Mac Pro and PC Graphics Cards

After reading the threads here and other forums, I decided to try a PC graphics card in my MP3,1 (Mavericks) which has the stock HD 2600 XT graphics card driving two monitors (Dell U2711 at 2560x1440 and a HP ZR24W at 1920x1200).

Since I'm a hackintoshing type of guy, I'm familiar with Tom's H/W site's Graphics Hierarchy Chart which is updated monthly. The HD 2600 XT is shown in the same "tier" as HD4000 (Intel's Integrated Graphics)!

The AMD/ATI 5770 is 11 "tiers" higher than the 2600 graphics card! Since I have a PC Gigabyte HD 5770 "Batmobile" on the shelf, I installed it in Slot 2, keeping the 2600 with it connected to the HP monitor while the 5770 was connected to the Dell U2711 via the DVI connector. Works great!

(For those of you not familar with Gigabyte's 5770, the fan shroud looks like Batman's Batmobile.)

I also have an EVGA GTX 650 Ti card that I'll try later. It's another 4 "tiers" higher than the Batmobile. Both the 5770 and 650 Ti require the 6 pin PCIe power cable.

However, what's intriguing is the new GTX 740 GDDR5 graphics card which uses the same GK107 GPU as the 640/650 cards and only needs 64 watts total power. Unfortunately, the GTX 740 GDDR5 model does require the PCIe power connection. The GTX 740 GDDR5 graphics card is on the same "tier" as the 5770, and a new GTX 740 GDDR5 graphics card costs ~$120 USD or less.

What I'm really waiting for is support in OS X for the 750/800m nVidia chipset as the GTX 750 graphics cards, too, don't require a PCIe power connection either. The GTX 750 Ti is on the same "tier" as the HD 4870 X2, 6970, 7850 and R7 265 graphics cards. Hmmm, I'm thinking the Gigabyte GTX 750 Ti just might be a winner provided Apple supports it in the future.

Meanwhile, the Batmobile and HD 2600 XT are serving my MP3,1 well, thank you.

Stork,

I have a 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 2.66 GHZ Quad Core system that has the original NVIDIA GeForce GT 120. I do photographic processing with LightRoom and Photoshop and light video work with iMovie. I use a Dell 2407WFP monitor and want to add a second monitor. What would you suggest as the best graphic card upgrade? I can either keep the original card and add a second or replace the original card. Would love to exploit CUDA with Photoshop. The goal is to get to two or more monitors.

From what little I know about Adobe products and CUDA, I have been under the impression that the AMD/ATI cards give the best performance for your needs. I recommend you check out the MacRumor's forum for Mac Pro's for seek the answer to your question. Lot's of discussion of graphics cards, especially PC graphics cards there. And links to the latest nVidia drivers.

http://forums.macrumors.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1

I'm not sure they're big fans of Hackintosh on macrumors, lol. I've bought a Mac Pro 3.1 as they were going cheap on eBay. I always lusted after one but could never afford one until now. There is something about using a genuine Mac. I've upgraded the memory to 16GB 800mhz and added a HD 6870 PC gfx card that'd been been flashed for Mac so I get a boot screen on my 42 inch HD TV that I use as a monitor.

I love it, it must be the aluminium. lol. I've still got my Hackintosh as a back up. I've been using Macs since the clone days, I had a Humax S9000 until Jobs kiboshed the clones. Went through the Exif malarkey and ended up with the Tonymacx86 install method and tools. That kept me with my Mac stuff on my dual boot gaming rig, i7 2600K, 16GB 1600 mhz ram, GTX 760. It's faster than the Mac 3.1, do I notice? No. My Hackintosh paid for itself with one editing job I did on it with FCP Studio 7. Do I need SSD pci on my Mac 3.1? No, 1 TB 7200 works fine, I don't mind waiting a minute for boot.

I was going to buy a 2014 Mac Mini but ended up with the Mac Pro. 3.1, I'm glad I did.

YMMV

stevekr said:

I'm not sure they're big fans of Hackintosh on macrumors, lol...

Click to expand...

There's a couple of hackintosh threads in the MacRumors Mac Pro forum section, but it's for Mac Pro's. However, there is a sticky thread and other threads that talk to using PC cards in Mac Pro's, so you can learn a lot about the compatibility of the cards with OS X.

stevekr said:

...I was going to buy a 2014 Mac Mini but ended up with the Mac Pro. 3.1, I'm glad I did.

Click to expand...

Concur! My two Mac Pros are my "production" systems - 2008 Mac Pro (3,1) with a flashed PC Sapphire 7950 Reference Design card and a 2010 Mac Pro with the Mac 5770 graphics card.