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Author Topic: GPU ugrade info for wife's mid-2010 Mac Pro?  (Read 1934 times)

nemophoto

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GPU ugrade info for wife's mid-2010 Mac Pro?
« on: July 23, 2018, 10:54:02 am »

I've been updating my wife's Mac Pro over the past few days since she doesn't feel she wants to upgrade to a newer one because of the ghastly cost. (She's a graphic designer, but her primary tools are InDesign and Illustrator followed by Photoshop.)

So far, I swapped the CPU tray with one from OWC (so lowest level 4-core Xeon to a 6-core mid-level Xeon -- still below chips now available, but represents a 50% boost in CPS power). I've cloned her 1TB HDD to a Crucial MX500 1TB SSD (but not yet installed since I forgot I had to get a drive adapter for her tray -- ordered today from B&H). So, the final upgrade of the triumvirate is the GPU -- replacing the antiquated Radeon HD5770.

Being a PC guy who is constantly tinkering with my computer over the years, I have multiple disused graphics cards. Of them, the two I thought of sliding into place are an Asus Radeon R9 280X and an MSI Radeon R9 390 8G. The latter is my preferred entry since it has 8GB of VRAM and represents a 50% increase in processing power.

So, my questions: What are the things I need to be aware of in this transplant? Macs, needless to say, are not as customizable and I can't just download the most recent drivers etc. Would OS X not already have drivers compatible with this since it runs AMD cards across the line?  My wife runs two monitors. Do I have anything to worry about when running two monitors with the new card? (I have two 24" NEC monitor but have run dual monitors for years and so all my old cards handle this.)


Thank you for the help and guidance.
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degrub

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Re: GPU ugrade info for wife's mid-2010 Mac Pro?
« Reply #1 on: July 23, 2018, 12:52:35 pm »

talk with the folks at POWERMAX.com
or OWC at MACSALES.com
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nemophoto

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Re: GPU ugrade info for wife's mid-2010 Mac Pro?
« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2018, 01:11:21 pm »

talk with the folks at POWERMAX.com
or OWC at MACSALES.com

Thanks. I did some, but they, of course, want to sell me something rather than let me use what I have.
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degrub

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Re: GPU ugrade info for wife's mid-2010 Mac Pro?
« Reply #3 on: July 23, 2018, 02:32:07 pm »

make sure the backplane bus on the card is compatible electrically and physically first.
beyond that, it will be driver dependent in the OS.
If you cannot find anything in the mac forums at apple or at mac rumours or similar, then look at used models listed on ebay and elsewhere to see if anyone has had a working one.
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nemophoto

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Re: GPU ugrade info for wife's mid-2010 Mac Pro?
« Reply #4 on: July 23, 2018, 02:56:14 pm »

make sure the backplane bus on the card is compatible electrically and physically first.
beyond that, it will be driver dependent in the OS.
If you cannot find anything in the mac forums at apple or at mac rumours or similar, then look at used models listed on ebay and elsewhere to see if anyone has had a working one.


I spoke to another tech guy at OWC. He said he could see no reason why it wouldn't work. Yet, when I Googled the question, I found a few things referring to having to "flash" the Mac BIOS or it would only work with 1 monitor. I'll keep searching. I should have the power cables I need tomorrow, so I'll stick the card in. The worst that can happen is that I have to pull it out. The biggest bang for performance will really be the SSD, but a better GPU can't hurt. The "used" graphics cards are stupid expensive -- $400-500. Personally, this is why I always went the PC route.
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degrub

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Re: GPU ugrade info for wife's mid-2010 Mac Pro?
« Reply #5 on: July 23, 2018, 03:09:39 pm »

make sure your wife's machine backup is solid.
a backplane fault could mean she gets a new machine  :o
and you want a good backup to restore to it.. :-[ ;D
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nemophoto

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Re: GPU ugrade info for wife's mid-2010 Mac Pro?
« Reply #6 on: July 23, 2018, 04:09:27 pm »

Thanks! Yes, she backs up every few hours with TimeMachine (assuming that actually works!). When I install the GPU, I will have done a fresh clone of the HDD to the SSD, so she always has the HDD to fall back on. I was also worried about the power draw of the AMD cards (high! at 250-=275watts). But doing research, the native power supply is 980watts, or so I read.
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Joe Towner

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Re: GPU ugrade info for wife's mid-2010 Mac Pro?
« Reply #7 on: July 23, 2018, 07:13:26 pm »

Might want to go this route http://www.macvidcards.com/

Apple did some unhelpful things back in the day with the BIOS and compatibility.
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nemophoto

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Re: GPU ugrade info for wife's mid-2010 Mac Pro?
« Reply #8 on: July 23, 2018, 09:47:56 pm »

Thanks. Took a look at the site. I ended up writing them about "flashing" GPUs. In the meantime, I've read that OS X has pretty good support for almost all AMD cards. One comment was that "un-flashed" cards run at PCI-e 1.0 rather 2.0. Not totally sure how that would affect performance, especially considering the age of the old card.
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kers

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Re: GPU ugrade info for wife's mid-2010 Mac Pro?
« Reply #9 on: July 24, 2018, 07:08:57 am »

Thanks. Took a look at the site. I ended up writing them about "flashing" GPUs. In the meantime, I've read that OS X has pretty good support for almost all AMD cards. One comment was that "un-flashed" cards run at PCI-e 1.0 rather 2.0. Not totally sure how that would affect performance, especially considering the age of the old card.

that means less data/sec means slower.
the card will not perform as well as it could.
The problem with the good old macpro is you can change anything but the motherboard.
Ast some point it is not going any faster, whatever you put in it.

i have an 2008 macpro- i put an m.2 samsung 970EVO in it and goes 775mb/sec while it could do 2000+MB/SEC
Bottleneck is the old PCI.
That said the 2010-2012 macpro is still a very capable machine especially the 12 core units.
« Last Edit: August 01, 2018, 05:44:14 am by kers »
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Pieter Kers
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nemophoto

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Re: GPU ugrade info for wife's mid-2010 Mac Pro?
« Reply #10 on: July 26, 2018, 09:40:33 pm »

So, I tried sliding a Radeon R9 280x and 390 into my wife’s computer. Nothing worked with the 390. The 280x had one screen. I read that the RX480 works without a problem. My real question, will she really see much difference if I upgrade the GPU? She ONLY uses PS, InDesign & Illustrator. Needless to say, never games or even video editing. My goal has been to save her some money and update her computer. I know I see a difference with a better graphics card, but I also have an up to date system.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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degrub

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Re: GPU ugrade info for wife's mid-2010 Mac Pro?
« Reply #11 on: July 26, 2018, 10:54:23 pm »

only if the memory buffer is larger/faster (so redraws may be faster). 2D work doesn't put much load on any recent GPU within the last 10 yrs. Only the amount that can be loaded into graphic memory - that will depend on the image size and layers.
If you want something more concrete, i would ask over on the adobe forums for those programs.

i'm still running a GPU from 10 years ago for PS and other 2D work. no noticeable difference in PS between that and the GPU that i bought 4 years ago.
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kers

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Re: GPU ugrade info for wife's mid-2010 Mac Pro?
« Reply #12 on: August 01, 2018, 05:48:46 am »

i think you have done everything needed to upgrade the old macpro to the max...
next thing is something new;
if you need it for my 2008 macpro is still running fast and fast enough for everything but the massive amount of 46MP photos i am putting through it.
Also LR is a bit sluggish to work with. ( interface+ data i guess)
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