Ultimate Mac Pro 5,1 Mod for Triple Titan X

[Blakehoo]

For pure FCPX, dual 7950 work extremely well. I own 3 cards so far, all of them can run stablely at 0.956V 800/1250MHz (standard clock speed). VBE7 (Windows free software) makes the ROM extremely simple to edit.

With this little firmware mod, each card can run with a single mini 6pin supply. And draw up to around 140W (max, stress test), usually peak at around ~110W in FCPX (4k video rendering with 3 filters), and most of the time stay below 100W during video editing. Since this power draw includes the PCIe slot power. So, it's actually very OK and only occasionally draw more than 75W from a mini 6pin.

With this config, BruceX can be done in 15s (single CPU, W3690). By considering the 7950 is so cheap now. It's actually a very good cost / performance ratio option.

The down side, 7950 is a very old card now. And quite a bit of them was mining card, buying them 2nd hand with no warranty may end up gives you some headache. Also, it's limited to 3GB VRAM.

The new cards should have better power efficiency, however, that's based on stock voltage / clock. The new card is much harder to fine tune the VBIOS (voltage table is more complicated). With this voltage mod, the 7950's FCPX efficiency actually comparable to the new RX card (or even better due to mature driver support).

Your results match closely with my experience ...but I would suggest others try this ....only with new...ish cards

 

[devon807]

For pure FCPX, dual 7950 work extremely well. I own 3 cards so far, all of them can run stablely at 0.956V 800/1250MHz (standard clock speed). VBE7 (Windows free software) makes the ROM extremely simple to edit.

With this little firmware mod, each card can run with a single mini 6pin supply. And draw up to around 140W (max, stress test), usually peak at around ~110W in FCPX (4k video rendering with 3 filters), and most of the time stay below 100W during video editing. Since this power draw includes the PCIe slot power. So, it's actually very OK and only occasionally draw more than 75W from a mini 6pin.

With this config, BruceX can be done in 15s (single CPU, W3690). By considering the 7950 is so cheap now. It's actually a very good cost / performance ratio option.

The down side, 7950 is a very old card now. And quite a bit of them was mining card, buying them 2nd hand with no warranty may end up gives you some headache. Also, it's limited to 3GB VRAM.

The new cards should have better power efficiency, however, that's based on stock voltage / clock. The new card is much harder to fine tune the VBIOS (voltage table is more complicated). With this voltage mod, the 7950's FCPX efficiency actually comparable to the new RX card (or even better due to mature driver support).

I understand this is an old thread, but i noticed you now have an R9 380 instead of the dual 7950's, does the R9 380 perform better than the dual 7950's? I am curious because I am currently in the market for a new GPU.

 

[Blakehoo]

I understand this is an old thread, but i noticed you now have an R9 380 instead of the dual 7950's, does the R9 380 perform better than the dual 7950's? I am curious because I am currently in the market for a new GPU.

Yes it would for most users. It would be a lot less work ...for approximately the same payoff.

I only agreed with h9826790 about the firmware concept.
I am using dual crossfire 7970's. This is the previous "King of Mac" build by Prince 134

It is the ultimate cMP up until the Prince 134 triple Titan X build

....and is still the best ever build for FCPX.

 

[h9826790]

I understand this is an old thread, but i noticed you now have an R9 380 instead of the dual 7950's, does the R9 380 perform better than the dual 7950's? I am curious because I am currently in the market for a new GPU.

Not tested in FCPX yet, but dual 7950 perform much better in compute. So, I assume dual 7950 will also perform much better in FCPX. I changed to single R9 380 for various reason.

e.g. I do little video editing and gaming on my cMP recently, the machine now mainly work as home server, general use, and video encoding. So, back to single card in fact can safe some power.

I took one of my 7950 to RMA just before warranty ended. Because that occasionally shows green square block (may be once every few months. TBH, I can't 100% sure if that's due to my undervolt, or really hardware fault). And they offer me a R9 380 4GB for free rather than the original card. Since I have a stock 4870, and a 7950 Mac Edition card already. I don't mind to "upgrade" to a card that can't be flashed. So, I accept the offer, and end up with this R9 380.

