I have a Mac Pro Mid-2010 Looking for best Graphics card

[Drachir2000]

I have a recently acquired Mac pro mid 2010, and I want to get a graphics card for that is more powerful than the 5870. I want to know what modern card will work and does it support video at boot and Boot camp. Thanks.

 

[Flint Ironstag]

Here are your turnkey choices for boot screen + boot camp:

http://www.macvidcards.com/store/c2/Nvidia_GPUs.html

 

[jvlfilms]

Here are your turnkey choices for boot screen + boot camp:

http://www.macvidcards.com/store/c2/Nvidia_GPUs.html

Sorry to hijack the thread OP but I also am in the market for a new GPU for my 4,1 cMP. Is there any noticeable difference between purchasing a card from MVC vs one of the eBay sellers selling similar products? From what I can tell MVC was first and the ones on eBay are technically "stolen" or reverse engineered from the MVC products.

But on the other hand they are a lot cheaper and often times $100 less than the price on the MVC website.

I was looking into a 980 or 980 Ti so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

EDIT: Also to answer OP's question:

EFI cards such as the GTX 680 Mac Edition or any one modded with EFI will support video at boot. Normal, stock cards will run in both OS X and Windows but only PCIE 1.0 speeds in Windows so there is some performance hinges when not having it modded.

 

[theitsage]

Either buy a GPU from MVC or flash a PC card yourself. Don't support eBay sellers who took someone's hard work.

I understand MVC was banned from this forum but we can't downplay his commitment and contributions to Mac GPUs.

 

[h9826790]

Is there any noticeable difference between purchasing a card from MVC vs one of the eBay sellers selling similar products?

But on the other hand they are a lot cheaper and often times $100 less than the price on the MVC website.

Normal, stock cards will run in both OS X and Windows but only PCIE 1.0 speeds in Windows so there is some performance hinges when not having it modded.

If you are lucky enough to get a trouble free flashed card from other seller, than should be virtually no difference. However, I can tell most of the seller actually don't know what they are selling. The most ridiculous Mac Edition Card I've heard is a graphic card that came with the Apple sticker on it. Most of them are actually flashed, but not properly. Those seller stole the ROM from somewhere else and randomly flash to another non-compatible card. You need to be very very lucky to get a trouble free card.

So, for me, it's either Official Mac Edition card (which is extremely expensive now), a card from MVC, or do it by myself.

TBH, if MVC did all the hardworking job, and I only need to flash the card. Of course I don't mine to sell you a flashed card with a price $100 less then MVC. And that's exactly why those eBay flashed card are way cheaper then MVC. They just steal MVC's hard work.

For those "self flashable" card like GTX680 / HD7950 / R9 280x, there is almost zero real world performance penalty by running them at PCIe 1.1. So, no need to worry about that. However, for a high end card like TitanX, yes, running them at PCIe 1.1 may result some measurable performance drop.

 

[jvlfilms]

Either buy a GPU from MVC or flash a PC card yourself. Don't support eBay sellers who took someone's hard work.

I understand MVC was banned from this forum but we can't downplay his commitment and contributions to Mac GPUs.

Thanks for the response. I recently acquired a Mac Pro back in May so I've been making little upgrades here and there but am now ready to upgrade my GPU.

If you are lucky enough to get a trouble free flashed card from other seller, than should be virtually no difference. However, I can tell most of the seller actually don't know what they are selling. The most ridiculous Mac Edition Card I've heard is a graphic card that came with the Apple sticker on it. Most of them are actually flashed, but not properly. Those seller stole the ROM from somewhere else and randomly flash to another non-compatible card. You need to be very very lucky to get a trouble free card.

So, for me, it's either Official Mac Edition card (which is extremely expensive now), a card from MVC, or do it by myself.

TBH, if MVC did all the hardworking job, and I only need to flash the card. Of course I don't mine to sell you a flashed card with a price $100 less then MVC. And that's exactly why those eBay flashed card are way cheaper then MVC. They just steal MVC's hard work.

For those "self flashable" card like GTX680 / HD7950 / R9 280x, there is almost zero real world performance penalty by running them at PCIe 1.1. So, no need to worry about that. However, for a high end card like TitanX, yes, running them at PCIe 1.1 may result some measurable performance drop.

Thank you for the response.

I definitely don't want to support people who steal someone's work and sell it themselves. But I have to admit, the price of some of these cards are appealing to a recent college graduate with little resources. I've been looking around and a lot of these cards sell out very quickly and it seems like the sellers have positive feedback. Would someone give them a positive rating if the cards didn't function properly? I would have to assume that most people who purchase these cards own Mac Pro's and know what a proper graphics cards performs like.

The card I'm interested in - either a 980 or 980 Ti - is currently sold out on the MVC site. So it looks like my options are to either wait until it comes back in stock or flash it myself but I am not even sure if that is possible.

Once again, thanks again to everyone who responds. This forum is so active and responsive - really makes me glad to own a cMP! I'm just trying to gather as much information as possible because it can get pretty confusing when you decide to upgrade.

 

[ActionableMango]

The card I'm interested in - either a 980 or 980 Ti - is currently sold out on the MVC site. So it looks like my options are to either wait until it comes back in stock or flash it myself but I am not even sure if that is possible.

There is an option you may have missed. He has a flashing service, which is much cheaper than buying a card from him outright. Just find your own card and send it to him for flashing.

 

[Fosty]

But on the other hand they are a lot cheaper and often times $100 less than the price on the MVC website.

I was looking into a 980 or 980 Ti so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

If I'm not mistaken you can also just buy a card (that you find for cheap) and mail it to MVC for him to flash for a fee. It might be a happy compromise of saving some money and giving him his due for the work put into making sure these cards run smooth.

I understand MVC was banned from this forum but we can't downplay his commitment and contributions to Mac GPUs.

But we can downplay the "commitment and contributions" of the forum mods...

 

[lowendlinux]

If I'm not mistaken you can also just buy a card (that you find for cheap) and mail it to MVC for him to flash for a fee. It might be a happy compromise of saving some money and giving him his due for the work put into making sure these cards run smooth.



But we can downplay the "commitment and contributions" of the forum mods...

MVC is abrasive and doesn't really have a brain mouth filter which pisses people off and that's why he's banned.

 

[Murray M]

I recently bought a 980Ti from MVC. Really loving it. It's perfect for working with Premiere in 4K at 60hz.

 

[Fosty]

MVC is abrasive and doesn't really have a brain mouth filter which pisses people off and that's why he's banned.

If he has I've never seen it - the mods on the other hand...