Replacement Nvidia 8800 GT

I have had two of these cards fail. The second has failed after less than 7 months of use. I can replace it with another (at $800) or maybe consider an ATI Radeon HD5870.
Any one have suggestions or advice. My main use in with Aperture 3.1

No. Standard PC cards will not boot with a Mac.
The HD4870 must either be the 500MB model from Apple, or a flashed 1GB PC card. I went for the latter and purchased over ebay from a Hong Kong dealer trading as local338. Have purchased flashed card from them for G4 Gigabit Ethernet, MDD, Dual Core G5 and Mac Pro models all with 100% satisfaction.
For what it is worth the flashed card will run you about $220 with postage.

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Early 2008 Mac Pro + nVidia 8800: Never going to work?

This forum is littered with threads about early 2008 Mac Pros with the nVidia 8800 card - none of them positive.
I was unfortunate enough to wait for Apple to release such a machine and buy it. Graphics performance is dire given the hardware available. The machine routinely crashes with the window manager hang problem (the user interface just locks up, yet network services etc. still work), in the way familiar to anyone blighted by this particular bug; just run the Folding@Home client on your machine if you want to experience the joy. Or screensavers, sometimes, so I've had to turn those off. And I've had to turn off monitor power saving too, because I too suffer from the 'monitors sometimes don't wake up' bug. And of course I can't sleep the machine either, because firmware upgrade or not, it's still not reliable. And after all this, still the machine crashes.
SSH to the machine; try to restart cleanly; even 'sudo reboot' won't restart it. Apple have achieved something I've never seen out of any Unix or Unix-like operating system, ever; the kernel is unable to kill its own processes.
There have been no indications from Apple that I've seen on these forums over several weeks that the problem is even being acknowledged, let alone tackled. Latest reports indicate that even the 1st gen Mac Pro owners are suffering if they install the 8800.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1460752&tstart=0
My machine rarely makes it through the day without a forced reboot due to the window manager hanging. I can't do any work on it. I can't rely on it. I can't enjoy it. I can't even use it for web browsing without fear of it hanging.
There seem to be no facts about this at all. So all I can ask for is opinions. Does anyone have any offering of hope that early 2008 Mac Pros might ever work properly with 8800 cards? Y'know, little things, like actually being able to handle graphics? Or sleeping the monitors? Or, heaven forbid, sleeping the whole machine? Or should I just send it back as unfit for purpose?
Yours, tired and exasperated... :-/

I posted this in some other blog (forum), I should have posted this here also but I hope this gives you and all with these problems hope!! I also ran some fish tank test some else posted to get the folding problem to happen and I can not get it to happen at all now, and since my 8800 went in I get NO LOCKUPS, SCREEN FREEZES, shaky blurry video when I boot, so far NOTHING, IT JUST WORKS!!!!!!!!
Now that I think about it the person who said to use the fish tank program had a bad 8800 and maybe you do also!! here is the link to that:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6965475&#6965475
I purchased my first mac pro early 08 2 months ago (amazon.com).
2 quad core 2.8's, 2 gig apple 4 gig OWC total 6 gig ram,2-WD raptors (1st mac 2nd boot camp winxp 32 bit), apple care.
I had all my problems with the ATI card (I always purchased ATI, never Nvidia, for all the PC's I built) a couple of times I bought the first ones out, these had all kinds of problems until good drivers that actually worked were released (usually 6-12 months after the release of the card).
So I try not to buy routers, graphic cards, etc.. for at least 6-12 months, but back to my 2600 card!!
When I received my mac the graphics would freeze, I did a lot of online reading only to find out the ATI 2600 was the problem, the cure was to hook up 2 monitors to the card (and that worked!!).
Then they came out with the firmware update, now my main monitor would after 2 days on a reboot be scambled (samsung syncmaster 213t, NEVER had ANY problem with it before on any PC I had, so I knew it was not the monitor) to fix the problem I had to either turn power off to the syncmaster or resetting PRAM (worked for a couple more days, then the same problem).
I called apple and they sent a tech out within days to replace the ATI card, the replacement did the same thing after a couple of days, so I called Apple back and they took a bunch of info from my computer (BTW not much at all loaded in the mac side) and said to call back in a week, so I called back a week later and they said they were going to exchange the card for either another ati 2600 or the Nvidia 8800, I said 8800 and a day later on a saturday I received it, swapped the card and NEVER HAD ANY PROBLEMS at all!!
So I don't know if the ATI card has problems with certain monitors or they are just poorly made (maybe AMD is mad with Apple that Apple did not use AMD processors).
I have read others that swapped with the 8800 and their problems went away also!!!!
Maybe some have no problems with the 2600, but I would not recommend it to anyone, if you can avoid the 2600 GO WITH THE 8800, the drivers will get better (and the 8800 will eventually outperform the ATI)and you will not be sorry.
Apple is awesome, they are 2nd to none, their is no other company like this anymore that I have dealt with in a long time (not just because they gave me a 8800), like I said in the beginning of this post I always purchased ATI cards and would have kept it if it would have worked but 2 doing the same, ATI [AMD] has lost my support until they prove otherwise.
I recommend Mac's to everyone now!!
good luck and let me know it any of this has helped!!!!!!!!!!

