MP 7,1 Mac Pro 2019 - Upgrade to W-3175x CPU Question

[RonnieBarlow]

Good morning all,

I am about to purchase the Mac Pro, and have a specific question i could do with some help with before i finally commit.

I can see that the older Xeon W-3175x 28 Core Cpu fits this Mac Pro 2019, however the PCIE lanes are reduced from the normal 64 to 48.

Will this affect my system and degrade performance?

What i will have in my Mac Pro:-

2 x Radeon VII's (Not from Apple - Purchased seperately)
1 x Sonnet PCIE M.2 4x4 Quad NVME Card with 4 x 2TB Firecuda 530's installed (I know they would have ran faster in PCIE 4.0)
1 x PCIE USB 3.0 card (Can ignore this if i need to)

Spec of the system will be:-

8 Core Cpu (Plan to sell on)
256gb DDR4 ECC memory (Purchased seperately)
1tb SSD
580 Radeon (Will remove and sell on)

I will not be adding any PCIE thunderbolt adaptors as i know they drain resources.


On a seperate note - i was looking at the Ryzen 3970x Hackintosh, but cannot find step by step instructions. Morgonaut's video's show it working well, however no real guides on Opencore/Clover/etc.

Have a great weekend,

Ronnie

 

[OkiRun]

Mac Pro 7,1

• 1TB or 2TB maximum RAM depending on processor

Architecture	Cores	Grade	CPU-Model	GHz	Turbo	RAM	Watt	Max RAM
Cascade Lake	28 core	Xeon W	W-3275M	2.5	4.4	2933	205W	2TB
Cascade Lake	28 core	Xeon W	W-3275	2.5	4.4	2933	205W	1TB
Cascade Lake	24 core	Xeon W	W-3265M	2.7	4.4	2933	205W	2TB
Cascade Lake	24 core	Xeon W	W-3265	2.7	4.4	2933	205W	1TB
Cascade Lake	16 core	Xeon W	W-3245M	3.2	4.4	2933	205W	2TB
Cascade Lake	16 core	Xeon W	W-3245	3.2	4.4	2933	205W	1TB
Cascade Lake	12 core	Xeon W	W-3235	3.3	4.4	2933	180W	1TB
Cascade Lake	8 core	Xeon W	W-3225	3.7	4.3	2666	160W	1TB
Cascade Lake	8 core	Xeon W	W-3223	3.5	4.0	2666	160W	1TB

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* From the Mac Pro CPU Compatibility List Thread

 

[RonnieBarlow]

Thanks - i saw that.

However i have seen plenty of vidoes that show the W-3175x being installed into the Mac Pro 2019 (7.1) - and it is plug and play. Both CPU's in your post and the W-3175x are based on the same socket/chipset - so no reason why they wouldn't work. It's just that a 28 Core W3275 is 3 times the price of a W3175x, and not 3 x the performance. And if i can install the W-3175x into my Mac Pro 7.1, against the stock 8 Core CPU - it will be significantly faster!

The upside is you get a 28 Core CPU pretty cheap and it takes on a Ryzen 3970x in multi core, however the problem still lies in my question about wether the downgrade of PCIE lanes to 48 will limit my build (detailed previously).

 

[Macintosh IIcx]

Hmmm, I’m not sure that it makes sense to go down the W-3175X route?

At least here I live, the 24 core W-3265 (not W-3265M) only cost a bit more. In addition, the Turbo hits 4,4 GHz where it tops out at 3,8 GHz on the W-3175X. And the compatibility is more shaky with lower PCIE lanes that the Mac Pro 2019 motherboard was built to work with.

 

[eflx]

I don't think the W-3175X will work. It only has 48 PCIE lanes does it not? The Mac Pro is designed around 68 PCIE lanes, and I would have to guess that will cause issues with addressing.

 

[tsialex]

Only W-32xx Xeon processors are supported by the 2019 Mac Pro firmware, while it boots with a W-31xx and others, the moment you reset the NVRAM and forces the re-initialization of the CPU, it will fail because of the 48 PCIe lines.

