• Apple OS X

  Is it possible to run a Mac Pro without PCI-E graphics

  Posted by Eli Garrett on June 13, 2014 at 1:17 am

  I have a Mac Pro 1,1 running 10.6 acting as my video file server, unfortunately I have maxed out the number of PCI-E lanes available, But I need to add another network card to expand its capacity, Since it acts as a server I only use its monitor for admin functions, not very often. To free up some PCI-E lanes could I pull out the graphics card and attach a USB graphics card like Diamond BVU195 in its place? I am not sure if Apple requires there graphics card to be in place for the system to run. Does anyone know if this would work?

  Also if anyone has any recommendations on a USB Graphics card for mac I am open to suggestions?

  https://www.diamondmm.com/bvu195-diamond-external-video-display-adapter.html

  Eli Garrett replied 11 years, 11 months ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

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  John Davidson

  June 15, 2014 at 10:45 pm

  Our Mac Pro server currently has no graphics card. It DOES have an iCloud account, so when I need to access it I screen share into it through finder from another mac at the office over the network. You might not really even need the iCloud account. One caveat, once you’ve turned on screen sharing in settings, DO NOT TURN IT OFF. You’ll have to dismantle everything and put a graphics card back in it to reenable screen sharing. That happened once when I wasn’t thinking about what I was doing and it sucked.

  Bob Zelin always yells at me about this, but it works, so there you go.

  John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.
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  Eli Garrett

  June 16, 2014 at 12:11 pm

  Thanks John,

  Its good to know this is an option, and that someone else has tried it out.

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