MP 6,1 Mac Pro 6,1 - Triple 4K monitors with HiDPI scaling

[Nightingale_cz]

Hi everyone,

i have Mac Pro late 2013 (12 core/D700/64GB) and i would like to use it with three 4K monitors with HiDPI scaling. Now, i have just one.

The ideal scaling for 27 inch 4K monitors is, i think, 150%. So the mac will render 3x 5120 x 2880 and then scale it to 4K.

Do you think that Mac Pro from 2013 can handle it? Does anyone use the same setup?

I also read here, that if I use mini-displayport to displayport cables, i can drive all 3 monitors in 60Hz. Because HDMI in this Mac has a 30Hz limit for 4K.

Thank you all!

 

[R2FX]

It should, connect the monitors below each other not next to each other (separate lane) and definitely use SwitchResX for such setup....

Having said that I would strongly advise to use eGPU for so many screens, it will strain your D700 and you don’t want to “Tim Cook-it”. I tried to connect in the beginning 2x4K and 1xHD Screen to my MP and it started heating up quite quickly, now with Vega Frontier the external GPU runs idle most of the time and internal D700s are asleep and cool.

zdar!

 

[Nightingale_cz]

Thank you! ... e-gpu isn't a very practical solution for me... it's probably time to sell my Mac Pro :/

 

[R2FX]

Thank you! ... e-gpu isn't a very practical solution for me... it's probably time to sell my Mac Pro :/

check eGPU.io before you decide to sell it... right now buy anything Intel based is a very bad decision and I would also stay away from 1st gen AS Macs. However if you decide to sell, drop me a PM first ))

~$300 for Razor Core plus another $300-400 for a decent AMD card is a better way to keep the machine running. Apple will support 2013 Mac Pro's for another 4 years and I'd imagine that we will get at least another 2-3 macOS releases before Intel based stuff is deprecated. I'm certainly not selling mine anytime soon and with Vega Frontier it's doing great job in apps I'm using

 

[chfilm]

check eGPU.io before you decide to sell it... right now buy anything Intel based is a very bad decision and I would also stay away from 1st gen AS Macs. However if you decide to sell, drop me a PM first ))

~$300 for Razor Core plus another $300-400 for a decent AMD card is a better way to keep the machine running. Apple will support 2013 Mac Pro's for another 4 years and I'd imagine that we will get at least another 2-3 macOS releases before Intel based stuff is deprecated. I'm certainly not selling mine anytime soon and with Vega Frontier it's doing great job in apps I'm using

I also think egpu is not such a bad idea! Besides, why would the Mac Pro not be able to run this? They were aggressively advertising the triple 4K display setup during 2013. I had two 5k screens and a 1080p projector attached without issues Before I got my new cheesegrater.

 

[R2FX]

I also think egpu is not such a bad idea! Besides, why would the Mac Pro not be able to run this? They were aggressively advertising the triple 4K display setup during 2013. I had two 5k screens and a 1080p projector attached without issues Before I got my new cheesegrater.

Provided the internal cooling was sufficient for the internal GPUs it would work just fine - they have plenty of memory and power to drive those displays....but countless users would beg to differ with their fried graphic cards

 

[MisterAndrew]

I tried an eGPU (Blackmagic) with one of my 6,1s and the lag was so bad it was barely useable. The TB 2 bus is just too slow. Maybe grab a Mac mini to attach a 3rd monitor to.

 

[R2FX]

I tried an eGPU (Blackmagic) with one of my 6,1s and the lag was so bad it was barely useable. The TB 2 bus is just too slow. Maybe grab a Mac mini to attach a 3rd monitor to.

no it isn't... clearly you didn't see what Mac mini 2018 users are saying about lag when connecting 3x4K screens on their machines

talking about lag indicates you were on 30Hz which is abysmal with or without eGPU

 

[Macinsquatch]

Yes it will work fine, I have been using this same setup for years.

 

[MisterAndrew]

no it isn't... clearly you didn't see what Mac mini 2018 users are saying about lag when connecting 3x4K screens on their machines

talking about lag indicates you were on 30Hz which is abysmal with or without eGPU

Nope. I tried it connected via TB3 directly from the eGPU and DisplayPort from the Mac.

