MP 1,1-5,1 Mac Pro mid 2010

[LittleMacDiablo]

Hi

I am looking for advice to help me make the decision whether to upgrade from my Mac Pro mid 2010.

I use it mainly for:

Photo editing
Netflix
Working from home
Occasional Gaming

The only reasons I am looking to upgrade are:

1. upgrade my monitors (looking at second hand Thunderbolt Display 27” x2), the Thunderbolt connection is a nightmare.

2. upgrade as the mid 2010 doesn’t seem to support the most recent operating systems ie Catalina and future ones

3. it’s becoming a little slow

I guess the question is, if upgrade my graphics card (and anything else internally) can I connect the Thunderbolt displays and keep getting the most recent OS such as Catalina/big sur? Or do I bite the built and get the new Mac Pro (which is really expensive 😞).

I have had the Mac Pro for 10 years and it has been amazing and I am really hesitant to replace it if I can avoid it.

I would genuinely appreciate any advice.

Thank you in advance

 

[lukesturr]

While you can definitely get more performance out of your Mac Pro with new CPUs (Dual Xeon x5690), GPU (AMD RX 580), RAM (1333MHz DDR3), and SSD (PCIe NVMe), Thunderbolt and newer versions of macOS require some tinkering. There are lots of resources on these upgrades all over this forum if you do some searching. Check out the OpenCore on Mac Pro thread for info on running Catalina/Big Sur and the testing TB3 AIC thread for adding thunderbolt. I'd recommend at least upgrading the GPU so you can run Mojave.

If you do want to buy new, have you considered the new 27" iMac instead? For your use cases, it would be more than adequate and much cheaper than the base model 7,1 Mac Pro. You even get a 27" 5k monitor built-in. Get the 8 core i7, 5500 XT spec with as much SSD space as you need, upgrade the RAM yourself and you'll have a modern, solid, supported machine for years to come.

 

[LittleMacDiablo]

While you can definitely get more performance out of your Mac Pro with new CPUs (Dual Xeon x5690), GPU (AMD RX 580), RAM (1333MHz DDR3), and SSD (PCIe NVMe), Thunderbolt and newer versions of macOS require some tinkering. There are lots of resources on these upgrades all over this forum if you do some searching. Check out the OpenCore on Mac Pro thread for info on running Catalina/Big Sur and the testing TB3 AIC thread for adding thunderbolt. I'd recommend at least upgrading the GPU so you can run Mojave.

If you do want to buy new, have you considered the new 27" iMac instead? For your use cases, it would be more than adequate and much cheaper than the base model 7,1 Mac Pro. You even get a 27" 5k monitor built-in. Get the 8 core i7, 5500 XT spec with as much SSD space as you need, upgrade the RAM yourself and you'll have a modern, solid, supported machine for years to come.

Thank you!
I spent yesterday evening going through so many threads trying to come to a decision, but still struggling.

I am on intending on having 2 screens (was looking at 2 Thunderbolt Displays, I have a second hand one already), what option would you suggest? If I bought a new iMac I would need to get a second one (probably second hand tbh).

costings are roughly:

new iMac - £2988 (would need to buy a second screen)
iMac Pro - £4,999 (would need to get a second screen)
Mac Pro - £5,500 (could use 2 second Thunderbolt Displays

Alternative is I could look for 2 second hand options...

keen To get something that will hopefully last another 10 years

 

[mode11]

What lukesturr said. Also, may want to consider dual x5680 CPUs instead - they're marginally slower (3.33GHz vs. 3.46GHz, both 6-core), but are half the price as they aren't the absolute pinnacle for that socket. Also, rather than faffing around with Thunderbolt, why not use the older 27" LED Cinema Displays instead? AFAIK they're essentially the same thing, but use Mini-DisplayPort so are easy to connect to e.g. an RX580, using cheap / passive mDP to DP adapters.

 

[LittleMacDiablo]

What lukesturr said. Also, may want to consider dual x5680 CPUs instead - they're marginally slower (3.33GHz vs. 3.46GHz, both 6-core), but are half the price as they aren't the absolute pinnacle for that socket. Also, rather than faffing around with Thunderbolt, why not use the older 27" LED Cinema Displays instead? AFAIK they're essentially the same thing, but use Mini-DisplayPort so are easy to connect to e.g. an RX580, using cheap / passive mDP to DP adapters.