Choosing iMac model. Nvidia 8800 hotter than ATI 2600 ?

I'm just about to buy a 2.8GHz 24" iMac and am trying to decide whether to upgrade to the NVidia 8800 Graphics card or not.
I'm mainly trying to make it as future-proof as I can by putting in a higher spec card now, and also I guess Snow Leopard (with OpenCL) should be able to make much better use of the NVIDIA card than the ATI one.
I'm happy with the cost involved, but I'm concerned that the 8800 (being a more powerful card) may run hotter in normal (i.e. non-gaming) use compared to the 2600.
Could anyone offer an opinion on this? Do you think I'm likely to experience more fan noise with an 8800 fitted compared to a 2600?
Thanks
Steve

It does run hotter, fans are still inaudible unless right next to it (ear pressed where it will feel the heat).... now here's the thing: The fan speed won't increase noticeably even under extreme load.
To answer your question, if I focus on it, I can hear the fans (right now). If I reach up and touch the top (around top left) it's warm to the touch, and I can barely feel a warm breeze coming out
If i were to fire up Second Life (game) for about 10-20 minutes - it gets uncomfortably warm to the touch along the top edge (quick), and I could feel but barely hear more air being pushed out.
Me and a friend launched Second Life from openGL profiler - she (ATI 2600, 2.8/4m) was hitting around 40-50 FPS, I was hitting 120-180 (these were on a private estate (somewhat controlled environmentals), both set to level 3 quality - kinda apples to apples as best as we could).
I can't really comment on the openCL enhancements to come, It's a severely crippled 8800 (GS) - so I'd not put a lot of weight behind the OpenCL acceleration. It's not a Quadro.
I was under no illusions that it was a gaming machine or a production 3D/graphics workstation tho - it's good enough for casual gaming/semi-pro use with some decent capabilities, don't expect too much from it tho.
There is one of the mac fan sites that tracks the average days of refresh - roughly when to expect the next big "refresh" from Apple - maybe someone else can remember where it is... (something like mid jan/late spring roughly - with some exceptions).
Last thing I'd want is to have ordered the 8800 as a CTO (not refundable) to find out 5 days later a 9800 with 1 gig on a slick nvidia chipset was replacing it. And that they had replaced the mighty mouse.
The iMac 8800/3.06 is the quietest machine I've worked with, power wise - even when it is cranked to the hilt, and it gets hot, uncomfortably hot (that makes me jittery - which is why I'm glad I've got AppleCare). I could run SMC fan control or something to keep it cooler, but I'd prefer to see if Apple's got it right.
Anyhow... Good luck with it all. I plan on selling mine - maybe not tho, it would make a cool fishtank. (I'm learning I'm just not an Apple person, tho I'm still trying).

Slow render speed with new Mac Pro / NVIDIA 8800

I bought a new Mac Pro to replace a dual G5 because I have a number of Motion projects to finish quickly. My local dealer recommended the NVIDIA 8800 as it has 512 mb RAM (versus 128 on my old machine). I'm finding that the render time is worse than with the G5. I have yet to successfully render a 1 minute segment using Compressor (I've left it to run overnight several times with no success).
In Activity Monitor I'm seeing this message: CompressorTranscoder (Not Responding). But none of Batch Monitor, Compressor or Motion are unresponsive - not indicating any hung applications.
I've read that version 10.5.5 has compromised the NVIDIA card with Motion but haven't been able to get any reliable corroboration. As the Mac Pro shipped with 10.5.5 I can't really roll back to an earlier version.
Any advice? Anyone with similar experiences? I'm trying to render on a new iMac with 4 GB of RAM (with the ATI 2600 video card) but it doesn't seem to be working as it is an hour in and shows at least three more hours.

