Mac Pro Early 2008 Benchmarks Comparison

[Yamcha]

I know to some it'll be a complete waste of thread, but I figured I'd post my findings. I ran a few benchmarks that I already had installed, I would've loved to do more but it would require installing more games, application and bandwidth.

I was pleasantly surprised to see my Early 2008 Mac Pro is still relevant and based on the tests that I compared with other reviewers using the same Graphics Card the scores were either close or better. Based on that there is clearly no CPU bottleneck for benchmarks I ran, there were minor differences but are within a margin of error.

Keep in mind this isn't going to be a 100% accurate representation because each site used different drivers, but I think it gives you a general idea if you're looking to purchase a used Mac Pro.. I only tested Windows 10 performance as there wasn't much else to compare to. PS: The 7950 is crippled on Mac OSX if you have a Mac Pro 3,1 due compatibility issue but it performs acceptably though not as fast as in Windows.

Test Setup
Early 2008 Mac Pro
2 x 2.80 GHz Quad-Core Xeon
10 GB DDR2-800MHz Memory
AMD Radeon HD 7950 3072MB
Windows 10 64-Bit
Latest Catalyst Drivers


Intel Core i7 3960X 6 Core EE @4.70GHz

Sapphire HD 7950 3GB 950/1250 : 3DMark 11 Performance Preset - 7008

Mac Pro 2008 Xeon X5642 8 Core @ 2.80GHz

Powercolor HD 7950 3GB 950/1250: 3DMark 11 Performance Preset - 7309

Intel Core i7-5960X 8 Core @ 4.40GHz

Radeon HD 7950 1920x1200 GTA V 2xMSAA - 49FPS/Average

Mac Pro 2008 Xeon X5642 8 Core @ 2.80GHz

Radeon HD 7950 1920x1200 GTA V 2xMSAA - 45.92FPS/Average

Intel Core i7 920 4 Core @ 3.80GHz

Radeon HD 7950 800/1250 Heaven 2.0 1920x1200 4xAA - 55FPS

Mac Pro 2008 Xeon X5642 8 Core @ 2.80GHz

Radeon HD 7950 800/1250 Heaven 2.0 1920x1200 4xAA - 57.5FPS

Mac Pro 2008 Xeon X5642 8 Core @ 2.80GHz

381 NovaBench Score for Graphics Tests (Total Novabench Score: 1224)

Highest Listed Score NovaBench 7950 on Website

375 NovaBench Score for Graphics Tests

I didn't save screenshots guys, so you'll have to take my word for it . But honestly very impressed that a 2008 Xeon could handle modern games, every thread I was reading most people said the Processor would be a bottleneck despite the 8 Core but that doesn't appear to be the case at all.

Not sure performance will differ in higher resolutions or different games/benchmarks. But this was what I was able to come out with. So far I'm super happy I spent $400(Canadian) on the Mac Pro + $130 for the 7950.. Although I wouldn't recommend buying a 7950 even a legit Mac one because it won't work correctly on a Mac Pro 3,1. But you should be good with natively supported GTX cards

 

[OS6-OSX]

As a charter member of the 2008 club, I hereby vote this is not a wasted thread!

Mac Pro!

 

[cmanns]

Just did GTAV at 1600x1200 on stock 2x 5150's (2006 unit) 8GB ram...

The cpu usage was often lower vs my old i5 3.0ghz, but during intense scenes (and no other applications open) it would go to 80-90% . Even youtube + GTAV on prior i5 system would stutter though. Going to 2x 5365's soon, should be interesting though I don't quote expect much more. So thats new gen 4x 3.0ghz vs ancient 4x 2.66ghz. 5642's should be quite a margin faster then X5365's too?

but there, a 2006 mac pro (stock cpus) + GTX650 can indeed do Project_Cars, iRacing (3x display), Day-Z, Rust, Grand Theft Auto: V, you name it- it does it (with all applications mostly closed... )

 

[MRU]

Good to know my 7 year old machine is still very much capable best computer I ever bought tbh longevity wise.

 

[netkas]

There is an issue with it tho,

for example, , in gta 5 it's very hard to get fps above 52-54 at any resolution/graphics quality. gpu usage jsut getting low. SO we are cpu bound.

But I don't mind it since Playing in 4k and OCed 980 getting ~98% gpu load, still ~50 fps tho.