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blueeggs

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 15, 2010
93
26
Hey guys, I have a mac pro 5 1 with a 5770 and I want to add a gtx 980 reference card I just bought for it. I wanted to add an original mac pro low powered card of flashed one that doesn't require aux power to it, gets all its power from the pci e bus so I can have a good screen. I would rather do this instead of getting my 980 flashed.

Thanks in advance!
 

blueeggs

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 15, 2010
93
26
So your question is?
My question was what low power mac pci e card and I add to where I don't have to plug in any 6 or 8 pin adapters. I did some research and it looks like the gt120 will run on the pci e bus power alone. Also are there any performance differences between an flashed and non flashed gtx 980 in a mac pro? Thanks for your input. Sorry I thought I explained it well enough.
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,614
8,546
Hong Kong
You just told us what you are planing to do, and you didn't ask anything, that's why I want to confirm your question.

Anyway, yes, GT120 is the correct card to do it.

AFAIK, there is no real performance difference between flashed and non-flashed card in OSX. However, if you may use it in Windows, then there is some performance penalty for the non-flashed card. Also, It seems install a GT120 and 980 together in Windows 10 will have driver issue.
 

ActionableMango

macrumors G3
Sep 21, 2010
9,612
6,907
Apple GT120 used to be the go-to card for this, but as h9826790 stated, current Nvidia Windows drivers don't support both GT120 and 980 together.

Also, official Apple video cards are expensive. If I already had one as a spare, I could see not flashing the 980. But if you have to spend the money to get an Apple GT120, why not just use the money to flash the 980 instead? Then you don't have to deal with having two cards, using up two slots, managing multiple cables to multiple inputs on monitors. You'll have proper boot screens on your 980 and full speed PCIe bandwidth in Windows.
 

Bytehoven

macrumors regular
Dec 1, 2015
190
69
Up Shellpot Creek
How about the single slot GT 640 with a Mac Flash. MacVidCards sells one for around $100 and I have seen them in that range on EBAY. I have thought about getting GT 640 Mac for my cMP with the GTX 980 Ti.
 
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