MP 7,1 Any easy-win upgrades for the 2019 Mac Pro?

[doobydoooby]

I had a trusty 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 that served me well for fifteen years, upgrading bits here and there over time. I bought the 2019 Mac Pro with the same idea that once component prices dropped, I would add and replace bits here and there.

It's three years on, the machine is still working perfectly, but I'm wondering if there might now be a few impressive upgrades in terms of processing zip or wow factor that offer a good bang for the buck. I do a lot of video and photography processing and I have the feeling I may be missing out on HDR capabilities, but I haven't really looked into it. The only thing I've done so far is add extra SSDs and ram; it has the stock 3.5 GHz 8-Core Intel Xeon W and AMD Radeon Pro 580X 8 GB. 96 Gb of Ram, though Any ideas gratefully received!

 

[avro707]

You could try to find reference RX6800XT GPU - it might fit.

Otherwise you'll have to search around and see if you can find a 28 core 2.5ghz processor (W3275M) for reasonable price, and then later the W6800X Duo 64GB which is the ultimate GPU for this machine.

Mine has the W3245 (16 core 3.2ghz) and the W6800X MPX Module and it runs very well.

I have other SSDs in the machine and it also runs Windows 11 Pro for Workstations - very fast and reliable on that.

 

[SecuritySteve]

I'd suggest looking at the RX6900XT GPU, as it will almost certainly be the best and last GPU AMD releases supported on macOS. Unlike your 2008 MP, we don't have years of GPU upgrades to look forward to, which will severely limit the lifespan of these machines.

 

[nathan_reilly]

Oh man this hits home bc I daily a 2012 Mac Pro that is LOADED but I know that even the 2019 machine doesn't make a ton of sense anymore. Time flies when you're having fun!

 

[avro707]

I'd suggest looking at the RX6900XT GPU, as it will almost certainly be the best and last GPU AMD releases supported on macOS. Unlike your 2008 MP, we don't have years of GPU upgrades to look forward to, which will severely limit the lifespan of these machines.

The only potential change is if Apple was to relent and give us driver support for the newest generation Radeon Pro W7800 and W7900 and/or the equivalent normal consumer grade Radeons.

We've been sending Apple nasty feedback for ages and they just don't care. Best thing is just to ditch MacOS, go Windows and use whatever GPU you want, free of Apple and its artificial limitations. The machine isn't limited, just it's stupid manufacturer.

Keep it going for as long as you can and then buy a Lenovo PX at a later time and transfer your fast GPU to that.

 

[TrevorR90]

I'd suggest looking at the RX6900XT GPU, as it will almost certainly be the best and last GPU AMD releases supported on macOS. Unlike your 2008 MP, we don't have years of GPU upgrades to look forward to, which will severely limit the lifespan of these machines.

Not for us that use our 7,1 as a dedicated windows machine!!

My Mac is running windows about 98% of the time.

 

[SecuritySteve]

Not for us that use our 7,1 as a dedicated windows machine!!

My Mac is running windows about 98% of the time.

.. But then why buy a Mac Pro? The bootcamp drivers are pretty atrocious. Surely you could get a Dell workstation with similar or better hardware at this point for a better deal?

 

[profdraper]

I had a trusty 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 that served me well for fifteen years, upgrading bits here and there over time. I bought the 2019 Mac Pro with the same idea that once component prices dropped, I would add and replace bits here and there.

It's three years on, the machine is still working perfectly, but I'm wondering if there might now be a few impressive upgrades in terms of processing zip or wow factor that offer a good bang for the buck. I do a lot of video and photography processing and I have the feeling I may be missing out on HDR capabilities, but I haven't really looked into it. The only thing I've done so far is add extra SSDs and ram; it has the stock 3.5 GHz 8-Core Intel Xeon W and AMD Radeon Pro 580X 8 GB. 96 Gb of Ram, though Any ideas gratefully received!

Similar here (still have a 2010 5.1 mac pro which continus to work perfectly).
re. the 2019 7.1 mac pro, I have that pretty maxed as per my sig, recording studio, video studio use.

One of the biggest bang for bucks for video & photography is a fast 4xSSD PCIe card for cache, fast file rendering & storage. My Sonnet has been truly excellent.

