted my temps below:
Ambient Air 24.0C
CPU A Temperature Diode 34.0C
CPU B Temperature Diode 35.0C
CPU C Temperature Diode 35.0C
CPU D Temperature Diode 35.0C
CPU A Heatsink 32.0C
CPU B Heatsink 32.0C
Hard Drive Bay 1 28.0C
Hard Drive Bay 2 26.0C
Hard Drive Bay 3 27.0C
Hard Drive Bay 4 27.0C
Memory Bank A Point 1 35.0C
Memory Bank A Point 2 33.0C
Memory Bank A Point 3 34.0C
Memory Bank B Point 1 35.0C
Memory Bank B Point 2 37.0C
Memory Bank B Point 3 35.0C
Memory Module A1 48.0C
Memory Module B1 48.0C
Northbridge Heat Sink 38.0C
Expansion Slots 35.0C
Power Supply Location 1 46.0C
Power Supply Location 2 40.0C

I don't know what is happening with ATI, at first I thought it was the consolidation and merger that affects products and Q&A, but the X1900, then the 2600XT, and even the 3870's fans and noise (which after 3 months seems to be better now on the 3870 with the latest models rolling out).
Normally I would expect a new or even ref'd unit would have the latest fixes and if there still are problems... then there aren't any solutions? One person dropped into Vista and reduced fans to 20% setting and it works even under heavy loads w/o getting above 80C.
Seems like the Nvidia 8800GT costs more, doesn't have the drivers optimized for OpenGL just yet, but runs quieter.
One person complained theirs would making an annoying "up-down-up" fan revving constantly.
A copper cooling kit isn't a option user should have to invest in. Not sure it works with 2600 -
"The Accelero S1 Rev. 2 dramatically extends the compatibility to many of the latest graphic cards. It supports high-end to main stream graphic cards including the latest hot selling Radeon HD 3870, 3850 , GeForce 8800GTS (G92) and 8800GT. http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=147
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/8800GTAcceleroS1/8800GTAcceleroS1R2.html

Satellite P200: Question about ATI HD 2600 drivers release

Will there be a release for a FULL XP HD2600 driver for the P200?
I am waiting, since I bought my laptop for drivers, but it is still a BETA.
I wrote several mails to Toshiba. I am seriously thinking of buy an other laptop with an NVIDIA card:
1 & 2. Answer:
There is a new driver available ---- no, it was every time the same driver, it has been only re-uploaded, there were NO changes
3. Answer:
use omega drivers --- haha, they dont work with 2k cards
4. Answer:
go to laptopvideo2go.com --- lol, they only have NVIDIA drivers!!!
Because of that I want to ask here:
Are there any informations for a driver release for a P200 XP Ati HD 2600 driver?
I only want to know, if they will release a driver?

Hi guys
I have already provided answered your first thread in the gaming area!!!
http://forums.computers.toshiba-europe.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=27484&tstart=0
One more info;
Many different Toshiba notebooks series are delivered with the same graphic cards.
So sometimes the newer drivers can be found in other notebook series area on the Toshiba driver page. Just take a look into different notebook series which were delivered with the same GPU and check for newer version.
But there should be also a possibility to use the ATI drivers.
You have to download the driver package from ATI and should install the driver from device manager.
There choose Install from a list or specific location -> Dont search. I will choose the driver to install.
Then choose simply the INF file which was downloaded with the package.
But note; such drivers can be used only at your own risk!!!
regards

I have an early 2008 Mac Pro, 8 gb ram with a Dell 27" display and a 42" LG TV. I am thinking about upgrading the stock ATI Radeon 2600 graphics card for better resolution, preferring 2 dvi outputs. Does anyone have any suggestions on the best card?

