Cheapest graphics card for 2 4k 60hz monitor support in cMP 2009-2010

[cmm]

I don't game, I keep a lot of windows open of pdf's, text files, irc, slaxk, latex docs, text editor, google chrome canary (64bit vs 32), IDE or sublime text etc

I am considering buying an older Mac Pro but which graphics card will I need so there will be no window lag when moving things around or minimizing windows and switching between the sic desktops?

I plan to use either 2 Dell P2715Q or 2 Dell P2715Q and I'd want to run them at HiDPi 1440p if that matters.

In the off chance I want to also run my 27 Thunderbolt display would that work on the cheapest graphics card I need for dual 4k support? Thanks!

I was considering buying a 5k iMac and getting one more 4k monitor for it but I assume the graphics card in the 5k iMac will have trouble keeping up with another HiDPi display. So this leaves me with either the nMP which I think is total crap or the cMP from2009-2010 (4,1 or 5,1 models) to run multiple HiDPi screens as well as run my NAS all in one machine, which has a higher WAF (wife approval factor) than my big tall ugly Antec case that holds a 4x4tb RAID array. I also have 4 1TB Crucial SSDs I got refurbed for $180 each. Can these be attached to the PCIe2 slots so I can keep files that must be fast on their and my media can stay on my 4x4tb RAID-Z1 (one disk parity). And, yes, I'll run the RAID arrays on its own VM to avoid any issues with the startup disk and my data thanks to vt-i extensions found in most Xeon CPUs

PSA RAID !=backups. I backup onsite and off-site (to AWS) incrementally with rdiff-backup, git and unison. And one more time I do a daily incremental backup to a location in another building just in case this one burns to the ground. I do yet another incremental backup offsite.

 

[h9826790]

The 5K iMac can support extra 2x 4K monitor indeed.

 

[bookemdano]

There are no 100% perfect options for the cMP. There are lots of choices that will drive multiple 4K displays, but all have compromises of some sort.

Having recently had this same question, I did a lot of research by reading threads here and elsewhere, blogs, etc. Here's my saga (warning, long and drawn-out):

The gist I got from my research was that the Radeon 7950 was the way to go for these four reasons:

1. There was an official Mac EFI version of the card made by Sapphire (granted at an obscene price premium)
2. But smart people dumped that EFI ROM from the card and made it available for us mere mortals to flash onto the full range of 7950 cards (and even some other models from the same Tahiti GPU architecture). What this gives you is the Apple boot screen, which matters to some people but not others. It mattered to me because I use FileVault2 and I wanted to be able to see the screen while entering my password. Flashing, while not a walk in the park, is definitely doable if you have some skills and patience.
3. Drivers for this and many other ATI cards are built into all recent versions of OS X. So "it just works". And in fact even if you don't bother with the EFI stuff the card will still work once the Mac boots.
4. Assuming you get a standard-layout 7950, you'll have lots of outputs from which to choose--two miniDP, one HDMI 1.2 and one DVI-DL

So that's the way I went. I bought a Gigabyte 7950 off eBay for $150, flashed the 7950 EFI onto it and everything was working great--until I connected my new 4K monitor via displayport and switched on DisplayPort 1.2 in my monitor (which you need if you want to run 4K/HiDPI resolutions at 60 vs 30 Hz. Then the cMP wouldn't boot. Didn't matter which mDP output I used; if the monitor was connected when I turned the computer on it would not boot (and I mean it froze up before even getting to the EFI stage--not just no picture). If I unplugged the monitor and booted the machine, it would boot fine. Then I could plug in the monitor and it would work--until I had to power down or reboot again. Also, it would work if I left my 4K monitor in DP1.1 mode, or connected via HDMI or DVI, but all of those options stuck me at 30Hz. If I was OK with 4K @ 30Hz I would have just bought a 2014 Mac Mini. I went with the Mac Pro to be able to use 4K @ 60Hz.

