Anyone running 4k on a 3,1 ?

[vasuvasu]

Debating getting a new video card to replace my MacVidCards GTX570 1.25gb card. Are there any Mac Pro 3,1 owners with a newer card that they're running at 4k? If so, what's the experience like on this old of a machine?

I found some older threads, but they were inconclusive, or hadn't been updated in a while.

 

[VikNomad]

I have 3.1 with MVC TitanX running 3x30" Dell monitors. That is probably a bit more than 4K
Runs like a dream in Windose for 3 screen wide games and even better in OSX.
(Crashing occasionally because of dodgy NVidia drivers though)

 

[vasuvasu]

Oh wow, didn't know people were going that beefy on a 3,1. I noticed the MacVidCards 3,1 recommendation page tops out at the GTX770 .. didn't know if that meant no real improvement above that due to CPU/Bus limitations, or just diminishing returns.

Thats great to hear that you can still do some intense gaming on a 3,1 with a great enough video card .. what kind of stuff are you playing on that 3x setup?

 

[VikNomad]

Well... in most games CPU and PCIe not bottlenecks anyway. Still not the best setup but I do development too so need huge screen real estate for my Mac.
I can run pretty much any game that supports multiple monitors in native res. Generally its about 8080x1600 (monitor borders crop included)
Worst problem I have is screen tearing not FPS.
So any title (Crysises, Mass Effects, Witchers, BioShocks, Blizzard, Metro, etc...)

 

[pastrychef]

The Mac Pro 3,1 will bottleneck video cards.

http://barefeats.com/gpu680v4.html

 

[nigelbb]

A GTX68 is easily flashed by the user for an Apple boot screen. My wife uses a GTX680 in her 3,1 with a 30" 2560x1600 & two 24" 1920 x 1200 screens. It can run 4K@60Hz via the DisplayPort connector so a 4K monitor will be the next upgrade for my 3,1.

 

[VikNomad]

The Mac Pro 3,1 will bottleneck video cards.

It will but not to the point where games are not playable. I run most of games and ultra settings and it runs fine.
I will buy 5,1 eventually.

nMP compared to my setup is pile of crap if we talk about decent gaming

 

[Fl0r!an]

It all depends on the games you play. Some need a lot of single thread performance (which the MP3,1 can't deliver), others don't.
E.g. CS:GO and CoH2 are heavily CPU limited (especially in OS X), my Skylake build will easily get +50-100% performance using the same GPU. Other games (e.g. Metro Redux) scale a lot better with GPU power.

 

[netkas]

espexially when you going 4k you are more likely to get gpu limited than cpu limited.

Some hopes were for dx12 to improve the situation, but first ports to dx12 are pretty poor (like rise of tomb rider and hitman) to give anything.

 

[vasuvasu]

does anyone know more details about not getting boot screens on a 4k monitor? Can it do a non-4k boot screen instead of being black?

If I'm understanding correctly, with a 4k monitor:

1) A non Maxwell card like a GTX680 or GTX770: I can do 4k, but I won't get boot screens, not even a scaled 1080p boot screen, right?

2) A Maxwell card: I will get boot screens, but I'm reliant on a web driver .. which isn't too annoying, but I'd need to wait on nvidia to update the web driver before installing OS X system updates, right?

 

[pastrychef]

With a flashed GTX 680, you can get boot screen if you use the HDMI port on the video card.

Once you are done doing whatever you need to do with the boot screen, you can reconnect the monitor to the Display Port on the video card. Then pull out the HDMI and you will be back to 60Hz.

 

[vasuvasu]

Oh great, that's not too bad of a deal

 

[JedNZ]

I've got a cMP 1,1>2,1 with a Sapphire Nitro Radeon R9 380X 4GB connected to a Samsung 28" U28E590 and a ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB (flashed) connected to a ViewSonic 22" via DVI>VGA (for boot screens). I occasionally play games like CivV, CoD: Black Ops, XCom: Enemy Unknown, The Walking Dead and L4D2 all running at 2560x1440 (windowed) with no problems (not that I'm a gamer). I suspect you'll get a better experience with a cMP 3,1 with similar setup.