Re. GPU, while Apple's Vegas are dreadfully overpriced, one significant feature is their chassis & excellent IO options & speed. In terms of pro audio IO in a recording studio this is really useful. Why I went for 2 x Vegas rather than 1x Duo (the IO is exceptional). Personally, I still wouldn't bother with shoehorning in other 3rd party GPUs. Unless of course you spend time in Windows in which case there are far greater options for drivers.

Speaking of Windows, Win11 Pro for Woskstations runs brilliantly on this computer, zero complaints if you have need of that.

Otherwise perhaps some good RAID storage? Fast, reliable and terrific if you have big storage needs. I went with SoftRaid Pro & one of the OWC Tunderbays. Again, works very well.

Finally, I don't see any need to alter the Ram, that will be more than fine. GPU would likely make the biggest difference, followed by file access speed & cache for that kind of work.

 

[nathan_reilly]

.. But then why buy a Mac Pro? The bootcamp drivers are pretty atrocious. Surely you could get a Dell workstation with similar or better hardware at this point for a better deal?

I was waiting for this comment. Some people have more money than brains

 

[doobydoooby]

Similar here (still have a 2010 5.1 mac pro which continus to work perfectly).
re. the 2019 7.1 mac pro, I have that pretty maxed as per my sig, recording studio, video studio use.

One of the biggest bang for bucks for video & photography is a fast 4xSSD PCIe card for cache, fast file rendering & storage. My Sonnet has been truly excellent.

Re. GPU, while Apple's Vegas are dreadfully overpriced, one significant feature is their chassis & excellent IO options & speed. In terms of pro audio IO in a recording studio this is really useful. Why I went for 2 x Vegas rather than 1x Duo (the IO is exceptional). Personally, I still wouldn't bother with shoehorning in other 3rd party GPUs. Unless of course you spend time in Windows in which case there are far greater options for drivers.

Speaking of Windows, Win11 Pro for Woskstations runs brilliantly on this computer, zero complaints if you have need of that.

Otherwise perhaps some good RAID storage? Fast, reliable and terrific if you have big storage needs. I went with SoftRaid Pro & one of the OWC Tunderbays. Again, works very well.

Finally, I don't see any need to alter the Ram, that will be more than fine. GPU would likely make the biggest difference, followed by file access speed & cache for that kind of work.

Thanks for your suggestions, I got the sonnet shoe for PCIe SSD when I originally purchased the machine, that's been really great....So you reckon a GPU upgrade would be more impressive than CPU? I'm still trying to get my head around finding a stock RX6900XT which is less than 30cm in length for reasonable cost vs outrageous MPX (lesser) versions for the convenience of not buying a low profile power connector. Its these little passive-aggressive power plays of apple that drive me nuts: why couldn't they just use a stock connector if not just to increase the hassle factor of the upgrade??

 

[doobydoooby]

<nothing to see here>

 

[PowerMike G5]

Your workflow should largely determine any upgrades that could help you at the moment. Since you're using the base processor, you do have headroom there to upgrade all the way up to the 28-core. Do the programs and post -processing you do take advantage of more multi-threaded CPU power?

Same with the GPU, you have a lot of headroom there, but the same question applies to any additional acceleration here.

I also upgraded to a 4x4 NVME card and split the ports between boot drive, source media two NVME RAID 0, and a media cache drive. This works really nicely for my situation and is in slot 3, which directly connects to the CPU.

I sold my original Pro Vega II MPX module and currently use a 3rd party RX 6800 XT GPU, which has worked flawlessly, so supported off-the-shelf GPUs are good options here to get a lot more power for a lot less money than Apple MPX options.

 

[TrevorR90]

.. But then why buy a Mac Pro? The bootcamp drivers are pretty atrocious. Surely you could get a Dell workstation with similar or better hardware at this point for a better deal?

I was waiting for this comment. Some people have more money than brains

I bought the machine in 2019 about 2 weeks after it launched, the first 2 years of its life, it was a dedicated Mac station. Rarely ran windows.

I'm a professional data scientist, been using Nvidia gpus as of late so I turned it into a dedicated windows machine because why spend more money to buy another PC after I have a perfectly capable one at home? I still use macos for everyday personal stuff.

So the more money than brains comment is pretty dumb.

 

[nathan_reilly]

I bought the machine in 2019 about 2 weeks after it launched, the first 2 years of its life, it was a dedicated Mac station. Rarely ran windows.

I'm a professional data scientist, been using Nvidia gpus as of late so I turned it into a dedicated windows machine because why spend more money to buy another PC after I have a perfectly capable one at home? I still use macos for everyday personal stuff.

