2013 Mac Pro GPU upgrade

Deja Vu.

This same question is in another thread call "nMP GPU Upgrade"

You won't like the answer

vsighi said:

You are right... "There are no GPU upgrades other than over-priced repair parts and used pulls on EBay. There is only ONE (1) SSD upgrade offered, at an insane price and half the speed of the "pulls" on Ebay."

I guess the only upgrade will be buy it now and upgrade in 5 years with a new Mac Pro :-/

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Yea, sadly, right now the new mac pro is less upgradable than an iMac. It's kind of pathetic how apple has let entire product categories lapse. The Mac Pro seems to always get the shortest attention from them.

But look at the Macbook air and Macbook Pro 15". Apple concentrates on it's latest toy, gives a half hearted refresh of the Macbook Pro 13", a less than half hearted update to the Macbook air (no force touch bad, no retina display like people have been begging for years now), and the 15" macbook pro is totally ignored with not a single upgrade. As if it may be going the way of the 17" macbook pro.

It seems like all of apple is run by 100 people, that hired 10s of thousands of people to pick their nose and do nothing. And those 100 people can only do so much, and they've been too busy with a watch ignoring everything else.

ZombiePhysicist said:

But look at the Macbook air and Macbook Pro 15". Apple concentrates on it's latest toy, gives a half hearted refresh of the Macbook Pro 13", a less than half hearted update to the Macbook air (no force touch bad, no retina display like people have been begging for years now), and the 15" macbook pro is totally ignored with not a single upgrade. As if it may be going the way of the 17" macbook pro.

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Intel hasn't released the Broadwell chips for that line yet, which would make an update pointless for now.

Gwendolini said:

Intel hasn't released the Broadwell chips for that line yet, which would make an update pointless for now.

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Then why not do the same half hearted update they did to the 13". We can always find excuses... bottom line is much of the line is neglected.

ZombiePhysicist said:

Then why not do the same half hearted update they did to the 13". We can always find excuses... bottom line is much of the line is neglected.

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Because the 15" 'line' didn't get Broadwell era mobile quad core updates yet. Intel is staggering the rollout. Unless want to saddle the MBP 15" with only dual core offerings???? Updating just the trackpad on the MBP 15" is pointless as restricting it to solely less capable dual core offerings. The MBP 13 and MBA did have Broadwell updates and were updated.

The MBA didn't get Retina screens because the Macbook 12" Retina would not be differentiated if MBA's moved up in price and screen tech. Since the previous cancelation of the Macbook, the MBA is Apple's entry level laptop. It doesn't get all the bells and whistles of the the MBP since a major part of its intend is to be more affordable.

The folks who desperately wanted a Retina screen with minimal weight have the Macbook 2015.

As the 2015 MacBook's new tech gets more mature the MBA may get wiped out. For now though "Retina" and "Force Touch" are for the > $999 laptops.


The Mac Pro is in a different state. There are CPU , GPU , SSD, and chipset upgrades they could move to but are not moving. Part of that is that Apple puts the major Mac design updates on a rotation schedule. If 1-2 are getting them the rest just get logical, incremental bumps. The iMac is about due and probably the mini after that.

deconstruct60 said:

.

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They gave the air a meaningless small mhz speed bump. They could have done the same thing with the same chipset in the 15" model and put in the new trackpack...

We can agree to disagree.

ZombiePhysicist said:

They gave the air a meaningless small mhz speed bump. They could have done the same thing with the same chipset in the 15" model and put in the new trackpack...

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But the MacBook, MacBook Airs and the 13" MacBook Pro have been upgraded to the Broadwell micro architecture and all use dual core i5s and i7s.
The 15" MBP uses quad core i7s, of which there are not any Broadwell versions available.

How should that meaningless update have looked like for the 15" MBP?

And the upgrade did include better graphics and better CPUs, frequency is not all there is to a CPU.
The new CPUs are more power efficient and can offer more battery life.

