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MP All Models Mac Pro CPU Compatibility List
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A X5675 pair should work fine, once de-lided. Rev.A early-2009 dual CPU trays that can't run X5680/X5690 usually can run X5675 without any problems if the CPU tray solder mask is black.
Since it's a Rev.A Mac Pro, the main issue will be the BootROM. For all early-2009 Mac Pros made before June 2009, the NVRAM volume have only one VSS store, exactly like the MacPro3,1. This makes it incompatible with MP5,1 firmwares and will brick in the very near future. Long story short, you will also need a BootROM reconstruction service. Do it before upgrading the processors, to not risk bricking.
Nope. While you can cross-flash it, it will brick down the road, since the NVRAM volume is slightly incompatible.
The early-2009 Mac Pros NVRAM volume is made of:
- only one VSS store, like MacPro3,1
- a working FTW store
- Fsys store
- Gaid store
The mid-2010/mid-2012 Mac Pros NVRAM volume is made of
- two VSS stores, a primary and a secondary
- a non-working FTW store, just a place holder
- Fsys store
- Gaid store
This is not a new info, we know this since around 2018. That's why most bricked Mac Pros are the early-2009s, since it's so easy to corrupt the NVRAM volume while the firmware does the garbage collection.
You can solve this once and for all with a clean-up, upgrade and reconstruction service, when the early-2009 firmware will be upgraded to be exactly like the mid-2012s made back in October 2013.
I'm sure the experts have been aware of this, but if you can't judge by my avitar, I'm r*tarded.
When you say service, does that imply that this upgrade requires sending it to a professional? Does it require any hardware modification?
Not the Mac Pro, just a BootROM image dump made with ROMTool and some other necessary info (pictures of the MLB and ESN labels), after the reconstruction is completed you'll flash the never booted BootROM image back to your Mac Pro, also with ROMTool.
After you get your early-2009, send me a PM.
No, but be aware that since it's a 12+ years old Mac, sometime in the future you will need to replace the SPI flash memory - it's a component with limited lifetime, designed for just 100K cycles of non-contiguous NAND erases/re-writes (unfortunately, the Mac Pro NVRAM is contiguous).
Once replaced, your BootROM will work for another 10 years.
OH, so you fix these things. So I'd just send information through an email and you'd sell me a patch?
You said it will make it like a 2012/2013 Pro, so that would mean Snow Leopard wouldn't possibly boot on them, right?
Correct.
The late-2013 Mac Pros are based on a totally different Intel reference platform and firmware is completely incompatible.
What I wrote is that the mid-2012s made right before the closing of the production back in late October 2013 have the most updated firmware revision ever and this firmware revision is the golden standard for early-2009 to mid-2012 Mac Pros.
The mid-2012 Mac Pros also can run Snow Leopard - 10.6.4 special build and newer, while the MobileMe Snow Leopard upgrade DVDs that almost any old Mac user have and most retail Snow Leopard installer DVDs are also version 10.6.3 and won't work with mid-2010/mid-2012 or cross-flashed early-2009s.
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Aaaah, gotcha gotcha. I see how you are the go-to for this information.
I'll ask for your services if I go through with this deal. Considering the price and trouble to upgrade it, I may wait for a later model to show up.
I've had my heart set on getting the most powerful Leopard system I can, so what sort of advice can you offer there? No matter what Pro I end up with, I will certainly have something running 10.5.6, so i gotta know.
Thanks for all of this great info.
An early-2008 Mac Pro or early-2009 with the original firmware, not upgraded to MP5,1 and with a Nehalem Xeon processor (E55xx, L55xx, X55xx Xeons).
While native support is likely better, it is worth nothing that while most focus on OpenCore is on NEWER unsupported MacOS, it can do the job for OLDER unsupported MacOS as well and allow running MacOS back to v10.4 (Tiger).
Maybe I'm missing something, but how the user will install an unsupported release that the kernel don't even have support for the CPU? How you gonna run Tiger with a Westmere Xeon?