Definitely a cheaper option from a screen perspective Can get an upgraded graphics card Fairly easily, could look at upgrading the chip set and hard drive maybe, just leave the future operating system upgrades

 

[mode11]

If you install Mojave with a recent installer (e.g. 10.14.6), it will update your firmware to the latest version (check the 144 Bootrom thread for more details). You can then use an NVMe SSD; a cheap adapter (get one with a heatsink) will give you 1500MB/s peak read / writes on a Mac Pro 5,1. The price of these drives has also fallen a long way.

Updating to Catalina is slightly involved, if using the preferred method (Opencore). There's an excellent thread on it, though, with the first post having a complete guide. If you follow it carefully everything will work perfectly. Your 2.4GHz CPUs may need upgrading for Catalina - they need to be the 'Westmere' generation due to certain required features. Will need to check also if the stock wifi/BT card on a 5,1 will work with Catalina - or upgrade to one from a modern iMac. Note that 32-bit software (which includes most games) won't work in Catalina, though, as Apple dropped support in this OS.

 

[h9826790]

Photo editing
Netflix
Working from home
Occasional Gaming

My cMP's current config. Very decent for all these four purposes.

1. upgrade my monitors (looking at second hand Thunderbolt Display 27” x2), the Thunderbolt connection is a nightmare.

Why Thunderbolt Display 27”? Why not just the Apple Cinema Display 27"? They are pretty much identical except the connection type. ACD has much higher compatibility and less trouble. I just can't see any reason to go for the Thunderbolt Display 27”

2. upgrade as the mid 2010 doesn’t seem to support the most recent operating systems ie Catalina and future ones

Of course it won't be supported from Apple. But everything still works as expected. The installation process also very native by using OpenCore.

3. it’s becoming a little slow

Fast / slow is very personal. But I am perfectly OK with my cMP now. From your screen capture, it looks like that you are booting from a 6TB HDD. You better upgrade your boot drive to a SSD. This is the key to have a responsive OS.

I guess the question is, if upgrade my graphics card (and anything else internally) can I connect the Thunderbolt displays and keep getting the most recent OS such as Catalina/big sur? Or do I bite the built and get the new Mac Pro (which is really expensive 😞).

No, no graphic card can work with Thunderbolt displays. Even though you can install another Thunderbolt card to make it work, but what's the point? It doesn't make any sense to make it so complicated if you can simply go for the 27" ACD.

 

[LittleMacDiablo]

Why Thunderbolt Display 27”? Why not just the Apple Cinema Display 27"? They are pretty much identical except the connection type. ACD has much higher compatibility and less trouble. I just can't see any reason to go for the Thunderbolt Display 27”

hadnt actually realised the similarities between the 2, thank you.

 

[LittleMacDiablo]

My cMP's current config. Very decent for all these four purposes.
View attachment 942426


Why Thunderbolt Display 27”? Why not just the Apple Cinema Display 27"? They are pretty much identical except the connection type. ACD has much higher compatibility and less trouble. I just can't see any reason to go for the Thunderbolt Display 27”


Of course it won't be supported from Apple. But everything still works as expected. The installation process also very native by using OpenCore.
View attachment 942427

Fast / slow is very personal. But I am perfectly OK with my cMP now. From your screen capture, it looks like that you are booting from a 6TB HDD. You better upgrade your boot drive to a SSD. This is the key to have a responsive OS.


No, no graphic card can work with Thunderbolt displays. Even though you can install another Thunderbolt card to make it work, but what's the point? It doesn't make any sense to make it so complicated if you can simply go for the 27" ACD.

Hi

I am looking for advice to help me make the decision whether to upgrade from my Mac Pro mid 2010.

I use it mainly for:

Photo editing
Netflix
Working from home
Occasional Gaming

The only reasons I am looking to upgrade are:

1. upgrade my monitors (looking at second hand Thunderbolt Display 27” x2), the Thunderbolt connection is a nightmare.

2. upgrade as the mid 2010 doesn’t seem to support the most recent operating systems ie Catalina and future ones

3. it’s becoming a little slow

I guess the question is, if upgrade my graphics card (and anything else internally) can I connect the Thunderbolt displays and keep getting the most recent OS such as Catalina/big sur? Or do I bite the built and get the new Mac Pro (which is really expensive 😞).

I have had the Mac Pro for 10 years and it has been amazing and I am really hesitant to replace it if I can avoid it.

I would genuinely appreciate any advice.

Thank you in advance View attachment 942322

thank you for the all the valuable info, just working through it so I can make a decision 😊