MP 1,1-5,1 2010 cMP Westmare 2.4 OS

[bjolester]

I have a 2010 cMP Westmare eightcore 2.4GHZ that runs OSX Sierra. The Mac Pro is almost exclusively used to run Aperture 3.6 and perform photo editing (and storage).

1. Which OS post Sierra can be used on my cMP in original condition (without modifying the graphic card and other hardware)?

2. Which OS is a best compromise for both the 2010 cMP 2.4GHZ and Aperture 3.6?

I am grateful for any advice!

 

[krakman]

1) Mojave is the last natively installable OS -but what graphics card do you have?

2) don't know for sure - Probably Mojave - is Aperture a 32 bit app?

AMD Vega 56 GPU are now cheap on Ebay I see them for less that £100 in the UK. It is supported by Mojave and it is the best GPU upgrade you can do for Mojave.

3) if you don't want to change your GPU and your system works for you, then stick with it as it is.

 

[bjolester]

Thank you krakman!

1. ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics card with 1 GB of GDDR5 memory.

2. Apple Aperture must surely have 32bit architecture, it is old.

3. The system works okay as is, I am just researching what the optimal OSX for my old cMP and photo software would be.

 

[MarkC426]

You could upgrade to High Sierra.
Mojave needs a metal gpu, which you don't have.

I would install it on a separate drive first to make sure your version of aperture still works.

 

[h9826790]

My personal suggestion. If your existing setup works for you. Do NOT upgrade the OS.

There is no big difference in Sierra and High Sierra, they both have different bugs. And I did get some serious memory leak issue back in High Sierra. Definitely nothing like Leopard vs Snow Leopard.

Without hardware upgrade, your should not go beyond High Sierra. Otherwise, guarantee something won't work, then you need to use patches. Which seems not what you want.

 

[bjolester]

Thank you all! I will stay with OS Sierra and Aperture 3.6. I photograph with both digital and film cameras, and often work with editing large tiff files from scanned film, and my "outdated" cMP is eminently suitable for dealing with image files of any size.

 

[Macschrauber]

Tho you can upgrade your setup with faster storage and faster CPUs.

I second, if you are fine with your workflow, dont change it.

 

[bjolester]

I had to do some upgrading to my cMP, because my BOOT drive (the original Apple/Toshiba 512gb) had critical failures. I installed a lighly used Samsung 850 PRO SSD as a replacement.
I also realised my Mac Pro had very old BootROM firmware (MP51.007F.B03). I followed the procedure written by tsialex about how to upgrade to OS Mojave, and successfully managed to upgrade the BootROM to version MP51.0089.B00. I had to stop in OS High Sierra due to lack of metal compatible GPU.

If I should want to go "all the way", and upgrade to OS Mojave i need to find a metal compatible GPU.

Does the "SAPPHIRE Radeon PULSE RX 580 8GB GDDR5" come in a special MAC Edition, or can I purchase any (second hand) version of this GPU?

 

[h9826790]

Does the "SAPPHIRE Radeon PULSE RX 580 8GB GDDR5" come in a special MAC Edition, or can I purchase any (second hand) version of this GPU?

Not any RX580. Some RX580 in China is the SP version, won't work in macOS.

But The Sapphire PULSE RX580 is a safe option. No specific Mac Edition PULSE RX580, basically any PULSE RX580 can do.

Most of them (factory ROM) can show boot screen once flashed the cMP with EnableGOP. The remaining cards can be flashed with those "known good" ROM to gain this ability.

Once you flash the cMP with EnableGOP, then most of the modern cards are the Mac Edition cards for you. It will make your life much easier.

 

[bjolester]

Not any RX580. Some RX580 in China is the SP version, won't work in macOS.

But The Sapphire PULSE RX580 is a safe option. No specific Mac Edition PULSE RX580, basically any PULSE RX580 can do.

Most of them (factory ROM) can should boot screen once flashed the cMP with EnableGOP. The remaining cards can be flashed with those "known good" ROM to gain this ability.

Once you flash the cMP with EnableGOP, then most of the modern cards are the Mac Edition cards for you. It will make your life much easier.

Thank you for helpful advice! Is flashing the cMP with EnableGOP difficult to do?

BTW: This is the RX580 I am looking at, hopefully compatible with my cMP 5.1?

 

[h9826790]

Thank you for helpful advice! Is flashing the cMP with EnableGOP difficult to do?

BTW: This is the RX580 I am looking at, hopefully compatible with my cMP 5.1?

If that's the original box, then it should be fine.

The SP version should have the term "2048SP" on the box upper right hand corner. And most likely will have some Chinese words on the box.

 

[tsialex]

Thank you for helpful advice! Is flashing the cMP with EnableGOP difficult to do?

BTW: This is the RX580 I am looking at, hopefully compatible with my cMP 5.1?

There are Sapphire Pulse and Nitro with 2048SPs. A lot of these from AliExpress are now everywhere in the world.

 

[bjolester]

There are Sapphire Pulse and Nitro with 2048SPs. A lot of these from AliExpress are now everywhere in the world.

This sticker is on the box of the Sapphire Pulse I am looking at. Is it compatible with Mac Pro 5.1?

 

[tsialex]

If it's a 2304SPs, yes.

Usually the label have 2048SPs right after the RX580, for the cards that are incompatible.

 

[bjolester]

If it's a 2304SPs, yes.