Haven't looked in detail but I suppose it must involve more or less the same type of things that allow newer OS to run on older units (in reverse I suppose).
Section 12.1, Legacy Apple OS, of the OpenCore manual touches on running such. Haven't tried myself as said but do notice related commits going into the code now and then
Section 12.1, Legacy Apple OS, of the OpenCore manual touches on running such. Haven't tried myself as said but do notice related commits going into the code now and then
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New example in merge queue:
OCAB: Implement macOS 10.4/10.5 relocation block support by Goldfish64 · Pull Request #373 · acidanthera/OpenCorePkg
Implements macOS 10.4 and 10.5 support for relocation blocks while using the AllowRelocationBlock booter quirk. This is required due to XNU in 10.4 and 10.5 having a _TEXT base address of 0x111000,...
github.com
Very helpful information. I just got a Mac Pro 5,1 2010 and was reading about upgrading the CPU to dual X5690. Question can I just go on Ebay and search for x5690.. does it have to be "pair" or "same serial number" or does any 2 X5690's work together.
Also can I boot into 10.6.8 if needed or is there a limit to the os that is used?
Thanks
Also can I boot into 10.6.8 if needed or is there a limit to the os that is used?
Thanks
Any two official released (e.g. non engineering sample) X5690 are good to pair up.
And you can never get two CPU with identical serial number unless they are fake.
10.6.8 is fine.
Any Intel X5690 will work in a dual CPU setup. They do not need to be a pair or "matched." As long as they are production models you'll be fine👍 - HOWEVER DO NOT GET ENGINEERING SAMPLES!!!!!!
Lou
Lou
Hi Friends, I have a mac pro 4.1 with 4 core dual 2.93 CPU, and already flashed to 5.1, please see attached screen shot. I used 1333 RAM, but they run at 1066. I resetted NVRAM two times, but they seemed not work at 1333. Does anyone can provide some advices?
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RAM support is directly related to the model of the Xeon you have, if your CPU tray have two X5647, memory controller run at 1066MHz, while if you have X5570, the memory controller supports 1333MHz.
You can confirm with Terminal running
sysctl -n machdep.cpu.brand_string.
unless its one of Apple's Lid-less specials, those only do 1066Mhz regardless
I posted about this in the Early Intel Mac forum ,and no one over there had any ideas, so I thought I would ask over here, just in case.
I upgraded my 1,1 CPUs from the base Xeon 5150s to a pair of Xeon X5355s (S-Spec SLAC4), after I ran the SMC update to change the MP to a 2,1. After install the CPUs both run with only 3 cores available, and with 6MB of cache. This is true in both OSX and Ubuntu 17.04, so it seems like a hardware issue and not a software issue. Does anyone have any ideas as to what might be going on here?
As far as trouble shooting, I've reset the PRAM and SMC several times, and reseated the CPUs twice. The computer works fine, but for the missing cores, which are missing in System Profiler and System Monitor. I do get a speedup in Handbrake, etc., but not what I would expect from 8 cores (I have a 3,1 w/2.8GHz 8-cores to compare), so the lack of cores is consistent. I have a couple more CPUs on order (SLAEG S-Spec) which I hope will fix things finally.
Thanks for any ideas.
I upgraded my 1,1 CPUs from the base Xeon 5150s to a pair of Xeon X5355s (S-Spec SLAC4), after I ran the SMC update to change the MP to a 2,1. After install the CPUs both run with only 3 cores available, and with 6MB of cache. This is true in both OSX and Ubuntu 17.04, so it seems like a hardware issue and not a software issue. Does anyone have any ideas as to what might be going on here?
As far as trouble shooting, I've reset the PRAM and SMC several times, and reseated the CPUs twice. The computer works fine, but for the missing cores, which are missing in System Profiler and System Monitor. I do get a speedup in Handbrake, etc., but not what I would expect from 8 cores (I have a 3,1 w/2.8GHz 8-cores to compare), so the lack of cores is consistent. I have a couple more CPUs on order (SLAEG S-Spec) which I hope will fix things finally.
