nVidia 7900GTX & Mac Pro

[Bakey]

Hi there folks,

I know there's upteen threads on such issues - but please bear with me on this one!!

I'm this first to put my hands-up and admit to knowing nothing about graphics cards; be it ATI or nVidia I just don't know as throughout the course of my working life I've never needed to know! Simple!!

Well times have changed and I need to spec out a Mac Pro for a dual booting situaton - preferably I'd rather have the same card working across both Win as well Mac.

Now then, I've been advised that the standard 7300GT configs are a joke and the Quadro is ridiculous at a grand regardless of how good they are!

The real issue is that the Windows applications intended to be ran on this beast are optimised for nVidia and not the ATI cards that form the "middle" options as it were.

So here comes the "real" question - can a nVidia 7900GTX be successfully installed in a Mac Pro? Be it a straight switch or via a BIOS flash??

Any help and / or advise would be very much appreciated as nvidia.com leads me to even further blank conclusions!?! It means nothing to me!!!!!

The Mac Pro order has gone through with the ATI option - but I'd like to source an alternative nVidia solution in the event the applications on the Windows side take a disliking to the ATI card!!

Once again - many, many thanks in advance...

 

[dartzorichalcos]

Why didn't you like the ATI Radeon X1900XT? It's a good card and might have the same performance as the 7900GTX. Also the 7900GTX is more expensive.

 

[TBi]

The ATi 1900XTX is a great card and you shouldn't have any trouble in Windows with it. So you shouldn't worry about that. As for getting a 7900GTX working (i'd get a 7950GT, same speed and cheaper), I don't know of anyone who has successfully got it working under OSX. Although it should work fine in Windows. You won't be able to see the boot screen though.

 

[Bakey]

Thanks guys,

It's not a case of "not liking" ATI, it's the development software I'll be using under Windows is optimised for nVidia cards - hence a 'preference' over ATI...

We're going to go with the ATI as it stands and see what happens on the dark-side of things; fingers crossed all is well, but we'll certainly look into the 7950GT as an alternative to 7900GTX.

Many thanks once again...

 

[TBi]

For the money you'll probably pay i'd also thing about looking at the 8800GT. It's a much faster card than the 7900GTX for the same kind of money.

However if you only need 7900GTX performance then the 7950GT is the best alternative. It's basically the same thing with the price tag slashed.

 

[dartzorichalcos]

Here are some links, some are good deals.
nVidia GeForce 7900GTX
nVidia GeForce 7950GT
nVidia GeForce 8800GTS

 

[TBi]

There is no way on earth i'd touch the 7900GTX for that price.

The 7950GT is almost half the price and just as fast, and the 8800GT is a lot faster and only a fraction more pricey than the 7950.

 

[Dreadnought]

Why don't you get the standard 7800 from Apple? Then you'll have no hassle, it works with Mac and Windows.

 

[TBi]

Where do you see a 7800 from apple?

 

[slughead]

Where do you see a 7800 from apple?

It's for G5 only. And it's discontinued.

The only cards with 1st party drivers are
7300GT
x1900XT
Quadro 4500

There are ways of getting other nvidia cards to work, such as titan drivers. They are not supported and I don't know how well they work.

 

[Dreadnought]

Where do you see a 7800 from apple?

Sorry, I mean the X1900XT, making my post absolutely useless!

 

[CyberPrey]

Sorry, I mean the X1900XT, making my post absolutely useless!

Not quite You either made some people laugh, some people shake their heads, or some like me start searching the web screaming out loud to no one in particular that "the mac pro has a different vid card option now?????"

heh heh... ah, ok.. now MY post is totally useless...

 

[murfle]

I don't see how anyone can say that the 7900GTX and the 7950GT are the same speed.

7900GTX vs. 7950GT

Core Clock speed: 650MHz vs 565MHz
Memory Clock speed: 1600MHz vs 1430MHz

Depending on your application, you may or may not see a difference.

In a nutshell....
"Just as fast, and half the price", definately not...

"Almost as fast, and half the price", probably...

 

[Dreadnought]

Not quite You either made some people laugh, some people shake their heads, or some like me start searching the web screaming out loud to no one in particular that "the mac pro has a different vid card option now?????"

heh heh... ah, ok.. now MY post is totally useless...

April fools!