I am quite sure I can still run 7950 + R9 380 for just video editing but not gaming. However, I didn't do a detailed power draw test for the 380 yet. And I am still leaning on how to safely mod the R9 380's ROM (the new 380 is single ROM design, and the Tonga BIOS is more complicated than I expect. I have to be careful). Before I finish the undervolt, and confirm the total power draw can stay within my own limit. I prefer stick to single card at this moment. (I don't need the extra power recently anyway)

 

[devon807]

Yes it would for most users. It would be a lot less work ...for approximately the same payoff.

I only agreed with h9826790 about the firmware concept.
I am using dual crossfire 7970's. This is the previous "King of Mac" build by Prince 134

It is the ultimate cMP up until the Prince 134 triple Titan X build

....and is still the best ever build for FCPX.

Ok thanks for clearing this up!

Not tested in FCPX yet, but dual 7950 perform much better in compute. So, I assume dual 7950 will also perform much better in FCPX. I changed to single R9 380 for various reason.

e.g. I do little video editing and gaming on my cMP recently, the machine now mainly work as home server, general use, and video encoding. So, back to single card in fact can safe some power.

I took one of my 7950 to RMA just before warranty ended. Because that occasionally shows green square block (may be once every few months. TBH, I can't 100% sure if that's due to my undervolt, or really hardware fault). And they offer me a R9 380 4GB for free rather than the original card. Since I have a stock 4870, and a 7950 Mac Edition card already. I don't mind to "upgrade" to a card that can't be flashed. So, I accept the offer, and end up with this R9 380.

I am quite sure I can still run 7950 + R9 380 for just video editing but not gaming. However, I didn't do a detailed power draw test for the 380 yet. And I am still leaning on how to safely mod the R9 380's ROM (the new 380 is single ROM design, and the Tonga BIOS is more complicated than I expect. I have to be careful). Before I finish the undervolt, and confirm the total power draw can stay within my own limit. I prefer stick to single card at this moment. (I don't need the extra power recently anyway)

Ok, I am really interested in the performance of the dual 7950's I may give it a shot one day, but I am still holding off for an RX 580 I primarily use my machine for FCPX. Thank you for clearing things up though, as I was also considering an 380 as well, but it probably wont perfrom as well as the RX 580 or the dual 7950's

 

[h9826790]

Ok thanks for clearing this up!

Ok, I am really interested in the performance of the dual 7950's I may give it a shot one day, but I am still holding off for an RX 580 I primarily use my machine for FCPX. Thank you for clearing things up though, as I was also considering an 380 as well, but it probably wont perfrom as well as the RX 580 or the dual 7950's

Yeah, I think go for RX580 make more sense than R9 390 now. Especially if you run 10.12.6 or later. Unless you are really budget limiting, and you can get the old card for really cheap.

 

[VillasManzanill]

I think you are right.
Or at least the Beta I'm running isn't fully optimised for the 580's yet. Haven't done any Kext-editing or what the proper terminology is.

I did the BruceX test with dual 580Rx installed. It took from 25 to 29 seconds. With a single 580 it only takes 21-22 seconds.

The beta doesn't recognise the 580's, I get the default "Ellesmere" device names. (My cards are from Asus)

From what I understand these results are rather mediocre?
I only intend to use this cMP for editing in Final Cut, which needs OpenCL-cards... But I actually hoped for better results then this... Our nMP at work does the BruceX in 22seconds, and my goal is to beat that machine. But I haven't had time to upgrade CPU and Ram yet, so maybee that will help out with the rendering in the future.

Best regards - Daniel


Ps. I noticed the Gpu's only worked 50% each during the Luxmark-tests, so the O View attachment 708191 View attachment 708192 View attachment 708193 View attachment 708196
[doublepost=1499816728][/doublepost]

I'm currently not running Windows yet.
If I can get the dual 580s to "work properly" for my editing in MacOS, I'll probably get another ssd for a Windows install. But I did some other benchmarks, that from what I can understand, wasn't very good. But I'm just getting started, so hopefully I can get the 580s up and running abit more.

Best Regards - Daniel

I’m thinking in buying a 2nd rx 580 for fcpx.

Is your performance better now with High Sierra?

Your BruceX test it’s quite bad with dual rx 580. Whats with that?


Thanks so much for your info.

 

[ekwipt]

If you're on High sierra it might be worth upgrading to a Vega 56 or 64 seem the new iMac Pro will get released with these, i'm guessing FCPX will have great performance on these cards

 

[VillasManzanill]

If you're on High sierra it might be worth upgrading to a Vega 56 or 64 seem the new iMac Pro will get released with these, i'm guessing FCPX will have great performance on these cards

I just bought the rx 580. Not worth buying a vega. Prices are very expensive here In Mexico. It’s cheaper for me to get a second rx 580 IF performance it’s much better than just 1.

