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mid 2010 5,1 GPU recommendations?

pidcin1

pidcin1

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 14, 2018
22
0
hello! I have a mid 2010, 5,1 12 core 2.93ghz Mac Pro model and the original Radeon 5770 GPU.

I was wondering if people could recommend some graphic cards that are much better and will work WITH boot screen and WITHOUT a boot screen on my model .

I am on El Capitan and will eventually be upgrading to High Sierra.

Any advice would be appreciated !

Thanks
 
With BootScreen:

Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition and flashed PC Cards using same graphics processor like HD 7970/R9 280X
eVGA GTX 680 Mac Edition and flashed PC Cards with the same GTX 680.

Without:

Any NVIDIA GPU newer than GTX 680 (some will need 10.13, most will need NVIDIA web drivers)
Any AMD GPU newer than R9-280 (R9-380, RX460/480, RX-560/580, some Vega GPUs that work within power limits)

Apple has a list of GPUs supported with Mojave, it's best that you use that as a guide.

The Apple third-party graphics cards list identifies specific cards that are compatible:
  • MSI Gaming Radeon RX 560 128-bit 4GB GDRR5
  • SAPPHIRE Radeon PULSE RX 580 8GB GDDR5
  • SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition
  • NVIDIA Quadro K5000 for Mac
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition
The three cards listed in bold above have Mac EFI (boot screens/boot selector).

The list also identifies cards that might be compatible, none of which have Mac EFI:
  • AMD Radeon RX 560
  • AMD Radeon RX 570
  • AMD Radeon RX 580
  • AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100
  • AMD Radeon RX Vega 56
  • AMD Radeon RX Vega 64
  • AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100
  • AMD Radeon Frontier Edition
 
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I need similar help. I learned today that I can't update El Capitan to Mojave without upgrading my graphics card. I'm seeking direct help (I'm not a computer geek...just a working photographer and educator). I have a mid-2010 Mac Pro with a ATI Radeon HD 5770.

Could anyone list the steps I need to take to bring this computer up to Mojave compatibility? I only discovered all this when I attempted to update my Adobe CC suite on this computer.

Thank you.

Matt
 
fotomatt said:
I need similar help. I learned today that I can't update El Capitan to Mojave without upgrading my graphics card. I'm seeking direct help (I'm not a computer geek...just a working photographer and educator). I have a mid-2010 Mac Pro with a ATI Radeon HD 5770.

Could anyone list the steps I need to take to bring this computer up to Mojave compatibility? I only discovered all this when I attempted to update my Adobe CC suite on this computer.

Thank you.

Matt
Click to expand...

Read the first post and the thread: MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave
 
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tsialex said:
With BootScreen:

Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition and flashed PC Cards using same graphics processor like HD 7970/R9 280X
eVGA GTX 680 Mac Edition and flashed PC Cards with the same GTX 680.

Without:

Any NVIDIA GPU newer than GTX 680 (some will need 10.13, most will need NVIDIA web drivers)
Any AMD GPU newer than R9-280 (R9-380, RX460/480, RX-560/580, some Vega GPUs that work within power limits)

Apple has a list of GPUs supported with Mojave, it's best that you use that as a guide.

The Apple third-party graphics cards list identifies specific cards that are compatible:
  • MSI Gaming Radeon RX 560 128-bit 4GB GDRR5
  • SAPPHIRE Radeon PULSE RX 580 8GB GDDR5
  • SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition
  • NVIDIA Quadro K5000 for Mac
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition
The three cards listed in bold above have Mac EFI (boot screens/boot selector).

The list also identifies cards that might be compatible, none of which have Mac EFI:
  • AMD Radeon RX 560
  • AMD Radeon RX 570
  • AMD Radeon RX 580
  • AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100
  • AMD Radeon RX Vega 56
  • AMD Radeon RX Vega 64
  • AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100
  • AMD Radeon Frontier Edition
Click to expand...

Thank you for your response

You mentioned something about Mohave however I will only be upgrading from El Capitan to high Sierra and staying at high Sierra. Does this information change any of the recommendations that you have? And what are your top three choices for my Mac and OS high Sierra.

