Hi all,

I would like to get some opinions on whether I should upgrade my current Mac Pro to the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT. I currently have a NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT on my Mac Pro 2.66 GHz Xenon. I have been waiting to upgrade my graphics card and I am wondering if I should spend $314.00 for the new card.

I currently get around 30 fps with the 7300, which is disappointing. Will the new card greatly increase my fps in WoW?

Thanks for your thoughts
Teylaa

it will be a huge upgrade from the 7300. i have the x1900xt and even i want it. mainly for playing windows games and not wanting to fuss with a video for each OS. it is marked up a good $75 from PC versions but that's pretty reasonable considering how bad apple has overcharged in the past. the 2600XT is a lot closer to the PC versions price.

the 8800gt will require 10.5.2 to work, the opengl framework and nvidia drivers in 10.5.2 (out any day/week now, my guess is MWSF next week). i'm sure whatever 10.5.1 build is shipping with the new Mac Pros will include the new drivers, but other people will have to wait for 10.5.2.

im 99.99% sure if you simply put a 8800gt in any Mac Pro (first gen) it will work as long as you have 10.5.2 or somehow get the drivers and framework off a (new) Mac Pro user.

I'm inclined to agree with Mewgirl on this point.

The "version currently shipping" is at present not shipping at all. By the time it does the proper drivers should be available.

PCIe was intended at it's conception to be fully forward and backward compatible with other versions of the standard. I can't believe that Apple would stray from the ranch on this.

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Q u o t e:
Hi all,

I would like to get some opinions on whether I should upgrade my current Mac Pro to the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT. I currently have a NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT on my Mac Pro 2.66 GHz Xenon. I have been waiting to upgrade my graphics card and I am wondering if I should spend $314.00 for the new card.

I currently get around 30 fps with the 7300, which is disappointing. Will the new card greatly increase my fps in WoW?

Thanks for your thoughts
Teylaa

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Quoting from barefeats.com

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Q u o t e:
"ALERT TO OWNERS OF "OLD" MAC PROS! (CORRECTED)
The GeForce 8800 GT is *NOT* compatible with the older Mac Pro (August 2006, April 2007) as we assumed. I've been informed that GeForce 8800 GT uses an EFI64 ROM, the old Mac Pros "expect" an EFI32 ROM.

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Now it could be at some point after Macworld there will be a firmware update. But at this point it won't work. Just wait and see what happens.

Is there anything that first generation Mac Pro users can do to help expediate this process of getting the new nvidia card to work for us?

I know Blizzard has helped in the past to get the ATI thermal issues resolved, but since this is not really an issue other than compatibilty, I don't see us, the user/consumer, having as much of a voice since nothing is "broken."

Please advise if this is otherwise.

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Q u o t e:
Won't go into too many details other than to say we have a fair number of the 2006 model Mac Pro in house and we're not just idly wondering about the video card upgrade path situation. There's a discussion going on.

Note that the new machines ordered with 8800GT aren't actually shipping for at least three weeks, we'll see where our discussions lead in the meantime.

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Wow, a blue that's actually awesome.

Seriously guys, give them hell.

From a technical standpoint there's no reason this card won't work with our 2006 Mac Pros.

Worse case scenario is that the new Mac Pros are using UEFI 2.1 firmware. If that is the case then they can issue a flash upgrade for us.

I just can't believe Apple is going to leave its pro users stuck with a card that was out dated at its time of release (X1900). This is just ludicrous and inexcusable. Can't you just feel the righteous indignation dripping from my post?

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Q u o t e:
Won't go into too many details other than to say we have a fair number of the 2006 model Mac Pro in house and we're not just idly wondering about the video card upgrade path situation. There's a discussion going on.

Note that the new machines ordered with 8800GT aren't actually shipping for at least three weeks, we'll see where our discussions lead in the meantime.

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Thanks for the quick reply. I know I can count on the Blizzard Mac Support Team. I'll be lurking for the next 3 weeks and hope to find a sticky or update to the graphics card thread.

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Q u o t e:
Won't go into too many details other than to say we have a fair number of the 2006 model Mac Pro in house and we're not just idly wondering about the video card upgrade path situation. There's a discussion going on.

Note that the new machines ordered with 8800GT aren't actually shipping for at least three weeks, we'll see where our discussions lead in the meantime.

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I agree with Serge. . . GIVE THEM HELL BLUE. . . .

