Nov 20, 2017  I have produced several videos on my 2009 Mac Pro machine since the summer and I can’t really complain. But today, I’m going to see if I can improve upon my workflow by cutting down video. The officially compatible video cards for the original (1,1) Mac Pro are: NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT; ATI Radeon X1900 XT; NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 (and family) NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT; These are the only cards that are supported in an original Mac Pro. Unfortunately, most are not particularly available any more. Apple no longer sells any of these cards, except the Quadro FX family (which is super-expensive and not consumer-oriented).

I have a Sawtooth G4/500 that I'm looking to upgrade to Quartz Extreme capability.
I've been reading the Strangedogs forums, but am now having trouble deciding exactly which card will work for flashing.
I'm looking at GeForceFX 5200's because they're cheap and will also support Core Image.
I could also use Radeon 7000's and 9200's as well as some older GeForce 2/3 cards.
What I'm trying to work out is if those cheap $35 GeForceFX 5200's on NewEgg will flash. There are so many, I don't know which one to get.
Any experiences or advice welcome.

Cylinder Mac Pro Q&A - Updated May 3, 2017

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SAS keyboard shortcut for Microsoft Windows: SAS keyboard Shortcut for Mac OS X: Zoom in. Ctrl + plus sign: Cmd + plus sign: Zoom out. Ctrl + minus sign: Cmd + minus sign: To reset Zoom state: Ctrl + 0: Cmd + 0: Maximize the view of the currently displayed tab or exit the maximised view. Alt + F11: Fn + Shift + F11: Open pop-up menu in the navigation pane: Select item. Ensure that the Code tab for a SAS program is displayed, and press Ctrl+S. Note: This shortcut does not work for the Code tab that displays a task's XML code. F4 Create a new SAS program F3 Run a SAS program Shift+Alt+A Create a new snippet from the selected SAS code Alt+I Insert an existing snippet Ctrl+S Save a SAS program; download log or results as an HTML file Ctrl+P Print the SAS program, log, or results Shift+F10 Open a pop-up menu. This table lists the keyboard shortcuts for the SAS Studio workspace. Additional keyboard shortcuts are available from. Keyboard Shortcut for Mac OS X Zoom in. Note: In JAWS, F3 is the keyboard shortcut for the find functionality. Therefore to run SAS code, you first must press Insert+3 and then press F3. Comment sas shortcut. This table contains keyboard shortcuts for the code editor in SAS Studio. Additional keyboard shortcuts are available from. Keyboard Shortcuts for the Code Editor:: SAS® Studio 3.8: User’s Guide.

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What are the default graphics cards provided with the Gray Cylinder Mac Pro? What graphics card options are available? How do you upgrade the graphics card(s)? Do these models use standard PC graphics cards?

The standard Cylinder Mac Pro models both have dual graphics cards.

Specifically, the original entry-level Mac Pro 'Quad Core' 3.7 shipped with dual AMD FirePro D300 graphics processors with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory each and the higher-end original standard Mac Pro 'Six Core' 3.5 first shipped with dual AMD FirePro D500 graphics processors with 3 GB of GDDR5 memory each.

On April 4, 2017, Apple made the Mac Pro 'Eight Core' 3.0 a standard configuration at a lower price point and equipped it with more powerful dual AMD FirePro D700 graphics processors with 6 GB of GDDR5 memory each by default.

Photo Credit: Apple, Inc. (Cylinder Mac Pro - Back, Left; Graphics Cards Visible, Right)

Standard & Custom Configured Graphics Cards

Apple originally offered dual AMD FirePro D700 graphics cards each with 6 GB of GDDR5 memory as a US$1000 upgrade for the entry-level Mac Pro 'Quad Core' 3.7 and a US$600 upgrade for the Mac Pro 'Six Core' 3.5.

On April 4, 2017, Apple discontinued the entry-level Mac Pro 'Quad Core' 3.7 altogether and dropped the price of the dual AMD FirePro D700 graphics processors as an upgrade for the Mac Pro 'Six Core' 3.5 to US$200.

The technical differences between these three graphics cards include the following:

For those interested in how these graphics cards compare to AMD's offerings for PCs, the always detailed AnandTech did some digging and reported that the 'D300 is Pitcairn based, the D500 appears to use a Tahiti LE with a wider 384-bit memory bus, while the D700 is a full blown Tahiti XT.'

Preliminary Upgrade Information

Officially, only the memory and SSD storage in the Cylinder Mac Pro are designed to be upgraded by end-users. Apple does not state whether or not the graphics processors can be upgraded.

However, as first confirmed in a teardown by site sponsor Other World Computing, both graphics cards are removable.

Photo Credit: Other World Computing (Cylinder Mac Pro Graphics Card Removed)

These graphics cards are custom designed for the Cylinder Mac Pro, and although they use a PCI 3.0 x16 interface, the Cylinder Mac Pro is not compatible with any standard Mac or Windows compatible PCIe video card. Both the physical dimensions of the card and the connector are specific to the Cylinder Mac Pro.

Unlike earlier Mac Pro models that have industry-standard PCIe slots and support a fairly wide variety of video cards as a result, the Cylinder Mac Pro models would require third-parties to create video cards specifically for the Cylinder Mac Pro.

Although it is technically possible for third-parties to create custom video card upgrades, because Apple has effectively discontinued the design of this system and the potential market size for such a product is low, it is unlikely that anyone will release new graphics cards for the Cylinder Mac Pro.

What is the maximum resolution supported by the default configuration of the Gray Cylinder Mac Pro? How many displays can it support with the default graphics card?

Regardless of the graphics cards installed in the Gray Cylinder Mac Pro -- the dual AMD FirePro D300 or D500 graphics processors that are provided by default or the dual FirePro D700 graphics processors that are available as a custom upgrade -- the maximum supported resolutions and number of displays are the same.

Originally, Apple specified that each Cylinder Mac Pro supported as many as three 4K displays (3840x2160) -- two using Thunderbolt 2 ports and one using the HDMI port -- or as many as six 2560x1600 displays using all six Thunderbolt 2 ports.

However, on June 16, 2015, without updating the graphics cards themselves, Apple quietly increased the official support to as many as three 5K displays (5120x2880) -- two using Thunderbolt 2 ports and one using the HDMI port. The support for as many as six 2560x1600 displays using all six Thunderbolt 2 ports remained unchanged.

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