mac pro 2008 3,1 graphics card upgrade

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thehardwarehacker

thehardwarehacker

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Nov 11, 2013
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hello, i acquired a 2008 3,1 mac pro late last year, and i decided that i wanted to do i few upgrades to it to make it 'work flow friendly'. so, ive done processor upgrade (from 4 to 8), now i aim to do a graphics card upgrade, only thing is theres alot of loose info floating around on what does, and doesn't work. i am looking for a graphics, thats ether top of the line, or close to for the model, and that absolutely works, with no tinkering, with the 3,1. is there any definitive answer for this?
 
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bob0011

bob0011

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Jan 17, 2014
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Here is Everything I can find.

The Graphics card must be/under 170W with no more the 2x6 pins unless you want to use a second power supply.

It does apear you will not get a bootup screen if the card does not have APPLE EFI but everywhere I have read but will work as normal after that.

Link bellow is someone who did it a year ago with with a GTX 780 and he said it works fine:
https://www.reddit.com/r/macpro/comments/40s7of/updating_graphics_card_on_macpro_31_2008/
https://www.reddit.com/r/macpro/comments/40s7of/updating_graphics_card_on_macpro_31_2008/cz6csgo/

Another Fourm of people saying it worked with different cards and not Flashing it:
https://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1266025

You could always buy a new card put it in if it works YAY. If not repackage it and send it back. Amazon is usually good with returns even after you have opened it.

Good luck
 
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thehardwarehacker

thehardwarehacker

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hm, it seems that apple has gone lax, if the only thing you miss is the boot screen when you use a non-apple EFI card. that should make this project easier, since i could get a newer, more power full/ power efficient card.
 
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J

Joseph_138

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Nov 22, 2016
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■ macvidcards recommends nothing above a gtx960/770/680 or AMD equivalent in those machines. There was a huge increase in cpu power when the 4,1 came out so they can handle a faster gpu. The Harpertown processors in the 3,1 will hamstring anything faster than the cards mentioned above. You can still use faster cards if that's what you have but you won't get maximum performance from them.
 
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thehardwarehacker

thehardwarehacker

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im going to select your reply as the answer, just so i can let this thread die. i havent touched that machine in over a year, and have moved way pasted what i was doing with it.
 
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