Thanks!
 
pidcin1 said:
Thank you for your response

You mentioned something about Mohave however I will only be upgrading from El Capitan to high Sierra and staying at high Sierra. Does this information change any of the recommendations that you have? And what are your top three choices for my Mac and OS high Sierra.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Don't buy any cards that don't work with Mojave, like HD 5780/6870/6890 or NVIDIA cards earlier than Kepler. Apple killed support for these obsolete cards.

Buy one of these if you need boot screens:
  • SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition
  • NVIDIA Quadro K5000 for Mac
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition
You can buy the PC versions and flash, or pay someone to do the flashing part, or buy already flashed on eBay/MacVidCards. Read the threads about these cards and buy the one that fits your workflow best.
 
tsialex said:
Don't buy any cards that don't work with Mojave, like HD 5780/6870/6890 or NVIDIA cards earlier than Kepler. Apple killed support for these obsolete cards.

Buy one of these if you need boot screens:
  • SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition
  • NVIDIA Quadro K5000 for Mac
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition
You can buy the PC versions and flash, or pay someone to do the flashing part, or buy already flashed on eBay/MacVidCards. Read the threads about these cards and buy the one that fits your workflow best.
Click to expand...


I'm looking at the Quadro K5000 for mac on amazon. I see some going for 6-700. That seems pretty fair, i also see some that are in the $300 range, but offer 2gbs instead of 4. The gtx 680 mac edition seems like a good GPU, but the 2gb doesn't seem like a huge upgrade. so I think the Quadro K5000 is more appropriate.

What are you using? and what do you primarily use your computer for?
 
pidcin1 said:
I'm looking at the Quadro K5000 for mac on amazon. I see some going for 6-700. That seems pretty fair, i also see some that are in the $300 range, but offer 2gbs instead of 4.
Click to expand...
Quadro K5000 has the exact same GK104 graphics processor as GTX 680, but has the NVIDIA PRO driver support. Hardly worth paying double.

The gtx 680 mac edition seems like a good GPU, but the 2gb doesn't seem like a huge upgrade. so I think the Quadro K5000 is more appropriate.
Click to expand...
This generation of cards works perfectly with 2GB.

What are you using? and what do you primarily use your computer for?
Click to expand...

I have three GTX 680 and one HD 7870 into my Mac Pros:

eVGA GTX 680 Mac Edition 2GB, the real one: 02G-P4-3682-KR
eVGA GTX 680 PC version 2GB, flashed with Mac edition firmware 02G-P4-2680-KR
eVGA GTX 680 FTX+ with backplate PC version 4GB, flashed with Mac edition firmware 04G-P4-3687-KR
One MSI HD 7870 OC 2GB R7870-2GD5T/OC

You can buy one of the PC eVGA cards and flash with the Mac edition firmware, like I did with two of my cards, it's a 5 minute job.

Confirmed and Possible Flashable GTX 680 Models
Step-by-Step Instructions for Flashing GTX680

BTW, this cards are from 2012, 2013 era. So every card is used.
 
As someone who has a bog standard cMP 5,1 what would be the cheapest easiest way to get from Sierra to Mojave GPU wise as I have no interest in Mac Gaming at all ? I dont quite get how I can tell if I can just plug and play with say the
  • MSI Gaming Radeon RX 560 128-bit 4GB GDRR5 or whether it will need additional power....
 
deckard666 said:
As someone who has a bog standard cMP 5,1 what would be the cheapest easiest way to get from Sierra to Mojave GPU wise as I have no interest in Mac Gaming at all ? I dont quite get how I can tell if I can just plug and play with say the
  • MSI Gaming Radeon RX 560 128-bit 4GB GDRR5 or whether it will need additional power....
Click to expand...
I just switched my work computer from a GTX 970 to that exact card. It does not require any additional power connections and was 100% plug and play. The upgrade to Mojave was uneventful.
 
Sounds good to me as I didn't really want anything too messy, cable wise / powerful / expensive - Notice much performance difference in day to day use ?
 
tsialex said:
Quadro K5000 has the exact same GK104 graphics processor as GTX 680, but has the NVIDIA PRO driver support. Hardly worth paying double.

This generation of cards works perfectly with 2GB.



