Nvidia 8800 GT card comes to first-gen Mac Pros

The Apple Store now lists a GeForce 8800 GT graphics upgrade kit for first-generation Mac Pros. The kit costs $279.

Apple introduced the GeForce 8800 GT as a graphics option for the Mac Pro when the professional desktop system was refreshed just prior to Macworld Expo in January. The board was available both as a configure-to-order option on new machines as an upgrade kit for new Mac Pros that had already been purchased with a different video card.

Despite its availability as an upgrade kit, the new, faster Nvidia-based graphics card would only work in newer Mac Pros, however. It supported the PCI Express 2.0 architecture available in newer machines, and was not backward-compatible with previous generation Mac Pro systems.

Now Apple is offering a version of that card specifically for the older Mac Pro models. Like its counterpart, the card is equipped with 512MB of GDDR3 video memory, and sports two dual-link Digital Visual Interface (DVI) ports, each capable of supporting a 30-inch Apple Cinema HD display. It also comes with a DVI to VGA connector to attach an older analog display.

The graphics upgrade kit for circa-2008-era Mac Pros remains available in the Apple Store, also priced at $279.

Apple listed the card’s availability as “3-5 business days” as Macworld posted this article.