Turns out this is a common and unresolvable issue with the Tahiti cards. Just not widely discussed on the internet (which is why I didn't read about it until experiencing it myself)

Call me anal, but I was unwilling to put up with remembering to unplug my monitor at every reboot so I went back to the drawing board. There don't appear to be any ATI cards that can do both of these:

1. 4K at DP1.2 (60Hz) for the full boot process, without having to unplug cables or other shenanigans
2. Show the boot screen at 4K 60Hz

So that led me over to Nvidia. I had originally eliminated the newer Nvidia cards because drivers for them aren't built into OS X. So with every new release and update of OS X you have to remember to download the newest web drivers from Nvidia and install them first. Also, those cards have no publicly-available EFI ROM an end-user can flash. So you either accept you'll have no bootscreen or you must pay someone to flash an EFI onto your card (or buy a pre-flashed card from them).

I ended up biting the bullet and buying an eVGA GeForce 750Ti and shipping it to MacVidCards.com to be flashed with an EFI ROM. The bad news is that's a less powerful card than the ATI 7950 and was more expensive once paying for the flashing service. The good news is that it works perfectly. With my Seiki Pro 40" monitor set to DP1.2 mode and connected to the card via DisplayPort, the Mac boots properly, gives me my boot screen, and then drops me into gorgeous 60Hz 4K. Seamless and no hoops to jump through--that's what I wanted. Service and communication from MacVidCards was great.

One benefit of the 750Ti over other Nvidia and ATI options is that it doesn't require additional power connections from the motherboard (gets all its power from the PCI slot). So it's actually a great option to use in addition to another video card if you wanted something more powerful for gaming or stuff that wants heavy-duty GPGPU like FCPX or Resolve.

Nvidia seems pretty good at keeping their driver package up to date (they already have drivers available for the 10.11.5 beta) and installing their web drivers is painless. So ultimately I am very happy with my choice. I just wish I had known about the boot problem with 7950 cards ahead of time so I wouldn't have wasted time and money on it.

TL;DR If you want the cheapest card that will drive two 4K monitors at 60Hz and give you bootscreens on a 4,1 or 5,1, either buy a pre flashed GeForce 750Ti from MacVidCards or buy one yourself and send it to them for flashing. If you don't care about bootscreens then you may have even cheaper options, but personally I think the 750Ti is still a compelling option since it's pretty capable but designed for low power draw.

 

[pastrychef]

I think a GTX 680 should be able drive two 4K monitors. 1 via Display Port @60Hz and 1 via HDMI @30Hz. You will get boot screen on HDMI if it's flashed. GTX 680s work fine with OS X built-in drivers.

 

[Squuiid]

I'd wait a month or so until AMD and NVIDIA release their new Displayport 1.3 cards (Pascal and Polaris), which will finally bring 4K into the mainstream. Currently most gfx cards use MST to drive 4K which is a horrible hack IMO.
Definitely worth waiting for when Displayport 1.3 is commonplace on both gfx cards and monitors.

 

[bookemdano]

I'd wait a month or so until AMD and NVIDIA release their new Displayport 1.3 cards (Pascal and Polaris), which will finally bring 4K into the mainstream. Currently most gfx cards use MST to drive 4K which is a horrible hack IMO.
Definitely worth waiting for when Displayport 1.3 is commonplace on both gfx cards and monitors.

I don't think that's correct. MST/SST is a function of the connected display, not the video card. Case in point, both the ATI 7950 and Nvidia 750 Ti I have in my cMP work just fine with my SST 4K monitor (in both DP1.1 @ 30Hz and DP1.2 @ 60Hz). I'm not sure what, if any other improvements DP1.3 brings to the table, but it's certainly not required to use SST.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

At least 4GB VRAM is the most important point here. Cheap or cheapish cards with that much memory are (not complete list)

Radeon 290/290X (there is also a rare 8GB edition)
Radeon 7970 6GB edition

GeForce GTX 680 4GB edition
GeForce GTX 770

These four cards have similar performance and can be picked up for around 150 dollars, about the same cost in Europe too.

 

[Squuiid]

Case in point, both the ATI 7950 and Nvidia 750 Ti I have in my cMP work just fine with my SST 4K monitor (in both DP1.1 @ 30Hz and DP1.2 @ 60Hz). I'm not sure what, if any other improvements DP1.3 brings to the table, but it's certainly not required to use SST.

I stand corrected. Apologies for the misinformation, I was thinking 5K.

