MP 1,1-5,1 reposting after GTX Titan black fiasco

[Dafrog]

Hi y'all. New member here. Asking for suggestions. I have a 2012 5,1. 12 core, Sonnet tempo PCIe card + with two 2TB Crucial SSDs, GPU is AMD 7950 3Gb, 128 GB of RAM Cubase, Digital Performer, a bunch of VIs, Final Cut Pro, the whole thing on Mojave. I intend to stay with Mojave for the rest of the 5,1 natural life (this matters later on). Three displays 23"Apple Cinema, A Acer K272HL and a MSI Optix AG32C
About a month ago, the tower would shut down when I opened FCPX. The fix was to unplug the Mac and replug it. Video is a workplace hobby, so I moved FCP to my laptop and will stay with that for now. Some research seems to indicate that this happens when the GPU is underpowered, but my radeon 7950 was fully plugged in so I'm assuming that the card is showing signs of aging and I should replace it. This is where it gets tricky.
Back when I beefed up the 5,1 I chose the AMD 7950 because I use all the PCI slots. The tempo takes one, the other two are occupied by two UAD cards. I couldn't go with a thicker GPU because I couldn't afford to lose the other 16 lane PCI slot. I have since discovered that the tempo can go into a 4X slot so I suppose I could lose the duo UAD card if I must, and go with a bigger/newer card. I see folks using the RX 580 a bunch, flashed or not, Sapphire seems to be the preferred one for Macs. Other suggestions have been Radeon wx7100, NVDA GTX 780 ti or Titan
Moving my UAD cards to a chassis would allow me one last improvement, and that would be adding a USB3 PCI card.
If all that verbiage seems on point, meaning if I haven't overlooked something important, I could use some recommandations for:
1 - Your fave video card (no gaming at all)
2 - Your fave USB3 PCI card running on Mojave
3 - Your fave PCIe chassis that would host at least two or three cards

Feel free to also suggest anything that may make a "substantial" difference when running my DAWs and all these VIs. I get about 500 mb/s ul/dl from the SSDs that are on the Sonnet. Half that with another SSD plugged directly into a SATA bay.
For the record, I read the Definitive Mac Pro Upgrade guide from top to bottom. Won't say that my eyes didn't glaze over a few times, but I got through it. It's very informative, What I need now are real life opinions.
Thanks a million to all that read that whole thing and happy new year to everyone of you.
Cheers
Alain

 

[joevt]

The Mac Pro forum has some posts about upgrades. Some are linked below.
https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/mac-pro.1/

Make sure you have the latest firmware
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-bootrom-upgrade-instructions-thread.2142418/

1 - GTX 680 is what I'm using with MacPro3,1. Works with all macOS versions from 10.4 to 12.1 (acceleration doesn't begin until 10.8). But I would go with Radeon RX 580 for less hassle with Monterey. Use OpenCore to get a boot screen. But if you do, then you might as well try a newer macOS version.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/gpu-compatibility-list-for-cmp.2174600/

2 - GC-TITAN RIDGE unmodified has perfect USB 10 Gbps performance and it may add USB-C DisplayPort Alt Mode support (and even Thunderbolt with additional work). You can then connect 10 Gbps USB SSDs which will be even faster than the 6 Gbps SATA SSDs you are currently using. Thunderbolt (22 Gbps) could work but may be a hassle so stick with USB (cheaper and more compatible). 10 Gbps ≈ 1060 MB/s. Then you can get rid of the Sonnet (I don't trust third party SATA - may have weird Boot Camp behavior).
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/usb-3-x-pcie-cards-for-classic-mac-pro.1501482/

3 - Netstor NA255A. Four PCIe 3.0 x8 slots. Comes with everything you need. Plenty of power. Long PCIe cables so you can put the Netstor on any side of the Mac Pro. But you may need to construct your own SATA power cable if the included Molex power is not sufficient (SATA has 3.3V while PCIe and Molex do not but not very many things require 3.3V).
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/external-pcie-expansion-non-tb3.2180900/

 

[Flyingfrog]

Much obliged. The Nestor option looks great. I am returning the GTX Titan black I bought on eBay. Despite using a pickax mod it is not getting enough power and I’m out of my depth. Any thoughts on the Radeon wx7100? I like the power consumption specs. The rx580 Igor before the GTX was too thick and blocked off the second 16 lane pcie. Maybe there’s a model that doesn’t but that one did.

 

[joevt]

Much obliged. The Nestor option looks great. I am returning the GTX Titan black I bought on eBay. Despite using a pickax mod it is not getting enough power and I’m out of my depth. Any thoughts on the Radeon wx7100? I like the power consumption specs. The rx580 Igor before the GTX was too thick and blocked off the second 16 lane pcie. Maybe there’s a model that doesn’t but that one did.

I don't have any experience with the wx7100 - it's a Polaris based card like the RX580 but it only takes a single slot. I suppose it should work.
I have a W5700 but haven't tried it in my MacPro3,1. It's a double slot card but shouldn't take more room than that.
The slots in the Netstor are a little wider than 2 slots - especially the top slot and the third slot from the top.

 

[Flyingfrog]

Thanks Joe. The only reason I’m sheepish about the rx580 is because of the hell I just went through with the GTX Titan black. Cards that require extra power scare me now, so the 7100 is appealing. Hence all the questions.

