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Mac Pro 4,1 Upgrade Advice

OS-SEX

OS-SEX

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 12, 2012
116
144
I recently purchased an '09 Mac Pro 2.66 quad core with a Radeon 5770 and 12 GB of RAM. It's a pretty powerful machine for my needs but I'd like to squeeze a little more oomph out of it for 3D gaming and some video editing. Given a limited budget, would I get more bang for my buck with a CPU upgrade or should I look into a better video card? I've seen the cpu upgrade videos for this machine and this seems like an upgrade I could definitely handle. What processor or video card would be a solid upgrade without breaking the bank?
 
h9826790

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,614
8,546
Hong Kong
You may install x-plane (free download) and run it. Try the setting you prefer for gaming (resolution, texture, etc.). And then check if your machine is limited by the CPU or GPU. If you are happy with the frame rate, may be there is no need to upgrade.
 
Synchro3

Synchro3

macrumors 68000
Jan 12, 2014
1,987
850
OS-SEX said:
I've seen the cpu upgrade videos for this machine and this seems like an upgrade I could definitely handle. What processor or video card would be a solid upgrade without breaking the bank?
Click to expand...

The Xeon W3690 (6-core 3.46 GHZ) is now at eBay for sale for $340.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trks...at=0&_from=R40

I bought one for my 4,1 Mac Pro. Single Core +25% Multicore +80% (old Processor was a W3540 2.93 GHz). The increase will be significant compared to your 2.66 Quad.
 
augusto58

augusto58

macrumors member
Aug 28, 2014
33
0
Italia
I hope that is meaningful, otherwise have a 6-core and useless.
I need to buy myself a MacPro 2009 and then make the changes as yours.
good luck.

: Mela:
 
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