cMP 5,1 - Pascal GPU Flashed vs Non-Flashed

[xxx_BadLuckMikey_xxx]

Hello, world!
This is my first post on the forum here.

I've recently gotten my new (to me) Mac Pro up and running. Next up on the list is to choose a GPU.
I'm on the fence between a 1060 or 1070 for some light 1080p gaming (Skyrim, a few MMORPG, some rounds of Overwatch here or there).

I am curious as to the quantitative difference in performance when using a non-flashed card (PCIe 1) vs a flashed card (PCIe 2) in BootCamp. Is it something that will even be noticeable running at medium-high settings on a 60Hz monitor? Boot screens are not an issue since I still have the stock 5870 around just in case.

If anyone has some benchmarks or personal experience, I would love to start a discussion!

P.S. Are there any other cool mods or add-ons that might help bring the cheese grater into the future?

 

[haralds]

In general, flashing is to support the EFI rom boot into macOS.
I do not think, there are any differences running under BootCamp.

Once the OS loads, it's drivers control the card.

 

[h9826790]

Hello, world!
This is my first post on the forum here.

I've recently gotten my new (to me) Mac Pro up and running. Next up on the list is to choose a GPU.
I'm on the fence between a 1060 or 1070 for some light 1080p gaming (Skyrim, a few MMORPG, some rounds of Overwatch here or there).

I am curious as to the quantitative difference in performance when using a non-flashed card (PCIe 1) vs a flashed card (PCIe 2) in BootCamp. Is it something that will even be noticeable running at medium-high settings on a 60Hz monitor? Boot screens are not an issue since I still have the stock 5870 around just in case.

If anyone has some benchmarks or personal experience, I would love to start a discussion!

P.S. Are there any other cool mods or add-ons that might help bring the cheese grater into the future?

PCIe 1 x16 is more than enough for 1060 or 1070 (for gaming). Even my 1080Ti rarely demand anything close to 50% of the bandwidth limit (monitored in GPU-Z) when I stress it to 100% (real world gaming, not benchmarking).

Also, I don’t think there is any properly flashed 1060 available on the market. If you see that on eBay, be careful, the card may be defective.

Update 1:
Just get some numbers for your reference. When doing 4K video conversion. The Bus interface loading is about 34% (PCIe 1.1 x16)

4K video decode, stable at 12%

4 hours average (3.5 hours gaming RoTR max setting AA OFF + 0.5 hour video encoding) 25%

The peak value in that 4 hours. 52%, but as you can see from the graph, it's not even close to this value most of the time.

In general, flashing is to support the EFI rom boot into macOS.
I do not think, there are any differences running under BootCamp.

Once the OS loads, it's drivers control the card.

In MacOS, you are correct. There is no different (in performance) between flashed or unflashed card.

But in Windows, only flashed card can negotiate at PCIe 2.0 on cMP, unflashed Pascal card can only negotiate at PCIe 1.1 Speed.

 

[mattspace]

But in Windows, only flashed card can negotiate at PCIe 2.0 on cMP, unflashed Pascal card can only negotiate at PCIe 1.1 Speed.

Why does a mac booting in windows not negotiate PCI2 with a standard PC card? The mac hardware being EFI not BIOS based?