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Mac Pro 5,1 Graphics Card upgrade suggestions?

G

Gr1f

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 1, 2009
161
29
Hi,
Think it might be a good time to update My graphics card from the stock ATI HD 5870. Seems like there are some good options out there for ~$100 mark.

Anyone have any good suggestions?
So far I have
SAPPHIRE HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 MAC Edition

Cheers
Grif
 
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Yea, reading through some of them now......
Squuiid said:
Best option at this price point but you'll need to wait for Sierra 10.12.6 update before being able to use it without modifying .kext files. Once 10.12.6 has been released you'll be able to use it with macOS native drivers. No modifying necessary.
SAPPHIRE RX 560 Pulse 4 GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Graphics Card - Black
Click to expand...

Thanks Squuiid! Or I Guess I could push to the 570 if here was more benefit.

I guess I should add that I'm running 2 x Samsung SA850s
 
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What I did was I got a GTX680 EVGA at a hamfest for 90 bucks and I flashed it its a good option so is the HD7950 they can be had for about 100 dollars us non flashed. pre flashed cards come with 100 to 150 added price. If you don't mind flashing cards its much cheaper.
 
Just done some more reading on this..... and I'm none the wiser... bloody minefield! SO many brands for the same tech!

As I mainly use for Adobe CC products I'm thinking I need 4BG min.....
Squuiid, the Saphire Plus card you mentioned looks really good. Dual support and 8Gb!
I found a version close to here...
ASUS ROG-STRIX-RX580-8G-GAMING graphics card - Radeon RX 580 - 8 GB for €285 + VAT (€350). I was hoping to get something for about $150-200....
A Nvidia Geforce GTX 680 4GB might do the trick?
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Apple-Mac-Pr...536991?hash=item25d93e6d1f:g:kkEAAOSwJ4hY9zP~

Or am I nuts and I should just bite the biscuit and get the RX 580 ?
 
Gr1f said:
Just done some more reading on this..... and I'm none the wiser... bloody minefield! SO many brands for the same tech!

As I mainly use for Adobe CC products I'm thinking I need 4BG min.....
Squuiid, the Saphire Plus card you mentioned looks really good. Dual support and 8Gb!
I found a version close to here...
ASUS ROG-STRIX-RX580-8G-GAMING graphics card - Radeon RX 580 - 8 GB for €285 + VAT (€350). I was hoping to get something for about $150-200....
A Nvidia Geforce GTX 680 4GB might do the trick?
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Apple-Mac-Pr...536991?hash=item25d93e6d1f:g:kkEAAOSwJ4hY9zP~

Or am I nuts and I should just bite the biscuit and get the RX 580 ?
Click to expand...
I'd wait for the Sapphire Pulse RX 580 to come into stock.

If you go for the GTX680 you will need to buy a Mac EFI flashed card or flash the BIOS yourself using a PC. If you don't know what any of this means then I'd definitely wait for stock of the Sapphire RX 580 instead.
You could also try a Sapphire RX 560 4GB as linked in one of my previous posts if you don't need the performance of the 580.
 
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Squuiid said:
I'd wait for the Sapphire Pulse RX 580 to come into stock.

If you go for the GTX680 you will need to buy a Mac EFI flashed card or flash the BIOS yourself using a PC. If you don't know what any of this means then I'd definitely wait for stock of the Sapphire RX 580 instead.
You could also try a Sapphire RX 560 4GB as linked in one of my previous posts if you don't need the performance of the 580.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice!
[doublepost=1499177382][/doublepost]
Squuiid said:
I'd wait for the Sapphire Pulse RX 580 to come into stock.

If you go for the GTX680 you will need to buy a Mac EFI flashed card or flash the BIOS yourself using a PC. If you don't know what any of this means then I'd definitely wait for stock of the Sapphire RX 580 instead.
You could also try a Sapphire RX 560 4GB as linked in one of my previous posts if you don't need the performance of the 580.
Click to expand...

