Hosting and bandwidth provided by MacHost.
Mac Pro Q&A - Updated February 4, 2008
To be notified of new Q&As, join the RSS Feed. To be notified of major site updates, please become a member. It's free!
What graphics cards are available for the Mac Pro?
By default, the original Mac Pro Quad 2.66 was configured with a NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT with 256 MB of GDDR2 SDRAM, one single-link DVI port, and one dual-link DVI port installed in a double-wide 16-lane PCI Express slot. At the time of purchase, it also could be configured with an ATI Radeon X1900 XT with 512 MB of GDDR3 SDRAM and two dual-link DVI ports or a NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 with 512 MB of GDDR3 SDRAM, two dual-link DVI ports, and one stereo 3D port.
The Mac Pro "Eight Core" 2.8 (Early 2008) is configured with an ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT with 256 MB of GDDR3 memory and two dual-link DVI ports installed in a PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot. Other graphics card options include the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT with 512 MB of GDDR3 memory and the NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 with 1.5 GB of GDDR3 memory. All of the video cards offered have two dual-link DVI ports, and the Quadro FX 5600 has a stereo 3D port as well.
What is the maximum resolution supported by the default configuration of the Mac Pro? How many displays can the Mac Pro support?
Apple advertises that all Mac Pro models can support "up to eight displays" with four dual-link DVI equipped video cards installed.
The original Mac Pro Quad 2.66 shipped by default with a NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT graphics card capable of supporting "digital resolutions up to 1920 by 1200" pixels, and the dual-link DVI port supports "up to 2560 by [1]600 pixels". It also supports analog resolutions "up to 2048 by 1536".
The Mac Pro "Eight Core" 2.8 (Early 2008) ships by default with an ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT that can support "digital resolutions up to 2560 by 1600" pixels and analog resolutions up to 2048 by 1536 pixels.
Apple's industrial design for the last several years has been performed entirely in-house by Apple's Industrial Design Group, led by Jonathan Ive.
In the US, you may purchase a Mac Pro directly from Apple, but doing so often will require you to pay sales tax, which easily can exceed US$200. Those interested in getting the best deal would be better served by purchasing their Mac Pro from an Apple Authorized Reseller that does not charge sales tax, like site sponsor PowerMax.
Site sponsor PowerMax also offers a large selection of refurbished and used systems, including the Power Macintosh G5. Site sponsor Operator Headgap Systems specializes in souped-up used systems that are capable of running both the latest MacOS X applications and older MacOS 9 applications.
What are the default configurations?
Apple offers, and has offered, a single default configuration of each Mac Pro model. For details on the default configurations as well as available options for custom configurations, please refer to the Mac Pro specs section of EveryMac.com.
Permalink | RSS | Add to Google | Add to My Yahoo! | Add to AOL | Digg It!
Suggest a Q&A | Suggest an Addition/Correction | Post a Message in the Forums
EveryMac.com is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind whatsoever. EveryMac.com, and the author thereof, shall not be held responsible or liable, under any circumstances, for any damages resulting from the use or inability to use the information within. For complete disclaimer and copyright information please read and understand the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy before using EveryMac.com. Use of any content or images without expressed permission is not allowed, although links to any page are welcomed and appreciated.