Recommended 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 Upgrades (Video Card in particular)

[orph]

what software will you be looking to use?
in most video editing software the GPU dose not do much, it's kind of disappointing at least for me.
relay depends on the tasks you do.

in a lot of ways your better not thinking to much about 4k displays until you actually have one, and by then if you need a faster GPU or one with more vram they will be cheaper.

(if we are lucky in under a year there will be drivers for the new ATI cards which are cheep and come with 4-8GB vram)

have fun

 

[Carl LaFong]

what software will you be looking to use?
in most video editing software the GPU dose not do much, it's kind of disappointing at least for me.
relay depends on the tasks you do.

in a lot of ways your better not thinking to much about 4k displays until you actually have one, and by then if you need a faster GPU or one with more vram they will be cheaper.

(if we are lucky in under a year there will be drivers for the new ATI cards which are cheep and come with 4-8GB vram)

have fun

Software I want to use is Avid Media Composer and Premiere CC. I've just installed the new RAM and new 480 gig OWC SSd hard drive as the boot. My Mac 3,1 seems twice as fast now. I installed El Capitan and I got the trial Premiere CC and it all works great. This is without a new GPU, just the stock one that came originally with the Mac 3,1 computer..It will not play 4k files smoothly yet, so I am hoping that a faster GPU will solve that problem. Anyone with similar experience? In the meantime I can edit in HD seamlessly.

 

[richmlow]

Hi all,


Would an Nvidia GTX 770 (4 GB) card be a good upgrade for a 2008 Mac Pro (2.8 GHz Xeon Quad-core)? This would be used to play games such as XCOM 2, Wasteland 2, Alien: Isolation, etc.

 

[orph]

carl lafong, when you say you cant play 4K is that compressed or uncompressed ? from my understanding that may be mostly a cpu/drive speed problem (i think).
if the files are h264 try converting it to prorez or dnx
(what gpu do you have now?)

richmlow hi for games you relay do have a problem with cpu speed on the 3.1 but at the same time it wonr hurt to upgrade your gpu what do you have at the mo?
i used a gtx 660 to play xcom & wastland 2 in bootcamp

 

[Carl LaFong]

what software will you be looking to use?
in most video editing software the GPU dose not do much, it's kind of disappointing at least for me.
relay depends on the tasks you do.

good question. I've been using FCP 7 but now I'm rebuilding computer to run Premiere Pro CS. I. it's running now on a
ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT



[/QUOTE]in a lot of ways your better not thinking to much about 4k displays until you actually have one, and by then if you need a faster GPU or one with more vram they will be cheaper.[/QUOTE]

good point, thanks

[/QUOTE]-(if we are lucky in under a year there will be drivers for the new ATI cards which are cheep and come with 4-8GB vram)[/QUOTE]
thanks for this info. I might just wait. I'll google this unless you have a link

carl lafong, when you say you cant play 4K is that compressed or uncompressed ? from my understanding that may be mostly a cpu/drive speed problem (i think).
if the files are h264 try converting it to prorez or dnx
(what gpu do you have now?)

Actually it can play the 4k (uncompressed) but it becomes staggerd and a choppy play. I think this indicates that the gpu @ 256mg is too slow(ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT) The reason I'm upbuilding my Mac Pro is so I don't have to compress the files to work with them. Compressing to H264 works of course but it's a very time consuming process when dealing with a hundred or so hours of footage. I'm still doing much better now with the new SSD drive and the 36 gig RAM. I can do everything in HD now, a vast improvement over the stock Mac Pro and the aging FCP7.

 

[orph]

a GTX 670/760 2gb from ebay may be worth a look then there cheep and almost as fast as a gtx 680 + work with osx native drivers & there power levels are safe (2x 6 pin) a 670/760 4GB might also be ok price.
the 670 is faster and cheaper than the 760 but a tad older and there fairly close.

