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Which GPU for Mac Pro 5,1 Gamer?

Hi All,

I am going to ignore the 'which forum' thing for a moment and ask some questions.

I've got all the necessary bits for running my system now but I am running into difficulties. I have installed the GTX 1080 (MSI Aero OC edition), which I bought retail (it is not a flashed card) in slot 1 and have moved the GT120 to slot 2. The GT120 was formerly tested with a 1920x1200 monitor and ran just fine, both under OS X and boot camped into Windows 10.

However, on my new 4K LG monitor I am having zero success at present. I was planning to boot up into Sierra using the GT120 and then install the relevant Pascal drivers from Nvidia. However I am now thinking that maybe this won't work due to the GT120 being unable to drive the 4K monitor? At one stage I reached the login window under Windows 10 via bootcamp but when loading into OS X I am met with graphical glitch city and a completely unrecognisable screen when the boot process reaches what ought to be the desktop.

Weirder still is that the 1080 doesn't seem to want to do anything on either OS. I'd have thought that under Windows - which I can select using the GT120 (the boot picker works, although it is rather pixelated) - the 1080 would simply load and run... Am I missing something here?

Tomorrow I'll get a chance to try my brother's HD monitor again, but was wondering if anyone had any insight that might help.
 
I have a GTX980Ti in slot 1 and GT120 in slot 2. I have run it first unflashed and as of last week I got the GTX980Ti flashed. Both worked just fine. With that in mind I keep my old mac monitor installed connected to the Gt120 and the larger Dell monitor connected to the GTX980Ti and it works great with no problems using the latest NVIDIA driver before yesterdays release using OS X 10.12.4 (16E195 build) and NVIDIA (16E195) 378.05.05.05f02

I will hold off on the 10.12.5 until I get the all clear from the beta testers.


Your setup should work just fine just install both cards and connect both to a monitor. The NVIDIA web drivers are aware of the card connected. Also make sure you restart with the Command + R +P held at boot and that should clear things up for you.


go to the macvidcards dot com site for the latest driver link
http://www.macvidcards.com/drivers.html
 
yukdave said:
I have a GTX980Ti in slot 1 and GT120 in slot 2. I have run it first unflashed and as of last week I got the GTX980Ti flashed. Both worked just fine. With that in mind I keep my old mac monitor installed connected to the Gt120 and the larger Dell monitor connected to the GTX980Ti and it works great with no problems using the latest NVIDIA driver before yesterdays release using OS X 10.12.4 (16E195 build) and NVIDIA (16E195) 378.05.05.05f02

I will hold off on the 10.12.5 until I get the all clear from the beta testers.


Your setup should work just fine just install both cards and connect both to a monitor. The NVIDIA web drivers are aware of the card connected. Also make sure you restart with the Command + R +P held at boot and that should clear things up for you.


go to the macvidcards dot com site for the latest driver link
http://www.macvidcards.com/drivers.html
Click to expand...

Thanks for your response. So, under boot camped Windows 10, would I have to do something to get the card to work? Download the drivers etc? Or should it just work straight out of the box?

As for the PRAM reset, didn't know about that, but worth a try! Thank you.
 
I believe you should load the NVIDIA windows drivers for windows 10 into bootcamp windows partition as well and that should clear it up. Whenever I move cards around the pram always needs to be reset. Also unplug the power and wait 60 seconds for the SMC to reset.
 
yukdave said:
I believe you should load the NVIDIA windows drivers for windows 10 into bootcamp windows partition as well and that should clear it up. Whenever I move cards around the pram always needs to be reset. Also unplug the power and wait 60 seconds for the SMC to reset.
Click to expand...

Great. Thanks so much for the info. When I get the machine plugged into a lower res display that the GT120 can drive I will reset the SMC and then load the relevant drivers into the Windows Bootcamp side. Thanks for helping this 'ere n00b!
 
Question. It seems like limiting yourself to 225watt puts a big constraint on being able to get a modern GPU.

I've read people that have hooked up a power adaptor to one (or two) of the internal sata slots to feed bigger/beefier cards.

Even easier, I've also recently read someone on redit that someone simply just used an adaptor from the existing sata cable from an available optical-drive cable to feed the 8-pin slot on the card, and used the mobo 6-pin to feed the 6-pin connector on the card...
 
fendersrule said:
Question. It seems like limiting yourself to 225watt puts a big constraint on being able to get a modern GPU.

I've read people that have hooked up a power adaptor to one (or two) of the internal sata slots to feed bigger/beefier cards.

Even easier, I've also recently read someone on redit that someone simply just used an adaptor from the existing sata cable from an available optical-drive cable to feed the 8-pin slot on the card, and used the mobo 6-pin to feed the 6-pin connector on the card...
Click to expand...

I don't think it's a good idea to use a SATA to feed the 8pin.

The 6pin is rate 75W
The 8pin is rated 150W
The SATA only rated ~55W

I just can't see why anyone would like to power the 8pin by the SATA port if the 6pin is avail at there.

I guess the post you refer to was talking about use 2x 6pin to feed the 8pin (150W -> 150W), and the a SATA from the optical bay to feed the 6pin (55W ->75W). Or something like 6pin + SATA to feed a 8pin (130W -> 150W).

However, that will technically exist the SATA limit.

