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Sossity

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 12, 2010
1,360
32
How would a new Mac help you with that?
Even though you could technically run 10.9 on a nMP 6,1, you’d be in pretty much the same spot as you’re now.

I’d suggest you create an additional partition with High Sierra.
You’d be able to use your old hardware / software and surf / browse with a newer macOS.

If you feel comfortable after testing just buy a GTX680 and you’ll be able to upgrade the High Sierra partition to Mojave and still use your older partition for work.

What would be simpler? having a partition on a single hard drive? or having dual hard drives and booting into one or the other?
 

flygbuss

macrumors 6502a
Jul 22, 2018
736
1,268
Stockholm, Sweden
What would be simpler? having a partition on a single hard drive? or having dual hard drives and booting into one or the other?
Well if you have another hard drive you might as well use it.
But a partition will also work just fine.
I usually keep my OSs on the same drive because I rather use my additional drives to separate work files / project data from macOS.
 

TrevorR90

macrumors 6502
Oct 1, 2009
379
299
Thanks to those who offered help without judgement or assumptions about me. For the others; go a little easy on me, I am not some ignorant rich kid like some are suggesting here, I am looking into upgrading what I have, if I just wanted to be the rich kid and just buy another, I would not have even bothered to ask here.

Since this is an open forum with knowledgeable people, I thought this would be an OK place to ask, for help on this, not to be chided, lectured or shamed for exploring options, I am trying to balance what I know with the amount of time or money I am willing to spend, and I feel this is OK to do.

Be aware that not all have as much knowledge of machines, and do not mess with them in the depth that some do here. There are other perspectives; some people value their time more, and would rather spend a little more to get things done than than spend all their time fixing or replacing things, while others prefer to mess with hardware more.

For some people, it is a better option to buy another item, it saves them time fiddling with things, does not mean they are rich spoiled people. I am just trying to gage what I want to do that is all.

Perhaps this was not the best place to ask about this, I have had some trouble on this forum before, maybe it is me, or maybe some have strong feelings about some things, I will now go and look more online about this, peace out.

Not everyone here will judge or make assumptions, just keep that in mind!

As for the machine, it looks to be a good machine BUT I think that it is overpriced. There are Machines that you can find on eBay WITH AppleCare that sell for less than that price.

I'd keep looking if I were you.
 

Sossity

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 12, 2010
1,360
32
Well, I have tried to download high sierra from the app store, and managed to install it natively on the mac pro. I now would like to get mojave running on it.

I found this apple page, https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208898, and there is a list of the graphics cards that are metal compatable that it said I can install. Which of these would be best? for Mojave? and maybe Catalina?
 
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Sossity

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 12, 2010
1,360
32
Not everyone here will judge or make assumptions, just keep that in mind!

As for the machine, it looks to be a good machine BUT I think that it is overpriced. There are Machines that you can find on eBay WITH AppleCare that sell for less than that price.

I'd keep looking if I were you.

Well, thank you, and for now, I have opted to update/upgrade my current desktop cMP mid 2010.
 
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r6mile

macrumors 65816
Feb 3, 2010
1,004
504
London, UK
Excellent choice.
This thread has a lot of information on GPUs (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/gpu-compatibility-list-for-cmp.2174600/), perhaps too much, but given that you say you are relatively new at the business of upgrading computers, here is the list of Mojave-compatible cards provided by Apple:

I have no experience of this card, but from browsing this forum the Radeon RX 580 comes up a lot (the SAPPHIRE Radeon PULSE RX 580 8GB GDDR5 in particular is listed). Mojave will be supported natively by your machine as long as you have a Metal card - you just won't have a boot screen. Anything beyond that will require patched installs and a little bit more tinkering, so it depends on what you're comfortable with.
 

