nVidia 8800 GT

thunderclap · Apr 17, 2008, 11:34 AM

The nVidia 8800 GT graphics card was finally released for first gen Mac Pro's. I've ordered one to replace the aging (and loud) ATI Radeon 9800XT.

I know that the 8800 is DV10.0 compliant on the PC so I assume this card will be DX10.0 compliant if booted into Vista via Boot Camp, correct? Also, what is the difference between DX10.1 and DX10.0?

**dj_stick** · Apr 20, 2008, 07:33 PM

don't know what the difference between the DX variants are, but the stock mac pro 3,1 8800GT works as dX10 in vista on my mac pro, so the 8800gt for the older mac pros should too

Necrosis · Apr 26, 2008, 10:11 PM

Interesting so it's a AGP part. If so I wonder how it would fair in my G4?

Lowfat · Apr 26, 2008, 10:38 PM

O NO! I didn't catch that before. If you have a PowerMac G5 and it isn't the PCIe model the card will not work. The 8800GT is only PCI express. You should be able to return the card though.

Necrosis · Apr 26, 2008, 10:41 PM

I only do 2D stuff any w/ the G4 so not like it would be a huge improvement for what I do. Still would of been a nice upgrade from what is in there now. I hardly use it so I should find it a good home.

thunderclap · Apr 27, 2008, 10:10 AM

The card is only for Intel-based Mac's. PowerMac's are not compatible. But two different cards exist: one for the first generation (06/07 Mac Pro) and one for the second generation (08 Mac Pro). Be sure you get the right one.

I got mine yesterday and it works like a breeze. Love it!

**dj_stick** · Apr 27, 2008, 07:47 PM

if the powermac has PCIe graphics then it *should* work, but apple won't support it

fobis · Apr 29, 2008, 12:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dj_stick

if the powermac has PCIe graphics then it *should* work, but apple won't support it

Unfortunately, that's not true. The video cards need to be flashed with a special BIOS if you want it to work on a PPC platform. And this only worked with cards up to the ATi Radeon 9800 Pro or nVidia 6800GT, i believe; since there really haven't been any better cards introduced to the PowerMac.

**dj_stick** · Apr 29, 2008, 07:00 AM

i know you had to flash the bios of the stock early 2008 GT to get it to work on earlier mac pros (and to get other GT cards to work on the early 2008 mac pro) but i didn't realise apple had given the 1333mhz bus mac pro's GT yet another custom bios, but as for the OS - if you install Leopard it will have the drivers for the 8800