The Upgrade Process: A Step-by-Step Guide to Upgrading Your Mac Pro's Graphics Card

It's finally time to upgrade my trusty old Mac Pro's graphics card. I've been putting off this task for far too long, but with the help of a new ATI Radeon HD 3870, I'm excited to see if it will improve my system's performance.

First things first, I need to disconnect the power cables from the old graphics card. This is where I have to be careful not to damage any of the internal components. The old card has a very small opening that makes it difficult to insert the new power cable. It took me a while to get it in place, but I finally managed to squeeze it in.

Next, I need to screw the back panel of my Mac Pro back on. This is a straightforward process that requires a good understanding of the computer's internal components. The latch is very secure, and it takes a bit of force to close it. Once it's secure, I can plug everything back in and start up my system.

I have to admit, I was a bit nervous about booting up my system after the upgrade. I didn't install the graphics drivers yet, and I wasn't sure if everything would work properly. But as soon as I saw the Apple logo on the screen, I knew that something was right. The system boots quickly and smoothly, and both displays are working perfectly.

I'm happy to report that my system is running much faster than before, thanks to the new graphics card. Programs are launching more quickly, and everything seems to be working smoothly. I even noticed a slight improvement in the system's responsiveness, which is always a welcome change.

One thing I did notice after the upgrade was that my system is now making a bit of noise. The fan is always on, which isn't ideal, but it's not a huge problem for me since I sit under the desk and won't be bothered by it.

Despite the occasional annoyance with cables, the overall experience has been very positive. I'm glad I decided to upgrade my graphics card, and I'm excited to see how much of a difference it will make in my daily work. With this new card, I should be able to handle more demanding tasks without any issues.

I also ran some benchmark tests using the System Profiler, which is a built-in tool that provides detailed information about your system's components. The results were very impressive, with the ATI Radeon HD 3870 performing admirably and delivering 512 megabytes of video memory. This is double what the old graphics card had, so I'm excited to see how much of a difference this will make in my work.