ChineesYouth wrote:
there's a better post just use the search and type in 3870 or best graphics card for motion
or click here

Mac Pro Screen Freezing Issue with NVIDIA 8800 GT too

There were lots of entry in threads, where the screen freezing issue was described (disorted screen with strange lines, only reboot helps). Nearly all cases seem to be related to the ATI 2600 card.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1358062&tstart=30
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1365277&tstart=0
I opened this new thread to show, that this problems occurs not only for the ATI card but for the NVIDIA 8800 card, too.
My MacPro was delivered 8 days ago and was running without any problems. But all of a sudden, I got that screen freeze. And it wasn't the first time, I was heavely working 2-3 hours with that computer.
In total, 2 screen freezes showed on my computer. The first one during working with the computer. The second one during booting into MacOS X. The screen freeze occured during the boot phase with the grey screen and the spinning wheel.
My configuration:
MacPro 2.8, Dual Quad Core
6 GB RAM
3 harddisks, 1 standard from Apple, 2 Samsung with 750GB
MacOS 10.5.2
Formac 20" Monitor
Perhaps others have this problem, too? Than we should emphasize, that this is not an ATI related problem.

I've actually been having the freezing issue for a while now but I didn't have the know-how to troubleshoot it (PC tech trying to support the only Mac lab in the building).
MacPro will freeze randomly (no trend in time, system strain, or open programs). The mouse will operate but will not interact with anything.
Specs:
MacPro - Model 1,1
Dual Core Xeon 2.66
2gb RAM
nVidia GeForce 7300 GT
Mac OS 10.4.11
The machine always has 2 displays connected to it so the workaround that was discussed for the ATI 2600 doesn't apply. I had 1 display connected here in my shop and it froze for that as well.
Message was edited by: DocturKnowles

Mac Pro with NVIDIA 8800 GT HD Playback

I just upgraded from my 2.7 GHz Dual G5 to a brand new Mac Pro Dual Quad 2.8 GHz Xeon (Early 2008) with the NVidia 8800 GT GPU. I'm having issues with HD (1080P) video playback in which the video stutters (would appear that the frame rate drops for a fraction of a second and then returns to normal). This is an intermittent problem and so I can rewind the video and watch the same scene again and it looks fine.
Is anyone else having this problem? Does anyone know of work-arounds? Are there any utilities to configure the NVidia 8800 GT video card like what ATI had for the X800 XT?
Thanks for any help!
Greg

I would add more memory, even if it doesn't seem like it is problem, OS X and apps will try to use what is available and use free/inactive memory as cache.
http://www.barefeats.com/harper3.html
Glad you kept one drive 'as is' - if someone does want to test out or migrate always better to work off a cloned system until you know it works.
I try to have all the media on a stripped RAID, a dedicated boot drive with nothing else on it, which keeps things running smoothly.
http://www.barefeats.com/harper9.html
OpenGL graphics:
http://www.barefeats.com/imp04.html
http://www.barefeats.com/harper10.html
http://www.barefeats.com/harper16.html
8800 vs 2600: http://www.barefeats.com/harper8.html

HT3910 I face problems with the Nvidia 8800 GS on my iMac 24'' 3.06Ghz intel core duo. OS 10.06.08. What can I do to solve the problem and if you recommend upgrade to mountain Lion

I face problems with the Nvidia 8800 GS on my iMac 24'' 3.06Ghz intel core duo. OS 10.06.08. What can I do to solve the problem and if you recommend upgrade to mountain Lion

If you want to sync it to the iPad from that Mac, you need to upgrade it to at least 10.5.8.
If you want to copy the music to another Mac, you don't. Move the iTunes folder of the item in the Finder's sidebar over as you would any other folder. If you put it somewhere other than the Music folder, launch iTunes with the Option key held down and point it to that location.
(61713)

