Ugrade first gen mac pro graphics card

I have a first Gen Mac Pro and want to upgrade the graphics card for better performance with programs like C4D and After Effects....any recomendations?

The graphics card can't be upgraded. It is soldered to the logic board. Unless you actually mean a Mac Pro desktop as opposed to a MacBook Pro, in which case I know nothing about Mac Pros.

Similar Messages

1st Gen Mac Pro - Graphics card upgrade options?

Hi guys,
I have the 1st gen Mac Pro with 2 x 3GHz dual core xeons and a Radeon X1900 graphics card. I have wanted to upgrade to a new card for a while, however, I can't find any that apple say are compatible. I wanted to upgrade to a 5870 but on apples website it said this wasn't compatible with the first gen.
What is the limiting factor here? Is it the software or hardware?
What is the best card I can get for my machine?
Please help!
Thanks Guys
Tom

Your post has been added to a thread regarding Mac Pro Xeon Tower computers. These have nothing in common with your MacBook Pro.
To get an answer that is meaningful, you need to post on the MacBook Pro forums, here:
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=190

1st Gen Mac Pro: Graphics Card Needed Urgently

My mac pro is first generation (Model Identifier: MacPro1,1) Not the 2008 Mac Pro.
I have Chipset Model: ATY,RadeonX1900
This card is failing. Pram reset, SMC reset, and/or repair permissions do not work. I cleaned the fan intake area as well... card is still failing (won't wake from sleep, no display on reboot, etc etc).
I have searched these forums high and low. Can anyone please provide me with a good option for a replacement card?
The closest I have gotten is the "Apple nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT Graphics Upgrade Kit for 1st Generation Mac Pro" which is now discontinued (?)
I am getting really frustrated here, please help!

Hey,
I am having the exact issue with my Mac Pro (2.66 gig first gen intel). I have a discussion (unresolved) that you can find here.
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9666490#9666490
I wonder how many folks are having this particular card die early on them. I think the problem is more widespread than Apple would indicate on the phone.
Anyway, my concern is whether or not the replacement card will be able to use the Open CL (sp?) protocol that will come with Snow Leopard. This will allow the computer to use free cycles on the graphics card to boost processing power. The guy on the phone and at the Apple store I went to was fuzzy on this. The last thing I want to do is upgrade to an antiquated card.
He suggested the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT which I cannot find (discontinued).
Does anyone know if the 4870 will take advantage of the new Snow Leopard features?
Thanks,
G

1st Gen Mac Pro Graphics Card replacement??

I have a 1st generation mac pro and the nvidia geforce 7300 GT graphics card died.
what can I replace this with that is relatively inexpensive? Does it need to be 256 or 512 MB?

Thank You. That isn't quite my situation. There is a back on April 11th. 2010 and still unsolved. That is very disappointing considering there are a lot of people who are genius with technical issues on this forum.
It booted up OK from a long power down time but if I have to restart for any reason or power down and start up within a few minutes, I will have nothing on the display (black). The little light is on and if you touch the button the light will goes to sleep but nothing on the display. I checked everything and tried every combinations. What I ended up with is; 1. to leave the computer on forever until the end of time but I can't because sometimes the fan would come on high and stay on., 2. if I have to restart, I have to unplug both power chords and wait at least half an hour to forty five minutes then plug everything back in and start. Most of the time it will work. This puzzled me.
Everywhere I posted this problem, I've had zero answer. There must be some one who knows this issue and solved it before. Hello! Are you out there? Help me please!

Where can high-power video cards be installed on a first-gen Mac Pro?