this is the thread about the new ati cards and there's a thread about the new nvida ones to but simply they dont work at the mo in osx and we dont know when they will, there's is the indication that the next version of osx will have drivers for them but we dont know 100% yet and for nvidia we will not know if they ever will work until nvidia give us drivers for them (if they ever do)
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-usd-other-apu-polaris-announcements.1975249/

edit when you say playback is choppy when playing 4K is that when the files are uncompressed or compressed, if it's chopy when playing prorez or dnx then it's more likely to be drive speed than the gpu but i may be wrong

ps what app is chopy when playing the files?
try putting a 4K file on the SSD and playing it see if play back is smooth

edit
it's much harder to play h264 than prorez on the cpu so if you can play h264 it indcates drive speed being the problem look at adobe's forums for and see all the complaints about h264 playback in premier (unless thats been fixed in newer updates of CC)
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=p...v8Aff3rqoBQ#q=premiere+h264+playback+problems

at the mo i have a gtx 660 i have my os on a SSD and i use a 1TB WD black for my live media file and a WD blue for my scratch drive and a second 1TB WD black to export too which tends to work well for light video editing 1080p most my video is h264 now from my canon 6D.
only when using FCX or resolve do i see my GPU working hard.
saying all that if i was you id upgrade that cards fairly old now, i got my gtx 660 back when i got my 3.1 to replace the GT120 and relay enjoyed the upgrade ^^

for premier this is worth a look https://blogs.adobe.com/creativecloud/red-yellow-and-green-render-bars/?segment=dva

 

[Carl LaFong]

great post. thanks. I'll digest all the links and will move a few 4k files to the SSd and test it out and report back.

 

[richmlow]

Hello orph,


With regards to what I am using right now, please see my signature.


All the best,
richmlow

carl lafong, when you say you cant play 4K is that compressed or uncompressed ? from my understanding that may be mostly a cpu/drive speed problem (i think).
if the files are h264 try converting it to prorez or dnx
(what gpu do you have now?)

richmlow hi for games you relay do have a problem with cpu speed on the 3.1 but at the same time it wonr hurt to upgrade your gpu what do you have at the mo?
i used a gtx 660 to play xcom & wastland 2 in bootcamp

 

[orph]

richmlow, sorry iv been a bit confused by the number of people asking questions.
my answer was under the assumption that you already had a 3.1 and wanted to extend it's lifespan.

i do not think it is a good idea to buy a 3.1 macpro to play games, it's cpu is pre "i3/i5/i7" the 4.1/5.1 are only first gen i7 cpu's which is now relay out of date. (and the 3.1 use overpriced ram)
but if money is not a factor then have fun,

 

[Carl LaFong]

Orph said (regarding using a 3,1 Mac with Premiere Pro)-"when you say playback is choppy when playing 4K is that when the files are uncompressed or compressed, if it's chopy when playing prorez or dnx then it's more likely to be drive speed than the gpu but i may be wrong

ps what app is chopy when playing the files?
try putting a 4K file on the SSD and playing it see if play back is smooth

Right you are, the 4k plays fine in Premiere Pro. One must render the file in the sequence. a lot better than compressing each of the files to work with. I had the file on an external hard drive before, working from the SSD drives is better as you've pointed out. All of my work is not in 4k but in HD at this time and that plays great without need of rendering. I wanted to find out the capabilities of my trusty old Mac Pro 3,1. which I upbuilded for a mere 500 bucks. Better than buying an Imac 27" for 3 large.($3,000) in order to work in Premiere Pro and AVid. Thanks again.

 

[richmlow]

Hello orph,


I do not plan on buying a Mac Pro 3.1. However, I currently have unlimited access to such a machine.

Is the 2.8 GHz Xeon (quad-core) really that much slower than the contemporary i5/i7 chips? Most games will utilize the GPU more, right? Any opinions?


Sincerely,
richmlow

richmlow, sorry iv been a bit confused by the number of people asking questions.
my answer was under the assumption that you already had a 3.1 and wanted to extend it's lifespan.

i do not think it is a good idea to buy a 3.1 macpro to play games, it's cpu is pre "i3/i5/i7" the 4.1/5.1 are only first gen i7 cpu's which is now relay out of date. (and the 3.1 use overpriced ram)
but if money is not a factor then have fun,

 

[orph]

if you where using external drives for playback then your limited by the speed of the port, if it was usb2 then thats way to slow for 4K.
if your on a budget grab a WD blue 7200rpm drive (not the 5400rpm drives there what where the WD green line).
there's a nice video on LinusTechTips showing a laptop working fine, drive speed is the main problem most the time (think they use dnx).
i always have activity monitor open to see whats going on.

:E a gtx770 will work i gess, it's meant to be just past the power limit of the macpro's so dont get a hevey overclocked version if you do get one.
the gtx 670/680 also work and if you dont want to use pro apps then the gtx9xx line is worth a look but there's some messing around there. (there are opencl bugs with the gtx9xx cards it seems )

if you want to look at cpu speed look at single core geek bench scores, as long as you only play older games you will be fine.

