Anyone know which video cards are available/supported/will work on the Mac Pro (Original) from December 2006 also known as MacPro1,1 in the system profiler?
Mac – What video cards are compatible with Mac Pro (Original) 1,1
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There are very few video cards that will work with the Mac Pro 2,1. When Steam was released in early 2010 and I realized that the stock video card did not have enough power to run Steam games, I searched for a replacement. I ended up purchasing the nVidia GeForce 8800 GT 512MB Video Card from a vendor on eBay. It wasn't especially cheap; it cost me about $260.
My criteria were as follows:
- Must provide more graphics power than the card it was replacing.
- Must be a drop-in replacement for the stock card; I did not want to mess about with stuff like reflashing the ROM on a card that was intended for Windows machines, for example.
- Not obscenely expensive. The card that I bought really pushed the limit; I had originally wanted to spend no more than $150.
The 8800 GT provided enough power to run Steam games, and also improved screen redraws for everyday work, including my light-duty work in Photoshop and InDesign. Though the 8800 GT is a couple of generations back in terms of the hard-core gamer crowd, it should serve well as a more-powerful replacement for the stock card.
I'm pleased with the result, as it has allowed me to extend the operational life of my Mac Pro.
Yes it will! Just tried it with success!
My largest indicator that it would work was by reviewing high reputation eBay sellers who where selling similar cards and claiming a wide range of Mac Pros.
Successfully transfered the Airport Extreme Card from the Mac Pro 2006 in to a Mac Pro 2008
I have the following Airport Extreme Card that identifies itself in System Information as :
Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x8C)
Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.131.36.11)
The card as pictured is:
Installation Note: There were 3 wires to choose from inside the Mac Pro (Both models), labeled 1,2,3. The longest one I thought was for the Bluetooth module, clearly not the case in the Mac Pro 2008. Anyways, I connected the shortest wire to the top antenna port and the middle length to the lower antenna port on the Airport Extreme Card. Test working great, with this configuration and logic. This is the same logic I used when I initially installed the card in the 2006 Mac Pro as well. Not really sure what the long length cable is for as pictured below.
I would assume this would be for a true 802.11n card since those had 3 antennas in their spec?
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Best Answer
"Available", "supported", and "will work" are three very different things.
The officially compatible video cards for the original (1,1) Mac Pro are:
These are the only cards that are supported in an original Mac Pro. Unfortunately, most are not particularly available any more. Apple no longer sells any of these cards, except the Quadro FX family (which is super-expensive and not consumer-oriented). I believe most, if not all, of the above officially supported cards are all Apple-specific variants. There are various non-Apple versions of the above, which may or may not work in a Mac Pro, depending on firmware compatibility (sometimes it is possible to program a Mac-compatible version of the firmware into a non-Apple card's non-volatile flash, thus enabling the use of a non-Apple version in the Mac Pro). But the bottom line is that it is not really possible to purchase these cards anymore (except for the super-expensive Quadro FX and maybe a small quantity of the others that can be found used on Amazon or eBay).
That said, there is at least one other card that is currently (as of Summer 2011) available that will work in an original Mac Pro. Although it is not listed as being officially compatible (and therefore not officially supported), there are numerous accounts in the Apple online store from customers who have reported that the ATI Radeon HD 5770 works just fine out-of-the-box in their original Mac Pros. I too purchased one from a local Apple Store and installed it in my original Mac Pro (running OS X 10.6.7), so I can state for a fact that this card does work just fine, and it doesn't require any hacking (no drivers to install, no firmware to be flashed) -- it just works right out of the box. It also performs quite a bit better than the older officially compatible cards. It also works just fine in Windows under Boot Camp (after downloading and installing the Boot Camp drivers from the ATI/AMD website).
The only caveat (and it is a very minor one) is that the installation instructions that accompany the card deviate somewhat from what is actually required in the original Mac Pro, due to minor variations between the internals of the older Mac Pros and the newer ones. For instance, the instructions mention sliding a PCI cage (to move a retention bracket), but the bracket is not present, and the cage doesn't move in the original Mac Pro (each PCI slot has it's own small retention "clip" instead). Also, the power connector on the motherboard is in a different location in the original Mac Pro.
If you do some research, you will find various other reports of users having success with other cards (especially various ATI Radeon variants). Oftentimes, it involves updating the firmware (flashing). However, the Radeon HD 5770 is the only currently available card I am aware of that will work out of the box.