Graphics Card Upgrade

[silvrfist]

Hi everyone,

This is my first time posting in here... anyways, I have a Mac pro (early 2008) with a Nvidia GeForce GT 120, I wanted to upgrade it. I don't do any gaming on it i use it mostly for work, I am a 3D artist, I mostly use programs such Maya, 3Ds Max (bootcamp) photoshop, Final Cut and others, I'm often switching between multiple programs but my computer can't handle it and it crashes. I just bought more memory for it, i only had 4gb and I got 8gb more.

Any suggestions for a better graphics card? or my issue is mostly memory?

 

[h9826790]

Just want to confirm your Mac Pro is the 2008 model (3,1). GT120 is coming with the 2009 model (4,1), but not 3,1.

For 4,1 or 5,1, I will suggest you consider 7950 or 7970, which has native support, quite good cost to performance ratio. Able to self flash for boot screen. And good performance in FCP X, etc. (AFAIK, only FCP X benefit a lot from GPU acceleration, If you are on the old version Final Cut, GPU upgrade may not improve anything for you.)

However, if you are using 3,1, then GTX 680 is better because there is a strange power management bug in 3,1 which will greatly affect the 79xx's performance under OSX.

Also, you may need to upgrade your OS for the new GPU. They won't work on some old OSX e.g. 10.6.

 

[silvrfist]

I did find it weird that my Mac Pro is 2008 with a gt120, at least it what it says on the about Mac section. I added a snap shot of it. I did bought it refurbish online so i wonder if whoever had it before modified it to fit the GC on a 2008 model. Also on the Hardware overview it says Model 3,1. so know i think I'm even more confused.

 

[ActionableMango]

Strange, I plugged your serial number into a couple of lookup websites and both reported back saying it's an unsupported or incorrect serial number.

http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html
http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php

 

[Ih8reno]

Its a 2008 model, just looked it up on everymac.com.

 

[h9826790]

Then you better skip the 79xx (R9 2xx) card.

5870 is very good for FCPX, but that's a bit old for other job.

GTX 680 may be still a good card to consider. Have native support, easy to flash, good performance in both OSX (Yosemite is good for this card) and Windows.

 

[wurendo]

thank you