NVidia 9800 GT in a Mac Pro?

>_>>_>
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Was pricing graphics cards for my 2008 Mac Pro and as usual I keep tripping over the fact PC Graphics cards are a fraction of the price.



From what I hear the Nvidia 9800 GT uses the same architecture as the Nvidia 8800 GT, and uses the same drivers.



I've heard that people have been able to "Flash" the rom of a PC Graphics Card with the rom of a Mac Graphics Card and have them function as though they were the Mac Model.



My system already uses a Nvidia 8800 GT. So my question is:



Could I copy the rom from my Mac Nvidia 8800 GT, and flash it onto a PC Nvidia 9800 GT, and does it seem plausible that it would work?



Or even better, has anyone had experience with this exact scenario?



Thanks

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    futurepastnowfuturepastnow Posts: 1,772member
    8800GT and 9800GT are the exact same card. Nvidia changed the name so people would think they were "new" and keep buying them. Some of them have a die-shrunk GPU, but there's no way to tell them apart from the specs.
  • Reply 2 of 7
    joe_the_dragonjoe_the_dragon Posts: 931member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by >_> View Post


    Was pricing graphics cards for my 2008 Mac Pro and as usual I keep tripping over the fact PC Graphics cards are a fraction of the price.



    From what I hear the Nvidia 9800 GT uses the same architecture as the Nvidia 8800 GT, and uses the same drivers.



    I've heard that people have been able to "Flash" the rom of a PC Graphics Card with the rom of a Mac Graphics Card and have them function as though they were the Mac Model.



    My system already uses a Nvidia 8800 GT. So my question is:



    Could I copy the rom from my Mac Nvidia 8800 GT, and flash it onto a PC Nvidia 9800 GT, and does it seem plausible that it would work?



    Or even better, has anyone had experience with this exact scenario?



    Thanks



    Some pc cards rom space is too small to fit the EFI rom.
  • Reply 3 of 7
    djmarkymarcdjmarkymarc Posts: 35member
    Quote:

    8800GT and 9800GT are the exact same card.





    No they are not....... THE GPU is different not just the die size....
  • Reply 4 of 7
    prismprism Posts: 75member
    I was wondering this myself too. I can use the speed increase, and it's a cheap card if I got it right.

    Just need to find the right card with the right amount of BIOS/EFI memory.



    I take it there are How To's around, so I'd better look those up.
  • Reply 5 of 7
    nvidia2008nvidia2008 Posts: 9,262member
    I would say there is no point in doing this. The 9800GT is more or less a rebranded 8800GT. It is pretty much the same card which may have a die shrink to 55nm. Other than that, if you read up reviews what manufacturers call the 9800GT is very much hardware that is very close to the 8800GT. The GPU architecture, stream processors, etc, are very very similar to the 880GT if not exactly the same. In other words, your performance benefit may be very, very minimal. We're talking a 5% to 10% increase at most.



    If you want a boost the 9800GTX+ delivers distinct performance gains over the 9800GT/8800GT. But of course flashing that to work with the Mac Pro is probably quite difficult.





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DJMarkyMarc View Post


    No they are not....... THE GPU is different not just the die size....



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Prism View Post


    I was wondering this myself too. I can use the speed increase, and it's a cheap card if I got it right.

    Just need to find the right card with the right amount of BIOS/EFI memory.



    I take it there are How To's around, so I'd better look those up.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by >_> View Post


    Was pricing graphics cards for my 2008 Mac Pro and as usual I keep tripping over the fact PC Graphics cards are a fraction of the price.



    From what I hear the Nvidia 9800 GT uses the same architecture as the Nvidia 8800 GT, and uses the same drivers.



    I've heard that people have been able to "Flash" the rom of a PC Graphics Card with the rom of a Mac Graphics Card and have them function as though they were the Mac Model.



    My system already uses a Nvidia 8800 GT. So my question is:



    Could I copy the rom from my Mac Nvidia 8800 GT, and flash it onto a PC Nvidia 9800 GT, and does it seem plausible that it would work?



    Or even better, has anyone had experience with this exact scenario?



    Thanks



  • Reply 6 of 7
    futurepastnowfuturepastnow Posts: 1,772member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nvidia2008 View Post


    I would say there is no point in doing this. The 9800GT is more or less a rebranded 8800GT. It is pretty much the same card which may have a die shrink to 55nm. Other than that, if you read up reviews what manufacturers call the 9800GT is very much hardware that is very close to the 8800GT. The GPU architecture, stream processors, etc, are very very similar to the 880GT if not exactly the same. In other words, your performance benefit may be very, very minimal. We're talking a 5% to 10% increase at most.



    If you want a boost the 9800GTX+ delivers distinct performance gains over the 9800GT/8800GT. But of course flashing that to work with the Mac Pro is probably quite difficult.



    It's safe to say that all 9800GT cards made today use the 55nm GPU, however the first run of 9800s were just re-flashed 8800s. The PCB hasn't changed much at all, just some simpler (and cheaper) power regulation hardware on the newest ones.
  • Reply 7 of 7
    nvidia2008nvidia2008 Posts: 9,262member
    Guess what... Nvidia is rebranding all their 9-series to "GTS 250" or something like that... In other words very similar 8800GT similar to 9800GT similar to now "GTS 250"... LOLS
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