Sossity

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 12, 2010
1,360
32
Excellent choice.
This thread has a lot of information on GPUs (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/gpu-compatibility-list-for-cmp.2174600/), perhaps too much, but given that you say you are relatively new at the business of upgrading computers, here is the list of Mojave-compatible cards provided by Apple:

I have no experience of this card, but from browsing this forum the Radeon RX 580 comes up a lot (the SAPPHIRE Radeon PULSE RX 580 8GB GDDR5 in particular is listed). Mojave will be supported natively by your machine as long as you have a Metal card - you just won't have a boot screen. Anything beyond that will require patched installs and a little bit more tinkering, so it depends on what you're comfortable with.

Is a boot screen needed? is there a way to get it? is it a very complicated process? I don't want to fry my desktop. I would like to do this but keep everything as compatible as possible.

Edit, I looked at that list, it is alot, I would prefer a metal one that does not need additional power, and does not need flashing, but ready to go out of the box if possible. I would prefer to be able to just pop the card in if possible.

I run photoshop CS6, and do a little video editing and downloading videos online.
 
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r6mile

macrumors 65816
Feb 3, 2010
1,004
504
London, UK
Is a boot screen needed? is there a way to get it? is it a very complicated process? I don't want to fry my desktop. I would like to do this but keep everything as compatible as possible.

If you are running a single-OS setup (ie just one version of MacOS) then it's really not needed. There are ways around it through things like OpenCore, but it doesn't seem like the sort of thing you'd be comfortable with.

You won't fry anything on your computer by not having one! You'll just miss the 'boot selector' at the start. If you don't know what that is, then it's a fair assumption that you won't miss having it :)

If it's any comfort, keep in mind that these cards I listed are supported by Apple. All you'll need to do is plug in the card, and you'll be able to upgrade to Mojave. In your case, I wouldn't go beyond Mojave as it probably requires more tinkering than you seem comfortable with.

If you decide you can't go without a bootscreen, your only choice is to purchase cards a Mac Edition GTX 680 (though it is quite an old card, so not a very good choice), or cards that have already been 'flashed' to have a boot screen through http://www.macvidcards.com/
 

KeesMacPro

macrumors 65816
Nov 7, 2019
1,453
596
Technically it is possible to get a bootscreen on e.g. RX580 Sapphire Pulse.
This is called flashing and is offered as a service or can be obtained as a readily flashed RX 580.
This way you'll see the gray screen with apple and progress bar (bootscreen).
On eBay you may find flashed cards search for "rx 580 mac" :


And the correct power cable:

 

Sossity

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 12, 2010
1,360
32
Technically it is possible to get a bootscreen on e.g. RX580 Sapphire Pulse.
This is called flashing and is offered as a service or can be obtained as a readily flashed RX 580.
This way you'll see the gray screen with apple and progress bar (bootscreen).
On eBay you may find flashed cards search for "rx 580 mac" :


And the correct power cable:


Ok, not sure how I would use the cable along with the card, I have never installed a graphics card, just some ram in it so far.
 
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Hunter5117

macrumors 6502a
Mar 17, 2010
569
401
Getting a 6,1 nMP is a viable choice IMHO but I would not pay $2500 for a used one. I recently picked up a new-old-stock that was eligible for AppleCare and so far I am liking it but I paid much less than that, actually less than a similarly equipped Mini. Mine is a 6-core not the 12. However, you have gotten a lot of good advice regarding keeping your current cMP up to date which should be doable for at least a couple more years. I personally did not want to have the worry about patching the OS and its important to me to keep compatible with my laptop and iPads so the 6,1 seems to be a good choice.
 

Sossity

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 12, 2010
1,360
32
Ok, still a little overwhelmed by the choices listed here, and all great info, but it is a bit much to wade through, from the Apple list;

Which of these?