So the more money than brains comment is pretty dumb.

Ok you are playing both sides here! Because you used it as a mac for 2 years. And then wanted to run windows, without buying a new computer, saving money...makes sense. But to go out and buy a Mac Pro and just run windows on it when there are better PCs for that? That is dumb. So yeah, two completely different scenarios

 

[LEOMODE]

Ok you are playing both sides here! Because you used it as a mac for 2 years. And then wanted to run windows, without buying a new computer, saving money...makes sense. But to go out and buy a Mac Pro and just run windows on it when there are better PCs for that? That is dumb. So yeah, two completely different scenarios

Just throwing my 2 cents also. To do whatever you want with what the buyer bought with his hard-earned money is totally up to him. This guy uses Mac Pro for both OS and he enjoys it so why do you want to care so much about what he does in his life? I wouldn't give a dime if he uses his $10,000 Mac Pro to grind his cheese because it's not my business and not my money. People buy overpriced items whether it's luxury goods or luxury cars and we can expect another comment like 'You could've bought a Honda instead of a Porsche and saved money'. This 'buy Windows desktop' comment is getting really old. I think this guy has more money because he has more brains and wants to use those brains for something else, not something 'dumb' like thinking about wasting money and time on shopping for another desktop.

 

[H2SO4]

Ok you are playing both sides here! Because you used it as a mac for 2 years. And then wanted to run windows, without buying a new computer, saving money...makes sense. But to go out and buy a Mac Pro and just run windows on it when there are better PCs for that? That is dumb. So yeah, two completely different scenarios

It's not dumb at all.
Surely it depends on your resources?
If you have the wherewithal to do it and not really feel the pain, why not?

 

[H2SO4]

Just throwing my 2 cents also. To do whatever you want with what the buyer bought with his hard-earned money is totally up to him. This guy uses Mac Pro for both OS and he enjoys it so why do you want to care so much about what he does in his life? I wouldn't give a dime if he uses his $10,000 Mac Pro to grind his cheese because it's not my business and not my money. People buy overpriced items whether it's luxury goods or luxury cars and we can expect another comment like 'You could've bought a Honda instead of a Porsche and saved money'. This 'buy Windows desktop' comment is getting really old. I think this guy has more money because he has more brains and wants to use those brains for something else, not something 'dumb' like thinking about wasting money and time on shopping for another desktop.

Absolutely spot on.
My car produces somewhere around 600hp. Never taken the engine over 3K. Why? Because I'm lucky enough to be able to afford it and that's how I like it.

 

[Mac3Duser]

the 7.1 Mac Pro is very good with Windows 11.

 

[MisterAndrew]

Absolutely spot on.
My car produces somewhere around 600hp. Never taken the engine over 3K. Why? Because I'm lucky enough to be able to afford it and that's how I like it.

The Tesla with dents in it doesn't understand, but my 138hp E30 knows that driving a slow car fast is more fun than driving a fast car slow.

 

[H2SO4]

The Tesla with dents in it doesn't understand, but my 138hp E30 knows that driving a slow car fast is more fun than driving a fast car slow.

I need you to help me out with something, "The Tesla with dents in it".???

 

[MisterAndrew]

I need you to help me out with something, "The Tesla with dents in it".???

Yeah, like the one that almost ran over me going 30+ mph in the Costco parking lot or the one that catapulted in front of me on the freeway as soon as a space opened up with 1 inch to spare on the way home yesterday.

 

[H2SO4]

Yeah, like the one that almost ran over me going 30+ mph in the Costco parking lot or the one that catapulted in front of me on the freeway as soon as a space opened up with 1 inch to spare on the way home yesterday.

Ah, I see. The auto pilot thing?

 

[Maigrais]

I bought the machine in 2019 about 2 weeks after it launched, the first 2 years of its life, it was a dedicated Mac station. Rarely ran windows.

I'm a professional data scientist, been using Nvidia gpus as of late so I turned it into a dedicated windows machine because why spend more money to buy another PC after I have a perfectly capable one at home? I still use macos for everyday personal stuff.

So the more money than brains comment is pretty dumb.

Before switching to macOS, do you switch-off Graphics cards? I think you must since maximum card drivers for macOS is AMD’s 6000 series. Also, what version of macOS is currently installed on your system?

Thank you.