 

[Supersoberguy]

Hey, Prince134.

Very helpful thread and guide with creativity. Everything looks nice and neat. Will think about modding my 4,1 => 5,1 with the PSU upgrade you did here in the future.

4X titan X is supported (yes 4 of PCIE slots)

Since I'm mining, I had an opportunity to test our my MP with 4 GPU's, but, unfortunately, I can confirm that 3 Pascal GPU's is the limit. With 4 GPU's the system just won't boot neither to Mac OS, nor Windows. No chime no nothing after pressing the Power button.

But I do agree on the fact that first generation MP's are one of the best from the upgradability point of view. I only wish that Apple would've returned to the user-upgradable machines...

 

[jkh911208]

I am planning on the similar project
but my biggest concern is
can you reinstall the osx without the boot screen?
it that possible or do you need to keep the original GPU for osx reinstall
[doublepost=1512629299][/doublepost]I am planning on the similar project
but my biggest concern is
can you reinstall the osx without the boot screen?
it that possible or do you need to keep the original GPU for osx reinstall

 

[Supersoberguy]

I am planning on the similar project
but my biggest concern is
can you reinstall the osx without the boot screen?
it that possible or do you need to keep the original GPU for osx reinstall
[doublepost=1512629299][/doublepost]I am planning on the similar project
but my biggest concern is
can you reinstall the osx without the boot screen?
it that possible or do you need to keep the original GPU for osx reinstall

Hello, jkh911208. Yes, you always have to have the original GPU, or the GPU that has been flashed for OS X, to be able to do the OS X installation. Otherwise you will just see the black screen and nothing more.

 

[h9826790]

Hello, jkh911208. Yes, you always have to have the original GPU, or the GPU that has been flashed for OS X, to be able to do the OS X installation. Otherwise you will just see the black screen and nothing more.

I doubt.

The boot screen is not required for recovery partition etc. And we can easily make a fresh OS installation inside the recovery partition.

My understanding is either an OOTB GPU OR a flashed card can perform a fresh MacOS installation. Not necessary required a flashed card.

 

[thornslack]

Just bumping this to say that EVGAs website currently has their power links on sale for $10 with FS. I had looked for these maybe a year ago and I think the supply was constrained, they were often $20-30 plus shipping. Picked one hoping it will put the rare sudden shut down to bed on my cMP with Titan Xp. Thanks for bringing my awareness to this items use in the cMP!

 

[Prince134]

At price of $9.99, this EVGA Powerlink is a supler buy. No one would regret buying this product. Get it before the offer get expired!

 

[Harry322]

At price of $9.99, this EVGA Powerlink is a supler buy. No one would regret buying this product. Get it before the offer get expired!

Sorry to arrive at this thread so late. I am replacing my MVC-flashed GTX 770 with an MVC 1080 Ti. I managed to pick up a powerlink on your recommendation.

Just to confirm, I plug a mini 6 pin-> 8pin and a mini 6 pin-> 6 pin from the logic board into the EVGA. And then the EVGA’s built in 8 and 6 pin plugs go into the 8 and 6 ports on the 1080 Ti?

Is that correct?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can chime in on this.

 

[Earl Urley]

Price is back to $19.99 as of five minutes ago.

https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=600-PL-2816-LR

 

[h9826790]

Sorry to arrive at this thread so late. I am replacing my MVC-flashed GTX 770 with an MVC 1080 Ti. I managed to pick up a powerlink on your recommendation.

Just to confirm, I plug a mini 6 pin-> 8pin and a mini 6 pin-> 6 pin from the logic board into the EVGA. And then the EVGA’s built in 8 and 6 pin plugs go into the 8 and 6 ports on the 1080 Ti?

Is that correct?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can chime in on this.

Just 2x mini 6pin to 6pin is fine. Mini 6 to 8pin is not required.

 

[Harry322]

Just 2x mini 6pin to 6pin is fine. Mini 6 to 8pin is not required.

Ok, I may have been mixed up on the configuration. Apologies.

In this case, the EVGA connects to the card with an 8-pin and a 6-pin (which matches the inputs on my MVC card).