Have found a local supplier for an ASUS version of the Sapphire RX 560 4GB. Would they be identical? listed as ASUS ROG-STRIX-RX560-4G-GAMING graphics card - Radeon RX 560 - 4 GB
 
Gr1f said:
Thanks for the advice!
[doublepost=1499177382][/doublepost]

Have found a local supplier for an ASUS version of the Sapphire RX 560 4GB. Would they be identical? listed as ASUS ROG-STRIX-RX560-4G-GAMING graphics card - Radeon RX 560 - 4 GB
Click to expand...

From what I've managed to find online, if you're going for an RX 560, you want the Gigabyte Windforce edition as it is closest to AMD's reference design. Asus & Sapphire are both good brands but XFX copies seem to have issues. Personally, I hunted down a Gigabyte version on Amazon and went with that for my 2010 cMP (I'm in a similar position as you: photography / retouching studio running cMP and variety of 2014/2015 and 2017 MacBooks)
 
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machaven said:
Will this card be much of an improvement over a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 which I currently have?

Thank you
Click to expand...
No.

Check out this table of 'Best Graphics Performance June 2017 - Hierarchy' on tonymac86.com. Whilst the RX 560 isn't on the chart you can see that the performance of the RX 460 is lower than that of the GTX 680. I would expect slightly better performance from the RX 560, but still not enough to warrant replacing your GTX 680 with it.
 
BillyBobBongo said:
No.

Check out this table of 'Best Graphics Performance June 2017 - Hierarchy' on tonymac86.com. Whilst the RX 560 isn't on the chart you can see that the performance of the RX 460 is lower than that of the GTX 680. I would expect slightly better performance from the RX 560, but still not enough to warrant replacing your GTX 680 with it.
Click to expand...

I replaced the Radeon 4870 with an Gigabyte Rx 460 4G. I do not do much heavy lifting stuff with my cMP, honestly speaking, from a UI standpoint, I do not feel much improvement in speed and feed.

However, the biggest improvement is the power draw and noise made by the Rx 460 is much lower now against the 4870.

I got the Gigabyte for sub 100 price, a very happy camper. The card work OOB with 10.12.5 and 10.12.6.

This is a single core cMP that I acquired as a replacement of my Mac Mini 2009, I am loving this cMP for its solidness. The thing won't break sweat while I am playing with 4K Youtube. I could NOT imagine my Mac Mini would do that.
 
zoltm said:
I replaced the Radeon 4870 with an Gigabyte Rx 460 4G. I do not do much heavy lifting stuff with my cMP, honestly speaking, from a UI standpoint, I do not feel much improvement in speed and feed.

However, the biggest improvement is the power draw and noise made by the Rx 460 is much lower now against the 4870.

I got the Gigabyte for sub 100 price, a very happy camper. The card work OOB with 10.12.5 and 10.12.6.

This is a single core cMP that I acquired as a replacement of my Mac Mini 2009, I am loving this cMP for its solidness. The thing won't break sweat while I am playing with 4K Youtube. I could NOT imagine my Mac Mini would do that.
Click to expand...

I think you mean single processor :D

Anyway, the 4870 is super power inefficient, even idle can draw more than 50W. But if for UI, 680 should stay at 15W idle power stage. Make it not much difference than the RX560.

Of course, when both cards are under stress, the 680 can draw much much more than the 560.
 
eyeangle said:
I did a search for the RX 580 at my local PC store and I have four options to go with. Well three actually seeing as though I want an 8GB model. So which of the three Gigabyte RX 580s do I choose from?
Here's the link: http://computers.centrecom.com.au/search?w=gigabyte rx 580
Click to expand...

Jeez Louise those are crazy prices. If you are patient for a few more weeks until Vega launches, you should see those prices come down at least 20%, if not more on the second hand market, as miners switch to the new architecture.

Right now, I wouldn't be able to recommend anyone spend that kind of money on an RX 580.

However, if money is no object - at this price point - buy the $699 one.
 
Gr1f said:
Thanks for the advice!
Click to expand...

Actually you don't need to flash the 680, I don't know why he said that.

You can optionally flash it, if you want, to gain boot screens. The RX cards currently have no way to be flashed for boot screens.
 
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