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TechInit

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 10, 2019
31
1
Scotland
Hey,

So, I've been doing research, and found a out that the best value for money Graphics Card is the Nvidia Quadro 4000. I'm not sure wether to bite the bullet and buy it, or wait until later to buy an RX 560. The Mac Pro is the 3, 1, which can get Mojave when using Dosdude1's Patcher. Looking online, the Quadro 4000 Says in System Report:

Metal: Supported

This is an old Fermi Card, so there is that. I know it should work in High Sierra, but Mojave requires a Metal Supported GPU. I've found that people have gotten the card to work, but with some tearing, and I've also found people have managed to get the GTX 580 to work, which is also a Fermi Card, but its technically different as it's based of the GF110, as apposed to the GF100 Chip. Should I get the 580, the Quadro 4000, or the RX 560? The 560 is probably the better option, as it's way newer than both of those cards, but the Quadro 4000 is a Quadro, and they're useful for stuff like videowork and CAD. Not sure if the 4000 even IS a metal supported GPU, as I've found threads saying they're not. What should I do?

Thanks!
 

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,459
13,608
Hey,

So, I've been doing research, and found a out that the best value for money Graphics Card is the Nvidia Quadro 4000. I'm not sure wether to bite the bullet and buy it, or wait until later to buy an RX 560. The Mac Pro is the 3, 1, which can get Mojave when using Dosdude1's Patcher. Looking online, the Quadro 4000 Says in System Report:

Metal: Supported

This is an old Fermi Card, so there is that. I know it should work in High Sierra, but Mojave requires a Metal Supported GPU. I've found that people have gotten the card to work, but with some tearing, and I've also found people have managed to get the GTX 580 to work, which is also a Fermi Card, but its technically different as it's based of the GF110, as apposed to the GF100 Chip. Should I get the 580, the Quadro 4000, or the RX 560? The 560 is probably the better option, as it's way newer than both of those cards, but the Quadro 4000 is a Quadro, and they're useful for stuff like videowork and CAD. Not sure if the 4000 even IS a metal supported GPU, as I've found threads saying they're not. What should I do?

Thanks!
Fermi GPUs are not supported with Mojave, only Kepler. No AMD GCN GPU (HD7xxx on wards) works with High Sierra or Mojave and MP3,1, drivers need SSE4.2. High Sierra can be hacked with Sierra drivers, but not Mojave.

MP3,1 are restricted to NVIDIA Kepler GPUs and Mojave.
 
Last edited:

TechInit

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 10, 2019
31
1
Scotland
Fermi GPUs are not supported with Mojave, only Kepler. No AMD GCN GPU (HD7xxx on wards) works with High Sierra or Mojave and MP3,1, drivers need SSE4.2. High Sierra can be hacked with Sierra drivers, but not Mojave.

MP3,1 are restricted to NVIDIA Kepler GPUs and Mojave.
Okay, thanks! Probably going to get the GTX 670, as they're somewhat cheap, and do work on Mojave. They also peform fairly well in 2019!
 

AlexMaximus

macrumors 65816
Aug 15, 2006
1,239
583
A400M Base
Okay, thanks! Probably going to get the GTX 670, as they're somewhat cheap, and do work on Mojave. They also peform fairly well in 2019!

Chances are high in your favour to have a good result with 670.
I used to have a 680 that was the best non-mutant card ever. If you would have a slightly larger budget, a classified 680 with 4GB or even a Quadro K5000 might work as well. There are sometimes cheap cards available from old workstations that can be flashed to apple efi specs. It works for sure on the 5.1, the question remains does it work on the older 3,1. Maybe Alex knows an can confirm this theoretical mir expensive Mojave option.
 

OS6-OSX

macrumors 6502a
Jun 13, 2004
950
759
California
I've found that people have gotten the card to work, but with some tearing.....

4000 works in Mojave but with only 2GB it's really a nogo! 4000.png
 
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chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,729
7,304
Hey,

So, I've been doing research, and found a out that the best value for money Graphics Card is the Nvidia Quadro 4000. I'm not sure wether to bite the bullet and buy it, or wait until later to buy an RX 560. The Mac Pro is the 3, 1, which can get Mojave when using Dosdude1's Patcher. Looking online, the Quadro 4000 Says in System Report:

Metal: Supported

This is an old Fermi Card, so there is that. I know it should work in High Sierra, but Mojave requires a Metal Supported GPU. I've found that people have gotten the card to work, but with some tearing, and I've also found people have managed to get the GTX 580 to work, which is also a Fermi Card, but its technically different as it's based of the GF110, as apposed to the GF100 Chip. Should I get the 580, the Quadro 4000, or the RX 560? The 560 is probably the better option, as it's way newer than both of those cards, but the Quadro 4000 is a Quadro, and they're useful for stuff like videowork and CAD. Not sure if the 4000 even IS a metal supported GPU, as I've found threads saying they're not. What should I do?

Thanks!
I've installed Mojave in a 2012 Mac Pro without having to do anything with the drivers or anything else. The Mojave installer properly recognizes it, but I did see some artifacts when moving windows around. I did not do extensive testing as I just needed to be able to get Mojave installed and running on a Mac Pro for specific testing that did not rely on graphics performance.
 

basslik

macrumors 6502
Feb 22, 2008
464
104
I have a question regarding the Quadro 4000 if I may.