Have you guys thought about as an option to upgrade nvidia 8800 GS.etc

have you guys thought about as an option to upgrade nvidia 8800 GS to nvidia 200 series,nvidia gtx 260 and 280 model's for the 3ghz+ intel imac and your next gen line or even your towers as well even funcom and gear works are behind it 100% just as a suggestion but fairly reasonable one

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
This is a user to user board. If you have suggestions for how this board works, that's what this forum here is for. If you have feedback for new Apple products, it is best to post them here:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/
http://www.apple.com/contact/feedback.html
And be mindfull of the unsolicited ideas policy at the bottom of the form. I typically add a comment that they are free to use my ideas without compensation.

Nvidia 8800 or ATI Radeon (x2 or x3)?

Hi,
I am new to Mac world, and about to order a Mac Pro configuration.
I am not sure what to choose for the videocard...?
2x ATI Radeon
1x Nvidia 8800
or 3x ATI Radeon ...?
What would be the criteria to choose the good config for my needs?
If I plan to use only 1 or 2 displays, is the nvidia enough?
Thanks in advance for your help!

Tom,
There is another thread (or three!) on the sleep / restart problem. And I don't have any more info than what is said here and on other forums and news outlets.
I would sit tight for now, at least until the 8800s are actually shipping (March 1?) and get your RAM 3rd party to save $$$. Not sure the difference between 2.8 and 3.0 is going to be big enough to justify. 3.2, yes, if you need cutting edge.
Keep your eye on AYM and Barefeats.
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com
http://www.Barefeats.com

Nvidia 8800 & 2007 Power Mac = No Dice!

I am fuming that I am stuck with this 7300 video card in what is supposed to be an upgradeable, high end, premium machine; the 2007 Mac Pro.
I was going to upgrade to the Nvidia 8800 but learned that it was not compatible with the 'older' machines (good grief, I purchased this machine less than 8 months ago) and find the $400 X1900 option to be overpriced and the continued rumors of bugginess in (even the newer ones) don't make that option very enticing.
So...what do I have? I have a $2,500 Mac Pro that is less than 8 months old with a weaker video card than is currently shipping in iMacs.
I'm thinking that this will be the last Mac Pro I purchase if this problem is not addressed. Does anyone have any additional news?

If you're going to rant, at least have the decency to make sure your complaints are valid. You can get the 8800 card for your Mac Pro here
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?s=topSe llers&fnode=home/shopmac/macaccessories/displays&nplm=MB560Z/A&mco=OTkzNDY

Any Nvidia 8800 game results yet?

Hi,
Apple have very kindly agreed to exchange my 24' previous spec iMac (due too ongoing issues) for the current 24" model with the nvidia 8800 graphics card. I was just wondering if anybody's used one with games like Quake 4, Doom 3, Halo and Call of duty 2 etc?
My previous imac wasn't brilliant but coped ok and i'm curious to see if the 512mb nVidia is any improvment.
Thanks.

Okay, so after a lot of mulling over this and that. I've decided that I'm getting the 'standard' 2.4GHz 24" imac, but have just stalled over the optional upgrade of the video card to the nvidia, after all it doesn't seem to be that much more, and the video memory is doubled!
But, and here's the but, if I don't play games on my computers any more is this seemingly cheap upgrade a waste of time. I have a PS2 lying idle and a PS3 for blurays and the occasional game of virtua tennis and ridge racer (almost four months since I booted up any games) - what do I play the most? Mr Driller on the NDS. Yes, it's been a long long time since I was really into games.
I use my computer to go on the internet, email, use Word, Powerpoint and occasionally photoediting. There really is no point to upgrade the GPU is there? Sorry for hijacking the thread.

Can i replace Nvidia 9400m on mbp 13' with 320 m ??????

can i replace Nvidia 9400m on mbp 13' with 320 m ??????

No. The video chip is soldered directly to the logic board. It might be possible if you wanted to desolder a couple hundred tiny little pins, and then resolder them when you got your hands on a 320M chip. Which assumes that the pin layout and count would be the same. Then you would also have to get a corresponding heatsink to keep the chip from frying itself.
So, the long and short of it is: No.

Big problem with AE CS3 - abnormal slow with nvidia 8800 GTS 512 !