Aren't there some quirks however with running 4K SST on a GTX 680 ME for example? Turning the monitor off and then on again once booted, or something like that? Seem to remember having read something along those lines.

 

[pastrychef]

Aren't there some quirks however with running 4K SST on a GTX 680 ME for example? Turning the monitor off and then on again once booted, or something like that? Seem to remember having read something along those lines.

The only issue is that a GTX 680 will not display boot screen on Display Port at 4K@60Hz even when flashed.

Boot screen does show on HDMI at 4K@30Hz.

It's possible to boot in to 4K using HDMI. Then connect Display Port cable to get 60Hz. Then disconnect HDMI.

 

[Synchro3]

What about this card? : http://www.macvidcards.com/store/p80/Nvidia_GT_630_2_GB.html

With two DisplayPorts. Not enough VRAM?

 

[pastrychef]

I've booted in to a single 4K display at 60Hz via Display Port using a GT 640 with 1GB.

 

[bookemdano]

Aren't there some quirks however with running 4K SST on a GTX 680 ME for example? Turning the monitor off and then on again once booted, or something like that? Seem to remember having read something along those lines.

Not sure about that problem on any Nvidia cards but that was definitely the problem I had with the Radeon 7950 (the subject of my novel above ). But that's only if flashed with the EFI from the 7950 Mac Edition. In BIOS mode it did not prevent booting (but of course no boot screen).

 

[cmm]

Really? That's great to know but it still means I have two problems that the Mac Pro supports: 128GB of ram (I'd start with 4x16gb) and I'd be able to run my RAID array in the box itself, getting rid of a large computer server box.

Will any graphics card from the 5k iMac

The 5K iMac can support extra 2x 4K monitor indeed.

What? The 5k iMac can support an ADDITIONAL two HiDPi displays? Or did you mean to say that it can support one external HiDPi display and since the 5k iMac is well, HiDPi, that is two displays. Just asking for clarification. And I assume any extra monitors would require an upgraded GPU?

I would get the 5k iMac but I am left with a conundrum regarding the 4x1tb SSDs I have. TB2 enclosures are NOT cheap and I guess they are never coming down in price.. I think the cheapest option is $350 for a 4 bay "RAID ready" (not sure what that means, I am assuming/hoping that would mean I can use whatever software RAID I want in my FreeNAS using ZFS VM for the SSDs. $350 I guess isn't terrible but the Mac Pro can fit many 3.5" HDDs inside of it (my current array is 6x3TB in RAID-Z2 but I am planning on upgrading to 4TB or 6TB WD Red drives with only one disk parity as I already have backups). The WAF (wife approval factor) goes up when she sees less, not more, electronics. She would just be excited to see that "big, dusty black tower gone.

Then when I heard that the old Mac Pros were just as fast as the one released in 2013 with some upgrades, I got very interested. I like the fact that the Mac Pro can support up to 128GB of RAM. My main laptop only has 8GB of ram and OS X just eats it all up. I worry that I will run into issues with the 5k iMac "only" supporting 32GB of ram and the fact that the Mac Pro can support up to 128GB (and it's ECC ram, unlike in the iMac) is comforting.,
It seems rather silly of me to spend $700-900 on a 2009-2010 Mac Pro which is now 6-7 years old. That is my biggest hangup about going with the Mac Pro, even though I know the upgrades will make it more or less current and I would have ECC RAM (and up to 128GB whereas the 5k iMac tops out at 32GB. I don't run that many VMs but in my experience, OS X will eat up whatever GB of RAM you have, so I worry that I'll deal with lots of lag and whatnot in the 5k iMac. Do you think I'm being crazy? If i go with the 5k iMac, I can get that TB2 enclosure to run a RAID of the 4x1TB Crucial SSDs (I got them on sale from Crucial for $180 each) but I'd still have to have the big tower case for the mechanical HDDs. In NYC, space is limited, although I have enough room for another tower, the idea of one tower holding all of this, plus starting with 4x16GBB of RAM in the Mac Pro seemed like an awesome solution.

