I just installed Vista Ultimate 64 in the Boot Camp generated partition of a 8-core Mac Pro 3.2GHz. Then I pulled the Radeon HD 2600 XT out and replaced it with a PC compatible BFG nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX (768MB - overclocked) - which, by the way, requires two power feeds. Thankfully I had two proprietary power cords from Apple and the motherboard has two 6 pin power feeds. The GeForce 8800 GTX booted up just fine with Vista as the default boot volume. I've installed the latest driver from nVidia. It's running at 2560x1600 on the 30' Cinema.
I have myself a BFG Tech GeForce 9800 GTX (BFGR98512GTXE) that I. I've replaced iMac G5 caps before, so I might be able to pull it off if. As you can see, the new 9800 GTX puts up the best 3DMark06 score of any single-GPU based graphics card. And in SLI-mode it outpaced all other NVIDIA-powered setups.
The NVIDIA® GeForce® 9800 GTX-based graphics card raises the performance bar. With 128 cores, it sets a new standard for price and performance by offering.
Next I'm going to run some gaming benchmarks and report back. Click to expand.The Mac version of the GeForce 8800 GT is plug and play for Mac OS X. You'll need the correct drivers for Vista booting up on a Boot Camp partition. In our case, we're waiting for our Mac version of the GeForce 8800 GT kit to arrive (sometime in early March). So since we had a PC version of the GeForce 8800 GTX 'laying around,' we decided to install it and see if the Vista partition could boot it.
We just finished benchmarking Prey at 1920x1200 'High Quality.' We get 155 frames per second. Compare that the a Radeon X1900 XT under Mac OS X on the same 3.2GHz Mac Pro. It attains only 64 frames per second. It's just an experiment to show the potential if Apple were to offer a high end version of the GeForce 8800 series. The Mac version of the GeForce 8800 GT is plug and play for Mac OS X.
You'll need the correct drivers for Vista booting up on a Boot Camp partition. In our case, we're waiting for our Mac version of the GeForce 8800 GT kit to arrive (sometime in early March).
So since we had a PC version of the GeForce 8800 GTX 'laying around,' we decided to install it and see if the Vista partition could boot it. We just finished benchmarking Prey at 1920x1200 'High Quality.' We get 155 frames per second.
Compare that the a Radeon X1900 XT under Mac OS X on the same 3.2GHz Mac Pro. It attains only 64 frames per second. It's just an experiment to show the potential if Apple were to offer a high end version of the GeForce 8800 series. I wanted to mention that the max wattage of the 8800 GT is 110. As for the 8800 GTX, the 178 watt rating is extrapolated from the fact that a stock GTX draws 165 watts and our sample is overclocked to match the core frequencies of the Quadro FX 5600 (which uses the same chip set and is rated at 178 watts - and also uses two PCIe power leads).
But that's good news. Someone on the Apple Discussions wanted to know if they could install both a GeForce 8800 GT and GeForce 8800 GTX in their Mac Pro '2008' (one for OS X, one for Vista 64).
The answer is 'YES,' since the total wattage the two cards draw is 288 - which is under the 300 watt limit for the PCIe bus. However, you will need to find a third power source for the GeForce 8800 GT since the GTX uses up the two PCIe power connectors on the motherboard. The solution is to get a generic PCIe power cord (4 pin molex on one end, 6 pin PCIe on the other) from Xconnect and plug it into the power lead in the lower, unused optical drive bay. Click to expand.Anandtech explains how the G92 is derived from the G80: And the same article has benchmarks showing that the stock clocked GTX is always faster than a stock clocked GT, but not by much: Our GTX is overclocked to compete with the Quadro FX 5600 so it's not necessarily a fair comparison to the stock clocked GeForce 8800 GT. Bottomline is that the 8800 GT uses much less power than the GTX and is only slightly slower than a stock clocked GTX. Apple made the right choice in terms of cost vs speed and power draw vs speed.
Click to expand.You read it right. The 8800 GT isn't that much slower than a normally clocked GTX but my sample is overclocked. It's only an experiment by 'the mad scientist.' I intend to replace the Radeon HD 2600 XT with a GeForce 8800 GT kit I ordered. As for flashing the 8800 GTX with Mac ROM code, I understand that the chipset is the same as the Quadro FX 5600. I'm told that the 8800 GT code won't work. You would need to flash the GTX with the Quadro code if you want a 'killer' GPU for gaming on both Mac and PC.
CUDA Application Support: In order to run Mac OS X Applications that leverage the CUDA architecture of certain NVIDIA graphics cards, users will need to download and install the 7.5.20 driver for Mac located New in Release 346.03.02f01:. Graphics driver updated for Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11 (15A284). Contains performance improvements and bug fixes for a wide range of applications.
