Preparing the Mac Pro for Radeon Power

After reading my post “Does a 1GB Graphics Card Make Sense for a Non-Gamer”, a very generous reader sent me an ATI Radeon 4870 1GB card to see for myself. (Thank you, Sam!) The card arrived yesterday.

This is an XFX model card that works out of the box with the PC. My goal is to flash the card to work inside a Mac Pro. From my research into the subject, I know it’s possible. Despite some reservations on whether or not I’ll be successful, I’m eager to document and share the process with you guys. Right now, I’m waiting to receive two Molex power supply adapters to power the card. Once that comes in, I’ll roll up my sleeves and dive in.

Oh, and if you’ve ever performed such an operation, please feel free to share any success / war stories or links to comprehensive step-by-step guides. I haven’t performed this type of operation before, outside of flashing a few EEPROM and PALs back in my EE days. (And that was almost 20 years ago…)

I’d also be very grateful for any potential “gotchas” I should look out for. Thanks!

-Krishna

Krishna October 27, 2011 ATI Radeon 4870, flashing PC to Mac video card, Mac Pro