Not to mention, the ability to have 2 Dell P2715Q or P2415Q displays running HiDPi 1440 ("best for retina" 1080 is not a large enough space) without a hitch. I have so many windows open at once of various files (I have about 15-20 PDFs open in Preview over my 6 desktop space right now (each space, believe it or not, is thought out, I use Papers app too for research, DevonThink, iTerm2, 6-10 Chrome Canary (64bit unlike Google Chrome that is 32bit) windows at once with 20-30 tabs each (I use the great suspender to suspend tabs but it still takes up some RAM...I have tried pocket but I didn't like it, I am trying to see if I like Readability and if I do that will definitely help, especially on the 5k iMac with "only" 32GB of ram, Sublime Text for writing code, iMessage for sending texts as well as ChitChat (a whatsapp wrapper on OS X) and my I use Eclipse and IntelliJ IDE at all times, email client, skype (although it is always on I almost never use it, thank god everybody has left skype for HTML5 options), Asana, Slack, Ulysses (most plain text docs are in here but I also use this for notes), and I can never go back to a non-HiDPi screen again. So I am really stuck between the Mac Pro that would allow me to have one box with several VMs (including my RAID arrays) and enough RAM that I would never worry again about it or the 5k iMac with 1 extra HiDPi screen (if it could handle two with no lag that would be amazing; would I need the upgraded GPU for 1 additional 4k monitor). The downside of a Mac Pro is I'd have to buy a laptop to use and sometime syncing can suck, but that's what OpenVPN, rdiff-backup and Unison is for....

Any advice/thoughts?

 

[bookemdano]

Honestly yeah for everything you want to do, the 5K iMac seems like it would be a bad fit. The CPU architecture on the cMP is old, old old. Newer Intel chips easily surpass even the fastest Westmere Xeon in single-core applications. But if you stick a couple hexa-core Xeons in a cMP and have apps (like VMs) that can address all those cores coupled with all that RAM you'll run circles around a 5K iMac. If that's truly your use case then the cMP is the obvious choice.

As for buying "6-7 year old" technology, I am not really worried that the 4,1/5,1 cMP will be obsolete anytime soon. Consider that Apple was selling the 5,1 right up until late 2013, and the 4,1 and 5,1 are essentially the same hardware. My guess is these will still be getting OS X updates for a number of years longer. AppleCare, not so much. But there's nothing really you can do about that. If AppleCare's important to you then the cMP is a no-go.

I'm confused by your statement "The downside of a Mac Pro is I'd have to buy a laptop to use". Would that not also be the case if you bought an iMac?

 

[cmm]

I appreciate your response. I just want to clear up the confusion (I will write more later but I'm swamped right now and only have certain times to use the parallel computing resources here)... My hope was a Skylake 15 rMBP would come out that I could upgrade its dedicated GPU and run 2 4k monitors flawlessly. The Skylake Intel chip that works for the rMBP has been on the Intel OEM price list for months so I don't get it. That is my preferred solution, because I am worried about dealing with syncing between two primary machines (I access lots of servers via ssh or mosh, but this cMP or the 5k iMac would be my primary workstations. Primarily I'd be on the cMP but if I ever leave my office, I'd want to grab my laptop and leave, not wait for syncing (seems like http://rdiff-backup.nongnu.org/ and https://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/ will help in that regard but something always fails when you sync. However, if I do buy a cMP 99% of my data is on its HDD RAID array and SSD RAID array, so long as I can VPN in or access in another way (I'd probably have an owncloud service up just for fun and of course I'd leave ssh open), I guess syncing isn't so important as the only local copies I'd have of anything on my laptop is dot dot files and /Applications. Yeah, a drag to set up the first time but then you are done. Currently I have an i7 2.8GHz, 13rMBP with Intel Iris 1536 GPU and 8GB of RAM. It is barely usable with that little ram with all the processes I have running in the background; I don't even spin up VMs on this unless I'm in a dire pinch.

It would be easier to draw this out but if I go with a desktop (5k iMac or cMP) I still need a laptop. That means maintaining and paying for two machines. The maintaining thing is more the problems.