I have an early 2008 Mac Pro, 8 gb ram with a Dell 27” display and a 42” LG TV. I am thinking about upgrading the stock ATI Radeon 2600 graphics card for better resolution, preferring 2 dvi outputs or 1 dvi and 1 vga vs 1 dvi and a mini. I don't do a lot of Final Cut Pro, gaming, etc. I am interested in best value for the graphics card.
Does anyone have any suggestions on the best graphics card for these larger displays for the best value?
Thanks,
Kevin

I recommend you install nothing older than the Apple-firware 5770, about US$250.
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"

Single NVIDIA 7300 GT...how would it handle dual 20' Dells?

I'm a student film editor...just wondering how well my single NVIDIA 7300 card in my MacPro would handle dual 20' Dell Widescreens. I have one, but I feel like I need a second one...but I don't think I want the second one if it means that I really ought to upgrade my graphics card as well. Any advice?
Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8)

they will improve the speed of the graphics fitting 2 7300 GT's
This is a pile of bollocks. Adding a 2nd Nvidia 7300 GT will only give additional display support and will make no difference to your GPU processing abilities. SLI is not supported under Mac OS X.

Using twoo NVIDIA 7300 cards: firmware bug? Screen refresh problem

strange bug with Mac Pro 2.66 Xeon:
I have two Displays, 20 and 23".
When both connected to the standard NVIDIA card in the Mac Pro, evreything is fine.
I ordered a second NVIDIA card wich I installed in slot 4, using 8 lanes for this card.
Now, when one display is connected to the standard card and the second display is connected to the second NVIDIA card, the screen of the display connected to the build in card (the 16 lanes card) does noet refresh correctly. You can not see what iMovie is displaying for example, iMovie screen is white and does not display what should be on screen.
Sometimes none of the main screen is refresehd (example: Safari content is not updated, while in fact it is!) but the mousecursor moves correctlyon screen.
Also third party software (like FotoMagico) is not updated on screen
Connecting both displays to one card and everything is fine!
A strange bug wich I guess is related to the Mac Pro firmware
I've tried the second NVIDIA card in all the PCI-E slots to see if this makes a difference, it does not.
I used the PCI-E configure tool to vhange the speed of the lanes for the PCI-E slots, also this makes no diffrence.
At this moment my second card is not usable.
This is a problem on all three Mac Pro's we tried this on (2.66 version, 2 machines with 1Gb RAM, 1 machine with 3Gb RAM), latest OS 10.4.7
Starting in safe mode makes no difference on either Mac Pro

I am running two 7300 GTs in my 2.66 GHz Mac Pro driving (2) 20" + (1) 30" Cinema Display. I am not seeing the issue you mention in iMovie. Quicktime flickers every once in a while when playing iTunes video content, but that started with the iTunes / Quicktime upgrade, not when I added the extra card.
I have my nVidia 7300 cards in slots 1 &2 each running 8 lanes. Might be worth a try. The 7300 is not that "high performance" that running in 8 lanes is going to make a huge difference in speed. What it will do for you is get the cards on an equal footing.

ATI Radeon 2600 XT on Mac Pro 2008 has died

Hi All,
I have recently been having issues with one of my ATI Radeon 2600 XT Graphics cards - choppy graphics, artefacts appearing on the display and endless crashes of the OS.
I have read online about a recall program Apple did run which recalled these exact graphics cards, and after checking the serial number of the card in question, it does indeed match one of the 'bad' batch.
The only problem is - the program ended in July 2011
What are the chances Apple would be kind enough to still swap my card for a new unaffected one?
Thanks
Mac Pro (early 2008)
6GB Memory
2 x ATI Radeon 2600XT
2 x 23" Cinema HD Monitors