I have a first-gen Mac Pro with a Radeon X1900 XT in Slot-1 and a Geforce 7300 GT in Slot-4. The x1900 XT powers a 30" monitor and the 7300GT powers 2 x 20" monitors. The 7300GT card died and is being replaced with an 8800 GT.
Now it seems fairly obvious that for gaming the 8800 GT is superior to my X1900 XT. Ideally I'd like to just throw my new 8800 GT in Slot-1 and use it for my 30" monitor and then run the 2 20's off the X1900 XT in Slot-4. The problem with that is that the x1900 XT is a huge card and physically won't fit in Slot-4 because it runs in to the hard drives above it.
*Now, on to the questions / clarification:*
_Question 1_: Is the first-gen Mac Pro the same as the new Mac Pro in that high-power cards can only be used in Slot-1 and Slot-2? If so, why does it come in the standard configuration of:
Slot-1: x16
Slot-2: x1
Slot-3: x1
Slot-4: x8
It would seem that Apple purposely did this so you would run 2 high-power cards in Slot-1 and Slot-4 and keep them away from each other for heat reasons. The new Mac Pro has x16 bandwidth on Slot-1 and Slot-2 and it would make sense why they say to only install high-power cards in Slot-1 and Slot-2 for it.
_Question 2_: PCI-e configurations. There are a few ways I could tweak the configuration of the expansion slots to make this setup work. I'm curious as to which you would think is best:
*Option 1 (default PCI-e config, only works if a high-power card can be installed in slot 4):*
Slot-1: x16 - Radeon X1900 XT - 2 x 20" monitors for minor tasks / programs
Slot-2: x1
Slot-3: x1
Slot-4: x8 - GeForce 8800 GT - 30" monitor for major tasks / gaming
Now, the first issue is can the 8800 even run in Slot-4 due to the supposed power problem? If so, would there be a difference in performance for gaming at x8? I know this is backwards because you'd want the "primary" card to run on x16 but that's just not possible with this PCI-e configuration. If there is a difference in performance would an 8800 GT at x8 still run significantly faster in games than an X1900 XT a x16? I'd think so, but that's assuming the x8 isn't a real bottleneck.
*Option 2 (the only solution if the cards have to be installed in the first 2 slots):*
Slot-1: x8 - GeForce 8800 GT - 30" monitor for major tasks / gaming
Slot-2: x8 - Radeon X1900 XT - 2 x 20" monitors for minor tasks / programs
Slot-3: x4
Slot-4: x4
You still have the issue of the 8800 only running at x8 (if it even makes a difference, not sure). The benefit I see here is that instead of the X1900 XT dumping all of it's heat in to the 8800 GT (since heat rises) you have the 8800 GT on the bottom where it might run cooler. The X1900 XT would then also be limited to x8 but it's not even being used for gaming so it wouldn't matter at all. The X1900 XT is huge and would cover up Slot-3 but I don't use the other 2 slots so I don't mind.
*Option 3 (only works if Slot-3 can actually power an X1900 XT):*
Slot-1: x16 - GeForce 8800 GT - 30" monitor for major tasks / gaming
Slot-2: x1
Slot-3: x4 - Radeon X1900 XT - 2 x 20" monitors for minor tasks / programs
Slot-4: x4
This seems ideal only because this is the only setup that can get the 8800 to run at x16. The issue now is can Slot-3 run a high-power card? The card doesn't really NEED the power since it's just for running basic apps and not gaming. Again, the X1900 would cover up Slot-4 but it's not being used so no worries there.
*At the end of the day, the most important thing to figure out is:* where can high-power cards be installed in a first-gen mac pro? Once we know that we can figure out Question 2. The instructions that come with the 8800 GT say it can be installed in any of the 4 slots, but I don't know if I really believe that.
Thanks in advance for your help!

Thanks for your help, I think we've beat this horse to death :P. I'm glad I got it all figured out though.
Now the only question is if the gaming performance of the 8800 is actually enough better than the X1900 to warrant making it my "primary" video card. As long as Adobe CS3 apps don't rely on core image like some of the Apple Pro apps do I think it will be fine. If they do I'd have to probably just stick with the X1900 since I use CS3 every single day and only play video games once a week if I'm lucky.
What are your thoughts on the X1900 vs the 8800 GT for CS3?
Edit: This just occurred to me... Since I'm going to have to run them as x8, x8, x4, x4 there isn't really going to be a "primary" card since neither will be at 16x. I guess I could technically just plug my 30" monitor in to either one of them depending on what I feel like doing. If I'm going to play a game I just plug in to the 8800 and if I'm working I plug in to the 1900. The computer is up on the desk so moving the monitor from one card to the other takes about 10 seconds. I could just plug 1 20" monitor in to each so there's always a free DVI port on either one.
It's not the most elegant but I guess it would be a good compromise if I wanted the "best" performance in either situation. I realize the Radeon 3870 is probably the best of both worlds but I really don't want the noise. I already modified my 1900 with this after 6 months of listening to the lawn mower that was the stock 1900 cooler: http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=147
I'm just hoping the 8800 isn't too loud .