I don't do anything that requires heavy computational complexity on my own computers. I have access to several supercomputers (I work at a famous Boston university as well as CERN and we have an AWS cluster available that is easy to get time for) and I rarely if ever actually compile anything on my own hardware anymore. The whole point of considering the cMP was I could run two VMs of both RAID arrays (one of the mechanical disks and the other of SSDs) as it has vt-i extensions and you really don't want to run a RAID array on your start disk as well as use it as a general purpose machine that could support two beautiful (for text, this is all I care about...as I continue to get older, eye strain is more of an issue and the HiDPi displays along with computer lenses and the app, flux, have helped significantly...I can stare at a computer for 16-18 hours a day and have no strain and no headaches) HiDPi displays (most likely 4k since the Dell P2415Q and P2715Q is so well priced, I would stick to 4k rather than 5k and since I don't create video, my understanding is 5k excels in that environment for all the extra options and windows for editing whereas a 4k monitor at "best for retina display" which is 1080, the editing windows would get in the way.

The 5k iMac excites me because of its 32GB RAM support and the beautiful 27" 5k monitor for less than $2k (I don't mean to say 32GB of ram in the 5k iMac is under $2k). This would be easy for me to buy and justify to our office rep who looks closely over PCard purchases.

I would be much happier with a 15 rMBP that had Skylake (especially if Apple allowed 32GB of RAM--slim chance) but I do worry that even with the new Skylake, 16GB just isn't enough. As it stands now I am constantly swapping 4-8GB at a time. If that laptop became available tomorrow, I would still have the problem of the 4x1TB Crucial SSDs I have on my desk and what to do about my loud NAS that is showing its age (I built it years ago and I made a rookie mistake and forget ECC RAM). I am very impressed with the Lenovo TS440. In mid 2015 you could get one of them for $299 with 4GB of ECC RAM, sans hard drives, an xeon-e3 CPU (which is worth more than the $299 purchase price) and server mobo. Supported up to 8 drives. You would have to spend another $15-20 on each 4 bay hotswap case and ECC ram but under $400 and you have an amazing NAS. And it would have been smaller than what I have. But then, still what to do about the SSDs? Right now I am borrowing random TB2 enclosure cases we have in the physics department IT office but I really need to set up a proper RAID array of these and I need access as I begin traveling more and more.

Did that clear up any confusion?

I read what you wrote above and maybe what I mean for VMs if different than what you mean. What kind of VMs would take advantage of the multithread support? I was planning on running the RAID array of HDDs and SSDs in a CentOS VM with 12GB each but only 1 or maybe 2 cores. I was going to use ZFS on Linux and live a little (since I have three backups, two physical (in two different buildings) that back up incrementally as changes are made (every work document goes through our university's git system) and I have another encrypted backup in AWS.

I know there are instances where VMs take advantage of a multithread/multicore CPU but I do not feel multicore would be helpful but for running these RAID arrays and having a VM of various Linux distros and Win7 & 10 available doesn't really seem important enough. Perhaps the one Debian distro that is running a version of Mathematica on it would be a good place where the multiple cores from the Westmere Xeon's but again, if I am doing anything computationally significant (and I understand that definition varies, to give it some perspective I work on quantum computing and mathematically sound cryptanalysis of qubits), I wouldn't run it on any machine that I have. Whether it's my 13 rMBP today or the 2009-2010 cMP or the 5k iMac. I'd unload it off and keep my power bill down

Was that helpful at all? One more thing (I swear just one more time...): I care about living a minimalist lifestyle. A large reason I liked the cMP was I could fit all my SSDs and HDDs in there and I wouldn't need a separate box with a 750w PSU running 24/7. I also care about the environment and I know that the cMP uses a lot of electricity but I don't believe it would use more than a 5k iMac PLUS my 750w NAS PLUS the OtherWorldComputer 4bay SSD enclosure.

Do you know where I can look to get sample pricing and whatnot? I really don't know where to look for upgrades to the cMP except from very expensive places that do the work for you (I can handle that) like OWC, another company in the UK, I can't recall its name, etc... I have a computer budget that I have to spend or I lose it and the date is fast approaching and I want to play around to see what I can get out of an upgraded cMP but honestly, I don't have a clue where to look?