Includes NVIDIA Driver Manager preference pane. Includes BETA support for iMac and MacBook Pro systems with NVIDIA graphics Release Notes Archive: This driver update is for Mac Pro 5,1 (2010), Mac Pro 4,1 (2009) and Mac Pro 3,1 (2008) users. BETA support is for iMac 14,2 / 14,3 (2013), iMac 13,1 / 13,2 (2012) and MacBook Pro 11,3 (2013), MacBook Pro 10,1 (2012), and MacBook Pro 9,1 (2012) users. MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS for Driver Release 346.03.02f01.
Model identifier should be Mac Pro 5,1 (2010), Mac Pro 4,1 (2009) or Mac Pro 3,1 (2008). Mac OS X v10.11 (15A284) To download and install the drivers, follow the steps below: STEP 1: Make sure your Mac OS X software version is v10.11 (15A284). It is important that you check this first before you install the 346.03.02f01 Driver. Click on the Apple icon (upper left corner of the screen) and select About This Mac. Click the More Info button to see the exact build version number (15A284) in the Software field. STEP 2: If your OS X software version has not been updated, in the About This Mac window, click on the Software Update button STEP 3: Continue to install software updates until your system OS is reported to be v10.11 (15A284) STEP 4: Review the.
Check terms and conditions checkbox to allow driver download. You will need to accept this license prior to downloading any files.
STEP 5: Download the Driver File Download - STEP 6: Install After downloading the driver package, it should automatically launch the installer. If it does not, double-click on the driver package from your download target location. It will guide you through the installation process. Click Continue after you read the License Agreement and then click Agree STEP 7: Click Install on the Standard Installer screen. You will be required to enter an Administrator password to continue STEP 8: Click Continue Installation on the Warning screen: The Warning screen lets you know that you will need to restart your system once the installation process is complete.
STEP 9: Click Restart on the Installation Completed Successfully screen. This driver includes the new NVIDIA Driver Manager preference pane, as well as an optional menu bar item for quick access to the preference pane and basic functions. The preference pane can be accessed normally through the System Preferences.
It requires the user to click on the padlock icon and enter an Administrator password to make changes, and contains the following functionality: GRAPHICS DRIVER TAB: Within this tab, the user can switch between the NVIDIA Web Driver and the default NVIDIA graphics driver that is included with OS X v10.11 (15A284). If the user switches between drivers, they must click the Restart button for changes to take effect. ECC TAB: Within this tab, the user can enable or disable ECC functionality on supported graphics cards. The user will see a list of their system’s PCI-E slots and any devices installed in them. If a device supports ECC, the user will be able to check the Enable Error Correcting Codes box next to the list.
If the device does not support ECC then the box will be grayed out. Once the user makes changes to ECC, they will be required to restart the system. NOTE: Currently, the only NVIDIA graphics card that supports ECC functionality is the NVIDIA Quadro K5000 for Mac. Enabling ECC requires a portion of the graphics card’s usable memory size and bandwidth.
In the Graphics/Displays section of your System Information, you may notice the “VRAM (Total)” amount of your NVIDIA Quadro K5000 drops from 4096 MB to 3584 MB when ECC is enabled. This is normal. UPDATES TAB: This tab shows the version number of the NVIDIA Web Driver that is currently installed on the system and also allows the user to check for updates online. By clicking the Check Now button, the NVIDIA Driver Manager will ping NVIDIA’s master server to see if there is a newer version of the NVIDIA Web Driver available.
There are also checkboxes for the user to allow the NVIDIA Driver Manager to check automatically for updates and to download them when available. If a new NVIDIA Web Driver is downloaded automatically, the user will be notified when it’s ready to be installed. Automatic checking is on by default. MENU BAR ITEM AND UNINSTALLER: The NVIDIA Driver Manager also includes a checkbox to toggle a menu bar item on and off, and a button to open an Uninstaller app. The menu bar item includes the functionality of the Graphics Driver tab and a shortcut to launch the NVIDIA Driver Manager.
To uninstall the NVIDIA Web Driver and the NVIDIA Driver Manager, follow the steps below: STEP 1: Open the NVIDIA Driver Manager from the System Preferences or through the menu bar item. STEP 2: Click on the padlock icon and enter an Administrator password. STEP 3: Click the Open Uninstaller button. STEP 4: Click Uninstall and then Continue Uninstallation on the Warning screen: The Warning screen lets you know that you will need to restart your system once the installation process is complete. STEP 5: Re-enter an Administrator password and click OK.
Once the NVIDIA Web Driver and NVIDIA Driver Manager have been removed from the system, click Restart. NOTE: If for any reason you are unable to boot your system to the Desktop and wish to restore your original OS X v10.11 (15A284) driver, you can do so by clearing your Mac’s NVRAM: STEP 1: Restart your Macintosh computer and simultaneously hold down the “Command” (apple) key, the “Option” key, the “P” key and the “R” key before the gray screen appears. STEP 2: Keep the keys held down until you hear the startup chime for the second time.
Release the keys and allow the system to boot to the desktop. STEP 3: The original OS X v10.11 (15A284) driver will be restored upon booting, although the NVIDIA Web Driver and NVIDIA Driver Manager will not be uninstalled from the system.