Usually the label have 2048SPs right after the RX580, for the cards that are incompatible.

Okay, I understand. Thank you👍

 

[bjolester]

I have ordered the Sapphire Pulse RX 580 8gb which was for sale locally. Hopefully it is the version compatible with the Mac Pro 5.1.

1. What cable do I need to install it in my Mac Pro?

2. Do I need to think about additional power supply for the RX 580 when using the Mac Pro mostly for photo editing (and some music recording in Logic Pro)?

3. Can I use the RX 580 as is, without bothering about flashing with EnableGOP etc.?

I am grateful for any help with my Mac Pro query!

 

[tsialex]

I have ordered the Sapphire Pulse RX 580 8gb which was for sale locally. Hopefully it is the version compatible with the Mac Pro 5.1.

1. What cable do I need to install it in my Mac Pro?

Dual mini-PCIe 6-pin to 8-pin, like this one:

Dual Mini 6 Pin to 8 Pin PCI Express Video Card Power Adapter Cable

Features: Dual Mini 6 Pin to 8 Pin PCI-e cable is to connect a PCIe video graphics card with 8 pin port to Mac motherboard with mini 6 pin port; Specification: Cable Length: 15-inches/(38cm) ; Connector 1: standard GPU 8 Pin male ; Connector 2 : 2x mini 6 pin male ( not standard 6 pin male); Gaug...

www.amazon.com

2. Do I need to think about additional power supply for the RX 580 when using the Mac Pro mostly for photo editing (and some music recording in Logic Pro)?

No.

If your PSU is already tired, you can install an eVGA PowerLink. PowerLink also have one advantage besides equally balancing the power draw to the two backplane power connectors, you can use two standard Mac Pro mini-PCIe 6-pin cables to power it.

3. Can I use the RX 580 as is, without bothering about flashing with EnableGOP etc.?

Difficult to answer since it depends on your workflow and your own technical prowess. If you need the Apple BootPicker, EnableGop is a godsend.

If you want to install unsupported macOS releases, it's very difficult to do so without the BootPicker. Most people can't successfully install unsupported macOS releases via OCLP without a working BootPicker.

If injecting EnableGop to your BootROM is too much for you, a BootROM reconstruction service would solve this and other issues.

 

[bjolester]

Dual mini-PCIe 6-pin to 8-pin, like this one:

Dual Mini 6 Pin to 8 Pin PCI Express Video Card Power Adapter Cable

Features: Dual Mini 6 Pin to 8 Pin PCI-e cable is to connect a PCIe video graphics card with 8 pin port to Mac motherboard with mini 6 pin port; Specification: Cable Length: 15-inches/(38cm) ; Connector 1: standard GPU 8 Pin male ; Connector 2 : 2x mini 6 pin male ( not standard 6 pin male); Gaug...

www.amazon.com

No.

If your PSU is already tired, you can install an eVGA PowerLink. PowerLink also have one advantage besides equally balancing the power draw to the two backplane power connectors, you can use two standard Mac Pro mini-PCIe 6-pin cables to power it.



Difficult to answer since it depends on your workflow and your own technical prowess. If you need the Apple BootPicker, EnableGop is a godsend.

If you want to install unsupported macOS releases, it's very difficult to do so without the BootPicker. Most people can't successfully install unsupported macOS releases via OCLP without a working BootPicker.

If injecting EnableGop to your BootROM is too much for you, a BootROM reconstruction service would solve this and other issues.

Thank you very much for helpful advice! It is good to know that I can contact you about a BootROM reconstruction service if needed👍

 

[MarkC426]

If you are only upgrading to Mojave, there usually is no need for a boot screen.
Just keep your old gpu in case you have any issues (which you shouldn't).

 

[bjolester]

If you are only upgrading to Mojave, there usually is no need for a boot screen.
Just keep your old gpu in case you have any issues (which you shouldn't).

Initially I am planning on only upgrading to OS Mojave, and keeping the Mac Pro frozen there. Depending on how well Aperture 3.6 runs in Mojave, I might install El Capitan or Sierra on a separate SSD just for the Aperture app.

*I will keep my ATI Radeon HD 5870 in case I have any issues.

 

[tsialex]

Don't forget that earlier OS X releases doesn't recognize APFS disks and Mojave will not appear within SystemPreferences/StartUpDisk. Without the BootPicker you will have to use Terminal to bless the Mojave disk after booting earlier OS X.

If you gonna boot between macOS releases/Windows/etc, you gonna need EnableGop.

 

[sfalatko]

Another item that can trip you up - the RX580 that you buy may have had its firmware modded for mining. If it has you will need to restore the factory firmware or it most likely won't work in macOS. Frustratingly it will work just fine in Windows.

Ask me how I know....

 

[bjolester]

Another item that can trip you up - the RX580 that you buy may have had its firmware modded for mining. If it has you will need to restore the factory firmware or it most likely won't work in macOS. Frustratingly it will work just fine in Windows.

Ask me how I know....

Thank you for warning me! The RX580 was sold as "unused"/ new. Hopefully this description is correct.

 

[haralds]

I bought a flashed Sapphire RX-580 8GB in 2020 and never looked back. Apart from SSD and WiFI/BLE card update it is one of the best CMPro upgrades.

 

[sfalatko]

Thank you for warning me! The RX580 was sold as "unused"/ new. Hopefully this description is correct.

Fingers crossed for you! Also it may have a dual bios with a small switch to change between them.