Overall, the experience of upgrading my Mac Pro's graphics card has been very positive. It required some patience and careful attention to detail, but the end result was well worth it. With this new card, I should be able to tackle even more demanding tasks with ease.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat the f that's all I have to say for those of you who have been watching me since at least this past summer you probably know that my graphics card and my Mac Pro crapped out on me it was the Nvidia 7300 GT not a very good card to begin with but something you know just to start out with well it died again as you can see I'm trying to boot up my Mac Pro here and this display doesn't even come on this display is stuck at the blue screen and yes I booted it into verbos mode to hopefully diagnose it but it's not working out and instead of having to take my um Mac Pro to Apple again even though I'm under warranty oh we're getting an echo here I'm sorry hold on I'm importing into my power book right now power PC always works anyway instead of the taking instead of making my Mac Pro to Apple again since I'm under warranty I know they'll just give me the same graphics card the same crappy 7300 GT well I took money out of my account to get this this thing is awesome it's the ATI Radeon HD 3870 it's not the best graphics card in the world but I don't need the best I don't I don't game on my Mac Pro I just need something good enough to um handle my two displays at once without dropping frame frame rate I do um you know a lot of video editing obviously I'm hopefully using Photoshop CS4 soon which will take advantage of the hardware for graphics processing and I hope to install Windows soon to play my old games such as Half Life 2 and stuff and plus this card will blow away the 7300 GT in every way possible it has two dual link dvis which means I can put two 30in cin displays on here and it has an S video as you can see the build is much better much more complex than a 73 00 GT and all around it's just a much much better card it's going to wipe the floor clean with this thing and after um installing the hard drives and the RAM and now the graphics card my Mac Pro is practically a brand new system so I would like to welcome you to my Mac Pro upgrade video on January 1st I'm David as usual I'm just trying a different kind of intro enjoy okay so let's start this for those of you not familiar with it this is the Mac Pro beautiful design it's got dual Optical drives I'm only using the top one at this time but I do um plan to upgrade to a Blu-ray Drive eventually when Blu-ray catches on more and when drives get cheaper for those of you not familiar with the back here's the back of the Mac Pro it's a very nice design as I've been saying all these years well for the past year that I've owned this thing and this is how you open it you literally just lift the latch and the door comes off let me flip it around a little bit and yes I did already ground myself so you don't have to worry about yelling at me in this video put the door down there and here's the inside and if we zoom in here you can see the two Riser cards I'm currently using 5 GB of RAM which is sweet this is my 7300 GT and these are my hard drives I'm I'm currently using three hard drives zoom out for you guys a little bit yes there are my hard drives um I'm using 1250 and two 320s so good stuff and this one's still free for eventually I hope to install like maybe a cheap drive like a small one like 60 gig or 80 gig for Windows XP not Vista not a Vista fan sorry uh but XP I'm perfectly okay with and then I can play my old games and stuff like that so yeah let's rip out this old graphics card this should go pretty smoothly it's a very easy setup you just twist the screws back here that are holding the card in place oh yeah real quick if you didn't watch my unboxing video go back and watch that but if not I'll just show you this real quick it came with the software disc um a crossfire adapter for Windows users oops sorry over there um Macos 10 does not support Crossfire I believe but that's not a big deal to me because I don't need it and it came with all you know power cables and all the cables you need um a DVI VGA adapter I won't really need that but you know it's good to have just in case and an S video to composite adapter okay so I've taken the metal bracket off off of the PCI Express slot I thought it was only one screw but apparently there's two to take the whole thing off here you go Focus ah you you don't really to see it that's just a bracket anyway I also flipped the Mac Pro onto the desk that way I have a better viewing angle and now the card should come right out I apologize if you can't see the card coming out but it's not really that exciting anyway just as long as it comes out fine and there you go there's my old video card the 7300 GT I'm probably going to keep it just in case I need as a backup I mean I know it's like kind of cropped out but you never know it could start working one day again it's just how hard it works I know it's weird anyway let's get the new card in now now with a better viewing angle for you guys I have the card in my hands as you can see it's a very nice looking card let's go to the surgery approach over the head um I believe it should just snap right into place I'm just making sure it's the right slot yeah it is apologize if you're getting a good view of my head right now I had the tripod in front of me and everything here we go it is in place very nice all right next is a very important step you have to connect the power to the um logic board so big and it goes on this side connect this into place well that was seriously a pain in the ass I could not get the freaking power cable into the logic board for the longest time cuz it's like hidden behind the fan and to put your like thumb and finger way back there finally I've said it before and I'll say it again and I'll say it in the future I hate cables anyway it's in it wasn't difficult it just took a while to get in anyway let's screw this back on this upgrade is very easy it's just cables tend to piss me off easily who I mean who who seriously likes cables I hate cables anyway there we go let back in let's close this up all right the latch is unlocked on the case let's put the almighty door back on which is entirely made of metal by the way I love it there we go snaps into place close the latch and we're good to go let's