But hey, let's update the 15" MBP with dual core CPUs.

We can agree to disagree.

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Agreement is not the issue your, your computational knowledge is.

vsighi said:

Now, I mean AMD Tahiti that is in 2013 nMP Its some how old ( 2011 ) but with a good driver it may do the job for you. I am curious if the next Mac Pro refresh and updated GPU card...can we buy the new card from apple and installed in our old 2013 Mac Pro !? I think this is the only way how we may get a new video card GPU upgrade.

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FirePro Pitcairn XT / Tahiti PRO / Tahiti XT (Dx00) chips are launched in June 2012, and their successors in August 2014.
So if Apple decided to use FirePro series, they did not have much choice if you consider nMP launch date.

Gwendolini said:

But the MacBook, MacBook Airs and the 13" MacBook Pro have been upgraded to the Broadwell micro architecture and all use dual core i5s and i7s.
The 15" MBP uses quad core i7s, of which there are not any Broadwell versions available.

How should that meaningless update have looked like for the 15" MBP?

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'

Small ghz bump. It didn't need the new structure. New trackpad. New keyboard.

Gwendolini said:

And the upgrade did include better graphics and better CPUs, frequency is not all there is to a CPU.
The new CPUs are more power efficient and can offer more battery life.

But hey, let's update the 15" MBP with dual core CPUs.

Agreement is not the issue your, your computational knowledge is.

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I think this has shifted from computers to douchebaggery. Congrats.

vsighi said:

Hi I want to ask the forum if anyone can bring some light to me regarding the 2013 Mac Pro GPU upgrade !? Can you upgrade the GPU ?
I KNOW APPLE.COM offer you option to build up you Mac Pro with:
Dual AMD FirePro D300 GPUs with 2GB
Dual AMD FirePro D500 GPUs with 3GB
Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB

But I want to know if I buy/build my Mac Pro with AMD D300 2GB can I upgrade later on with the AMD D700 6GB or I am stuck with what I buy/build the first time.!?

Thank you

Also I know the CPU, Memory, SSD are upgradable but I don't know nothing about the GPU !?

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You might be able to do an eGPU.

ZombiePhysicist said:

'

Small ghz bump. It didn't need the new structure. New trackpad. New keyboard.

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Small ghz bump to where? As others have pointed out, there is no where to go until the new chips are available. The 3 CPU options on the 15" Macbook Pro are already the top of the line in the 4700HQ, 4800HQ, and 4900HQ series.

ZombiePhysicist said:

'

Small ghz bump. It didn't need the new structure. New trackpad. New keyboard.

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How? The CPUs in the 15" are already top of the line.
New trackpad would mean a small redesign, new keyboard might be too much a risk and it is not necessary due to not needing it right now.

I think this has shifted from computers to douchebaggery. Congrats.

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Self-congratulations will not further your point anyway.

Gwendolini said:

How? The CPUs in the 15" are already top of the line.
New trackpad would mean a small redesign, new keyboard might be too much a risk and it is not necessary due to not needing it right now.




Self-congratulations will not further your point anyway.

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You can't stop. I dare you.

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Gwendolini said:

How? The CPUs in the 15" are already top of the line.
.

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They've overclocked the mobile processors by .1ghz, they could do the same on the 15"

No upgrades later so far. It sucks.

ZombiePhysicist said:

They've overclocked the mobile processors by .1ghz, they could do the same on the 15"

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No they can't. The Core M is available for each processor in a range of configurations whereas the Core i7 is not configurable by the ODM.

alphaod said:

No upgrades later so far. It sucks.



No they can't. The Core M is available for each processor in a range of configurations whereas the Core i7 is not configurable by the ODM.

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Um, it's overclocked. They can overclock any processor.

ZombiePhysicist said:

Yea, sadly, right now the new mac pro is less upgradable than an iMac. It's kind of pathetic how apple has let entire product categories lapse. The Mac Pro seems to always get the shortest attention from them.