What are the chances Apple would be kind enough to still swap my card for a new unaffected one?
I'm in the same boat. :\ Mine just died too, would I need to take my tower to an Apple Store? Or how would I go about asking Apple to replace my graphics card?
Also, if I were to put in a different graphics card (say the ATI Radeon HD 5770), how difficult is it to replace? Would my Mac Pro (Early 2008) be able to handle it? I have 2x2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (8-core) processor, the ATI Radeon HD 5770 says it requires Mac Pro (Mid 2010) with PCI Express 2.0 slot and OS X 10.6.4, whereas I'm still on just 10.5 Leopard and have an Early 2008 model...
On another thread, here, The Hatter, said something about baking the card in the oven? Would that work if Apple won't replace it for free?
I have never opened up my tower before (I don't know how!) and I have been wanting to upgrade my RAM as well. I have 4x1GB cards and I wanted to move up to like 8 or 16GB. I was thinking about buying RAM from NewEgg or Amazon, whichever is cheaper, any suggestions?
Thank you for any help and sorry about hijacking the thread! >~< Should I make my own thread or continue in this one? I'm sorry, I just don't want to cause any problems...I will make a new one if need be.

Cant use ati radeon 2600

I have a first edition mac pro, I was told that the ati radeon 2600 would work in it but I can't get it to work. The screen is fuzzy and none of my games will detect it. Do I need to upgrade to leopard to use it.

If you can find someone with Leopard and copy the Radeon 2xxx drivers from the Extensions folder, it might work okay under Tiger. But the card (and drivers) was designed to work under Leopard.

Leopard/nVidia 7300 issue on my mac pro?

My Mac Pro running Leopard and a Nvidia 7300 refuses to run pixel & vertex shaders in Halo. I'm not sure why... it just quits if you try to run it with those settings.

I'm having the same issues on a MacBook Air (2013), running Mac OSX 10.8.5, so it's not just a MacBook Pro issue. I went to the Apple store Genius Bar today, as I had tried everything I knew how to do with restarts,
PRAM reset, etc..and they're ordering a new logic board (I'm luckily still under AppleCare warranty)..
But this problem has surfaced on a number of Apple community and other Mac support forums..
You may need to take it in and see if it's your hardware :-(
T

Ati HD 2600 XT man enough for the job? Motion and Final cut

Hi all, just got my new 2008 Mac Pro with a ATI HD 2600 XT graphics card
I have a dell 24"monitoer running at 1920x1200 pixels
I am just about to buy the final cut studio package and I'm wondering if I need to spring for the 8800GT card?
so my question is: just how taxing on the gpu is Motion? is the Ati HD 2600 XT man enough for the job running at 1920x1200 pixels?

Rob Morgan at Barefeats.com has some benchmarks that compare the 2600 XT to the 1900 XT in a 2.8 8 core machine. In his test the 2600 XT was only a hair slower with Motion. I have not noticed any performance hit with the 2600 XT. I plan on sticking with the 2600 XT.

Ati HD 2600 XT, good enough for Motion/Final Cut?

Hi all, just got my new 2008 Mac Pro with a ATI HD 2600 XT graphics card
I have a dell 24"monitoer running at 1920x1200 pixels
I am just about to buy the final cut studio package and I'm wondering if I need to spring for the 8800GT card?
so my question is: just how taxing on the gpu is Motion? is the Ati HD 2600 XT man enough for the job running at 1920x1200 pixels?

Rob Morgan at Barefeats.com has some benchmarks that compare the 2600 XT to the 1900 XT in a 2.8 8 core machine. In his test the 2600 XT was only a hair slower with Motion. I have not noticed any performance hit with the 2600 XT. I plan on sticking with the 2600 XT.

G5 AGP: Nvidia 6800GT or ATi X800XT?

Hey all,
I just wanted to check out a couple experiences, and see if anyone has in fact compared the Nvidia with the ATi. I did, and I have two things to report.
a) according to XBench, the Nvidia is quite a bit faster.
b) Looking at World of Warcraft at 1920x1200, the ATi blows the Nvidia away. Don't want to start some in-game talk here, but the performance of the ATi in WoW is about 2x to 3x better than the Nvidia.
Anyone has anything to add to this?

Rob has put them up against each other:
http://www.barefeats.com/radx850.html
I'd pick the X800 XT because it only takes up 1 slot and I don't need two dual link ports.

NVIDIA 7300 vs ATI HD 2600 (on iMac)

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