Mac Pro (Early 2009)4,1 upgraded to 5,1 Can I upgrade this to a Metal supported GPU card for Mojave?

[DonnaDeeW]

I purchased an upgraded old MacPro (Early 2009) tower about 9 months ago.
When I clicked on About this Mac,
It stated it was a
MacPro (Early 2009)5,1
Processor 2x3.06 6-Core Intel Xeon
Memory 64 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512 MB
Serial Number H09235KC20H

The label at the back of the tower states
Model NO A1289 EMC No: 2314
MAC PRO/2.26_8CX/8X2G/GT120/1T/SD/BT
Serial No: H09235KC20H

This unit on the label appears to be an actual Mac Pro Early 2009 4,1 which I think they updated the firmware to get it to 5,1.

While trying to figure out exactly what I have, I think they upgraded the processor also to a 6 coreIntel Xeon. Because of this upgrade, it appears that the Memory was also able to be upgraded. I suspect that they changed the memory from 1066MHz, UDIMM to the 1333 MHz DDR3.

I cannot find that if I upgrade this unit to either EVGA GEForce GTX 680 Mac Edition GPU, OR AMD Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 For Mac, OR one of the other listed Metal supported GPUs, if they will be compatible to Mojave.

There is a note on this website that the Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 is NOT compatible for the Early Mac 2009 model.
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/...ics-cards-dvi-dual-link-mini-displayport.html
" * Please note that the Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 only is compatible with the "Mid-2010" and "Mid-2012" Mac Pro models. The other video cards above are compatible with the "Early 2008" and "Early 2009" as well as the "Mid-2010" and "Mid-2012" Mac Pro models. "

BUT when you click on the link on this page for the Sapphire Radeon HD 7950, it says it IS compatible with 2009 MacPro's. https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sapphire/100352MAC2/
" The HD 7950 Mac Edition is compatible with Apple Mac Pro models from 2009 and later with an available PCI-Express x16 slot, as well as the latest PC architectures. "

These listed Metal supported GPUs that can be installed in the older MacPro's are hard to find new. All I can find are used ones. If anyone has a site that sells them new, please let me know. I have an opportunity to buy the Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 for Mac on Ebay, but they won't allow for a return if it will not work. So I really need to know if I can put that or another one into my mac. NOTE, For some reason, I cannot bring up my MacPro in safe mode. I've tried restart with command r and command, option +R and still nothing comes up. It just logs into the regular screen for me to put my admin password in.

I'm sorry this is so lengthy, but I've been searching for the past 4 days trying to find somewhere if someone had asked this same type of question. My head is swimming and I'm so confused. Any help would be appreciated.

Donna

 

[tsialex]

After you upgrade a MP4,1 to MP5,1 firmware, it's a MP5,1 to the macOS point of view. HD 7950 works with 4,1>5,1 Mac Pros.

Btw, you Mac Pro is a 2009, the basic dual processor model. Seems who sold it to you, upgraded it to Westmere processors. Westmere only works with MP5,1 firmware.

Read here: MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave. Pay attention to the fact that it's a two step firmware upgrade.

If you don't need boot screens, buy a Sapphire RX-580 or one other of the Apple suggested GPUs for Mojave.

If you really need boot screens, try not to buy overpriced eBay GPUs, buy one locally and flash yourself, NVIDIA GTX 680 is the easiest to flash, 5' job with Windows.

 

[Silencio]

I am 99.9% certain I have installed Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 cards in Mac Pro 4,1 systems that were flashed to 5,1. Should be a non-issue. However, I agree with tsialex's recommendations for a Sapphire RX580 or a flashed GTX 680. The Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 cards are still way overpriced IMO.

Looks like the current configuration of the CPUs is dual 3.06GHz Xeons, correct? And you're right: flashing the firmware to 5,1 does enable the use of 1333MHz RAM at full speed.