MP 1,1-5,1 Speeding up Mac Pro Mid-2012 Model MacPro5,1 3.2Ghz

[comptalk]

Need some help in speeding up my Mac Pro Mid-2012. The model is Model MacPro5,1 @ 3.2Ghz. I replaced the main hard drive from factory to a Samsung EVO 1TB. I have 20GB's of RAM and upgraded the display to a Radeon RX 580 8 GB. The computer still runs pretty slow IMO. It can take 10+ seconds to open some programs. I know it's a bit old, so I do even know if can hit the SATA III speeds. It shows on specs that the link transfer rate (across all hard drives, I still have the old non SSD hard drives as alternative disks) is a 3 GB link rate. I tested the disk write/read speed with Black Magic, and it's reading and writing around 250MB/sec.

Any ideas on what else I can do to speed up the computer?

 

[Manzana]

I have this same exact 5,1 and I would strongly suggest using an NVMe PCIe ssd.

I actually installed a SATA ssd like you did but when I saw the read/write speeds the option to speed up 6x is no brainer.

Next upgrade for me is an x5680 (“server pull” from eBay, $40) to go 6 core and go max memory speeds of 1333 MHz.

 

[TheRealDGD]

Pick up a Sapphire Graphics Card also, it will improve a bit. I have a similar machine and it is great for the stuff I do.

 

[comptalk]

Pick up a Sapphire Graphics Card also, it will improve a bit. I have a similar machine and it is great for the stuff I do.

I think it has more to do with the disk read and write speed. If I can get it up to 500mb a sec, I think that would help a lot. Already purchased this new graphics card to install Mojave, but do not understand why it read and writes so slow.
[doublepost=1565468868][/doublepost]

I have this same exact 5,1 and I would strongly suggest using an NVMe PCIe ssd.

I actually installed a SATA ssd like you did but when I saw the read/write speeds the option to speed up 6x is no brainer.

Next upgrade for me is an x5680 (“server pull” from eBay, $40) to go 6 core and go max memory speeds of 1333 MHz.

Any ideas on how I can read and write @ SATA III speeds? My SSD hard drive is able to read and write @ over 500MBs a second, but black magic says I am read and writing at more than half that.

 

[DPUser]

Update CPU as noted above
Get SATA III PCIe card

 

[flowrider]

To the OP, I won't be make any recommendations other than do a search and read a lot posts on this forum.

I realize you have been a member for 9 years now, but have not participated much. So, you must realize that folks here, me included, have been tinkering with the cMP 5,1 for years. Good Luck on your search.

Lou

 

[comptalk]

Update CPU as noted above
Get SATA III PCIe card

What model would you recommend?

 

[lowendlinux]

What model would you recommend?

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-5-1-upgrade-guide-sticky-discussion.2099092/

 

[Manzana]

Any ideas on how I can read and write @ SATA III speeds? My SSD hard drive is able to read and write @ over 500MBs a second, but black magic says I am read and writing at more than half that.

As someone stated you can get PCIe card with SATAIII and your drive will improve.
But using a PCIe slot for NVMe ssd will give you speeds in the 1,400 Mbps range.
The amount of info just on the Mac Pro forum can be overwhelming, but you will be served by reading the upgrade wiki and following those links. This is because your needs may vary. I’m fine using PCIe NVMe ssd as a boot disk running Mojave whereas others cannot do this due to their particular application. Therefore the upgrade needs of each Mac Pro are different and it is not so much a “one size fits all” solution.

 

[Rodan52]

Need some help in speeding up my Mac Pro Mid-2012. The model is Model MacPro5,1 @ 3.2Ghz. I replaced the main hard drive from factory to a Samsung EVO 1TB. I have 20GB's of RAM and upgraded the display to a Radeon RX 580 8 GB. The computer still runs pretty slow IMO. It can take 10+ seconds to open some programs. I know it's a bit old, so I do even know if can hit the SATA III speeds. It shows on specs that the link transfer rate (across all hard drives, I still have the old non SSD hard drives as alternative disks) is a 3 GB link rate. I tested the disk write/read speed with Black Magic, and it's reading and writing around 250MB/sec.

Any ideas on what else I can do to speed up the computer?

If you are happy to do some reading this is an excellent article complete with index and linked pages covering the entire slowdown issue in detail. http://www.macattorney.com/sd.html

 

[orph]

what apps are slow to open?

the EVO 1TB SSD is fairly good but if you have apps that have depedncys that are on HD's then that will slow you down.

if you keep activity monitor open and see whats going on it may help.

and some apps are just slow to open on all systems.

 

[DPUser]

Have you enabled TRIM on your SSD?

You might try cloning your EVO SSD to another drive, boot from the other drive, then wipe the EVO, reinstall your OS on the EVO, and bring the apps and data back with Migration Assistant.

I trust you have backups. If you have but one copy of your data, you are living on borrowed time.