Smart 2008 cMP 3,1 upgrades?

[Litsnsirn]

Hi All,
After a while of wanting to make the plunge, and waiting too long to get a good deal on a 5,1 I have gotten myself a 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 2x2.8, 32GB RAM , and a 5770 graphics card. I have also gotten myself a 27" Cinema to upgrade the original 23". Besides learning to navigate my way around in Mac OS, I'd like to do some gaming. I think the most challenging thing that I like to play is Wargaming's World of Tanks and World of Warships.

To start with, I have ordered a OWC PCIe to 2.5" SATA adapter to mount a new boot drive.

I could get a pair of 5472's but I'm not sure the upgrade would be worth it, at least until I know if I like it.

RAM is maxed, so nothing I can do there.

I kind of want to upgrade the video card but I am not sure which direction to go in, I'm used to Nvidia but it looks like either path is valid. I want to be able to keep the boot screen, so I was thinking something like a flashed r9 280x or a gtx 680-770-970(maybe titan?). At what point are the other parts of the system going to cause a bottleneck that getting a higher tier video card is not worth it? Assuming that DP to mDP adapters work, I need something with either mDP or DP for the Cinema Display. I'm not really sure what my best choice is? I was going through previous posts, but there seems to be a lot of old material and I am not sure which concerns and issues are still valid.

Is there anything else I should be thinking about?

 

[Varmann]

Trying to get a ten year old computer up to date is always a challenge.
Do not invest too much money into it, make it a cheap and fun hobby project instead.

When that is said, mine has been a beast up through the years. Fast, only recently showing its age, reliable and very upgradeable.

Good luck!

 

[Litsnsirn]

That is kind of why I wanted to keep my video card upgrade in the best bang for the buck catagory.

Please forgive my ignorance, but upgrading to a 5,1 would only get me a few more cores and more ram, wouldn't it? There isn't a significant difference in the architecture until you get to into the "trash cans" isn't there?

 

[Pressure]

That is kind of why I wanted to keep my video card upgrade in the best bang for the buck catagory.

Please forgive my ignorance, but upgrading to a 5,1 would only get me a few more cores and more ram, wouldn't it? There isn't a significant difference in the architecture until you get to into the "trash cans" isn't there?

The difference between the 3,1 and 4,1/5,1 are unfortunately quite large. Not only are the 5,1 still supported but the processor architecture is also vastly different (Harpertown versus Nehalem+).

 

[barmann]

Please forgive my ignorance, but upgrading to a 5,1 would only get me a few more cores and more ram, wouldn't it? There isn't a significant difference in the architecture until you get to into the "trash cans" isn't there?

The MP 4.1/5.1 have a noticable performance gain throughout vs. the MP 3.1 ; faster or more effecient CPUs and RAM, multithreading, cheaper upgrades, more powerful PCIe slots , more GPU options, etc .

That said, the difference in performance is nowhere near the one between a pre-Intel Mac like the G5 and any Intel MP, that's a massive gap .

I switched to an MP 5.1 from a well specced MP 3.1 recently, but mainly because Apple offers no current workstation that makes sense for me , and given the age of the cMPs I wanted to have a spare around ( I kept the 3.1 ) .

 

[dgdosen]

I've got a old 3,1 - and it works great for what I use it for - but I wanted to ask about video card upgrades - Is there a list of supported video cards for this aging beast? Specifically, can this thing support any 'Metal" compatible cards?

One other general question - what's an indicator as to what kind of card I can put in there? Is it 'any mac os' supported card? Or are there specific hardware restrictions in place?

Thanks for any help!