I have three GTX 680 and one HD 7870 into my Mac Pros:

eVGA GTX 680 Mac Edition 2GB, the real one: 02G-P4-3682-KR
eVGA GTX 680 PC version 2GB, flashed with Mac edition firmware 02G-P4-2680-KR
eVGA GTX 680 FTX+ with backplate PC version 4GB, flashed with Mac edition firmware 04G-P4-3687-KR
One MSI HD 7870 OC 2GB R7870-2GD5T/OC

You can buy one of the PC eVGA cards and flash with the Mac edition firmware, like I did with two of my cards, it's a 5 minute job.

Confirmed and Possible Flashable GTX 680 Models
Step-by-Step Instructions for Flashing GTX680

BTW, this cards are from 2012, 2013 era. So every card is used.
Click to expand...


Hi Alex,

I would like to consult your gut-feeling regarding the Web Driver probability. Your mentioned Nvidia feedback on the Mojave support somewhat indicates to me, that it is very probable to have no Support ever on advanced Nvidia cards that surpasses the GTX 680 baseline. For people like me that are very happy with what they have but wanted to have boot screens, Cuda Support and Mojave Support,

do you think it makes sense to wait and just use High Sierra for the time being

or

switch horses and sell/trade to a 680 just to have Mojave?

To be honest, I really would hate to sell my 980Ti and go to 680 just to use Mojave. The 680 4GB Classified version is for sure a good card, but never the less much older compared to a 980Ti. What would you recommend for those rare souls like me? Sell it/Keep it/Wait and gamble ??
 
AlexMaximus said:
Hi Alex,

I would like to consult your gut-feeling regarding the Web Driver probability. Your mentioned Nvidia feedback on the Mojave support somewhat indicates to me, that it is very probable to have no Support ever on advanced Nvidia cards that surpasses the GTX 680 baseline. For people like me that are very happy with what they have but wanted to have boot screens, Cuda Support and Mojave Support,

do you think it makes sense to wait and just use High Sierra for the time being

or

switch horses and sell/trade to a 680 just to have Mojave?

To be honest, I really would hate to sell my 980Ti and go to 680 just to use Mojave. The 680 4GB Classified version is for sure a good card, but never the less much older compared to a 980Ti. What would you recommend for those rare souls like me? Sell it/Keep it/Wait and gamble ??
Click to expand...
Wait to see what's going to happen with this web driver novella. NVIDIA is wanting something from Apple, seems they are using all that support posts as a way to get it…

No need to rush, I tested every single Mojave DP and I'm not using it as my work drive and I'm not going to until at least 10.14.3.
 
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If you do not NEED to upgrade to Mojave right now, hold off for now. There are not a lot of game-changing features offered in Mojave that are not available in High Sierra for the cMP, especially for how the majority seem to use the machines. High Sierra is STILL a supported OS and will be for at least another year. Security updates were recently released for High Sierra and this will continue to be the case for awhile.

It seems NVIDIA has the green light for NVIDIA Web Drivers for products up to GTX 10XX series in High Sierra. They may be delayed again in the future, but no major reason to see why these would not continue to be (eventually) released.

Beyond High Sierra and GTX 10XX is where things seem to be at a stalemate. Especially interesting that VOLTA drivers were released, then pulled.
 
tsialex said:
Wait to see what's going to happen with this web driver novella. NVIDIA is wanting something from Apple, seems they are using all that support posts as a way to get it…

No need to rush, I tested every single Mojave DP and I'm not using it as my work drive and I'm not going to until at least 10.14.3.
Click to expand...

Perfect! Thank you so much Alex and Beamer!

:)
 
deckard666 said:
Sounds good to me as I didn't really want anything too messy, cable wise / powerful / expensive - Notice much performance difference in day to day use ?
Click to expand...
Well I installed it Saturday and I've been at work for about 30 minutes so far. Nothing to report yet, but everything woke up like it's supposed to when I got here this morning. I'm driving 2 24" Dell 4k displays with the card.
 
This pissing contest between Apple and nVidia is old. Who knows what started it, or why it keeps going, surely nVidia wants to ink an OEM deal with Apple, but Apple keeps going with AMD.