 

[MisterAndrew]

no it isn't... clearly you didn't see what Mac mini 2018 users are saying about lag when connecting 3x4K screens on their machines

talking about lag indicates you were on 30Hz which is abysmal with or without eGPU

Would you mind testing the Stellarium app with the eGPU? It had terrible lag, very choppy, with my Blackmagic eGPU. I tried it both with the monitor connected to the Mac and to the eGPU and it behaved the same. It’s possible there was something wrong with that eGPU because it’s my only experience so far. I’m willing to give it another go if that’s the case.

 

[R2FX]

just did, runs buttery smooth:

75+ FPS with prefer eGPU option
constantly over 100+ FPS without prefer eGPU option

Mac Pro 2013, 8 core, 2xD700, Vega Frontier eGPU

was your setup Mac->eGPU->monitor? because this is the only way to get full acceleration on most OS X apps (there are some that can just send calculations to eGPU and don't need to display anything, but that's very niche)

 

[MisterAndrew]

just did, runs buttery smooth:

75+ FPS with prefer eGPU option
constantly over 100+ FPS without prefer eGPU option

Mac Pro 2013, 8 core, 2xD700, Vega Frontier eGPU

was your setup Mac->eGPU->monitor? because this is the only way to get full acceleration on most OS X apps (there are some that can just send calculations to eGPU and don't need to display anything, but that's very niche)

Thank you! That appears to show the issue though. It should be faster with the eGPU. Not the other way around. I tried it both ways. With the monitor connected to the eGPU and with the monitor connected to the Mac. I also tried connecting the eGPU to different ports on the Mac. Same lagging behavior with 'prefer eGPU' checked.

 

[uller6]

I was running a LG 32" 4K display scaled to "look like 2560x1440" on my old 2013 nMP using a mDP to DP cable. That's the same scaling of 150% that you would like to use with your 27" displays. I had the quad core D300 model, but the machine ran noticeably slower when running in scaled resolution, and that was with only with one screen. I can't imagine how bad performance is with more than one scaled display.

 

[R2FX]

Thank you! That appears to show the issue though. It should be faster with the eGPU. Not the other way around. I tried it both ways. With the monitor connected to the eGPU and with the monitor connected to the Mac. I also tried connecting the eGPU to different ports on the Mac. Same lagging behavior with 'prefer eGPU' checked.

Actually I'm not that surprised - I use Capture One for photo editing and it uses OpenCL to accelerate certain tasks. On Mac Pro's from 2013 it does spread the calculations (and uses us video memory as well) across all three cards. If I select 'prefer eGPU' option I see that the application runs tiny little bit slower on those accelerated tasks.

I re-ran Stelarium on 2560x1440 and observed roughly 20-30% lower FPS. What's strange though is that Activity monitor showed GPU load only on my eGPU, not on the internal D700s. Interestingly I could see that with 'prefer eGPU' the load was higher. Maybe this app is not properly optimized OR I don't know how to test it properly to make it do what you guys do with it

 

[MisterAndrew]

Actually I'm not that surprised - I use Capture One for photo editing and it uses OpenCL to accelerate certain tasks. On Mac Pro's from 2013 it does spread the calculations (and uses us video memory as well) across all three cards. If I select 'prefer eGPU' option I see that the application runs tiny little bit slower on those accelerated tasks.

I re-ran Stelarium on 2560x1440 and observed roughly 20-30% lower FPS. What's strange though is that Activity monitor showed GPU load only on my eGPU, not on the internal D700s. Interestingly I could see that with 'prefer eGPU' the load was higher. Maybe this app is not properly optimized OR I don't know how to test it properly to make it do what you guys do with it

Okay, well I didn't mess with the scaling and I also haven't paid attention to the FPS it shows because I don't care about that. I care about how smoothly you can pan the sky. Take a look at the rotating cursor thing when you select an object. With the eGPU the selection cursor moved very slow and choppy. Perfectly smooth with the built-in GPUs.

 

[Nightingale_cz]

Thanks everyone for your comments! I was worried, because I had problems with the image "lag" in the upper right corner on one 4K monitor (but only on 60Hz, 30Hz was OK). And in the end, I didn't buy a third 4K monitor or eGPU.

Long story short ... I sold my old Mac Pro and two 4K monitors for a pretty high price (new owner really love Mac Pro Trashcan design) ... and for that money I bought a new Apple Pro Display XDR and got a Pro Stand for free ??

And I will order a Mac Mini M1 16Gb ... it looks faster than my old Mac Pro and run 6K natively. And in the end of 2022 (i think) we'll see what the next generation Mac Pro will look like with the Apple Silicon ? ...and also if it will be cheaper ?‍♂️