Looking for advice last of the Mac Pro towers

[crjackson2134]

After re-reading this topic several times, my conclusion is to keep the Mac Pro (tentatively) and upgrade the graphics card. Here in lies another area of confusion, trying to find a graphics card that is faster but more importantly has more memory as the HD 5870 has but 1gig. An additional consideration is finding one that is "plug and play" and does not consume significantly more power than the 5870 so I do not have to also replace the power supply. Help appreciated

I just got an HD 7970 from MVC to replace my HD 5870. It's a plug-n-play affair with no fuss or muss when updating the OS. It's also WAY faster (than the 5870) with FCPX operations and it's affordable. I wanted to get the 980 but I really didn't want to have the issues associated OS updates. I don't make my bacon on a computer so the extra issues and expense weren't in my plans. When it becomes an older card and kinks are smoothed (and prices reduced) I'll look at it again.

Btw, the 7970 is advertised for 4k@60Hz. Haven't tried it but it's supposed to work.

 

[Surrat]

Something to remember about upgrading vid cards, is you cant take the wattage of the PCI slot, and the 2 boost cables and just add it up to know if your safe.

Some cards pull power unevenly from those 3 sources. My GTX770 is only rated I think 10 watts over the 225watt limit on my 5,1, yet, it consistantly overloads one of the boost cables, hitting 8 amps draw on it, when 75 watts would be 6.75 amps I think. Other cards can be much worse, especially any that are equipped with 8 pin connectors. Its important to check amp draw from each boost cable to see how much they are overloaded. I'm sure MVC takes this behavior into account on his cards, but just want to warn people to be careful.

Honestly, the new GTX 980 seems the best overall card anybody can put in their mac pro. Its low power, so it will not overload anything, and crazy fast. They are expensive, but you get what you pay for. In this case equal or faster in nearly anything to a GTX780ti, but very low power draw so no strain on the mac pro's boost cables.

Just my 2cents.

 

[fuchsdh]

I just got an HD 7970 from MVC to replace my HD 5870. It's a plug-n-play affair with no fuss or muss when updating the OS. It's also WAY faster (than the 5870) with FCPX operations and it's affordable. I wanted to get the 980 but I really didn't want to have the issues associated OS updates. I don't make my bacon on a computer so the extra issues and expense weren't in my plans. When it becomes an older card and kinks are smoothed (and prices reduced) I'll look at it again.

Btw, the 7970 is advertised for 4k@60Hz. Haven't tried it but it's supposed to work.

My 7950 is handling 4K@60 plus a 1080p monitor with no problems, so a 7970 should be fine as well.