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Graphics Card Upgrade for MacPro 1,1
Hello Cow Community,
I’ve been doing some research and am finding it tough in keeping with a budget for a graphics card upgrade to my Mac Pro Intel-Xeon.
Here are the specs on it.
Model Identifier: MacPro1,1 (2006)
Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3 GHz
# Of Processors: 2
Total # of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
RAM: 8gb
And the video card is an NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT PCIe
VRAM: 256 MBThe budget I’m looking to stay in is $150 and I know about the NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 Graphics 512MB, but I’m not a fan of the mini display port that means I’ll have to get an adapter. I read a review on the apple site how it can throw off color correction and I use two dvi monitors to run Final Cut 7.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I was looking to stay with Nvidia, but if a better option is more logical then I’m open.
Thanks in advance.
-Thurman
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3 Replies
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You are at a dead end. All the new cards are PCI 2, and you have PCI 1 slot none of the NVIDIA will work properly.
The new PCI 2 ATI cards like the 4780 (or 4870 I get confused) is a PCI 2 but with ATI they seem to work fine, at as fast as in newer system but faster than the older cards. For that budget you would have to get a PC version and flash the firmware, read success stories but I don’t think that is for the timid.
Color cannot work with 2 cards, no problem with dual monitors on the same card.
For Color and Motion right now ATI cards are better. You may want to try to find an ATI X1900 that is used for about $100 but graphic cards are not really a thing I would buy used and the new X1900 is more than the 4870/4780?.
Don’t worry to much about the port there are adapters.
All that to be said you (and I’m in the same boat) are at a dead end with those systems, they still work fine but there is not much up grades for them, with CS5 and eventually when the next FCS comes out, they need the new video cards to really fly, software will work but just not at full speed. I would save the money and get really to buy a new system within the year.
My 2 cents
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The 2006 Mac Pro uses EFI32, which really limits your graphics card options. In addition to ATI’s 1900 XT, the ATI Radeon 3870 is supposedly backwards compatible with your Mac Pro 1.1 model. Apple released a custom NVIDIA 8800 GT for the 2006 Mac Pro, but good luck finding one.
The 2008 models use EFI64, and have much broader compatibility.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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I have a never used ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT pulled from an early 2008 Mac Pro, which apparently is compatible. Not sure if it’s enough of an upgrade but you can contact me off list if interested- davebergan at gmail.com
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