One can only assume AMD is offering a better price point in the overall deal, and AMD has other ways of making profits. nVidia, pretty much, just does GPUs, so I can't see them being able to undercut AMD in an OEM deal with Apple.

nVidia may offer better products, but there is good, and good enough. Right now, I think, AMD offers Apple what they think is good enough, at a price point that nVidia is unwilling, or just unable, to meet.

Apple seems to be actively thwarting nVidia with Web Drivers for Mojave, and I'm not sure where that is coming from. I mean, what is Apple's motivation here, how does it benefit Apple?
 
deckard666 said:
As someone who has a bog standard cMP 5,1 what would be the cheapest easiest way to get from Sierra to Mojave GPU wise as I have no interest in Mac Gaming at all ? I dont quite get how I can tell if I can just plug and play with say the
  • MSI Gaming Radeon RX 560 128-bit 4GB GDRR5 or whether it will need additional power....
Click to expand...
I also have no interest in real gaming and the MSI card works well for my applications (see signature). I use it with 3 monitors, a 4K and two 1080p. The MSI card (officially known as the RX-560 Aero ITX 4G OC) is the only officially Apple approved RX-560 card. Apple says other RX-560 cards "might also be compatible", and I suspect they are, but that's the one Apple declared compatible. There's apparently also a new MSI OCV2 that supports 4 displays coming but I haven't seen it available or discussed anywhere outside the MSI site.

You may or may not want to be careful buying an RX-560 card however because there are several variants available even from a single manufacturer. They vary in power consumed, number of CU's (compute units), power cable required, and clock speeds, although the latter differences are slight. To most people it probably won't matter if it requires an aux power cable or not, whether it's a 45 watt, 60 watt, 75 watt, or 90 watt card since they are all very low for Mac video cards, and the difference is less than 15% whether it is a 16 cu or 14 cu card. Here is a list of variants for MSI and Sapphire.

This is the officially Apple supported RX-560 card (Apple calls it the MSI Gaming Card):
MSI RX-560 AERO ITX 4G OC 16 CU/60W/no aux power cable supports 3 displays (DP/HDMI/DVI-D)
This is apparently a new card? (I've never seen one for sale, reviewed, or discussed outside of MSI website yet):
MSI RX-560 AERO ITX 4G OCV2 16 CU/60W/no aux power cable supports 4 displays (DP/2xHDMI/DVI-D)

These are the Sapphire Card Versions:
SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon™ RX 560 4GD5 11267-00 16 CU/90w/requires one 6-pin power cable
SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon™ RX 560 4GD5 11267-25 16 CU/90w/requires one 6-pin power cable

SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon™ RX 560 4GD5 11267-01 16 CU/45w/no aux power cable

SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon™ RX 560 4GD5 11267-18 14 CU/75w/requires one 6-pin power cable
SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon™ RX 560 4GD5 11267-20 14 CU/75w/no aux power cable

There are also 2GB Sapphire versions, but I wouldn't want one of those:
SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon™ RX 560 2GD5 11267-13 16 CU/45w/no aux power cable
SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon™ RX 560 2GD5 11267-22 14 CU/45w/no aux power cable

Unfortunately the price of the current MSI card has been steadily rising since the public release of Mojave, probably because it's the one Apple endorsed. During the Mojave beta phase I bought one for $130 and it also included a $20 gift card as well. Last I looked they were going for about $175 on Amazon, but $140 at Best Buy.
 
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I have the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition and I've been testing Mojave on a separate boot drive (NVMe). The GPU works well. but without web driver or CUDA support.

I don't game and the more GPU intensive apps I use are Adobe Premiere and Photoshop. How do the cards listed in post #2 compare to the 680 for those programs? Thinking of Sapphire Pulse RX 580 8GB.

I read many benchmarks and reviews, but all predate the latest release of Mojave and Adobe CC 2019. Although, since Adobe now supports Metal, I assume the RX 580 will be faster on Metal than the older GTX 580 on CUDA. I have yet to see direct comparisons. But it looks like the new version of Premiere requires 4 GB of video memory to work with CUDA anyway.

While I don't care for boot screen, I rely on boot selector to switch startup disk. What's the workaround on cards that don't have the Mac EFI?
 
