Mac pro 1.1 with dual

[waloshin]

MacPro 1.1 with a dual 2.66 GHz Intel Xeon 5150 vs a Late 2012 Mac Mini 3615QM quad core for editing in FCPX 10.3?

I am aware the Intel Xenon will be much slower than a Mac Mini i7 but what about using a ATI video card to help?

 

[owbp]

Yes, Mini will kill 1,1 in that case.
Good thing about 1,1 is that for 100-150USD (depends on how long are you willing to search) you could buy dual X5355 or X5365 and HD7950 and upgrade your Mac Pro to wipe the floor with Mini in FCPX.
Also, the thing to consider is that, i have no problem leaving cMP to render the whole night when i have to.
I wouldn't dare to do so with Mini or iMac.

 

[waloshin]

Thanks for the reply do I need the "Apple" version of the HD7950?

 

[hwojtek]

Not necessarily, but if I recall correctly, FCP may refuse to cooperate if it doesn't recognize the card properly.
You may swap your processors for dirt-cheap quad-core X5355/X5365s as well.

 

[owbp]

OS X is looking at the Device ID, so i don't think that FCPX is any different.
I've ran both HD7950 and HD7970 with EFI and PC rom and didn't notice any difference.

So i think all of the HD7950 or R9 280 will work except for those who are widely known as problematic ones (XFX and Sapphire "reference" with centered fan, but i think that later one only gives problems after flashing).

 

[F1Mac]

If I were to buy a 7950 (preferably Mac edition) in a not-too-distant future, would it work out of the box on the 1.1? (Mine is now a 2.1 with 2 5365s)? I'm no expert in that area but I'm mainly concerned about the card's power consumption with the 1.1's PSU. I don't do games, but I do graphic work (and video sometimes), and of course audio (see my sig which is kinda irrelevant when it comes to the video card, except that I work in film music mostly)

My current HD5770 works just fine - I'm just wondering if it's worth investing in a 7950 at this point.

 

[owbp]

I've had HD7950-R9280X in my 1,1 and now in 4,1. 1,1 PSU is fine so don't worry about that (it's 980W, same as 4,1/5,1 just with different connections to motherboard).
AFAIK, compatibility with 1,1/2,1 is not some hack by the users but Sapphire's gift to us so original Mac edition also works with 32bit EFI. If i remember correctly, MacVidCards mentioned that there are traces of 32bit drivers in official AMD driver pack for 10.7.5-10.8.3, but are not finished. So if you want to run HD7950 in 1,1/2,1 you have to pass 10.8.3 and use Apple drivers (but i see that you're running 10.11.6 so no problem there).
I've upgraded to HD7950 from HD6850 and the jump in performance was huge (for only 50euros more).

P.S. I really don't see why would you buy Sapphire Mac Edition when regular HD7950 work (flashed or not) and the price difference is huge.

 

[waloshin]

If I get a 3,1 do I need to buy an extra heat sink to install a second cpu?

Will I be able to run FCPX 10.3?

Thanks

 

[waloshin]

I think I would be better running a egpu for FCPX with my 2012 Mini? Would the performance be similar to a 2008 Mac Pro?

I am looking at the Akitio Node thunderbolt 3 with a Amd gpu.