Btw, nothing about this is new, this already been discussed and tested back in December/January. Learn to use the search.
[automerge]1590244469[/automerge]
Read more here:

CPU upgrade in 2019 Mac Pro

This has nothing to do with Apple blocking anything since 2019 Mac Pro needs a Xeon processor with 64 lanes. Apple has a validation test in place for the type of the CPU (probably checking if it has 48 or 64 lanes available) and I found that it returns "Configuration validation failed. CPU type...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Ad Vance]

I don't think the W-3175X will work. It only has 48 PCIE lanes does it not? The Mac Pro is designed around 68 PCIE lanes, and I would have to guess that will cause issues with addressing.

would expect same. And "X" Version needs about 255 watt to work , a +50.

 

[DFP1989]

On a seperate note - i was looking at the Ryzen 3970x Hackintosh, but cannot find step by step instructions. Morgonaut's video's show it working well, however no real guides on Opencore/Clover/etc.

I tried the Ryzentosh thing a couple of years ago, even signed up to her paid support thing, but didn’t find it very helpful, especially when I wasn’t able to source one of the exact components.

 

[Itconnects]

what about these processors on ebay from china. I'm particularly interested in the

Intel Xeon W-3245​

 

[cobra521]

It,

I bought a W3275M CPU for my Mac Pro 7.1 using eBay. My suggestion would be to obtain one that is the same model as the ones supplied by Apple, such as the one I used. Don't try the one that ends with "X", such as w3275X, because it won't work...

Also, if you can, get the "Tray" model, and not the QS, ES or other non-tray CPU. By messaging the vendor to assure it is a tray model, you should be able to get the right one, or at least have a basis for returning it if it isn't a first quality chip.

I must admit I sort of held my breath when I installed mine and pressed the On button for the first time. Happily it has worked just fine - after I learned how to tighten the holddown screws for the heat sink. There are threads here that describe that process.

Enjoy,

Tom

 

[Itconnects]

Thank you. Any visual cues for “tray?”

 

[cobra521]

It,

Sorry - all I could do was ask the vendor to assure me the CPU was a production model and not a sample (Quality or Engineering). I guess after that I have run it for months without any issues I could imagine were related to that chip.

I've looked at it with CPUID and any other software utility I thought could tell me anything, but none really did. Since it seems to behave fine, I've stopped worrying about it.

It comes down to trusting the vendor. After I asked about the quality I closed my eyes, gritted my teeth and sent thousands to China. A number of other members here have done similar things and apparently only one had a problem; that seemed to be resolved by the return of that particular chip for a refund which I think he got.

That's all I think i know...

Tom

 

[rylim]

Has anyone tried or currently using QS version of W3275M processor? The saving is about half and is it worth taking the risk?

I was assured by the seller that the QS version is identical to the actual CPU.

Ryan

 

[DrEGPU]

Has anyone tried or currently using QS version of W3275M processor? The saving is about half and is it worth taking the risk?

I was assured by the seller that the QS version is identical to the actual CPU.

Ryan

QS and QE CPU’s are really a luck of the draw kind of thing. They can be close to fully functional or far from it (super low clock speeds, some functionality turned off like AVX, etc). I’d make sure you’re able to return it if it doesn’t work.

FWIW, I lucked out with a QS AMD CPU one time

 

[rylim]

QS and QE CPU’s are really a luck of the draw kind of thing. They can be close to fully functional or far from it (super low clock speeds, some functionality turned off like AVX, etc). I’d make sure you’re able to return it if it doesn’t work.

FWIW, I lucked out with a QS AMD CPU one time

Cool, I have found an eBay seller that accepts return of this W3275M CPU and he keeps saying that it works with Mac Pro 7,1.

Will give an update once I get the CPU.

 

[flowrider]

Much has been posted about this. I certainly would not use QS samples.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/cpu-upgrade-in-2019-mac-pro.2216212/page-18?post=31129383#post-31129383

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-pro-cpu-compatibility-list.1954766/page-42?post=31203325#post-31203325

Lou