  • MSI Gaming Radeon RX 560 128-bit 4GB GDRR5
  • SAPPHIRE Radeon PULSE RX 580 8GB GDDR5
  • SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition
  • NVIDIA Quadro K5000 for Mac
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition

From the forums list;

6.3. For MacPro 4.1 - 5.1
The best price/performance/troubles ratio cards with Boot Screen:
  • for GUI and 2D - ATI Radeon 5770,
  • for 3D - Nvidia GTX 680, ATI Radeon HD 7970 / R9 280x.
The best price/performance/troubles ratio cards with Metal 2 (Mojave) support:
  • for GUI and 2D - ATI Radeon RX 560,
  • for 3D - ATI Radeon VEGA 56.
Which if these?

What I do with my mac is some Adobe photoshop, illustrator, InDesign, some video editing, downloading videos from online, and I may be taking an online class in design which will be using CAD design software.

I also run parallels with windows xp professional (for legacy software), and windows 7 professional, and in the future might install windows 10.

I appreciate the forum links to the various cards, they are a bit different from Apple's list, I did not know there were so many.

My mac pro now has High Sierra, and it is a 5,1; and the graphics card it has right now is; ATI Radeon HD 5770.

I would like to keep things under $350-$400 if possible, I am a student on a budget.
 
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Sossity

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 12, 2010
1,360
32
It looks like the RX580 is a good card, in upper limit of my budget, would not want to spend much more than that.

I see used and refurbished on ebay, is it safe to get a used or refurbished? or am i better getting a new one?
 
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KeesMacPro

macrumors 65816
Nov 7, 2019
1,453
596
It looks like the RX580 is a good card, in upper limit of my budget, would not want to spend much more than that.

I see used and refurbished on ebay, is it safe to get a used or refurbished? or am i better getting a new one?

The RX 580 Sapphire Pulse is a very popular choice and a good card.
If you'd better get a new or a used one depends on your budget.
The RX580 is a relatively new card, comparing to e.g. GTX 680...

Until now I've had only positive experiences with eBay sellers , I'd look for a (close to) 100% positive reputation and preferably a major seller (in case of issues).
 

MacPoulet

macrumors 6502a
Dec 11, 2012
628
465
Canada
I have the Sapphire Radeon RX 580 in my 4,1 (flashed to 5,1). I bought the card in January and it was pretty straightforward. I followed the directions on the forum and bought the power cable off Amazon. It’s a pretty substantial card, and I found mine made quite a bit of noise, so I run Macs Fan Control and it takes care of that.
 

Sossity

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 12, 2010
1,360
32
I have the Sapphire Radeon RX 580 in my 4,1 (flashed to 5,1). I bought the card in January and it was pretty straightforward. I followed the directions on the forum and bought the power cable off Amazon. It’s a pretty substantial card, and I found mine made quite a bit of noise, so I run Macs Fan Control and it takes care of that.

Ok, that is informative, I have macs fan control installed, will it control some of the noise so my workstation does not sound like an airport? does it make the mac run much hotter?
 

MacPoulet

macrumors 6502a
Dec 11, 2012
628
465
Canada
Ok, that is informative, I have macs fan control installed, will it control some of the noise so my workstation does not sound like an airport? does it make the mac run much hotter?
It tends to ramp up the fan when you first boot, and after it does that, it'll go back down to a normal setting. It is a bit louder than the GT 120 card that came with my Mac, but that's not a fair comparison since that card was nothing.
 

Sossity

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 12, 2010
1,360
32
What is the maximum amount of RAM my 5,1 mcMP can have installed? right now I have 24GB in it.
 

MisterAndrew

macrumors 68030
Sep 15, 2015
2,895
2,390
Portland, Ore.
I found this online and was offered $2,500.00 here are the specs;

This is a high performance Apple Mac Pro. 12-Core 2.5Ghz Intel Xeon Processors. 64GB RAM. 512GB Internal Solid State Drive (SSD). AMD FirePro D700 Graphics.

It's in great used condition with minimal scratches on the case, and has been maintained by a professional media company in Los Angeles. Includes original power cord.

That’s a good price and a fraction of a 7,1 with comparable specs. You’d need a Vega II to get the same level of FP64 performance. The 6,1 is a great buy right now because it’s still supported and will have a similar lifespan as the 7,1.
 
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