I guess I'm staying on High Sierra with the useful info provided by Alex. Anyhow I have *two* Quadro's running. I installed the appropriate drivers from NVIDIA 387.10.10.10.40.140 along with CUDA 418.163.

After I installed CUDA it won't let me login in to my computer, but if I shut down and disconnect the second monitor and restart the computer automatically boots up fine. I've tried switching to ( allow access to all users ), from restrict access to admin's only and it still won't let me boot with two monitors plugged in ?

Will only let me login with only one monitor plugged in. I tried to research and found an article about Xcode needs installed ? THANK YOU
 

basslik

macrumors 6502
Feb 22, 2008
464
104
Yeah it's weird that I can't run both on boot up. Going to uninstall CUDA and see if that makes a difference.

Probably don't even need CUDA since I'm just working in audio on Pro Tools and not doing any video intense work. THANKS

May I ask what High Sierra build you have. I have GPU Driver Version 387.10.10.1040.140 / CUDA 418.163 and have a red Exclamation mark on the page.
 

Macsonic

macrumors 68000
Sep 6, 2009
1,709
100
you might want to go through this recent thread pasted below. I never used NVIDIA GPUs in my cMP, but I think the issues apply to all NVIDIA GPUs on Macs.


EDIT: correction, the original GT120 were indeed NVIDIA, so I guess I used them but only briefly back in 2009!
Hi Stex. Just to clarify, there are some Nvidia Kepler GPUs that still works up to Big Sur. Monterey no longer supports any Nvidia GPU. I currently using the Nvidia Kepler architecture series, 680, 770, 780 and Quadro K5000, and luckily they still work in Macs, plug n play. The Nvidia cards that are having driver problems are the Maxwell and Paschal architecture ( 960, 980, 1060 models ) I also have the Nvidia Quadro 2000 which works fine up to High Sierra. This model doesn’t run well in Mojave.
 

basslik

macrumors 6502
Feb 22, 2008
464
104
Hi Stex. Just to clarify, there are some Nvidia Kepler GPUs that still works up to Big Sur. Monterey no longer supports any Nvidia GPU. I currently using the Nvidia Kepler architecture series, 680, 770, 780 and Quadro K5000, and luckily they still work in Macs, plug n play. The Nvidia cards that are having driver problems are the Maxwell and Paschal architecture ( 960, 980, 1060 models ) I also have the Nvidia Quadro 2000 which works fine up to High Sierra. This model doesn’t run well in Mojave.
Great info. Thank you both.

Sticking with High Sierra on this particular machine running both Quadros. I did a fresh install so I could completely remove Cuda which was not letting log on to my computer, only when I removed one of the cards I was able to login. Very strange and couldn't find any info as to why that is.

But should I install the Nvidia web driver, or just stick with Apples driver. I only use this machine for Pro Tools and not doing a video.
THANKS
 

basslik

macrumors 6502
Feb 22, 2008
464
104
Thank you

Stex

For the info. Makes sense since I remember a couple of years ago installing webdriver & Cuda they both installed with no problems except unable to logon with two Quadro's.

thank you.

Going to stick back in my 5870, yields better benches anyways than the Quadro 4000.
 

DouglasCarroll

macrumors 6502
Dec 27, 2016
386
398
Fermi GPUs are not supported with Mojave, only Kepler. No AMD GCN GPU (HD7xxx on wards) works with High Sierra or Mojave and MP3,1, drivers need SSE4.2. High Sierra can be hacked with Sierra drivers, but not Mojave.

MP3,1 are restricted to NVIDIA Kepler GPUs and Mojave.

I can second this. I just installed a Quadro K2000 (kepler based) in my 3,1 under Mojave (Dosdude1 install) and it works great, pretty slick cheap card. One caveat, if using Dosdude1 Mojave patcher, do NOT install “legacy video card drivers”, this kills the support for the kepler Nvidia cards…I found out the hard way and had to reinstall Mojave to fix this.
 
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pullman

macrumors 6502a
Feb 11, 2008
771
121
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Douglas, how is dosdude's Mojave behaving on a cMP3,1 with the K2000? I'm wondering if 2GB might be insufficient. I don't game but only use the computer for image editing in Photoshop CS6 so not super-taxing work, but if the interface isn't smooth it would be a no-go for me.

Thanks in advance
Philip

I can second this. I just installed a Quadro K2000 (kepler based) in my 3,1 under Mojave (Dosdude1 install) and it works great, pretty slick cheap card. One caveat, if using Dosdude1 Mojave patcher, do NOT install “legacy video card drivers”, this kills the support for the kepler Nvidia cards…I found out the hard way and had to reinstall Mojave to fix this.
 

DouglasCarroll

macrumors 6502
Dec 27, 2016
386
398
Hi Philip,

I think the K2000 works great, I’ve seen zero issues so far (minus the goof up I made during the install with the legacy video drivers).

I’ll attach a photo of the “Unigen Valley Benchmark” that I ran on the 3,1 with the K2000 so you can see those numbers.

I also installed Steam and some of my games there and will attach a photo from the “Tomb Raider” game benchmark results.

Honestly though I think that benchmarks don’t really show the whole picture and with that said I really like the Quadro K2000. If you could get a K4000 that would be even better.
 

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