2009 Mac Pro firmware hacked Xeon W3680

[Andy2k]

HOLY SMOKES!!!!!!! Is all I can say about doing the firmware hack/upgrade on my 2009 Mac Pro. Seriously, if you're on the fence, do it. I went from a single 4 core 2.93 Ghz processor to the 6 core 3.33 Ghz Westmere processor. I found the CPU used on ebay for $125 shipped. Not only is it enormously faster. It runs about 3 degrees C cooler than the 4 core (FTW????). The upgrade was easy, painless and took less than 30 minutes. Sorry to brag guys but COULDN'T BE HAPPIER!!! Almost doubled the score!!!! See the Geekbench 3 scores below.

Xeon Nephelem W3540 4 Core:

Benchmark Summary
Integer Score 2179 9810
Floating Point Score 2513 11375
Memory Score 1946 2095

Geekbench Score 2266 8893


Xeon Westmere W3680 6 core:

Benchmark Summary
Integer Score 2939 17859
Floating Point Score 2853 19195
Memory Score 2008 2143

Geekbench Score 2718 15250

 

[saulinpa]

Congrats on taking the red pill.

 

[raymanster]

I did the same a few months ago (to a slightly slower x5670), even now these machines still amaze me.

 

[Andy2k]

I did the same a few months ago (to a slightly slower x5670), even now these machines still amaze me.

I was blown away at how much performance I could get out of a 7 year old computer. I can transcode 720P at 90+ FPS. My, not even a year old, new i7 4970k devil's canyon can't even do that, with twice the RAM clocked at much higher speed. 2009 and 2010 Mac Pros, are one of apple's finest machines, IMHO, easy to customize and upgrade.

 

[frou]

If you're in the mood for benchmarking, I gather Geekbench 4 will be released any day now with all new tests including GPU!