I didn't even think about it before but I suppose I dont (feel free to prove me wrong) need the original GPU and I see they can fetch 60-80 quid on ebay which would help...
 
MacSince1985 said:
I have the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition and I've been testing Mojave on a separate boot drive (NVMe). The GPU works well. but without web driver or CUDA support.

I don't game and the more GPU intensive apps I use are Adobe Premiere and Photoshop. How do the cards listed in post #2 compare to the 680 for those programs? Thinking of Sapphire Pulse RX 580 8GB.

I read many benchmarks and reviews, but all predate the latest release of Mojave and Adobe CC 2019. Although, since Adobe now supports Metal, I assume the RX 580 will be faster on Metal than the older GTX 580 on CUDA. I have yet to see direct comparisons. But it looks like the new version of Premiere requires 4 GB of video memory to work with CUDA anyway.

While I don't care for boot screen, I rely on boot selector to switch startup disk. What's the workaround on cards that don't have the Mac EFI?
Click to expand...

Adobe is devoting more resources to Metal across the board. Expect some improvements in the next real video update (not bug fix update). Many plugins are also being updated to take better advantage of RX580, expect those releases later this year or early next year. There may be a round of Adobe improvements released around mid-late January 2019 or at/around NAB 2019.

Not sure where you're getting the Mac/Adobe CC 2019 GPU specs that say 4GB, but it does work with 2GB - may just not be optimal. For CUDA, you need to stick with High Sierra. 10.13.6 (17G3025) works with CUDA Driver Version 410.130 and Web Driver 387.10.10.15.15.108 or 387.10.10.10.40.108.

This post from a few months back might be helpful:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...1080-fe-vs-sapphire-pulse-rx-580-8gb.2135417/

I am looking for an extension on client IT department's "mandatory" update to 10.14, so far have until EOY 2018 due to CUDA situation. Sticking with High Sierra until then. Have an RX580 on standby in case I'm forced to dual-boot my system or abandon CUDA. Fully on CC 2019, but some quirks with CUDA so far in Media Encoder and AE. Everything works, but can tell nothing was improved vs CC 2018 in terms of devoting resources.

Will let others answer some of your other specific concerns for boot selector, etc.
 
bsbeamer said:
Not sure where you're getting the Mac/Adobe CC 2019 GPU specs that say 4GB, but it does work with 2GB - may just not be optimal.
Click to expand...
About half way down the page on this post. As indicated, this is a change in requirements for CC 2019.
https://theblog.adobe.com/important-information-on-gpu-acceleration-with-cuda-and-apple-metal/

Thanks for the link. I think I'll get a RX 580 and put the GTX 680 on eBay while it's still worth something. I might break even looking at the prices online. CUDA is not a must-have for me, and if both Apple and Adobe are putting all that effort into Metal, I'll follow.
 
tsialex said:
With BootScreen:

Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition and flashed PC Cards using same graphics processor like HD 7970/R9 280X
eVGA GTX 680 Mac Edition and flashed PC Cards with the same GTX 680.

Without:

Any NVIDIA GPU newer than GTX 680 (some will need 10.13, most will need NVIDIA web drivers)
Any AMD GPU newer than R9-280 (R9-380, RX460/480, RX-560/580, some Vega GPUs that work within power limits)

Apple has a list of GPUs supported with Mojave, it's best that you use that as a guide.

The Apple third-party graphics cards list identifies specific cards that are compatible:
  • MSI Gaming Radeon RX 560 128-bit 4GB GDRR5
  • SAPPHIRE Radeon PULSE RX 580 8GB GDDR5
  • SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition
  • NVIDIA Quadro K5000 for Mac
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition
The three cards listed in bold above have Mac EFI (boot screens/boot selector).

The list also identifies cards that might be compatible, none of which have Mac EFI:
  • AMD Radeon RX 560
  • AMD Radeon RX 570
  • AMD Radeon RX 580
  • AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100
  • AMD Radeon RX Vega 56
  • AMD Radeon RX Vega 64
  • AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100
  • AMD Radeon Frontier Edition
Click to expand...
Obrigado Alex!
Acho que vou pegar esse.
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/GIGABYTE/MP1012R580V/

Abs
 
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