Cheap Video Card for Mac Pro

[cw4u]

Our church just ordered a used (2006) Mac Pro that will serve as FOH projection for a year or two and I need to find a second graphics card that can output a stage display from ProPresenter.

What are my options?

Thanks,

[zactommo]

Your options for a 2006 Mac Pro are:
Another stock NVIDIA 7300 GT (which is what you currently have)
NVIDIA 8800 GT (The most powerful one for the 2006 Mac Pro I believe)
ATI Radeon X1900
Nvidia Quattro FX 4500

Given the age of the machine, and apples high prices for parts, I'd recommend jumping on ebay and looking for a used card.
Another 7300 GT will be more than enough, and your chances of getting it cheap are high, given that people want the higher end cards on the lists.

Remember also you need to get cards with mac firmware installed, otherwise they won't work. So you can't purchase a windows version of the above stated cards.

[cw4u]

Ok.

Can you use kexts for osx86 on a proper mac?

[zactommo]

Its not the kext thats the issue, its the firmware on the card. You can flash certain cards with mac firmware, but its not for the faint hearted, and can wreck the card if you stuff it up, and obviously voids the warranty of the card.

See: http://hintsforums.macworld.com/show...ht=flash+video
Post no 5

[petereit]

Do you need more than two displays? I'm pretty sure all Mac Pro's come default with a dual-display adapter.

If you truly need a second display card let me know. We have an extra. I'll have to ask my pastor if he'd be interested in letting it go.

[cw4u]

Well, I'm just interested in driving a stage display output from ProPresenter. Text only.

So, my options are either buy a mac video card like those mentioned or go with a usb>VGA or DVI adapter. I've got a couple AverMedia scan converters that can make it run down existing composite cable. But, I'd rather just run two lines of Cat5 and put VGA heads on them.

[zactommo]

Or you could purchase a dual head, or triple head to go.

I think you'd be surprised how cheaply you could get a used 7300gt

[EricE]

Originally Posted by cw4u

Well, I'm just interested in driving a stage display output from ProPresenter. Text only.

Stick with the USB video adaptors. Works perfectly. I'm using a Mini, even - but will be looking for a used 2008 MacPro for our sanctuary. Even then I'll be sticking with USB video for the stage display.

[petereit]

A Mac pro is WAY overkill for ProPresenter. You'll have 7 cores sitting idle the whole time.

[EricE]

Originally Posted by petereit

A Mac pro is WAY overkill for ProPresenter. You'll have 7 cores sitting idle the whole time.

Yup, but if we ever go HD and/or start doing video production, the flexibility of the Mac Pro is hard to beat. And used ones can be found for under $800 all over the place.

With Thunderbolt and BlackMagic and others releasing solutions that were previously only available via cards, I've been going back and forth on Mac Pro vs. iMac... call me old school if you want - I want the security blanket of the tower

[petereit]

An $800 Mac Pro isn't going to be Thunderbolt capable.

[EricE]

Originally Posted by petereit

An $800 Mac Pro isn't going to be Thunderbolt capable.

With four slots I don't think that will be an issue

As sexy as Thunderbolt is, at max it's 2 lane PCI Express - might only be one, I have seen both cited and haven't found anything concrete confirming. At best that's half speed of a four lane slot and a sixteen lane... well....

Hmm, if I can score a good deal on a 2009 like my personal Mac Pro, I may just go a little extra - the 2009's have two 16 lane slots as well as two full four lanes... that's lots of bandwidth.

Again, probably overkill - but I wouldn't be a geek if I didn't crave overkill!