Is my Graphics card upgradeable?

[friendlygiraffe]

Hi, I have an older MacPro silver tower(Mid 2010).
2 x 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
20 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC
Pre-installed Graphics card currently: ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB

I do a lot of video editing, and I'm either looking at upgrading this one or buy an iMac

I've been told by my local repair shop that that the graphics card is not upgradable. However this website states that I can upgrade it to a AMD Radeon R9 270x 2GB

Would this make much difference? Or is it possible to install a nvidia card?

Any help appreciated

thanks

 

[rawweb]

Hi, I have an older MacPro silver tower(Mid 2010).
2 x 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
20 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC
Pre-installed Graphics card currently: ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB

I do a lot of video editing, and I'm either looking at upgrading this one or buy an iMac

I've been told by my local repair shop that that the graphics card is not upgradable. However this website states that I can upgrade it to a AMD Radeon R9 270x 2GB

Would this make much difference? Or is it possible to install a nvidia card?

Any help appreciated

thanks

Hi, and welcome!

You can most assuredly upgrade the video card in your Mac Pro. Most Nvidia cards work off the shelf but will lack boot screens without flashing. (Also, if you run Windows/boot camp, it will only see it as PCIe 1.0 without flashing) I'm personally driving a MacVidCards flashed Nvidia GTX 770 4gb in my 2010. I think the 700 series is the last Nvidia line with native OS X drivers. Good news though, Nvidia has been great about keeping their web drivers up-to-date. I really like http://www.macvidcards.com, give them a look. There really are a lot of options out there, I know it can be a bit confusing if you're new to it all, but this forum is full of discussion on this very topic, search around and you'll be busy for hours.

 

[friendlygiraffe]

Hi, and welcome!

You can most assuredly upgrade the video card in your Mac Pro. Most Nvidia cards work off the shelf but will lack boot screens without flashing. (Also, if you run Windows/boot camp, it will only see it as PCIe 1.0 without flashing) I'm personally driving a MacVidCards flashed Nvidia GTX 770 4gb in my 2010. I think the 700 series is the last Nvidia line with native OS X drivers. Good news though, Nvidia has been great about keeping their web drivers up-to-date. I really like http://www.macvidcards.com, give them a look. There really are a lot of options out there, I know it can be a bit confusing if you're new to it all, but this forum is full of discussion on this very topic, search around and you'll be busy for hours.

Wow thanks. Looks like I've got some reading to do. A Flashed card looks like the way forward...

 

[pastrychef]

Welcome.

I suggest you start with the faq thread at the top of this sub-forum. The first post there will give you a good understanding of what will and will not work as well as what to expect with Nvidia video cards.

As for flashing, there's at least one Nvidia card and a few AMD cards that you can flash on your own to get boot screen functionality fairly easily. Again, just search this forum a bit, there's a wealth of information here.

 

[Fl0r!an]

The cards of this company you've linked in your first post are poorly chosen and/or poorly flashed, I'd stay away from this shop.

Possible upgrades (flashed & unflashed) have been listed many times here, you have quite a lot possible options.

 

[ActionableMango]

Would this make much difference?

It's hard to say without knowing what software you use. In some cases a faster GPU will help, but in many cases you might be better off with a CPU upgrade instead--in fact your CPUs are sort of the bottom of the line for a 2010.

 

[BillyBobBongo]

If you're based in the good old U of K then I'd suggest checking out create.pro as they sell flashed cards. Obviously there is some animosity on this forum towards them from MacVidCards, but that's none of my business.

However, I would suggest tracking down and GTX 680 (2GB not 4GB) or a HD 7950, both are ridiculously easy to flash yourself. Just head over to netkas to learn how to do it. These things are easy to find on eBay, and I recently bought an HD 7950 new. You should also be able to buy and flash an R9 280x yourself as well, although I have no experience with that particular card.

 

[flowrider]

This forum has a plethora of threads on GPUs for the cMP. There are lots of folks who post here and share much knowledge. One of the benefits, and there are many, of the cMP, is that it is very upgradable. Far more so than the nMP. A member of this forum specializes in selling GPUs with Mac EFIs or he will flash the card for you if you supply him with one. I am running an Nvidia GTX 780 that he modified for me a couple years ago.

http://www.macvidcards.com

As well as a store, this site contains some valuable information.

Lou