Is upgrading to a HD7950 Video Card worth it in 2018

[EightBitWhit]

Great thread - thanks to the OP for spinning this one up, as I feel the follow-on discussion has been very helpful. I've been considering a RX580 as well.

I do have another question that I wanted to confirm before I pulled a trigger on one (Apple's list included below for completeness - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208898)

• 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

Can anyone confirm that the RX580, as well as any of the other cards above, would run at PCIe 1.0 speeds in the cMP 5,1 or would they run with PCIe 2.0 throughput? I'm going to assume that it would be PCIe 1.0 unless flashed otherwise. I'm assuming the purchase of an "off the shelf" RX 580.

Thanks for any insight.

 

[h9826790]

Great thread - thanks to the OP for spinning this one up, as I feel the follow-on discussion has been very helpful. I've been considering a RX580 as well.

I do have another question that I wanted to confirm before I pulled a trigger on one (Apple's list included below for completeness - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208898)

• 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

Can anyone confirm that the RX580, as well as any of the other cards above, would run at PCIe 1.0 speeds in the cMP 5,1 or would they run with PCIe 2.0 throughput? I'm going to assume that it would be PCIe 1.0 unless flashed otherwise. I'm assuming the purchase of an "off the shelf" RX 580.

Thanks for any insight.

PCIe 2.0 with 138.0.0.0.0 firmware or later

 

[EightBitWhit]

PCIe 2.0 with 138.0.0.0.0 firmware or later

Fantastic - thank you very much.

 

[pgilmore7]

Also... another reason I'm getting the card is that my 27" Apple LED Cinema Display keeps going blackout on me from time to time... at least once a day... the 30" 30" Apple Cinema HD Display always displays fine... never flinches... so I'm thinking if I replace this graphics card and it resolves the issue... GREAT!!... if it doesn't and the new graphics card has an HDMI port and 4K monitor capability... I can buy a new monitor for an all-new working experience also.

Probably not the card, I have one 27" Apple LED Cinema Display and three 24" LED Cinema Displays, three of them had backlighting issues (screen going black) two of them needed new LED strips for the back light and one needed a logic board. Just an FYI.