Mac Pro 3,1 Graphics card upgrade

[Fl0r!an]

Found the screenshots:

Left: Yosemite with removed PowerManagement kexts
Right: Stock El Capitan (kexts can't be removed as long as SIP is enabled).

Btw, the card will run @ full speed without system modification if an additional HD 2600XT is installed.

 

[devon807]

The GTX 960 won't be any faster than a used GTX 680, which is around $150-$160. The latter can be easily flashed and runs on OS X stock drivers, so it's a quite obvious decision IMO.

The R9 280[X] will run like **** in a 3,1 because of a power management issue. You'd have to remove some kext files form the system to release it's full power, otherwise it won't be much faster than your ancient 2600XT.

Thank you!

 

[devon807]

The GTX570 has the same performance as the GTX680 (even better for CUDA) but is one third of the price. It can't be flashed so you need to live without the boot screen &/or keep a backup supported card. Like the GTX680 it is supported OOTB in OS X.

I went with the 960 4 GB for now, but I am borrowing a 680 off of a friend, if performance is better I will go with the 680

 

[devon807]

This is a quite of an exaggeration, F.
Almost any card will run circles around 2600XT, especially in 10.9 and above. 280X even throttled will be a few times faster and will support OpenCL. AMD cards are easy to flash and will drive up to 4 displays with ease.

Doesn't the 280X need the transistor hack to run it at 5GT/s

 

[h9826790]

The Nvidia card also can't run at 5GT/s without proper flash if you want to use it for gaming in Windows.

The transistor hack is a relatively low tech and easy mod for average users.