The inputs on the EVGA itself are actually both 8 pin. Can I plug a pair of mini6 pin -> 8 pin cables from the logic board directly into the EVGA? Or are you suggesting I plug mini6 pin -> 6 pin cables in and leave the extra 2 ports open on each input?

 

[thornslack]

Although the powerlink has dual 8 pin inputs, you can still plug just six pin power cables into it. This was mentioned here.

 

[Harry322]

Although the powerlink has dual 8 pin inputs, you can still plug just six pin power cables into it. This was mentioned here.

Thanks for the clarification! Appreciate all the great advice!

 

[mattie hi]

I started a thread that I powered two down-clocked HD7970 to beat Mac Pro 6.1 3 years ago. At that time I used only dual on board 6 pin to dual 8 pin + 2 sata -> dual 6 pin for the 2x HD7970. It works because those two cards were down-clocked. 3 years later, I still see full potential of the machine (since 2009) that can beat nowadays' Hackintosh in this small, cute, military grade, Mac Pro tower with triple Titan X. Mac or Windows wise. If Volta won't be available for Mac Pro any time soon (I still hope it will), this is probably the most powerful setup we can get.

System:
Mac Pro 5.1 (2010)
Dual X5690 3.46Ghz
96GB RAM 1333Mhz
Titan X Pascal
Titan X Maxwell
GTX 1080 Ti
1 bootcamp 256gb in optical drive space, 1 ssd MacOs 10.12.4.

Without spinning 3.5" HDDs, Pixlas mod can be safely running 2 Titan X since the mod let the dual cards runs from the 12V rail from the PSU directly. To be able to run additional Titan X, an external power to power the third card is needed. I found xbox 360 first 2 generation PSU (exclude the slim) is easy to work with (203W or 175W). This PSU selling everywhere (gamestop, ebay) for $10-15. And it's easy to work as long as you have a multi-meter, a solder iron, and a few of heat shrinks. So I decided to have it a try. Here are what I did:

Open the 980W PSU, make a pair of 125V (AC) and 12V leads. The soldering job took a little time with regular solder iron, like the other guys said in the discussion. But it can be done with patience. This picture shows the 125V parallel pair leads.
View attachment 697798 View attachment 697799


Here is the Xbox 360 Power supply to put additional 175-203W 12V power to the 3rd GPU.
View attachment 697801


Test it from outside first. Later I put it into the empty optic drive 5.25" space and conceal it nicely.
strand all yellow together as +12V, and all black as GND. leave the red (5v) untouched. The blue line is the switch on signal line, when you feed with Mac Pro's onboard 5v, it engage the 12V from the PSU to your GPU. In the photo it shows I used the 5V from the SATA power. Similarly, when you turn off the MacPro, it turns off the extra PSU in such same way. (don't be fooled here, the pink wire here is blue from xbox PSU).

View attachment 697802 View attachment 697803


Now to put it into the optic 5.25" drive space, I take the xbox 360 power's cover off, unplug the fan of the PSU (I don't need it, and I want it be silent, too). Before put it into the space, make sure you lead the wire from the right side so you get easier to drag the compartment. I did purchase a 5.25" empty plate to fit the PSU nicely (in fact with my bootcamp SSD in the same space as well).

View attachment 697805 View attachment 697806

Up to here. My onboard 12V pool power from the 980W PSU, and the extra 175W PSU is ready. Now there is one magic product I want to share with: the EVGA power link:

http://www.evga.com/articles/01051/evga-powerlink/

Amazon selling it $9.99
https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-PowerLi...qid=1493419066&sr=8-1&keywords=evga+powerlink

What it does is to provide different angle for your GPU connector. I found it's wonderful because of two things: 1, it transform single pair of 12v+GND to dual 8 pin with internal handling of the pin layout, ie you feed with 12v it give you direct 8+6 to your cards, period. 2, it include power conditioning with two capacitors as shown here:
View attachment 697807

The end result shows a neat cable arrangements. The SSD shown in photo with case taken off. It's easy and securely plugged in.
View attachment 697819

View attachment 697809

Since Titan xp is too expensive, I have ordered a 1080 Ti coming instead, and I will post update when it runs together with my existing 2 Titan X. Hope you guys enjoy it.

You know what, how I wish the next Mac Pro 7.1 use the same case design as mac pro 5.1. It's so much fun with versatility.

Thank you for the post!
On the MacProUpgrade I enquired about doing two TITAN X Pascal. One guy said with even with dual 3.46GHZ that having 2 would result in a bottle neck. What did you find?