Mac Pro 1,2/2,1 CPU Upgrade

[MacDann]

Just wanted to toss this out for a data point:

Mac Pro 1,1 with the netkas firmware update to 2,1, 14GB RAM, 7300GT video card

Swapped out the stock dual core CPUs for a pair of 5355 SLAEG processors


Geekbench

Before: Single 1413, Multi 4978

After: Single 1408. multi 9693

Using Handbrake to render a 1 GB DV file to mpeg4

Before: 61 seconds

After: 40 seconds


I have used Tiamo's efi mod to install Mavericks on a secondary drive, but due to video issues I'm holding off on installing it on my primary (SSD) drive for my main OS, which is currently 10.7.2.

I have a 5770 video card on the way so I can run Mavericks without video issues.

 

[brdeveloper]

Just wanted to toss this out for a data point:

Mac Pro 1,1 with the netkas firmware update to 2,1, 14GB RAM, 7300GT video card

Swapped out the stock dual core CPUs for a pair of 5355 SLAEG processors


Geekbench

Before: Single 1413, Multi 4978

After: Single 1408. multi 9693

Using Handbrake to render a 1 GB DV file to mpeg4

Before: 61 seconds

After: 40 seconds


I have used Tiamo's efi mod to install Mavericks on a secondary drive, but due to video issues I'm holding off on installing it on my primary (SSD) drive for my main OS, which is currently 10.7.2.

I have a 5770 video card on the way so I can run Mavericks without video issues.

Nice work. Practically a modern machine. Is there room for increasing benchmarks further?

 

[MacDann]

Nice work. Practically a modern machine. Is there room for increasing benchmarks further?

Certainly. I could bump up to 5365 CPUs, but the increase would be incremental. The CPU upgrade is nice, but for the average user like me it won't yield a significant difference in performance. Where things will really make a difference is in multi-thread operations, like video rendering.

If I was going to recommend an upgrade to a stock Mac Pro 1,1 owner, I would tell them to max out memory and buy an SSD for their boot drive. That made a significant difference in performance.

Dan