Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Upgrade GPU MacPro Mid 2010

P

Paradiseapple

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 18, 2010
131
2
Germany
Hello friends,
since I upgraded to Sierra the performance of my Mac Pro (Mid 2019 2x2,66 GHz 6-corewith ATI Radeon HD 5870) in Final Cut X is lousy. Which Graphic Card would you recommend to work on High Sierra or even Mojave (Metal-compatible)? I work mostly with Final Cut X and Premiere Pro.
Thank you
Alfred
 
Last edited:
Paradiseapple said:
Hello friends,
since I upgraded to Sierra the performance of my Mac Pro (Mid 2019 2x2,66 GHz 6-corewith ATI Radeon HD 5870) in Final Cut X is lousy. Which Graphic Card would you recommend to work on High Sierra or even Mojave (Metal-compatible)? I work mostly with Final Cut X and Premiere Pro.
Thank you
Alfred
Click to expand...
Definitely the Sapphire RX 580 PULSE 8GB card.
I would also look into upgrading your CPUs to go along with the new gfx card.

2x Intel Xeon X5677 (8-cores) or 2x X5690 (12-cores) would be a worthwhile upgrade, for which you'd see a considerable improvement in performance.

https://www.ebay.de/itm/Intel-Xeon-...-GHz-12-MB-Cache-6-4-GT-s-S-1366/152000164215
 
a RX 580 will be faster than a HD 5870 in PP, for PP id gess a cpu upgrade will relay help the most.
 
Squuiid said:
Definitely the Sapphire RX 580 PULSE 8GB card.
I would also look into upgrading your CPUs to go along with the new gfx card.

2x Intel Xeon X5677 (8-cores) or 2x X5690 (12-cores) would be a worthwhile upgrade, for which you'd see a considerable improvement in performance.

https://www.ebay.de/itm/Intel-Xeon-...-GHz-12-MB-Cache-6-4-GT-s-S-1366/152000164215
Click to expand...
Good idea. Do i need two of these processors and can I install the processors and the graphics card myself? My apple dealer is not interested in installing them.
 
Paradiseapple said:
Good idea. Do i need two of these processors and can I install the processors and the graphics card myself? My apple dealer is not interested in installing them.
Click to expand...
Yes, and yes. If your cMP is 2010 then it’s very easy to do yourself. If you meant to write 2009 then it’s a bit more effort.
See here for more info:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-pro-cpu-compatibility-list.1954766/

If money is no object then get 2x X5690.
If not 2x X5677 will give you 8 cores at 3.46GHz instead of 12. Either is a good option and will greatly improve your cMP. That and a Sapphire RX 580 Pulse 8GB and you’re set.

NOTE: Make sure any CPUs you buy are not denoted with the letters ‘ES’, which mean engineering sample. Avoid ES chips.

Finally, you’ll need a tube of this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Arctic-Silver-Thermal-Compound-3-5g/dp/B0087X728K
 
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
is it a cmp 4.1 or 5.1? (2019 so i gess 4.1?) it's a tad more complex but not to hard if it's a 4.1
 
orph said:
is it a cmp 4.1 or 5.1? (2019 so i gess 4.1?) it's a tad more complex but not to hard if it's a 4.1
Click to expand...

It´s a 5,1
Modellname: Mac Pro

Modell-Identifizierung: MacPro5,1

Prozessortyp: 6-Core Intel Xeon

Prozessorgeschwindigkeit: 2,66 GHz

Anzahl der Prozessoren: 2

Gesamtanzahl der Kerne: 12

L2-Cache (pro Kern): 256 KB

L3-Cache (pro Prozessor): 12 MB

Speicher: 48 GB

Boot-ROM-Version: MP51.0084.B00

SMC-Version (System): 1.39f11

SMC-Version (Prozessormodul): 1.39f11

Seriennummer (System): CK04606REUH

Seriennummer (Prozessormodul): J504202J7BH8B

Hardware-UUID: 359D6369-DABE-536D-AF1E-D7361A100748
[doublepost=1535095534][/doublepost]
Squuiid said:
Yes, and yes. If your cMP is 2010 as you state above then it’s very easy to do yourself. If you meant to write 2009 then it’s a bit more effort.
See here for more info:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-pro-cpu-compatibility-list.1954766/

If money is no object then get 2x X5690.
If not 2x X5677 will give you 8 cores at 3.46GHz instead of 12. Either is a good option and will greatly improve your cMP. That and a Sapphire RX 580 Pulse 8GB and you’re set.

NOTE: Make sure any CPUs you buy are not denoted with the letters ‘ES’, which mean engineering sample. Avoid ES chips.

Finally, you’ll need a tube of this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Arctic-Silver-Thermal-Compound-3-5g/dp/B0087X728K
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for your advice!
 
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
yep thats what i was looking for ^^
4.1 is much more work for a cpu upgrade
kind of depends on budget for upgrades, for a GPU an RX 460/560 or 470/570 or rx 480/580 are good options
rx 560 MSI is best cheep option, rx 580 Sapphire Pulse is best simple options and what apple recommend
RX 470 4GB are super cheep on ebay at the mo
for the 560 no cables needed for the sapphire you want two six pin cable to 8 pin cable to plug in to the cards 8 pin power bit

cpu upgrade can give big boosts, dual 4c 3.33 or 3.46 will give big uplift and dual 6c 3.33ghz or 3.46ghz are the top options and will give a nice boost

if you have less than 20GB of ram might be worth topping it up a bit, iv got 32GB and i never relay use all 32GB (but i do simple projects)
 
Spacedust said:
Since you are German I advise you to check MacVidCards Europe for latest classic Mac Pro cards: https://www.ebay.de/usr/macvidcards-europe

According to http://www.macvidcards.com/i-want-the-best-graphics-card-for-my-mac-pro-where-do-i-start.html you either need an AMD or NVIDIA card:

Final Cut Pro OpenCL based applications (AMD GPU recommended)
Adobe CC (Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, Premiere, After Effects) CUDA based applications (Nvidia GPU recommended)
Click to expand...
I would recommend against that. Overpriced and not worth the trouble IMO.
The Sapphire RX 580 Pulse is recommended by Apple and more or less works OOTB without having to mess around with NVIDIA drivers every single time Apple releases a macOS update.