try a boot her up all right I have to be honest this is kind of making me nervous since I didn't install the software first there might be problems but I'm hoping I can get around that all right booting 3 two 1 go that's a good sound all right we have some sort of video again the drivers are not installed yet so we'll see what happens okay I see an Apple logo that's a good start Ah that's a very good sign both displays are working by the way in case you're wondering how wonder if you have video card issues literally your monitors will like Flicker and you'll have green and blue artifacts all over the screen your mouse will freeze now and then programs will not respond it's seriously the most annoying thing that could happen to you but we're back up and working now as I said I did not install the graphics um drivers SL software yet which is interesting and it's working perfectly fine but I obviously have to install the software so let's do that inserting dis yes I saw my Christmas wallpaper going here wait Skype is trying to launch hold on force quit force quit all my programs are trying to launch quit so far everything's acting better things seem faster I don't see any artifacts whatsoever but let's install this software since it's required oops wrong password there we go continue continue obviously I'm going to agree installing I think I'm going to have to restart after this yep restart so I'm sure everything installed properly sweet so far so good the system has rebooted I'm just waiting it said it um has to update the boot cache so let us do its thing I'm very glad this is all working perfectly though seriously cuz this main machine like runs everything for me my websites my design my school workor especially since I'm going back to college in like 2 weeks I really need this machine working and it seems to be working perfectly fine just to ensure everything worked properly let's go to the system profiler you go to Apple about this Mac that's just something I did twirl then you collect more info for system profiler and then go down to Graphics SL displays there it is very nice ATI Radeon HD 3870 nice and quick note 512 Megs of vram which is double what the um 7300 GT had which is awesome well there you go lesson of the day I guess is do not use the Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT it's an okay card to start out with but if you're a Mac Pro user and you're using this card I'm sorry to say but it's probably going to crap out in you no it's not Apple's fault it's just Nvidia for making a for I mean the cooling practically sucks on this thing look there's no fan just a giant heat sync which isn't always a bad thing cuz you don't need a fan if it's not necessary but on this card it is necessary in my opinion since this is the second one I've gone through so as you can see U the upgrade one perfectly I didn't run into any problems despite the power cable being hard to plug in but it's not really a problem that's just an annoyance I guess I hate cables what can I say say so that's it everything's working great my system runs a little louder now cuz the Fan's always going on the new video card but it's not really a problem since it's located under my desk and I sit over there before I bravel on anymore cuz you guys know I love to talk happy new year thanks for watching and I'll see you guys in my next video peace Mac for the winwhat the f that's all I have to say for those of you who have been watching me since at least this past summer you probably know that my graphics card and my Mac Pro crapped out on me it was the Nvidia 7300 GT not a very good card to begin with but something you know just to start out with well it died again as you can see I'm trying to boot up my Mac Pro here and this display doesn't even come on this display is stuck at the blue screen and yes I booted it into verbos mode to hopefully diagnose it but it's not working out and instead of having to take my um Mac Pro to Apple again even though I'm under warranty oh we're getting an echo here I'm sorry hold on I'm importing into my power book right now power PC always works anyway instead of the taking instead of making my Mac Pro to Apple again since I'm under warranty I know they'll just give me the same graphics card the same crappy 7300 GT well I took money out of my account to get this this thing is awesome it's the ATI Radeon HD 3870 it's not the best graphics card in the world but I don't need the best I don't I don't game on my Mac Pro I just need something good enough to um handle my two displays at once without dropping frame frame rate I do um you know a lot of video editing obviously I'm hopefully using Photoshop CS4 soon which will take advantage of the hardware for graphics processing and I hope to install Windows soon to play my old games such as Half Life 2 and stuff and plus this card will blow away the 7300 GT in every way possible it has two dual link dvis which means I can put two 30in cin displays on here and it has an S video as you can see the build is much better much more complex than a 73 00 GT and all around it's just a much much better card it's going to wipe the floor clean with this thing and after um installing the hard drives and the RAM and now the graphics card my Mac Pro is practically a brand new system so I would like to welcome you to my Mac Pro upgrade video on January 1st I'm David as usual I'm just trying a different kind of intro enjoy okay so let's start this for those of you not familiar with it this is the Mac Pro beautiful design it's got dual Optical drives I'm only using the top one at this time but I do um plan to upgrade to a Blu-ray Drive eventually when Blu-ray catches on more and when drives get cheaper for those of you not familiar with the back here's the back of the Mac Pro it's a very nice design as I've been saying all these years well for the past year that I've owned this thing and this is how you open it you literally just lift the latch and the door comes off let me flip it around a little bit and yes I did already ground myself so you don't have to worry about yelling at me in this video put the door down there and here's the inside and if we zoom in here you can see the two Riser cards I'm currently using 5 GB of RAM which is sweet this is my 7300 GT and these are my hard drives I'm I'm currently using three hard drives zoom out for you guys a little bit yes there are my hard drives um I'm using 1250 and two 320s so good