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

Replacing nvidia with ati in first gen mac pro

posted this in the using osx forum but realized this might be a better
place for this issue.
i'm debugging a problem system, a first gen mac pro, that has a 7300gt
in it. i also have a second gen mac pro that has no problems. i've
made many changes to the problem system and am coming down to my last
couple of options, one of which is swapping graphics cards. the problem
system is running an nvidia card, the problem-free box is running an ati
card. maybe a driver conflict in the nvidia driver?
the issue is that, on boot, my external sata box hangs when recognizing
the box's four channels. this does not happen on the second gen mac pro.
i'm down to the last three things:
graphics chipset differences
logic board differences between first, second gen
osx 10.4 vs osx 10.5
i'm now testing the graphics card as a possible solution. i've gotten
conflicting reports as to what graphics cards might work with a first
gen mac pro still running 10.4.11.
a tech told me that the 2600xt i have in my second gen will not work
in the first gen. on the other hand, someone here said they were using
one. will the 10.4.11 system have any necessary drivers for this card?
also, the 3870 has been recommended. i've also thought about the 4870.
i've also seen a lot of discussion about driver problems (that they're
unavailable) with regard to the 4870, that the drivers would be included
in a 10.5.7 update. if these drivers won't be available until 10.5.7,
it would seem i should stay away from the 4870 for now. but what about
the 3870? will my 10.4.11 system be able to use this card?
any info much appreciated,
BabaG

Trial and error, creative troubleshooting.
Take that one 4-drive RAID across two channels. What happens if all four are on the same channel? what if the firmware - there is firmware for the case, right?
Does Norco offer replacement PSUs?
Convert the Apple RAID to SoftRAID (I'd do that regardless anyway).
http://www.softraid.com
AND, their support people have helped me with multiple problems, even to help pin-point the er, "culprit" even when it was controller or drive (one vendor blamed Maxtor Atlas drive, then blamed Apple, we came out though showing it was their firmware on their controller card, and a new firmware was released 3 months later - it took me and SoftRAID weeks to nail it.
Some drives have delayed or staggered spinup, some do not. And some are optimized for RAID. You don't want to use drives that are not. And you want to test each drive before it is put into production (I would give a drive a week of testing before using any drive today).
Remember where SCSI controllers would also list what drives that they had certified for use with, and were known to work with? or which were not? You don't see that as much, but some do.
AMUG mentioned using the DS1220 with Sonnet Tempo E4P I think. Sonnet has their own line of rack mount storage. Get them in on the discussion. Try their controller after asking (Niel) what he thinks and knows about Norco.
You don't mention what you use or have done, but swapping out controllers, and having a spare or backup is often helpful. Even a "given."
Put a good watt meter (if it logs all the better) to see what kind of current draw or peak inrush your setup exhibit. Put the Mac and the storage rack on separate UPS, either APC SMART or RS800VA, and line conditioner (ZeroSurge).
12 x 25W and I'd probably want as large a PSU and high efficiency unit.

Mac Pro Graphics Cards

I am using an early Mac Pro 3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon with an NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT Graphics Card. I am thinking of upgrading my monitor to a 24" model with high resolution.
Can anyone give me advice on whether I need, or could benefit from, a new Graphics Card?
Any advice would be most appreciated.
YAGOM

The NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT graphics card has one dual-link DVI port that can handle a display up to 2560 x 1600, and one single-link DVI port that can handle up to 1920 x 1200, so unless you need more graphics speed, such as for games, you don't need a new graphics card.
Note: there is currently no way to use the new Apple 24" LED display with any Mac Pro graphics card.

Mac Pro Graphics Card causing freezes?

