EVGA's GeForce GTX 285 Mac Edition: The Best for OS X?
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 17, 2009 7:00 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Installing EVGA's GeForce GTX 285 Mac Edition
EVGA’s GTX 285 will only work on 2008 - 2009 model Mac Pros, the original 2006 model is not supported. Bummer.
The first step to install the card is actually to install the drivers. If you fail to do so, you’ll be greeted with a kernel panic once you get the card installed and fire up the machine. The drivers are available both from NVIDIA’s website and on the driver disc EVGA ships with the card.
After the drivers are installed, turn off your Mac Pro and remove the side panel. There are two thumb screws (that need to be unscrewed with a screwdriver) that hold a bracket in place, which in turn holds your expansion cards in place. Remove them and it.
Remove these
There’s a metal bar that holds all of the PCIe cards in place, you’ll need to pull that back while you pull your existing video card out. You’ll need to pull it back while installing the new card as well.
Pull this bar back while you remove your old card and again when you install the new one
The Mac Pro is highly compartmentalized; to the far left of the PCIe slots there are two small connectors that look like PCIe power connectors. You’ll need to connect both cables that came with the card to these connectors. They only go in one way. The other end of the cables goes into the GTX 285.
Before installing the card you’ll need to remove one additional bracket cover (assuming the previous resident was a single-slot card). Slide in the EVGA, replace the retention bracket, close the case and hit the power button.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
48 Comments
View All Comments
bohhad - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
Will installation instructions be standard on all hardware reviews? Being Anandtech readers, I'm sure most all of us have no clue how to even take the sides of our cases off. Or was this a 'special' feature for our equally 'special' Mac-using members?utdman53 - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
Cost of a Mac pro configured with the two Xeon @ 2.93 is $6000.00 or more. What an absolute waste of money to match a core i7. If you want a computer that bad I'll build you one and myself one with that money.In life there are but kings and pawns, Apple clearly lives off the pawns.
archer75 - Wednesday, August 19, 2009 - link
I was looking at the price of the processors and ram and newegg and believe it or not it's cheaper from apple. We are talking about workstations here and as they go the mac pro is indeed priced well.ViRGE - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
Bear in mind that you're looking at a workstation system. The price on any of those is astronomical, it's not just an Apple thing. The chipset costs a small fortune, the Xeon processors cost a small fortune, etc.Apple's is still more expensive yet, but not by whole orders of magnitude like it is when comparing it to a desktop system.
ipay - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
I'd say there are clever people and stupid people, and that Apple makes its money from the latter.thurston - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
Why is the $100 price premium ridiculous? It seems to be in line with Mac pricing in general.JimmiG - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
"The first step to install the card is actually to install the drivers. If you fail to do so, you’ll be greeted with a kernel panic once you get the card installed and fire up the machine."That made me LOL after seeing those ads about how Macs don't need drivers and how they're so easy to use. At least a PC will load up Windows even without drivers. In fact, since Vista, it will even work at fairly high resolutions and in full 32-bit color. Just another example of how Apple's advertising is based on lies, exaggerations and misconceptions.
sprockkets - Tuesday, July 21, 2009 - link
But, but, I thought Macs just work and used "The World's Most Advanced operating system"!529th - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
The 4870 is also a working GPU for a Hackintosh. Also sold in the new Mac Pros. Apparently it is supported in Leopard 10.5.7 OS Xpsonice - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
Any chance of some core image tests of some kind? CI has traditionally been nvidia's very weak spot (ATI 2600 outperforming nvidia 8800 anyone?) and it's important for some apps.