MacPro two video cards???

[Carrie Cannaday]

I just purchased a refurbished 8-core 2.8ghz MacPro from Apple. It was listed at a great price $2,399 - so I bought it, with the only drawback being that it came with the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB video card. I am planning on using this system to do quite a bit of Motion and Color work, so I really wanted the NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT 512MB video card. So, I purchased the refurbished MacPro and then also purchased the NVIDIA 8800 upgrade kit. Now I have the computer I wanted, for the price I wanted, but I've got two video cards!

Now I'm just wondering if I can make use of both video cards (would that be beneficial if I'm just running one - or maybe two 24' monitors, working with Final Cut Studio programs and Photoshop) or should I just sell the ATI 2600 card and install the NVIDIA 8800.

And that brings up another question, is installing a video card a relatively easy/doable process for someone like me, who has never installed a video card before, or should I take it to an authorized Apple service shop for the install?

[Robert Lane]

Carrie,

That card will support up to (2) 30" inch displays so there's no reason to try and install the other card at the same time.

Selling the ATI might be a hassle since you won't get but *maybe* $100 for it and likely less, so just keep it on-hand in case the nVidia card dies.

If you're unsure about how to install the card then most definitely take it to the Apple Store and have one of the "gurus" do it for you.

The 8800 is a great performing card and you won't outgrow it ever - until you're ready for another new Mac Pro in say, 3-4 years.

[Doug Okamoto]

Originally Posted by Carrie Cannaday

I just purchased a refurbished 8-core 2.8ghz MacPro from Apple. It was listed at a great price $2,399 - so I bought it, with the only drawback being that it came with the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB video card. I am planning on using this system to do quite a bit of Motion and Color work, so I really wanted the NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT 512MB video card.

Carrie, you might want to see if you can return the NVIDIA upgrade kit. The upgrade only works with the newest processors (Penryn) and I don't believe that your machine has them. :( Look at this link: http://www.macrumors.com/2008/04/07/...ue-next-month/

The good news is that the ATI Radeon you have should be good enough to use in Color at least (I don't know about Motion) since the company I used to work for we used an 8 core 3.0Ghz with the ATI card with 2k DPX files and it worked great.

[Giuseppe Palumbo]

i bought a macpro quadcore about 6 months ago and it didnt work with 2 graphics cards with Color. I ended up returning it, and buying a mbp

[Sean Adair]

Surprisingly, although the GeForce 8800 GT is an upgrade, with more memory and better stats, it hasn't been optimized for apple coreimage used in the pro-apps. The Radeon HD 2600 XT actually performs better according to these tests: http://www.barefeats.com/harper10.html
We would hope that updated drivers for the 8800 will come along sooner rather than later, which could bring out the superior specs it has. There is a kit for pre 2008 non-penryn macpros recently released, but be sure that card and machine are matched to save some time and trouble.
If I were you, I'd keep the 2600 in your machine, and monitor for an updated mac driver for the 8800 before replacing it (with the appropriate version & driver).
The 2600 is only about $100 new, and won't work in some older macpros so you can't expect that much for it - but it will go for at least 1/2 retail on ebay - your decision.