But look at the Macbook air and Macbook Pro 15". Apple concentrates on it's latest toy, gives a half hearted refresh of the Macbook Pro 13", a less than half hearted update to the Macbook air (no force touch bad, no retina display like people have been begging for years now), and the 15" macbook pro is totally ignored with not a single upgrade. As if it may be going the way of the 17" macbook pro.

It seems like all of apple is run by 100 people, that hired 10s of thousands of people to pick their nose and do nothing. And those 100 people can only do so much, and they've been too busy with a watch ignoring everything else.

Click to expand...

Just look at where the nMP is placed in the retail stores. In a corner with nothing to say what it is, often attached to a thunderbolt display, or sometimes a Sharp 4k display but at 30Hz. I don't know why Apple went to all the effort of creating this machine, hyping up it's 4K capabilities, then ditching key apps like Aperture and not releasing their own 4K display. What kind of a strategy is that?

I've got a nMP and while it's a very quite and compact machine it does lack flexibility. I'm very short on space where I live so I bought it as a VM lab - there's nothing else on the market that can have 64GB in such a small space and remain quiet. In practice it's nice but easy to hit the limits. I'll keep it for photo work but as we are moving house this year I'll just stick with a PC for VM work. When it comes time to replace the nMP I probably won't get another Mac - the 'Pro' offerings simply don't scale high enough. The same goes with the rMBP - why no 32GB offering yet?

ZombiePhysicist said:

They've overclocked the mobile processors by .1ghz, they could do the same on the 15"

Click to expand...

No they haven't overclocked anything. It's a completely different CPU. Your statement is a proof you don't really have a clue what you're talking about.

Every computer manufacturer is dependent on the parts' manufacturers. Apple doesn't produce those chips and doesn't overclock them or whatever else you think they do. Intel has so far released new dual-core mobile chips and is yet to release the quads. It is then completely logical for Apple to upgrade the models that CAN be upgraded and not the ones that can't.

New MBAs & 13in MBP didn't just get a 0,1GHz bump. They got a completely new CPU architecture - that is faster, more energy efficient and delivers a quite significant improvement in the GPU department. That is not minor - that is what is available and currently best at this level. The 0,1GHz is just a number that means almost nothing.

15in MBP cannot yet receive a similar update.

U just love posts where people say that they do not like concept around nMP, its flexibility and so on....and they bought itd....why ?

I bought it and I do not like it.....so research more next time.

shaunp said:

Just look at where the nMP is placed in the retail stores. In a corner with nothing to say what it is, often attached to a thunderbolt display, or sometimes a Sharp 4k display but at 30Hz. I don't know why Apple went to all the effort of creating this machine, hyping up it's 4K capabilities, then ditching key apps like Aperture and not releasing their own 4K display. What kind of a strategy is that?

I've got a nMP and while it's a very quite and compact machine it does lack flexibility. I'm very short on space where I live so I bought it as a VM lab - there's nothing else on the market that can have 64GB in such a small space and remain quiet. In practice it's nice but easy to hit the limits. I'll keep it for photo work but as we are moving house this year I'll just stick with a PC for VM work. When it comes time to replace the nMP I probably won't get another Mac - the 'Pro' offerings simply don't scale high enough. The same goes with the rMBP - why no 32GB offering yet?

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I agree with the overall sentiment, but I wouldn't exactly note their lackluster presence (or complete lack there of) in the retail stores. The old Mac Pro tower got the same treatment.

A couple of weeks ago I met up with a friend who I used to work with and he was telling me he had recently bought the nMP. He just wanted the base model, so figured he'd just head down to the store. As they brought it out from the back, a group of employees hovered around them as they did the transaction as if it was something special, with one of them eventually saying, "no one's ever bought one of these here." Of course I'd expect 99% of nMP sale to happen online, but I found that kind of funny.

handsome pete said:

I agree with the overall sentiment, but I wouldn't exactly note their lackluster presence (or complete lack there of) in the retail stores. The old Mac Pro tower got the same treatment.

