I've been on High Sierra and I've been on Catalina. Mojave works fairly well for me. What I've done is put an SSD in Bay 1 for my boot drive. The other three bays have hard drives.
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Newbie Here. Got a Mac Pro 5,1.
- Thread starter Guitarmas
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Mine has been my main work computer from when it was new 12 years ago until I retire in 3 weeks. I have a PCI SSD for the OS and four internal hard drives. The only problem has been a graphics card that died and I replaced.
It's not supported now......officially.
If you refer to software updates, Apple normally provides them for the 3 newest OS's.
If you refer to software updates, Apple normally provides them for the 3 newest OS's.
Thanks for the information.
I'm thinking about putting Big Sur on my Mac pro 5,1.
Should I go for Monterey instead?
It is personal choice.
I chose to stay on Mojave, as I want a stable machine.
You can get problems with OC installs (as it's a hack), depends what sort of use your Mac is for.
I chose to stay on Mojave, as I want a stable machine.
You can get problems with OC installs (as it's a hack), depends what sort of use your Mac is for.
Thanks for the reply.
What are the benefits of putting Mojave on it instead?
I do want a stable system.
I'm second guessing putting Big Sur or Monterey on it.
My recommendation is to get a metal GPU and get up to Mojave (rather than trying to jump).
Then (as it's a mp with multiple bays) add another drive at some point and upgrade to Catalina/Big Sur to try it out.
This is the joy with the cMP, you can have multiple OS installs.
Mojave was the last official supported release.
32bit apps will not work after Mojave, so a lot may depend on what software you want to run.
Then (as it's a mp with multiple bays) add another drive at some point and upgrade to Catalina/Big Sur to try it out.
This is the joy with the cMP, you can have multiple OS installs.
Mojave was the last official supported release.
32bit apps will not work after Mojave, so a lot may depend on what software you want to run.
Thanks for your reply.
It's really the last MacOs to support 32-bit apps?
I think that's a good idea. I can just install Big Sur or Monterey on another drive.
Yes, Mojave is the last version to run 32-bit applications.
Thanks for letting me know.
I looked it up.
Mojave support ended on November of last year.
Is it a still good OS to use?
Absolutely, there are tons of users here still on Mojave.
If you use Apple pro apps, they tend to need the latest OS for updates (i.e. FCP/Logic).
Thanks for the reply.
Is Mojave still available to download from the Apple website?
That's quite subjective.
Mojave is my main OS since I still use a couple of 32-bit applications (among them iWork '09 and MS Office 2011). It's no longer supported but still gets the latest versions of, say, Firefox, LibreOffice, Sublime Text, Thunderbird and VirtualBox. Since it no longer receives security updates, I do anything potentially dangerous, e.g. visiting websites I don't trust, in a disposable Linux VM.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-mojave/id1398502828?mt=12
I still use Mojave as my daily driver, you can't use the latest Pro Apps (Final Cut, Logic...) on Mojave but if you've already purchased them the App Store will let you get the oldest version compatible with Mojave.
Mojave is a good balance between compatibility/support as it supports 32-bit apps if your apps don't work on newer macOS versions and it was supported up until the very end of last year.
I would also suggest if you feel a bit un-easy about using an unsupported OS, there is always Catalina.
Catalina is an odd version for a 5,1 as it has 2 ways to be installed.
The first is with OpenCore, which can be a bit overwhelming to start off with but is much easier and cleaner once you get it installed or there is the dosdude1 Catalina Patcher. This way of installing Catalina is much easier however you lose HEVC hardware acceleration and the ability to update macOS (and security patches) over the air like a modern Mac.
I first used the Catalina Patcher on my 2010 MacBook and that ran quite well and was super easy to install and setup but then more recently I used OpenCore to install Big Sur.
Mojave is a good balance between compatibility/support as it supports 32-bit apps if your apps don't work on newer macOS versions and it was supported up until the very end of last year.
I would also suggest if you feel a bit un-easy about using an unsupported OS, there is always Catalina.
Catalina is an odd version for a 5,1 as it has 2 ways to be installed.
The first is with OpenCore, which can be a bit overwhelming to start off with but is much easier and cleaner once you get it installed or there is the dosdude1 Catalina Patcher. This way of installing Catalina is much easier however you lose HEVC hardware acceleration and the ability to update macOS (and security patches) over the air like a modern Mac.
I first used the Catalina Patcher on my 2010 MacBook and that ran quite well and was super easy to install and setup but then more recently I used OpenCore to install Big Sur.
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Thanks for the reply.
I use my 2010 Imac.
It has 12gb ram and a 250gb ssd
It does everything I want it to. Which is just web browsing, YouTube and occasionally Zoom.
The MacPro I have was given to me from a guy who I associate with.
He gave it to me because he couldn't upgrade the OS.
It has High Sierra installed.
If I'm going to upgrade it to Mojave, I've gotta get a Metal compatible video card.
I'd like to see the Apple logo when it boots up. So I've gotta get one that's flashed too.
Yes, in fact you don't need any hacks or mucking around to use Mojave on a 5,1. All you need a Metal-capable video card, cheap ones include the NVIDIA Quadro K620 and the RX 460. Keep in mind that NVIDIA cards require hacking if you want to use Monterey.
Since you said you wanted a bootscreen, that narrows down the choices.
You can get a bootscreen on any Metal-card if you are running OpenCore, if you don't want to run that then your options are limited to flashed cards (Bootscreen+Mojave):
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 (flashed, can buy on eBay or flash yourself with a Windows PC with a PCIe slot)
- AMD Radeon HD 7950/R9 280X (same as above)
- AMD Radeon RX 560 (possible)
- AMD Radeon RX 580 (Sapphire Pulse version works with no flashing, also very good for performance per dollar)
- NVIDIA Quadro K5000 (Expensive)
You can find flashed "Mac Pro" cards on eBay, or through MacVidCards.eu. They are more expensive but are in most cases less troublesome.
Thanks for the reply.
So if I use OpenCore and create a bootable drive with Big Sur, I still get the boot screen regardless if it's flashed or not?
Yes, you should. I don't own a 5,1 at the moment however from all that I've read, you should get a bootscreen with OpenCore.
I'd suggest going over to the Mac Pro forum as the people over there know a lot more than I do on using OpenCore with a Mac Pro as there is a separate version that you need to run.
Thanks for your reply.
I see a few ATI video cards that support Metal and a boot screen on Ebay.
They're priced around the $200 mark.
I think it might be worth it.
What model are they?
No ATI video card is Metal-capable, only AMD Radeon.
Radeon video cards before the 7000 series were from ATI, 7000 and later are from AMD.
For example:
ATI Radeon HD 5870 = Not Metal-capable
ATI Radeon HD 6870 = Not Metal-capable
AMD Radeon HD 7950 = Metal-capable
After 7000 was the R9 200, 300, RX 400, 500 then Navi (5000 and 6000)
If you can find one, the 7950/R9 280X (they are the same card, just rebranded) provide good performance and aren't too expensive compared to modern cards like the RX 580 and 5700 XT.
Good find! The 280X is still alright these days and works on Mojave. Keep in mind that you might need a hack if ever in the future you want to try Monterey, but Big Sur is still great, especially on 11.6.6!