stuff and this one's still free for eventually I hope to install like maybe a cheap drive like a small one like 60 gig or 80 gig for Windows XP not Vista not a Vista fan sorry uh but XP I'm perfectly okay with and then I can play my old games and stuff like that so yeah let's rip out this old graphics card this should go pretty smoothly it's a very easy setup you just twist the screws back here that are holding the card in place oh yeah real quick if you didn't watch my unboxing video go back and watch that but if not I'll just show you this real quick it came with the software disc um a crossfire adapter for Windows users oops sorry over there um Macos 10 does not support Crossfire I believe but that's not a big deal to me because I don't need it and it came with all you know power cables and all the cables you need um a DVI VGA adapter I won't really need that but you know it's good to have just in case and an S video to composite adapter okay so I've taken the metal bracket off off of the PCI Express slot I thought it was only one screw but apparently there's two to take the whole thing off here you go Focus ah you you don't really to see it that's just a bracket anyway I also flipped the Mac Pro onto the desk that way I have a better viewing angle and now the card should come right out I apologize if you can't see the card coming out but it's not really that exciting anyway just as long as it comes out fine and there you go there's my old video card the 7300 GT I'm probably going to keep it just in case I need as a backup I mean I know it's like kind of cropped out but you never know it could start working one day again it's just how hard it works I know it's weird anyway let's get the new card in now now with a better viewing angle for you guys I have the card in my hands as you can see it's a very nice looking card let's go to the surgery approach over the head um I believe it should just snap right into place I'm just making sure it's the right slot yeah it is apologize if you're getting a good view of my head right now I had the tripod in front of me and everything here we go it is in place very nice all right next is a very important step you have to connect the power to the um logic board so big and it goes on this side connect this into place well that was seriously a pain in the ass I could not get the freaking power cable into the logic board for the longest time cuz it's like hidden behind the fan and to put your like thumb and finger way back there finally I've said it before and I'll say it again and I'll say it in the future I hate cables anyway it's in it wasn't difficult it just took a while to get in anyway let's screw this back on this upgrade is very easy it's just cables tend to piss me off easily who I mean who who seriously likes cables I hate cables anyway there we go let back in let's close this up all right the latch is unlocked on the case let's put the almighty door back on which is entirely made of metal by the way I love it there we go snaps into place close the latch and we're good to go let's try a boot her up all right I have to be honest this is kind of making me nervous since I didn't install the software first there might be problems but I'm hoping I can get around that all right booting 3 two 1 go that's a good sound all right we have some sort of video again the drivers are not installed yet so we'll see what happens okay I see an Apple logo that's a good start Ah that's a very good sign both displays are working by the way in case you're wondering how wonder if you have video card issues literally your monitors will like Flicker and you'll have green and blue artifacts all over the screen your mouse will freeze now and then programs will not respond it's seriously the most annoying thing that could happen to you but we're back up and working now as I said I did not install the graphics um drivers SL software yet which is interesting and it's working perfectly fine but I obviously have to install the software so let's do that inserting dis yes I saw my Christmas wallpaper going here wait Skype is trying to launch hold on force quit force quit all my programs are trying to launch quit so far everything's acting better things seem faster I don't see any artifacts whatsoever but let's install this software since it's required oops wrong password there we go continue continue obviously I'm going to agree installing I think I'm going to have to restart after this yep restart so I'm sure everything installed properly sweet so far so good the system has rebooted I'm just waiting it said it um has to update the boot cache so let us do its thing I'm very glad this is all working perfectly though seriously cuz this main machine like runs everything for me my websites my design my school workor especially since I'm going back to college in like 2 weeks I really need this machine working and it seems to be working perfectly fine just to ensure everything worked properly let's go to the system profiler you go to Apple about this Mac that's just something I did twirl then you collect more info for system profiler and then go down to Graphics SL displays there it is very nice ATI Radeon HD 3870 nice and quick note 512 Megs of vram which is double what the um 7300 GT had which is awesome well there you go lesson of the day I guess is do not use the Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT it's an okay card to start out with but if you're a Mac Pro user and you're using this card I'm sorry to say but it's probably going to crap out in you no it's not Apple's fault it's just Nvidia for making a for I mean the cooling practically sucks on this thing look there's no fan just a giant heat sync which isn't always a bad thing cuz you don't need a fan if it's not necessary but on this card it is necessary in my opinion since this is the second one I've gone through so as you can see U the upgrade one perfectly I didn't run into any problems despite the power cable being hard to plug in but it's not really a problem that's just an annoyance I guess I hate cables what can I say say so that's it everything's working great my system runs a little louder now cuz the Fan's always going on the new video card but it's not really a problem since it's located under my desk and I sit over there before I bravel on anymore cuz you guys know I love to talk happy new year thanks for watching and I'll see you guys in my next video peace Mac for the win\n"