A couple of weeks ago I met up with a friend who I used to work with and he was telling me he had recently bought the nMP. He just wanted the base model, so figured he'd just head down to the store. As they brought it out from the back, a group of employees hovered around them as they did the transaction as if it was something special, with one of them eventually saying, "no one's ever bought one of these here." Of course I'd expect 99% of nMP sale to happen online, but I found that kind of funny.

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That doesn't surprise me. Most people who want a nMP know what it is and go buy one online. I bought mine online, upgraded a 4 core so I could have less base RAM - upgraded that with Crucial RAM.

I just think Apple could try harder in store. There are a lot of people buying a high-end iMac who would be better off with a nMP, but they don't even know it exists.

shaunp said:

Just look at where the nMP is placed in the retail stores. In a corner with nothing to say what it is, often attached to a thunderbolt display, or sometimes a Sharp 4k display but at 30Hz. I don't know why Apple went to all the effort of creating this machine, hyping up it's 4K capabilities, then ditching key apps like Aperture and not releasing their own 4K display. What kind of a strategy is that?

I've got a nMP and while it's a very quite and compact machine it does lack flexibility. I'm very short on space where I live so I bought it as a VM lab - there's nothing else on the market that can have 64GB in such a small space and remain quiet. In practice it's nice but easy to hit the limits. I'll keep it for photo work but as we are moving house this year I'll just stick with a PC for VM work. When it comes time to replace the nMP I probably won't get another Mac - the 'Pro' offerings simply don't scale high enough. The same goes with the rMBP - why no 32GB offering yet?

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The internal SSD can be upgraded but might be a limit, most will of course need to invest in some kind of Thunderbolt storage.
The GPU is not upgradable but the processor sure is.

So yes get 4-core and then put your own 8-core (better for VMs by far!) and 32GB DIMMs.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/1333D3Z3M128/

External PCIe, whether you want GTX or Quadro

gibkibonzo said:

No they haven't overclocked anything. It's a completely different CPU. Your statement is a proof you don't really have a clue what you're talking about.

Every computer manufacturer is dependent on the parts' manufacturers. Apple doesn't produce those chips and doesn't overclock them or whatever else you think they do. Intel has so far released new dual-core mobile chips and is yet to release the quads. It is then completely logical for Apple to upgrade the models that CAN be upgraded and not the ones that can't.

New MBAs & 13in MBP didn't just get a 0,1GHz bump. They got a completely new CPU architecture - that is faster, more energy efficient and delivers a quite significant improvement in the GPU department. That is not minor - that is what is available and currently best at this level. The 0,1GHz is just a number that means almost nothing.

15in MBP cannot yet receive a similar update.

Click to expand...

Um, yea, they are overclocking them: https://www.macrumors.com/2015/04/13/1-2-ghz-retina-macbook-geekbench/

Apple is taking advantage of Intel's latest "Core M" Broadwell chips for the new Retina MacBook. The chips offer extremely low power usage, but Apple is slightly overclocking these chips for higher performance. The low-end MacBook uses a 5Y31 chip that runs by default at 900 MHz but which supports overclocking to 1.1 GHz at the cost of bumping power consumption from 4.5 watts to 6 watts, and Apple has elected to use the faster speeds to improve performance.

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http://www.unlockpwd.com/macbook-12...eably-faster-than-the-basic-model-benchmarks/

In the “medium” MacBook chip used 5Y51. “Native” the clock frequency for it – 1.1 GHz, but Apple overclock it to 1.2GHz. In the “top» MacBook clock speed of the chip 5Y71 also increased by 100 MHz – from 1.2 to 1.3 GHz.

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So they could easily have given it a .1ghz overclock boost for marketing effect.

So eat some crow, and next time when some says we can agree to disagree, have the most remedial manners without being a crude windbag that has to hear yourself blab the last word.