GTX 560/Mac Pro 1,1/Lion?

[Thad Boyd]

All right, some background:

 

I've got a quad-core 1,1 Mac Pro.

 

I primarily run Ubuntu on it.

 

I have Windows installed for games.

 

I don't use OSX much; I mess around with it now and again, and I use it if I need an Office document converted to PDF, but I use it less than the other two OS's.

 

Anyhow, I'm planning on updating my graphics card. I read up on flashing ATI firmware and it looks straightforward, but ATI's Linux drivers are lousy and, since Ubuntu is my primary OS, I'd rather go nVidia.

 

I did some reading up, mostly on Rominator's posts here and on the Netkas forums:

 

GTX480 running OSX in 1st Gen & Nehalem Pro !!!

Fermi comes to Mac

GTX 470 on an actual MacPro4,1

 

So I gathered that it would probably be feasible to run a GTX 470 in my 1,1 Pro, using my old 7300GT as a helper card.

 

However, given Rominator's recent success in getting a 570 to run under Lion DP4, I was wondering if I should hold off until Lion's release and get a 560.

 

It doesn't appear that anybody's really tested the 560 with a genuine Pro, let alone a 1,1. Is there any reason it would fail outright? What is the likelihood that it will work under Lion on a 1,1 with a helper card and ATY_init? And even if it doesn't, it will run fine under Linux and Windows, right? (Push come to shove if I can't get it to work under OSX at all I can use the 7300 for OSX -- I'd like to have a sweet Fermi card working under OSX but it'd be mostly for the joy of tinkering; I don't really use OSX for anything graphics-intensive.)

 

And what's the correct power adapter? Amazon's got one labeled as "for Mac G5"; am I correct in understanding that it'll work on the Pro MB too? And I need two of them, right?

 

And is there any other general information I need to know? Any pitfalls I should avoid? Should I go with a particular brand of card? (I notice a lot of people using nVidia cards on genuine Mac Pros go eVGA or PNY. I've had good luck with eVGA in the past and am likely to go that route.) What about ports? Can I expect HDMI to work, or just DVI? And if just DVI, will dual DVI work, or just single?

 

I know I'm asking a lot of questions, but I've tried to do my homework in advance; I'd just like somebody to check my work before I spend the money. And I'll be sure and come back and let you guys know how it goes, whether it works, what kind of steps it took me, etc.

 

Thanks!

[rominator]

This is both the right place and the wrong place to ask these questions.

 

Few here are using Mac Pros, this is primarily a Hackintosh board.

 

HOWEVER...that being said, I have found Hack boards to be a good place to figure out what can be gotten working in Mac Pros. Fact is, the sort of person who has to battle to get ethernet, sound, etc going in their machine isn't the least bit fazed to fiddle around to get a decent GPU.

 

So the very "let's make it work" mentality here can lead to great discoveries for real Macs.

 

Basically, if the drivers exist, then a Hack user will get a card working. And if they can get it working, it is about 99% certain that you can do the same on a Mac Pro, at least with Nvidia cards, ATY_Init and using an extra "helper" card with EFI.

 

So find posts with 560s working on Hacks, and you will have your answer. The 7300s main limitation as helper card is that the primary display will default to it on every boot. FIne if you have 2 displays, but if you have only 1, you will become good at switching the pluyg back and forth. 8 series and later cards used as helper cards solve this problem but typically require power. (there are EFI32 GT120 cards now that solve this)

 

Good luck, and please post when you get the cards together.