 

[mode11]

The RX580 Pulse only takes 2 slots and runs off the 2 6-pin connectors on the logic board. The bottom slot is double width, so putting in a single slot GPU won’t give any particular benefit.

 

[Flyingfrog]

The RX580 Pulse only takes 2 slots and runs off the 2 6-pin connectors on the logic board. The bottom slot is double width, so putting in a single slot GPU won’t give any particular benefit.

Thanks for this. I read on this forum that in some real life application the pulse required more power than the two six pins. It’s hard to know exactly where to turn sometimes. I take it that you are running or have run a rx 580 with the two mini to six pin without issue.

 

[mode11]

Thanks for this. I read on this forum that in some real life application the pulse required more power than the two six pins. It’s hard to know exactly where to turn sometimes. I take it that you are running or have run a rx 580 with the two mini to six pin without issue.

I've had one in my MP for a few years, including the odd sessions in Windows playing games like Wolfenstein II: NC for hours, with the settings maxed out on a 1440p screen. No problems whatsoever.

I think the Nitro version has a 2.5 slot heatsink, with probably higher clocks / power consumption.

 

[tsialex]

Sapphire Pulse is a 2.2 slots wide card, not a 2 slots one. Lot's of cards can't be installed on slot 2 when a Sapphire Pulse is installed on slot 1.

Also, the power draw in some situations can be a lot over what the backplane can safely provide and the SMC shutdowns the Mac Pro. Usually most people never gets a shutdown, but it happens and a way to avoid is to use a eVGA Power Link to balance the power draw between the two PCIe AUX power connectors.

It's not that works for most people without a hitch that will work for everyone.

 

[mode11]

Fair point. I just checked mine and I have nothing in the slot above the GPU, as I don't need to use every slot. You would likely have issues if there were anything mounted to the underside of a PCB that's in the slot above the GPU. Also, if the card were large it would block a lot of airflow to the graphics card's fans.

The eVGA PowerLink is surely unnecessary for the Pulse? The Pulse only has a TDP of 185W and is powered by a single 8-pin connector (driven by a dual mini 6-pin to 8-pin adapter cable in my case). The PL also seems designed to fit Nvidia cards, with no mention of AMD cards (AMD's power plugs are 180° the wrong orientation, at least on my card).

The PL can be set up to output to a single 8-pin plug, but at minimum requires feeding via an 8-pin and 6-pin plug. Presumably, one would therefore need to feed the former with a dual 6-pin cable, and the latter with some type of cable that draws power from SATA? Seems like a mess of cables for little benefit.

 

[Dafrog]

Sapphire Pulse is a 2.2 slots wide card, not a 2 slots one. Lot's of cards can't be installed on slot 2 when a Sapphire Pulse is installed on slot 1.

Also, the power draw in some situations can be a lot over what the backplane can safely provide and the SMC shutdowns the Mac Pro. Usually most people never gets a shutdown, but it happens and a way to avoid is to use a eVGA Power Link to balance the power draw between the two PCIe AUX power connectors.

It's not that works for most people without a hitch that will work for everyone.

Thank you for saving me from a potential mistake with the RX580. I've actually been reading your replies to members all afternoon in search for a solution to an increasingly puzzling problem. If you have a minute tp read this, I'd be very grateful. System is listed at the bottom.
As mentioned in the first message on this thread, last Fall I opened FCPX on my cMP and it shut down the computer. I had been using it without issue up to that point. None of my pro audio apps, DAW, VIs had that problem. I assumed the issue was a failing GPU, since only a graphics program triggered the problem. I think now that I was wrong, and that I jumped to a undereducated conclusion.
After much research i opted for a GTX Titan Black, which worked at first when I used a dual mini 6 pin to 8 pin and a dual SATA to 6pin from the DVD bay. Once I got the proper cables I switched to a cleaner version of the Pixlas mod to power it, and that's when things went awry. The cMP wouldn't boot and went on a endless restart cycle. I double checked my Pixlas, seemed solid, tried again same result. Decided to go back to the previous power scheme, same result, went back to the 7950... same result!!! Booted up from an external backup, determined that the boot drive got corrupted somehow. Reinstalled Mojave, and was able to boot using the 7950 (the GTX never allowed me to boot again after that) but it boots up super slow, like... five minutes slow, and a lot of apps only boot up after a few seconds of spinning beachball. The only thing that is physically different from the machine when it worked like a charm 5 months ago is that I've changed the 2032 battery to be safe. Everything else is back to the way it was.
I am now thinking that something else was the cause of those shutdowns to begin with.
Some of your posts made me think that the graphics program made the GPU work harder and ask for more power from the PSU, and that maybe the PSU is failing. But since I come to that conclusion using the same logical brain that sent me down the GTX rabbit hole nightmare of the last month, I'm not sure I should be listening to my own logic.
Some of your replies to other members with semi similar issues seem to suggest that the logic board could be at fault, but since their symptoms were not identical I'm not sure if I'm mixing apples and oranges.
Anyway, if you've read this far you're clearly some kind of saint.
Any help would be appreciated.
Cheers
Alan

This is my setup: 5,1 - 12cores, Mojave, 96 gigs of RAM, Sonnet Tempo plus with two SSDs, Radeon HD7950. Three displays 23"Apple Cinema, Acer K272HL and a MSI Optix AG32C, the last two use active adapters.