Hi there,
My 1st Gen Mac Pro keep freezing...most times requiring a restart. The freezes seem to occur when 'using' the graphics card (Nvidia 7300GT). Have completely reinstalled OSX and it still happens.
Hardware Test doesn't bring up a problem with the graphics card, but there are some weird black glitches which appear on text and also some windows acquire the ability to rub others out...? Also, on turning on, the computer sometimes shows just red, green random patches of colour. The problems seem to be getting gradually worse.
Monitor is fine (have tested with another and the same thing happens). The freezes have happened happen when doing the following...
1. Orbiting in Sketchup
2. Changing between windows in Finder
3. Scrolling through the Console Window (ironically in a failed attempt to find out what was wrong...)
4. Using the Space bar on a file on look at it quickly.
Does this sound like the GPU is shot? I have ordered a new 8800GT from the Apple Store in the meantime (we could always put it in another Mac Pro).
Has anyone encountered a similar problem before and if so, was there a fix?
Thanks,
n.b. the Mac Pro is not covered by AppleCare and is out of warranty.

Actually, the other thing which makes me suspicious is the appearance of the word 'nvidia' in the kernel panic log
Tue May 19 17:35:07 2009
panic(cpu 2 caller 0x00683643): NVRM[0]: Read Error 0x00009200: BAR0 0xf1000000 0x75e7f000 0x04b300a2 D3 P0/1
Backtrace (CPU 2), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x6d8974e8 : 0x12b4c6 (0x45ec20 0x6d89751c 0x13355c 0x0)
0x6d897538 : 0x683643 (0x8b3e20 0x8b3e20 0x8783ec 0x0)
0x6d897598 : 0x6c6054 (0x899b804 0x8d70004 0x9200 0x6bfa6a)
0x6d8975d8 : 0x94c46f (0x8d70004 0x9200 0x1 0x8f5a004)
0x6d8975f8 : 0x784f16 (0x8d70004 0x8b6b004 0x0 0x0)
0x6d897638 : 0x935cdf (0x8b6b004 0x514 0x514 0x1)
0x6d897678 : 0x741e63 (0x8d70004 0x8f5a004 0x0 0x0)
0x6d8976b8 : 0x7eadd1 (0x8d70004 0x8f5a004 0x0 0x0)
0x6d8976f8 : 0x75a59c (0x8d70004 0x5c2f 0x0 0x0)
0x6d897748 : 0x75a6b2 (0x8d70004 0x58187004 0xac00 0xd)
0x6d897768 : 0x914fd1 (0x8d70004 0x58187004 0xc 0x8b4b290)
0x6d8977c8 : 0x918b30 (0x8ae9204 0xac02 0x1 0x0)
0x6d897888 : 0x694413 (0x8d70004 0x3d 0x0 0x0)
0x6d897918 : 0x6813ec (0xc1d00021 0x8000000 0x41 0x2)
0x6d897a78 : 0x672dd8 (0x0 0x600d600d 0x703a 0x6d897aa8)
0x6d897b38 : 0x85b2ec (0xc1d00021 0x8000000 0x41 0x2)
Backtrace continues...
Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.nvidia.nv40hal(5.4.4)@0x8c9000->0xa93fff
dependency: com.apple.NVDAResman(5.4.4)@0x66a000
com.apple.NVDAResman(5.4.4)@0x66a000->0x8c8fff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(1.7.3)@0x65c000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.6)@0x62e000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(1.7.3)@0x63f000
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task
Mac OS version:
9J61
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.7.0: Tue Mar 31 22:52:17 PDT 2009; root:xnu-1228.12.14~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: MacPro1,1 (Mac-F4208DC8)
System uptime in nanoseconds: 766414544582
unloaded kexts:
com.apple.driver.AppleHDAPlatformDriver 1.6.8a3 - last unloaded 80521838742
loaded kexts:
com.apple.driver.AppleHWSensor 1.9d0 - last loaded 12655794675
com.apple.filesystems.autofs 2.0.2
com.apple.driver.AppleHDAPlatformDriver 1.6.8a3
com.apple.driver.iTunesPhoneDriver 1.0
com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient 2.7.5
com.apple.driver.AppleHDA 1.6.8a3
com.apple.GeForce 5.4.4
com.apple.DontSteal_Mac_OSX 6.0.3
com.apple.nvidia.nv40hal 5.4.4
com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController 1.6.8a3
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireIP 1.7.7
com.apple.driver.AudioIPCDriver 1.0.6
com.apple.driver.AppleMCEDriver 1.1.7
com.apple.driver.ACPISMCPlatformPlugin 3.4.0d10
com.apple.driver.AppleLPC 1.2.12
com.apple.driver.AppleTyMCEDriver 1.0.0d28
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBMassStorageClass 2.0.6
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHIDMouse 1.2.3f1
com.apple.driver.AppleHIDKeyboard 1.0.8b1
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMergeNub 3.4.3
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIMultimediaCommandsDevice 2.0.9
com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient 2.0.9
com.apple.driver.XsanFilter 2.7.91
com.apple.iokit.IOATAPIProtocolTransport 1.5.2
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage 1.2.1
com.apple.driver.AppleFileSystemDriver 1.1.0
com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI 3.8.2
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelPIIXATA 2.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort 1.6.0
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHub 3.4.0
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBUserClient 3.3.1
com.apple.driver.AppleIntel8254XEthernet 2.1.2b1
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEHCI 3.4.3
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBUHCI 3.3.5
com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM 1.2.0
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons 1.2.4
com.apple.driver.AppleRTC 1.2.3
com.apple.driver.AppleHPET 1.4
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPCI 1.2.4
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS 1.4
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC 1.2.4
com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC 1.4
com.apple.security.seatbelt 107.12
com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall 1.6.77
com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet 3
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement 76.0.0
com.apple.driver.DiskImages 199
com.apple.BootCache 30.4
com.apple.driver.DspFuncLib 1.6.8a3
com.apple.NVDAResman 5.4.4
com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport 1.7.3
com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily 1.7.3
com.apple.iokit.IOHDAFamily 1.6.8a3
com.apple.iokit.IOAudioFamily 1.6.9fc3
com.apple.kext.OSvKernDSPLib 1.1
com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginFamily 3.4.0d10
com.apple.driver.AppleSMC 2.2.1d2
com.apple.driver.AppleHIDMouse 1.2.3f1
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver 3.2.2
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBComposite 3.2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIBlockCommandsDevice 2.0.9
com.apple.iokit.IOBDStorageFamily 1.5
com.apple.iokit.IODVDStorageFamily 1.5
com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily 1.5
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily 2.0.9
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily 3.4.7
com.apple.iokit.IOATAFamily 2.0.1
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily 1.5.0
com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily 1.6.1
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily 3.4.3
com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime 1.2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily 1.1
com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily 1.5.6
com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily 1.5.5
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform 1.2.4
com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily 2.6
com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily 1.2.0

