I'm looking at getting more ram and better graphics card for my 2010 Mac Pro. I'm absolutely confused by all the model numbers and what is an isn't OS X 10.10 compatible. Could someone please point out which current gen AMD and Nvidia just work.
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2010 Mac Pro graphics upgreade
- Thread starter DELTAsnake
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Most don't "just work" in OS X. I'm not up on Yosemite but my 2 cents is the MSI Gaming 3G R9 280X works out of box, however it produced frequent graphical tearing for me so I'm having it flashed by MacVidCards and can report back after I get it back ... check his site for what he offers.
What's your purpose for the graphic card?
There are only 2 "new" graphic cards that should work OOTB officially. The EVGA GTX 680 Mac Edition or the Sapphire HD7950 Mac Edition.
For OpenCL, the 7950 may be a better choice. For gaming, you better pick the other one.
There are some flashed card available as well, those card can be much more powerful than these 2 official option. However, some of them may required extra PSU. So, you have to do some study if go to that route.
There are only 2 "new" graphic cards that should work OOTB officially. The EVGA GTX 680 Mac Edition or the Sapphire HD7950 Mac Edition.
For OpenCL, the 7950 may be a better choice. For gaming, you better pick the other one.
There are some flashed card available as well, those card can be much more powerful than these 2 official option. However, some of them may required extra PSU. So, you have to do some study if go to that route.
If I may suggest, hold off on Yosemite 10.10 being a new OS as there may still be glitches, bugs specially with GPUs. Wait for about 3-5 months for issues to get resolved. Sometimes we may encounter GPU driver issues whenever the OS gets a new update. For now stick to Mavericks or Mountain Lion.
I realise I will loose the Mac Pro's boot screen unless I go with those two cards, thats a sacrifice I'm willing to make and don't consider that a problem. I'm thinking of getting a new card because my Bootcamp Windows gaming is starting to suffer from not having an upgrade ever. I was hoping a 700 series or R9 series card might work in Yosemite on a Mac Pro.
Define "work"
When you say the 980 "works", from what I read on this forum its work in progress. Work would mean full PCIe 2 speed in OSX and Windows as well as OpenCL etc.
Fingers crossed the graphics card geniuses can crack it.
When you say the 980 "works", from what I read on this forum its work in progress. Work would mean full PCIe 2 speed in OSX and Windows as well as OpenCL etc.
Fingers crossed the graphics card geniuses can crack it.
I just finished installing an ASUS GeForce GTX 780 into my 2010 Mac Pro.
What you need to be aware of is the power requirements for graphics cards.
The 2010 Mac Pro, all 4 PCI-E slots are 2.0 compatible, with slots 1 & 2 being 16 lanes wide, and 3 & 4 being 4 lanes wide- so if your graphics card needs x8 or x16 PCI-E, it will have to go into slot 1 or 2.
Power wise each slot delivers up to 75W if the card needs it, and the the 2010 Mac Pro has x2 6-pin mini-PCI-E power connectors that can each also deliver up to 75W. If the card requires more than 225W of power, then you will need an external PSU. If not, you will need to ensure you have the right power cables for the card.