Thanks for any ideas.
Hello everyone, longtime reader, first time poster.
I have a 2009 mac pro 4,1 flashed to 5,1 dual E5520 2.26ghz on bigsur(with martin lo opencore) i have been reading plenty of threads about this and many other issues over the last couple of years and recently about upgrading cpu and what the flashed mac pro can and cannot use. Ive looked on my cpu tray for the serial number to check if it can hold a x5680 or x5690 130 watts, or max it out with x5675 95 watts according to @tsialex's answers on other threads. My issue is i cant decipher the numbers the way he described, so figured I'd post it here and hopefully get a definitive answer. cpu tray serial number is: C07022400QCDCVHA6.
i understand the 3rd digit is the year and the 4th/5th digits are the weeks which should at least 20th week and beyond but the cpu serial isnt making sense to me in this way. im just looking for confirmation from some of your bright minds who can help me understand. (pic attached)Thank-you very much
I have a 2009 mac pro 4,1 flashed to 5,1 dual E5520 2.26ghz on bigsur(with martin lo opencore) i have been reading plenty of threads about this and many other issues over the last couple of years and recently about upgrading cpu and what the flashed mac pro can and cannot use. Ive looked on my cpu tray for the serial number to check if it can hold a x5680 or x5690 130 watts, or max it out with x5675 95 watts according to @tsialex's answers on other threads. My issue is i cant decipher the numbers the way he described, so figured I'd post it here and hopefully get a definitive answer. cpu tray serial number is: C07022400QCDCVHA6.
i understand the 3rd digit is the year and the 4th/5th digits are the weeks which should at least 20th week and beyond but the cpu serial isnt making sense to me in this way. im just looking for confirmation from some of your bright minds who can help me understand. (pic attached)Thank-you very much
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Why open a new thread and fragment information? You could have asked your question right were we discussed the early-2009 Rev.A dual CPU tray on the CPU compatibility stickie.
Backplanes and CPU trays with 17-digits serial numbers are from factory refurbs and follow a different logic for the production week since the factory/location have now three digits instead of two, so the year is now the 4th digit and the week digits are the 5th and 6th. Your CPU tray was factory refurbished in 2010, week 22.
We usually assume that all factory refurbished CPU trays were modified/corrected to the Rev.A.
Remember that not all early-2009 dual CPU trays can work with 130W Westmere Xeons, even Rev.A or the factory refurbs. My back of envelope calculation is that 95% of the early-2009 dual CPU trays after the 26 week of 2009 will work perfectly fine with 130W Westmere Xeons, some will need a pair of 95W Westmere Xeons instead, but you could be one of the rare unlucky ones that the CPU tray can't work with a Westmere Xeon at all.
Backplanes and CPU trays with 17-digits serial numbers are from factory refurbs and follow a different logic for the production week since the factory/location have now three digits instead of two, so the year is now the 4th digit and the week digits are the 5th and 6th. Your CPU tray was factory refurbished in 2010, week 22.
We usually assume that all factory refurbished CPU trays were modified/corrected to the Rev.A.
Remember that not all early-2009 dual CPU trays can work with 130W Westmere Xeons, even Rev.A or the factory refurbs. My back of envelope calculation is that 95% of the early-2009 dual CPU trays after the 26 week of 2009 will work perfectly fine with 130W Westmere Xeons, some will need a pair of 95W Westmere Xeons instead, but you could be one of the rare unlucky ones that the CPU tray can't work with a Westmere Xeon at all.
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i apologize for what you say is fragmenting the info, im new to the way things work here and not clear on the unwritten rules, but i understand what you are saying about refurbs and want to thank you for providing me with the pertinent information i needed to know. Next time ill just ask on the specific thread. appreciate it very much
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the last messages (about the turbo and actual cpu frequencies was moved into a dedicated thread as requested)
Thanks a lot.
Link: a script for measuring CPU frequency in "normal" and "turbo boost" mode
Thanks a lot.
Link: a script for measuring CPU frequency in "normal" and "turbo boost" mode