MacBook Pro i5 vs First Gen Mac Pro

I have a first generation Mac Pro, 2 x 2.66 Ghz as well as a Mac Book Pro, 2.2 Intel Core 2 Duo. I was thinking about selling both of them and consolidating to a new MacBook Pro i5. Will the new MBP i5's performance be equal to or exceed my current Mac Pro?

Ok, it looks like the MacBook Pro i7 does generally out perform the first generation Mac Pro.
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/4374/geekbench.jpg
Looks like I'll be getting the i7.

1st gen Mac Pro graphics glitches and unresponsive

I'm not sure if this is related to
a) Snow Leopard
b) Safari 5
c) something else
but after recent updates I get graphics glitches, such as in Safari, lines across the browser window, not on particular content, it might be pure HTML (the old kind) and can be flash, or multimedia...
When using Final Cut (6) I get some weird graphics related errors from time to time, and after hours of editing suddenly my computer stops, becomes "frozen" (I have the clock in the menu bar set to show seconds and they stop) I have to do a hard-reboot to get anything back.
And the thing that happened now, which makes me post this thread is I was doing some web development, while watching some iTunes U movies, suddenly I had green graphical artifacts over the screen(s) and the computer froze.
Is anyone else out there experiencing this, perhaps found the source of the problem ?
My console reports 2 things that doesn't seem too "serious" TimeMachine finished doing a backup successfully and mDNSresponder got a "Bad DDNS browsing domain: (unknown)" just before the latest break down.

