How does it work with GFX cards then and OSX. Version 10.7.4 which I believe is mountain lion? ... is in use. Can you just plug in your card, i.e. GT 430, and you are good to go? Is there bundled drivers in with OS or repository similar to GNU/Linux distros with drivers available? GF needs to use two monitors and on the machine apparently only has one output. (This is a tower unit, so should have PCIe slot I'd imagine. Not an all in one jobby.) Located at her work, so I can't exactly look for myself. I have a card I can lend their IT dept... but if they need outside help for a £30~ gfx card then I think her worries should be somewhere else.
10.7 is Lion not Mountain Lion. Technically you should only buy a proper apple graphics card (essentially custom firmware on a standard card) to put in the mac pro however in reality most newer ATi & nvidia cards work however you do lose the white screen etc during boot and the card doesn't kick in until the desktop appears.
Are these something available through a distributor? Any in particular? Edit: Yes... turns out 10.7 is just a lion. Not a mountain lion
Righto. Sounds like she has a Mac Pro, as that's the only tower Apple make. However, that immediately makes me suspicious - Mac Pro GPUs always have had 2+ outputs. It depends on what era of machine she's using, but off the top of my head she should have one of the following: 2006/7: 7300GT or X1900 XT 2008: 2600 XT or 8800GT 2009: GT120 or 4870 2010/12: 5770 or 5870 So yeah, get her to either find out what GPU she has in there right now, or at least take a picture of the PCIe bay I/O.
Woah... do they want an arm and a leg for a 5770!? So, yeah. Unless someone has had the card out of there that seems unlikely.I'll get her to get me a picture of it from the rear. I don't think she is allowed to take the side off. I don't want to make a moan about Apple thread... but I'd be pretty peeved if I had a new machine only capable of 1 display. There are some USB adapters out there that can give you and extra monitor for OSX I saw for about £70~ thought. They could be worth a shout.
The usb adapters aren't bad but not great for anything other than text, I have a couple on my macbook pro so I can have 4 screens in use (although that'll change when I get the cable to connect my 30" screen to it)
There's no need to take the side off - a shot of the rear I/O would work fine, or she can click the Apple logo in the top left, select About This Mac, then More Info. This will open the system profiler, where she can select Graphics on the left hand side and it'll tell you the card. Macs capable of single display output are the laptops (although newer models can do more) and the older iMacs. The desktop towers have always been capable of 2 at the absolute minimum. Even if somebody has replaced the GPU with something else, I still fail to see how it can have less ports.
Just upgrade to ML and you're got a whole bunch of GPUs to run (basically every Fermi and Kepler). But AFAIK 10.7.4 has the drivers for Fermi (GTX5xx) cards.
Cool. I'll get her to have a look. I was suprised when she said the it person said it was going to cost loads and it couldn't do it... Honestly a second monitor is one of the biggest productivity boasts you can make and it would he well worth the relatively small investment this company would be making. I have 2 Fermi cards she could use, but I'm not giving them to her work. I'm not lending them a card for anything other than testing for the day. But I can't be bothered to sort them out till after the weekend. In the mean time I just want to make sure they aren't doing something stupid like not knowing what a displayport mini is or something...
Hard to see as gf is using iphone... but are these not Apple's mini displayport connections to the right of the dvi? I'll email her now with instructions on finding out what card is in there. Edit: Just got another picture and it is clear as John Terry is a **** that they are mini display port connectors. My other hint is that is a dual bay gfx card... so I'd be surprised if they had that beefy a card but no dual monitor support. Second Edit: It is indeed a 5770 in there... I'd be pretty peeved if it didn't do two monitors!
Yes, those are MDP ports, which when combined with the full size DVI port means it's a 5770 or 5870. Basically her work IT department is staffed by retards. It will happily support triple monitors, you'll just need to get the MDP to DVI adapters. No need for a second card in the slightest.
Ha ha... at a bargain price of £100 too! That's half the cost of the official apple price. I've recommended an active adapter... she won't be going over 1080p I'd imagine. You need USB power adapter for bigger res don't you? Something to do with conversion. Anyhow, if they buy the active ones, if there is a spare screen lying around at some point, they can go right ahead and use a 3rd with another adapter, and if they foolishly bought a passive, it's ok as I already had them buy an active one. Correct me if I'm wrong. IT can take it off and poke around, but my lady friend won't be so inclined! Kapiche? /joke although the first part isn't a joke. The kapiche bit is.
You just need to £20 apple adapter to do a regular screen on the mac. Or if you use an apple monitor it plugs straight in
She'll be using Dell screens I'd imagine from what she's said before. I recommended a startech adapter based on no reviews, no feedback, no experience and zero effort. I did a tiny bit of research and heard that the Apple adapters sometimes don't play nice with non-Apple monitors. So therefore I immediately took that once sentence as infallible and unwavering as if handed down by Steve Jobs himself. Here is the startech one