MP 1,1-5,1 Mac pro 5.1 2009 - Gaming PC Possibilities

[Zombie_Head]

Hello all,

I am very new to Mac and unfortunately financially struggling and would like your feedback and opinions on a build that i may take.

At home i have my built PC running windows 10, i5 7600K, GTX 1070 OC and numerous SSDs and HDs.


At work i found a dusty old Mac Pro 5.1 from 2009 (i believe), the specs are:

2 x Xeon 4 Core E5640s (8 Cores/16 Threads) 2,66Ghz
18 GB Ram (2 slots taken, 6 slots free)
Nvidia GT 120 512MB
Sierra 10.13.6
4 x HDs installed


I tried upgadting the OS, but it would not allow me due to the GPU being not supported (metal?)

My question is the following:

- Can i just wipe all drives clean, install my SSD instead`?
- Can i use Windows 10 or 11?
- Can i use my GTX 1070 OC?
- Ram can be increased-/upgraded (i am guessing yes, but asking)


I could probably get the system for free if i push them internally, since IT consideres it "junk".

I am aiming for 1080p gaming, is it worth goiung through all the software loops-/process to get windows installed and use the PC as a gaming rig?

I appreciate any feedback!

Have a wonderful day.

 

[tsialex]

Hello all,

I am very new to Mac and unfortunately financially struggling and would like your feedback and opinions on a build that i may take.

At home i have my built PC running windows 10, i5 7600K, GTX 1070 OC and numerous SSDs and HDs.


At work i found a dusty old Mac Pro 5.1 from 2009 (i believe), the specs are:

2 x Xeon 4 Core E5640s (8 Cores/16 Threads) 2,66Ghz
18 GB Ram (2 slots taken, 6 slots free)
Nvidia GT 120 512MB
Sierra 10.13.6
4 x HDs installed


I tried upgadting the OS, but it would not allow me due to the GPU being not supported (metal?)

My question is the following:

- Can i just wipe all drives clean, install my SSD instead`?
- Can i use Windows 10 or 11?
- Can i use my GTX 1070 OC?
- Ram can be increased-/upgraded (i am guessing yes, but asking)

Yes to all.

I could probably get the system for free if i push them internally, since IT consideres it "junk".

I am aiming for 1080p gaming, is it worth goiung through all the software loops-/process to get windows installed and use the PC as a gaming rig?

I appreciate any feedback!

Have a wonderful day.

Forget it completely as a gaming PC, your current PC is a lot faster and have AVX2 support wich MacPro5,1 does not have. Absolutely not worth for gaming.

 

[avro707]

am aiming for 1080p gaming, is it worth goiung through all the software loops-/process to get windows installed and use the PC as a gaming rig

The Mac is just too old now. Too many hoops and hurdles.

You can't use modern GPUs that easily (do they fit?) and it's just not powerful enough any more. 2009 is probably a 4,1 rather than a 5,1. The 5,1 was from 2010 if I'm not mistaken.

15 years old. I don't even use my two anymore.

 

[Zombie_Head]

Thank you, shame i was looking forward to it.

I got excited due to the few videos i have seen of users using those old 5.1s with RTX 4060s and handling modern games just fine.

 

[h9826790]

Thank you, shame i was looking forward to it.

I got excited due to the few videos i have seen of users using those old 5.1s with RTX 4060s and handling modern games just fine.

The cMP can play most modern games with GTX 1070 OC in Windows just fine.

However, since you have a 7600K system. Therefore, no point to go through all the software and hardware loops to make the cMP your next gaming PC.

The cMP has very good expandability, except, the best CPU is limited to its socket. And even you upgrade the CPU to dual X5690 (almost 15 years old), its single thread performance is still way too low for today's gaming standard.
The 7600K is almost 50% faster than X5690 (single thread). Even the game has good multi thread optimisation, but the GPU driver itself is still CPU single thread limiting.

I have a 8700K gaming PC, and a W3690 cMP (same single thread performance as X5690). And I have a GTX 1080Ti. I put that into the my 8700K PC, and the cMP, which produce the following benchmark results.

As you can see, I use the same preset, same OS, same GPU, same benchmark. The main difference is the CPU.

With 8700K, I got almost 200FPS.

With the W3690, the same GPU with the same OS, can only do 135FPS.

This example is pretty good to reflect what may happen when you play modern games on the cMP. The same GPU may work noticeably better in your 7600K PC.

Of course, not all games are that CPU single thread limiting. For those games that are very very GPU limiting. Then you should have similar results on both computer. But even dual X5690 should be a bit more stronger than 7600K (in multi thread), it should be still very rare that a fully upgraded cMP can outperform your 7600K system.

Therefore, unless you do this purely for fun. Then yes, it's 100% doable, and may be quite fun. Especially if you can get a cMP for free. Then this project can be treated as a very low cost entreatment.

But if your aim is to build a good gaming PC base on the cMP. Then no, this is not a good direction.

 

[Zombie_Head]

The cMP can play most modern games with GTX 1070 OC in Windows just fine.

However, since you have a 7600K system. Therefore, no point to go through all the software and hardware loops to make the cMP your next gaming PC.

The cMP has very good expandability, except, the best CPU is limited to its socket. And even you upgrade the CPU to dual X5690 (almost 15 years old), its single thread performance is still way too low for today's gaming standard.
The 7600K is almost 50% faster than X5690 (single thread). Even the game has good multi thread optimisation, but the GPU driver itself is still CPU single thread limiting.

I have a 8700K gaming PC, and a W3690 cMP (same single thread performance as X5690). And I have a GTX 1080Ti. I put that into the my 8700K PC, and the cMP, which produce the following benchmark results.

As you can see, I use the same preset, same OS, same GPU, same benchmark. The main difference is the CPU.

With 8700K, I got almost 200FPS.
View attachment 2507185

With the W3690, the same GPU with the same OS, can only do 135FPS.
View attachment 2507186

This example is pretty good to reflect what may happen when you play modern games on the cMP. The same GPU may work noticeably better in your 7600K PC.

Of course, not all games are that CPU single thread limiting. For those games that are very very GPU limiting. Then you should have similar results on both computer. But even dual X5690 should be a bit more stronger than 7600K (in multi thread), it should be still very rare that a fully upgraded cMP can outperform your 7600K system.

Therefore, unless you do this purely for fun. Then yes, it's 100% doable, and may be quite fun. Especially if you can get a cMP for free. Then this project can be treated as a very low cost entreatment.

But if your aim is to build a good gaming PC base on the cMP. Then no, this is not a good direction.

Thank you so much for being detailed.

I can barely get 107 average FPS on Unigen at 1080p maxed out.

I still find it a shame, there are a couple of videos on youtube showing how that PC can be "good" today.

I really appreciate the help and the feedback.

 

[Zombie_Head]

I apologise for the double post