Sorry you're having this issue. It is a common issue and I have it as well. I ended up replacing my card which fixed the problem but, after 6 months, the problem is back.
There is something nasty with the Mac Pro's and graphic cards it seems. My first card was a NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT and now I'm having trouble with the ATI Radeon HD 2600.
I'm trying to get to the bottom of the problem... no luck so far... I'm not interested in replacing the card if it's going to happen again 6 months down the road and I'm not interested in buying a new computer either.
Any luck with your problem?
Saki

Which MAC Pro graphics card and how much RAM for FCE HD usage?

I plan on purchasing a MAC Pro afer MacWorld Expo next month. Any recommendations for a specific graphics card that would complement my usage of Final Cut Express HD 3.5?
Also, should I increase my RAM? I currently use 2 gb of RAM on my G4. Will I see greater productivity if I bump it up to 4gb of RAM on the MAC Pro or will 2gb suffice which I had planned to increase it to from the standard 1gb supplied?
PowerMAC G4 dual 1.42ghz Mac OS X (10.4.7) 2gb RAM, 3-LaCie FW800 external drives
PowerMAC G4 dual 1.42ghz Mac OS X (10.4.7) 2gb RAM, 3-LaCie FW800 external drives

Any of the graphics cards that Apple sells for the Mac Pro will be fine. Personally, I'd suggest choosing one with at least 128MB video RAM, 256MB would be better.
2GB RAM in your Mac Pro will be more than enough for general purpose video editing. Going to 4GB will give you more oomph for RealTime effects and somewhat for rendering but you won't see a big difference in regard to capturing or general editing in the timeline.

Mac Pro Graphics card and Motion 5

I purchased my Mac Pro in 2007, It is 2x 2.66 GHz dual core with 12 GB 667 MHz DDR2 F8-DIMM
My grahpics card is Radeon X1900.
Is this sufficient for Motion 5 and will I see a difference in speed, etc from Motion 4.
Also, is it possible to upgrade my graphics card to say, ATI 4870 to improve graphic performance all around? I have a real problem with complex graphics and usually cannot see them in full render until I compress the project.
Thanks,
Sandra

Any of the graphics cards that Apple sells for the Mac Pro will be fine. Personally, I'd suggest choosing one with at least 128MB video RAM, 256MB would be better.
2GB RAM in your Mac Pro will be more than enough for general purpose video editing. Going to 4GB will give you more oomph for RealTime effects and somewhat for rendering but you won't see a big difference in regard to capturing or general editing in the timeline.

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

Mac pro graphics card

I found some places in the internet saying that with the new Mac OSX 10.8.3 update, the Mac Pro can now use some Graphics Card from PC computers. Is it true, and which cards are supported?
I know that there are two new card with Mac Edition: EVGA Nvidia GTX 680 Mac Edition, and the Radeon HD 7950 for Mac. But these are made for Mac. I want to know about the regular ones for PC.
Thanks!

Thanks for all the answers!
kaz-k:
I was aware of the netkas site, but i'm kinda noob in this matter. It has tons of infos, but for someone starting it doesn't have a "crash course" to begin.
jamie763p:
What do you mean by a fainted-heart process? Did you have to flash the cards for them to work? Or just to get the boot screen?
If I get a GTX680 PC Edition, will it work without problems, just like the Mac Edition (except for the boot screen)? Even for the 4gb one? Plug and play? The cables supplied with the PC Edition will do? Or should I get other cables?
The hatter:
I have a small video production, mainly using FCP7, After Effects CS6 (all Adobe collection actually). Using AE CS6 with Element3D, and others things.
The new card would help a lot with the use and render of these things.
For this it's best with Nvidia, right? Or the Radeon?
I don't mind for the boot screen.
Thank you all!

Ugrade first gen mac pro graphics card

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