 

[Flint Ironstag]

Hello orph,


I do not plan on buying a Mac Pro 3.1. However, I currently have unlimited access to such a machine.

Is the 2.8 GHz Xeon (quad-core) really that much slower than the contemporary i5/i7 chips? Most games will utilize the GPU more, right? Any opinions?


Sincerely,
richmlow

Depends on which games you're trying to play, and at what quality settings and resolution. The last things I played on my 3,1 with Radeon 7970 & 1080p monitor (I play with everything maxed or not at all):

- deus ex human revolution (smooth as silk)
- world of warcraft (particular issue with 3,1 and 7970 - never achieved full potential - all settings on high and mostly smooth but could stutter in crowded areas)

 

[richmlow]

Hello Flint Ironstag,


Do you think that a Mac Pro 3.1 (equipped with an Nvidia GTX 770 (4 GB) card) be able to run the following games decently?!

Wasteland 2: Director's Cut
XCOM 2
Alien: Isolation


Sincerely,

richmlow

Depends on which games you're trying to play, and at what quality settings and resolution. The last things I played on my 3,1 with Radeon 7970 & 1080p monitor (I play with everything maxed or not at all):

- deus ex human revolution (smooth as silk)
- world of warcraft (particular issue with 3,1 and 7970 - never achieved full potential - all settings on high and mostly smooth but could stutter in crowded areas)

 

[OS6-OSX]

Software I want to use is Avid Media Composer and Premiere CC......

Download the latest AMA plugin for R3D if you are using Avid 8.4 or later. The 4k that would not play should play! That's if your drives are fast enough. Also try in yellow/green mode if green/green is a strain!

 

[Flint Ironstag]

Hello Flint Ironstag,


Do you think that a Mac Pro 3.1 (equipped with an Nvidia GTX 770 (4 GB) card) be able to run the following games decently?!

Wasteland 2: Director's Cut
XCOM 2
Alien: Isolation


Sincerely,

richmlow

Hi richmlow,

again it depends on what is acceptable and considered decent to YOU. I'd wager that if you're gaming at 1080p, with medium quality settings it would be... OK-ish on those titles.

They are probably available on Steam. Check out the reviews there.

 

[orph]

you will do better with games that use more gpu than cpu fps etc.
but games that use a lot of cpu will give you more problems rts & sim games (i got a big boost in total war games when i moved to a 5.1 from a 3.1 and turn times are a lot shorter).

if you want you can pick up a card with 2gb of vram if it's cheaper im not shore if you'll gain much from the 4gb card in games.
for video editing more vram is meant to help when working on 4K video but in games im not shore if you will gain from the extra vram because of the age of the system but i may be wrong and if it's a good price then why not i gess.

if you want to play games you'll get a lot more fps from booting in to windows and visual quality.

but if your happy playing older games (which i am as there always cheep on steam ^^) then you will do fine.

i do want to mention that the 770 is past the official power envelope of the macpro, people seem fine ruining them but id avoid the big OC gtx770 cards as there power use will be much higher than the macpro was made for.
ps i did play metro last light,farcry 2/3,shogun 2,Rome total war,medieval 2 total war, cod4, mw2, black ops, il2,CK2 on my 3.1 in windows 7 with a gtx660 at 1080p older games on high newer on med to low
played a lot of civ 4/5 in osx
do notice most the games are not new mostly 2013 and older

 

[pkouame]

Hi all -

Is it possible to flash an evga gtx 680 from a virtual box like Parallels running Windows 10? I'm currently running Sierra on a MacPro 3,1.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Ben888]

As far as I know, flash utilities don't work well in a VM.

Hi all -

Is it possible to flash an evga gtx 680 from a virtual box like Parallels running Windows 10? I'm currently running Sierra on a MacPro 3,1.

Thanks in advance.

[doublepost=1514018188][/doublepost]

As far as I know, flash utilities don't work well in a VM.

Although you can flash a card in Windows under boot camp or using a FreeDOS boot disk, a DOS version of the flash utility, and the Mac ROM file. (instructions for this are all over the internet)

 

[owbp]

Is it possible to flash an evga gtx 680 from a virtual box like Parallels running Windows 10?

It's not possible to flash GPU from virtual machine.
FreeDOS is good for flashing, but you should have Windows installed on your Mac, even on the smallest HDD partition possible, to properly test your new GPU.
There is no way, if you don't want to install FakeSMC and it's plugins, to monitor your GPU temperatures and fans in macOS and see exactly what is the condition of the card you have bought.