Video Card power question

[aimforsilence]

Hey everyone.

I have a 2009 Mac Pro desktop & would like to get a new video card for it. I know PC Cards work fine with the latest version of OS X, and that using a PC Card will not give me access to the boot screen. I also no about certain cards being able to be flashed. I'm good with all that. My question is regarding the power consumption of certain cards.

My Mac Pro only has 2 6pin PCI-Express power cables on a 900 and some watt PSU. And some of the cards I'm interested in have 1 6pin & 1 8pin PCI-Express power ports. I noticed that some cards come with 6pin to 8pin adapters (like msi cards) and wanted to know if it'd be safe to run a card like that in my mac? I was particularly interested in a reference card GeForce GTX 770. I would be running any card I do decide to get at stock, so no OCing it or tweaking it.

So could this work?

 

[24601]

No.

Even if every other compatibility thing checks out (No clue as I'm not a Mac user), you will need a PSU that has the proper connectors to replace the one you have (Not sure if the one in your Mac is proprietary. Given that it's a Mac, I'm betting on yes).

Don't bother getting anything better than a 750Ti or 760 though, as you will be CPU bottlenecked anyway in modern games (If that's what you are planning on using it for?).

 

[aimforsilence]

Then how come many cards come with 6pin to 8pin adapters?

 

[24601]

Then how come many cards come with 6pin to 8pin adapters?

cards with 8 pin cards come with 6 + 6 to 8 pin adapter. They also come with 2x molex to 6 pin adapters.

If you are ok with that, then do those things.

Just make sure that you aren't using a 6 pin in that 8 pin socket, as they card will either not boot or throttle at a lower TDP depending on the GPU VBIOS.

That said, don't even bother looking at anything over 760 if what you're planning on playing is games with that crazy slow CPU.

 

[aimforsilence]

I no card have those connectors. But I'm talking about the 6pin PCI-express to 8pin PCI-express adapters. Like this card has.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127751

Also why do you say my processor is crap? I have 2 quad core Xeon processors..

 

[bononos]

I no card have those connectors. But I'm talking about the 6pin PCI-express to 8pin PCI-express adapters. Like this card has.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127751

Also why do you say my processor is crap? I have 2 quad core Xeon processors..

Your cpu is from an older generation and its only 2.26Ghz, so its going to be a bottleneck instead of the lack of an 8pin psu connector.

 

[aimforsilence]

So would a gtx 670 or 680 be a better solution? I want to upgrade the processor just not now.

 

[2is]

I don't see any problems with using adapters. As long as you aren't feeding the card with a single branch coming from the PSU and overloading the connectors, you will be fine. Power wise, you've got plenty on tap.

As far as the processor, it will struggle in many newer games. You might have 8 threads, but few games scale to 8 threads, and they're clocked relatively low with no options to overclock on the Mac Pro. Add to that, slower ECC and/or Registered memory and a performance beast it is not.

I'd say a 680 is overkill for most games on that CPU. The 750Ti/760 suggestion is a solid one and will match up will with your CPU.

 

[aimforsilence]

Ah. We'll I wasn't planning on playing anything that crazy. I do have both the Xbox One & PS4. So it was mostly just to be able to play the older titles I have on steam & Star Trek Online. That sort of thing. Maybe try out Bioshock Infinite on PC just to see the better visuals compared to the XBOX 360 version. I wasn't planning on playing any battlefield or anything like that. I just want to get a good card so I don't have to upgrade it right after buying it.

 

[2is]

The reason for suggesting the cards we are suggesting is because more powerful cards are going to be bottlenecked by the rest of your system, so you won't see any benefit. If however you can find a used 670/680 for the cost of a 750Ti, certainly go that route. They are more powerful cards and if it isn't going to cost you more, it won't hurt to have it other than a bit higher power consumption.

 

[aimforsilence]

I mention those cards because evga does make a GTX 680 mac edition. And if I got a 680 I could flash it to essentially be the mac edition. Though I'm cool with a 670 to.

 

[aimforsilence]

So I looked into the GTX 750ti everyone here keeps recommending me. Honestly I'm pretty impressed. Very good value for what I can see is pretty good performance. Especially for all the games I'd play.

Currently I really like this version

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814487028

I'm a big evga fan, I like the cooler even though it's probably over kill. But it has an impressive clock speed out of the box. Most of the reviews I've read on this card say it's the best 750ti you can buy.. So I'm leaning more this way.

 

[aimforsilence]

My only problem with the 750 series is since it uses maxwell, I'm unsure if OS X has built in drivers for that chipset yet. I no for a fact all cards based on the Kepler series of chips runs fine. I guess the other alternative is radeon cards. I no there is a 7950 mac version, and I've seen come 7950's on eBay for pretty cheap. Still not sure what to do.