If I had to prioritize:

1) Having 2 HiDPi displays (if that means getting a 5k iMac I am fine with using a 4k display next to it)

2) Making sure I have enough RAM and I stop swapping space when doing my ordinary day's work on a computer. I do leave a lot of tabs open. I have tried Google Canary which is 64bit whereas Google Chrome for OS X is only 32bit, it made a huge difference (I also use the great suspender to suspend the 200+ tabs I have open at any one time in 6-10 Chrome windows...it uses some RAM but at least 1/4th less than if I didn't use it), I am trying readability as a read later app after having no success with pocket. If that doesn't work, I will try instapaper. Was thinking outside the box and doing it old school or writing a quick script to curl it into Asana. If I open up a VM on this 13 rMBP 8GB machine, I never allocate more than 1GB to it. Also, to cut down on my resources footprint, I use ublock and I have spent some time to make sure flash never loads unless I allow it and for that matter, I have spent time doing the same to js scripts (but this is muhc more delicate, since the internet runs on js). It has made a difference but opening up activity monitor now, I am swapping 3GB and very rarely any issues with lag when I'm typing. Is there anything I can do to get windowserver_ to stop using up all my RAM other than close the 40+ windows I have open right now? Seriously, there must be some optimization available...

3) Minimalism by not having several boxes (1 box for my 4x1TB SSD array and 1 box for my 6x3tb RAID array--btw I am planning on upgrading either to 4tb or 6tb WD Red's, but let's not make this even more complicated)and a laptop (I'd probably keep the ****** 13 rMBP I have now until I get fed up with it freezing from swapping and I throw it out the window. Or I will buy a user 15 rMBP with 16GB of RAM. y l

4) WAF (wife approve factor) needs to be high and it would be a high wife approval factor if I didn't have two extra boxes with wires running to the 5k iMac or to my laptop for the NAS needs.
5) Energy consideration
[...]
6) Upgradeability - yeah maybe 3 4k displays would be nice but at that point, if i had a third display I am going to use it would be for watching movies or something on my Apple Thunderbolt Display. I don't even have the space at my house for three monitors although I do at my office

I am not concerned about Applecare support so long as OS X continues to work as it gets updated. I don't see Apple EOL'ing cMPs for 5+ years.

Thoughts?

And to be clear, you would recommend the 5k iMac over the cMP if you were running single core apps only? Hell, most multicore apps are terrible at being a multicore app

I really appreciate your thoughts. I wrote much more than I thought I would but I promise to get to all the other replies tonight.

 

[h9826790]

What? The 5k iMac can support an ADDITIONAL two HiDPi displays? Or did you mean to say that it can support one external HiDPi display and since the 5k iMac is well, HiDPi, that is two displays. Just asking for clarification. And I assume any extra monitors would require an upgraded GPU?

Very clearly state on the Apple's webpage. No GPU upgrade required as long as you are choosing the 27" 5K iMac.

 

[cmm]

Very clearly state on the Apple's webpage. No GPU upgrade required as long as you are choosing the 27" 5K iMac.
View attachment 629051

I've seen Apple's statements before about graphics issues and they seem to grossly inflate its abilities. Most tech companies does this, I am not picking on Apple.Maybe it is possible to push two external 5k screens on them but I doubt it will be functional in real world use.

And a quick youtube search shows no one who has this setup; certainly if it worked, you'd be able to find at least one video showing it off: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=imac+5k+dual+4k+monitors&page=&utm_source=opensearch

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

Honestly yeah for everything you want to do, the 5K iMac seems like it would be a bad fit. The CPU architecture on the cMP is old, old old. Newer Intel chips easily surpass even the fastest Westmere Xeon in single-core applications. But if you stick a couple hexa-core Xeons in a cMP and have apps (like VMs) that can address all those cores coupled with all that RAM you'll run circles around a 5K iMac. If that's truly your use case then the cMP is the obvious choice.

As for buying "6-7 year old" technology, I am not really worried that the 4,1/5,1 cMP will be obsolete anytime soon. Consider that Apple was selling the 5,1 right up until late 2013, and the 4,1 and 5,1 are essentially the same hardware. My guess is these will still be getting OS X updates for a number of years longer. AppleCare, not so much. But there's nothing really you can do about that. If AppleCare's important to you then the cMP is a no-go.

I'm confused by your statement "The downside of a Mac Pro is I'd have to buy a laptop to use". Would that not also be the case if you bought an iMac?