It's one thing to leave us stuck with the hugely crappy, buggy, faulty ATI X1900XT . . .

and give customers max resistance on RMAs. .

It's entirely another thing to keep us pinned and chained to this craptastic card for eternity. . .

Kick ass and take names BLUE!
Beat them into submisison and do not take no for an answer.

i'm just going to get a PC 8800GTS for the same price as the apple card and put my x1900xt in the second slot. not worth paying the premium for an apple blessed card, that may or may not work, when i don't even play any games in OS X. WoW is the only game out there that USED to perform better on the mac side. well, leopard sure ruined that and i've pretty much quit wow anyway so my gaming is exclusively done in windows. i'll keep the x1900 in there for OS X and have the 8800 for windows.

That`s not a bad idea Dikfor. I'm also very annoyed/disappointed that I won't be able to upgrade to the 8800 (as for now, maybe that will change). That being said, and that I never used boot camp yet, how would that work? Two monitors or switch the cable on the cards every time I log a different system? Also, could anyone share their wow or any other game performance under boot camp windows?

Many thanks

Here is the information I have gathered so far, but I have no not been able to verify all of it.

The old Mac Pro and ATI Radeon x1900 XT are PCI-Express 1.0 and requires an additional power connector.
The new Mac Pro and nVidia Geforce 8800 GT are PCI-Express 2.0 and does not require an additional power connector. As well, I do not believe the nVidia Geforce 8800 GT has an additional power connector since the PCI-Express 2.0 slots give the extra power.

Apparently to make the card work in the old Mac Pro, it would need the additional power adapter soldered on and the firmware upgrade applied, if needed.

Apple just posted a tech note or something alike saying they are not compatible with the current macpros, just the new ones. I`ll edit in a sec with the link to it.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305346

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Q u o t e:
Apple just posted a tech note or something alike saying they are not compatible with the current macpros, just the new ones. I`ll edit in a sec with the link to it.

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That is absolute crap... one of the reasons that I bought a Mac Pro because I wanted to eventually upgrade its graphics card. Now, Apple has made this impossible with their crappy firmware blocking techniques. I hope you folks at Blizz are successful at convincing Apple that us early Mac Pro owners deserve an upgrade path.

There are several threads on Apple's boards about this issue. The links are posted below:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6309191#6309191

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1333739&tstart=0

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1331147&tstart=0

Hopefully we can get enough people to speak up and just maybe Apple will listen.

True, please give them hell. Helllllll I say. I want to upgrade my gcard so much and be able to run both windows and osx on the same one. =(

I too hope this is resolved soon - its up to Apple.

I know people who run the PC version of the 8800 GT / GTX as a separate card just for windows games in bootcamp. I thought about it myself - but was just waiting to see what the new revs brought to the table. I would prefer to just replace my ATI - since I do spend most of my time in OS X and not bootcamp.

I got the Mac Pro for its upgradability - and now this issue comes up. :-(

The current ATI I have drives WOW @ 2560x1600 pretty well - some other games that have recently come out struggle at that res and I need to turn the settings down.

Even if Apple says i need to be running 10.5.2 and do another firmware upgrade - I'm fine with that. I just want the new GPU since that is where my current bottleneck is.

Here's hoping Blizzard can help voice its concerns here - I know Apple likes you guys A LOT and you seem to have a good relationship.

http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/01/11/8800gt.not.for.old.pros/

We're getting a Mac news site's attention with this issue :)

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Q u o t e:
Here is the information I have gathered so far, but I have no not been able to verify all of it.

The old Mac Pro and ATI Radeon x1900 XT are PCI-Express 1.0 and requires an additional power connector.
The new Mac Pro and nVidia Geforce 8800 GT are PCI-Express 2.0 and does not require an additional power connector. As well, I do not believe the nVidia Geforce 8800 GT has an additional power connector since the PCI-Express 2.0 slots give the extra power.

Apparently to make the card work in the old Mac Pro, it would need the additional power adapter soldered on and the firmware upgrade applied, if needed.

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This is all wrong. Apple is using a straight up 8800GT reference card, which means it has the power connector on it.

We would, however, need either:

A) An upgrade to UEFI 2.10
B) The 8800GT to provide a 32-Bit EFI extension instead of a 64-Bit one.

I know this is a long shot, but please, sign the petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/geforce8800