Mac Pro 2008 + El Capitan?

[9fiftyfive]

I have a Mac Pro 2008, and I'm looking to potentially upgrade it to El Capitan. Given that it's now going to be a 9 year old machine, will I experience poor performance on such a new OS? Currently I run Mavericks and it's such a smooth OS, however, with the new UI redesign and such I fear that my machine may be too slow. Here are the specs:

2x2.8GHz Quad Core Xeons
32GB DDR2-667MHz
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
2TB 7200RPM Drive

Thanks!

 

[Sappharad]

I run El Capitan on a Quad Core 2008 with a Radeon 5770 and only 12GB of ram, and it's perfectly fine. At least, it didn't feel any worse than the prior OS and I think it's really fast. I did initially have some stability issues with random apps, but those were resolved with a fresh install and not migrating my user profile from a backup. (Instead I just copied back all of my documents manually) My machine has a 1TB SSD as the boot drive though. In my opinion, the SSD is what really makes the difference. The machine boots very quickly, apps launch quickly as well. Before I had an SSD it was much slower; I can't stand using a machine without one anymore.

So the answer your question, yes, it will probably run fine. But consider an SSD if you think your machine is slow, even if you have to buy a smaller one and keep your documents on a different drive. I use an Icy Dock adapter to fit the small SSD into the Mac Pro's drive bay.


I had hoped to replace mine years ago, but after the 2013 was announced I decided I would wait one more refresh cycle to see what would happen with GPU options for the 2013. Obviously nothing happened, but I'm ready now from an external storage standpoint so I can finally consider whatever they decide to offer this year.

 

[9fiftyfive]

I run El Capitan on a Quad Core 2008 with a Radeon 5770 and only 12GB of ram, and it's perfectly fine. At least, it didn't feel any worse than the prior OS and I think it's really fast. I did initially have some stability issues with random apps, but those were resolved with a fresh install and not migrating my user profile from a backup. (Instead I just copied back all of my documents manually) My machine has a 1TB SSD as the boot drive though. In my opinion, the SSD is what really makes the difference. The machine boots very quickly, apps launch quickly as well. Before I had an SSD it was much slower; I can't stand using a machine without one anymore.

So the answer your question, yes, it will probably run fine. But consider an SSD if you think your machine is slow, even if you have to buy a smaller one and keep your documents on a different drive. I use an Icy Dock adapter to fit the small SSD into the Mac Pro's drive bay.


I had hoped to replace mine years ago, but after the 2013 was announced I decided I would wait one more refresh cycle to see what would happen with GPU options for the 2013. Obviously nothing happened, but I'm ready now from an external storage standpoint so I can finally consider whatever they decide to offer this year.

Good to hear it should run fine! I'm probably going to throw my spare 850 Evo inside to speed it up

 

[CapnDavey]

another option is get a used EVGA GTX 680 and flash it its a much better card then the 8800 and can be had for about 100 bucks flashed cards go for like 250. I can't see paying for someone to flash a card that you can do yourself.

 

[9fiftyfive]

another option is get a used EVGA GTX 680 and flash it its a much better card then the 8800 and can be had for about 100 bucks flashed cards go for like 250. I can't see paying for someone to flash a card that you can do yourself.

I recently sold my 970 so I have enough money to get a new GPU. I'm looking to do dual GPUs on a budget. How would 2 QUADRO FX4800s do (~$120 for both)

 

[gdeusthewhizkid]

I recently sold my 970 so I have enough money to get a new GPU. I'm looking to do dual GPUs on a budget. How would 2 QUADRO FX4800s do (~$120 for both)

I have the same machine . question why the dual gpu update..?

 

[Mac Pro Convert]

I have an MP 1,1 (2006) running 10.11 (El Capitan) its quite a simple matter to get 10.11 running on an MP 1,1,
Have a read of this site

http://www.caradimas.org/john/?p=193

dead easy to do, there are some hardware requirements for 10.11 on an MP1,1 they are mentioned in the blog.

if you have any problems just drop John a line at the bottom of the page
and he will help you sort it out.