Regarding OSX updates. This is a tricky area. The 2008 cMP was listed as obsolete lately and Apple could do the same for 2009-2012 models within the next year or two. Apple only has to drop native support for older graphics drivers and then it will be a chore to upgrade cMP to the latest OSX without resorting to Hackintosh loaders. But then again you don't really need the latest greatest OS on the cMP. Maybe Mavericks was the best OS for it if you don't need full iCloud support.

 

[h9826790]

I've seen Apple's statements before about graphics issues and they seem to grossly inflate its abilities. Most tech companies does this, I am not picking on Apple.Maybe it is possible to push two external 5k screens on them but I doubt it will be functional in real world use.

And a quick youtube search shows no one who has this setup; certainly if it worked, you'd be able to find at least one video showing it off: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=imac+5k+dual+4k+monitors&page=&utm_source=opensearch

This is a kind of extreme setup, not necessary able to find video on YouTube. If you search from Google, you will see few reports on other forums that said they can drive 2x extrenal 27" Dell 4K display with the 27" 5K iMac (4G VRAM GPU), however, no prove, pictures, or videos.

 

[pastrychef]

The Mac Pro 4,1 (aka 2009) is already on Apple's "vintage" list.

 

[cmm]

Regarding OSX updates. This is a tricky area. The 2008 cMP was listed as obsolete lately and Apple could do the same for 2009-2012 models within the next year or two. Apple only has to drop native support for older graphics drivers and then it will be a chore to upgrade cMP to the latest OSX without resorting to Hackintosh loaders. But then again you don't really need the latest greatest OS on the cMP. Maybe Mavericks was the best OS for it if you don't need full iCloud support.

That's a bit unsettling. When it comes to not only a server but also a workstation, I want to make sure I can update. But most important is homebrew working and that's independent of which modern OS X version you have. Did you see post #15? Any thoughts on that? I don't want to make a bad decision.

Where can you see all the options for the 2009-2010 cMP upgrades? I want to get an idea of pricing.

 

[evsp]

Hello,
I'm trying to figure out how to get dual 4k monitors on my mid-2010 tower. I'm looking at the GeForce gtx 960 (apparently a very popular card as it's not easy to find). I'm also looking at the 750 ti. My first question is, do I have to run bootcamp in order for my mac to use these cards? The second is, if I were to get the 750 card, I'd have to run one monitor using HDMI at 30 hz, and I'm wondering if there would be a noticable difference with the monitor running with Display port at 60 hz? These monitors are on my editing system, not gaming, so not a lot of fast motion. Just moving bins around with my mouse.

 

[h9826790]

Hello,
I'm trying to figure out how to get dual 4k monitors on my mid-2010 tower. I'm looking at the GeForce gtx 960 (apparently a very popular card as it's not easy to find). I'm also looking at the 750 ti. My first question is, do I have to run bootcamp in order for my mac to use these cards? The second is, if I were to get the 750 card, I'd have to run one monitor using HDMI at 30 hz, and I'm wondering if there would be a noticable difference with the monitor running with Display port at 60 hz? These monitors are on my editing system, not gaming, so not a lot of fast motion. Just moving bins around with my mouse.

You don't need bootcamp, but Nvidia web driver.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...out-nvidia-pc-non-efi-graphics-cards.1440150/

If that 30Hz monitor is mainly use for "watching" (e.g. the A/V output in FCPX), then it's no big deal. But using mouse on a 30Hz display is actually quite a bad idea. I am not sure if you can try to "downgrade" your monitor now to have a try. If you can run it in 30Hz mode now, and you will realise it's quite annoying because that's pretty hard to control the mouse cursor in quick and precise manner.

 

[evsp]

You don't need bootcamp, but Nvidia web driver.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...out-nvidia-pc-non-efi-graphics-cards.1440150/

If that 30Hz monitor is mainly use for "watching" (e.g. the A/V output in FCPX), then it's no big deal. But using mouse on a 30Hz display is actually quite a bad idea. I am not sure if you can try to "downgrade" your monitor now to have a try. If you can run it in 30Hz mode now, and you will realise it's quite annoying because that's pretty hard to control the mouse cursor in quick and precise manner.

Thank you! I'll go for the gtx 960 in that case (if I can find one). Would you be worried about getting a used card from Amazon?