I try everything, newest drivers (nvidia 8800 GTS 512), older drivers, beta drivers, alternative drivers, uninstall QTime, disable OpenGL in After Effects, delete openGL plugin.... Simply, did not help. AE CS3 is abnormal slow, type text, draw and edit mask, any kind of moving element , moving windows (interface).... everything. When turn on openGL, openGL work fine, fast, smooth., but non openGL operation (written above), still the same! I did some test and found that similar problem have with encore (not my primary application, but...). Other programs work perfectly (premiere, photoshop, illustrator). I have core2 quad 6600 @ 3 GHz, 3 GB RAM, 8800 GTS 512 @ 2560 x 1600, win XP pro strong configuration but unusable for AE CS3!!! I try to reduce resolution, but also, did not help.
Please, is there anyone with some solution? Is problem with AE or drivers? Thanks.

>My 8800GT is not going to work with AE and it's listed under Adobe's
>supported graphic cards????
That's premature to say. Please understand that in the OpenGL game there are just too many varaibles, a lot of them outside the control of Adobe or any other software vendor for that matter. Please consider the following:
- if tested, a card is usually tested in one configuration available at the time that presumably will be the most common one bought by users. There is room for better sub-versions (more VRAM, higher memory clock), as well as weaker ones (less VRAM, lower clock speed).
- the previous applies to the host computer. Nobody can test the 100 new different motherboards that come out every month let alone all that are already on the market. Same for RAM, processors, other peripherals.
- multiple vendors may produce cards based on the same design, but may use different BIOSes and branding
- even under ideal conditions, a given graphics card will be tested in about 30 different computer or so - some in Adobe's lab, others with Beta testers. As it stands, neither of them will necessarily coincide with your configuration nor will anyone throw a lot of money out of the window just to buy a hundred new testing machines...
- BIOS configuration, motherboard voltage fluctuations, PCI timings and whatnot can vary from user to user and thus have drastically different influence how a certain component behaves.
- lastly, driver configuration can vary. Even with seemingly the same driver version, the config may auto-adapt to different settings based on the environment it finds.
So given all of the above, please understand that this is a *******' tough job and by all rights nobody intentionally tries to scam users or something like that. You will also find it hard to blame anyone in legal terms, as you usually agree to use the software "as is" - with all it's flaws. As David says - please try first. We will gladly try to help you sort out any issues and who knows - none of the problems affecting other users may come down on you and you'll be a happy camper after all.
Mylenium

Dual Nvidia 8800's Set up.

I know this queation was discussed in other threads but I got confused as to which Mac Pro was being dscussed. So here it goes.
When my Mac Pro arrives I am going to install dual Nvidia 8800's. What slot do I use for the second card? I will also be installing Vista through Bootcamp.
I know the cards are SLI capable. Does the Mac or Windows support SLI? If so. how do you enable it? Any additional advice concerning anything is also welcome. I have always been a PC user since the release of Win95 and I am taking the leap.

Vista graphic card comparison:
http://www.barefeats.com/harper11.html
4870 vs GTX 280 with other benchmark comparisons:
http://www.barefeats.com/harper19.html
Mac OS X 10.5.5 graphics, what gives?
http://www.barefeats.com/harper20.html
Vista is easy to install, doesn't need any help really, doesn't run in, under, or through BootCamp. Just format a drive as Master Boot Record, setup one or more FAT partitions (you will need to delete and create NTFS when it gets to the install screen in Vista). Then once running, you install some Apple hardware services and support to allow switching, synching time, and such. And install the latest Nvidia Vista drivers.

IMac 3.06ghz with Vista 64bit :: Need drivers for GPU nVidia 8800 GS

Hey everybody,
I succesfully installed Vista 64bit on my newest iMac with Boot Camp, but the only thing missing right now is the driver for the GPU, Nvidia 8800 GS 512MB RAM. Any idea if I can install a fitting driver? I already tried the auto-detect driver from Nvidia's website and I manually selected the latest driver there, but none works.
Any ideas?
Thanks so far!
Mx

Hi Mx,
use the driver and modification found here: http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/
Since the iMacs don't use the Desktop versions but rather the Mobility versions of GPUs, the generic NVIDIA driver won't install because of the missing entry in the .inf file.
Stefan

Replacement Nvidia 8800 GT

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