As for the performance differences between an RX 580 and a GTX 1080 for example, sure they exist, but Adobe CC apps work just fine with an RX 580. NVIDIA do have better performance with Adobe apps but if you want an all around compatible card with good performance I'd just stick with the RX 580.
 
I love NVIDIA cards, but I have a hard time recommending anyone purchase one for Mac usage right now until more is known about Mojave support with NVIDIA web drivers. The RX 560 is $120 and RX 580 was $240 a few days ago. Both of those work out of the box. Hard to argue with that.

FCP does work better with AMD (generally speaking) BUT there are official NVIDIA Mac cards where it does well. AMD will not utilize CUDA.

Adobe generally utilizes CUDA (NVIDIA) better than Metal or OpenCL if you're in a video application. Would not recommend using Metal as a renderer option over OpenCL. AMD cards do work with Adobe, however.

Just picked up the officially recommended Sapphire Pulse RX 580 and will be testing in a few weeks when I wrap work on an active project. Currently using an NVIDIA GTX 1080 FE with NVIDIA web drivers (and CUDA) in 10.13.6. Use Adobe CC daily.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Squuiid
bsbeamer said:
I love NVIDIA cards, but I have a hard time recommending anyone purchase one for Mac usage right now until more is known about Mojave support with NVIDIA web drivers. The RX 560 is $120 and RX 580 was $240 a few days ago. Both of those work out of the box. Hard to argue with that.

FCP does work better with AMD (generally speaking) BUT there are official NVIDIA Mac cards where it does well. AMD will not utilize CUDA.

Adobe generally utilizes CUDA (NVIDIA) better than Metal or OpenCL if you're in a video application. Would not recommend using Metal as a renderer option over OpenCL. AMD cards do work with Adobe, however.

Just picked up the officially recommended Sapphire Pulse RX 580 and will be testing in a few weeks when I wrap work on an active project. Currently using an NVIDIA GTX 1080 FE with NVIDIA web drivers (and CUDA) in 10.13.6. Use Adobe CC daily.
Click to expand...
I likewise have both of those cards and use the RX 580 as my daily driver for macOS. Moved the 1080 FE over to be exclusively for Windows.
I completely agree with your comments, enjoy your new RX 580!
 
acceleration in apps for video is a relay complex subject.

some parts are simple FCX likes AMD cuards
apple has put the PC RX 560 MSI & RX 580 sapphire pulse on it's "cards to run osx" list and it looks like they will have support.

VRAM rule of thumb
2GB=1080p
4GB=4K

RX 580 8GB is a nice option then,

adobe will run on the AMD cards and it will be faster than your HD 5870


@Spacedust adobe and GPU acceleration tends to be disappointing more than anything else for most users & im relay not shore that "Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom" are CUDA based ? IDK where that came from, openGL last i looked.

PP & AE can gain a lot from a GPU but for a lot of workflows you dont need much of a GPU before you hit massive diminishing returns on the acceleration you gain from the hardware
(and the GPU acceleration and the VRAM thing are two different things)

now Davinci resolve is massively dependent on GPU speed adobe for most things loves 4-6 fast CPU cores and a GPU with 2-4+ GB VRAM unless you are doing a more specialized workflow or using some GPU dependent plugins.

but to be fair im a bit out of date on adobe if you want some detailed info on how there products run look here
https://www.pugetsystems.com/all_articles.php
tests on windows but it will mostly hold true for mac apart from nvidia cards are a lot slower on OSX

this one is fun
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Premiere-Pro-CS6-GPU-Acceleration-162/
that CUDA scaling in PP

edit extra
FAQ: How do I speed up rendering, exporting, or encoding?
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2122549
CUDA, OpenCL, Mercury Playback Engine, and Adobe Premiere Pro
https://theblog.adobe.com/cuda-mercury-playback-engine-and-adobe-premiere-pro
Adobe Premiere Pro and Multiple GPUs
https://www.provideocoalition.com/adobe-premiere-pro-and-multiple-gpus/
 
Last edited:
tsialex said:
Every PCIe GPU benefits with the most recent Mojave firmware, 138.0.0.0.0. Apple enabled 5GT/s for all PCIe cards that support it.
Click to expand...

Hello friends,
do you still recommend the RX580 for Mojave on my mid 2010 Mac Pro? Which upgrade for the CPU would be actually the best? I will update my Mac Pro now because I am tired of waiting for the Mac Pro "2029".
 
Paradiseapple said:
Hello friends,
do you still recommend the RX580 for Mojave on my mid 2010 Mac Pro? Which upgrade for the CPU would be actually the best? I will update my Mac Pro now because I am tired of waiting for the Mac Pro "2029".
Click to expand...
Sapphire Pulse RX-580 and X5677, X5680 or X5690.

You can choose the CPU that fits your pocket, but not the GPU, buy one of the Apple suppprted list, exactly.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheStork, Squuiid and kohlson
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back