If the user do not care the official limit, then for most card, all he need is just a 6pin to 8pin cable, the mini 6pin on the cMP can effectively deliver up to around ~120W. That means if a card can evenly draw 120W from each 8pin, and 75W from the slot. A cMP can power a card up to 315W TDP.

If anyone care about the official limit, then he should never ever power a 6pin or 8pin from a single SATA port. However, it's totally OK to power the 6pin by 2x SATA port. Therefore, one of the "safe" config would be something like

2x mini 6pin to 8pin
and 2x SATA to 6pin
 
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Excellant and concise points. That really cleared up my thinking.

It sounds like you can run a 300W card by this configuration:
2x SATA slots into a single 6 pin connector (75w)
2x 6-pin slot into a 8 pin connecter (150w).
Pci-e slot (75w)

= 300W

The downfall is that you lose 2x internal SATA slots, but that's OK because that's what external sleds are for. In other words, I'd have to run time machine on an external drive, so biggie.
 
fendersrule said:
Excellant and concise points. That really cleared up my thinking.

It sounds like you can run a 300W card by this configuration:
2x SATA slots into a single 6 pin connector (75w)
2x 6-pin slot into a 8 pin connecter (150w).
Pci-e slot (75w)

= 300W

The downfall is that you lose 2x internal PCI slots, but that's OK because that's what external sleds are for. In other words, I'd have to run time machine on an external drive, so biggie.
Click to expand...

I think you mean 2x SATA ports.
 
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300W is supported with the two PCI AUX ports and the PCI slot.
606099-c5291aaa8ad8c3df8b89d8974db69180.jpg.png
606100-503408ee482e0a667c3416d5635f8fe2.jpg


SYOPS has the best description of the on board 6 pin ports I have seen. What is great is the two AUX ports can support up to 150W each if a proper 6 pin to 8 pin cable is used. 75W comes from the PCI slot. No need to use a Y connector or SATA power. Here is the link and proof that the 6pin is able to support 150W using a meter and some photos

"The pin out of the mini 6 pin PCIe AUX on the MAC PRO 4,1 | 5,1. looking at the pin diagram, you can see the only pins that provide power on both the 6 and 8 pin PCIe AUX are pins 1,2 and 3. On the 6 pin plug, pin number 2 may or may not be connected. See note in diagram.

Yes the number 2 pin is connected on the MAC PRO 4,1 and 5,1. Electrically by jumping the extra ground and sense as depicted in the picture you signal the GPU it is a 8 pin connector. If there are only two power pins in this configuration you may run into a overload issue, but the Mac Pro has all three pins powered. Yes you can draw the maximum 375 watts for a single GPU on the MAC PRO 4,1 | 5,1."

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-pro-4-1-and-5-1-pcie-aux-power.2035519/#post-24366927
 
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yukdave said:
300W is supported with the two PCI AUX ports and the PCI slot. View attachment 700238 View attachment 700239

SYOPS has the best description of the on board 6 pin ports I have seen. What is great is the two AUX ports can support up to 150W each if a proper 6 pin to 8 pin cable is used. 75W comes from the PCI slot. No need to use a Y connector or SATA power. Here is the link and proof that the 6pin is able to support 150W using a meter and some photos

"The pin out of the mini 6 pin PCIe AUX on the MAC PRO 4,1 | 5,1. looking at the pin diagram, you can see the only pins that provide power on both the 6 and 8 pin PCIe AUX are pins 1,2 and 3. On the 6 pin plug, pin number 2 may or may not be connected. See note in diagram.

Yes the number 2 pin is connected on the MAC PRO 4,1 and 5,1. Electrically by jumping the extra ground and sense as depicted in the picture you signal the GPU it is a 8 pin connector. If there are only two power pins in this configuration you may run into a overload issue, but the Mac Pro has all three pins powered. Yes you can draw the maximum 375 watts for a single GPU on the MAC PRO 4,1 | 5,1."

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-pro-4-1-and-5-1-pcie-aux-power.2035519/#post-24366927
Click to expand...

I think that's still a theory at this moment. That post simply do not have enough data to shows that a single mini 6pin can deliver 150W in total. Yes, you show us the total power draw difference (between idle and under stress) is way above 400W. However, that's the entire system load, RAM and CPU will also draw more. And the biggest missing puzzle is the efficiency of the PSU. If the PSU has 80% efficiency (which is pretty high already). Then the actual power difference consumed by the electronics is just 381W (80% of 477W). If the PSU only has 60% efficiency (e.g. due to it's age), then the actual power draw difference from the electronics is just 286W.

If fact, there was a post about the Mac Pro's PSU efficiency is about 70% (when it was new).

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-pro-power-supply-unit.751061/#post-8159874

So, even we consider the aged PSU still have 70% efficiency. Your total power draw test will mean the PSU draw extra 477W from the socket, but only deliver extra 333W to the system. And that's including everything. So, if we assume the CPU and RAM only draw extra 40W, then 980Ti only draw extra ~290W. That means the graphic card itself just draw a little bit over 300W when under stress. That fall within the limit of others observation (120x2 + 75 = 315W max continuous power draw)

I really want to see that your theory is correct (the cMP can power a 375W TDP card). However, no member here able to show anything to match that pin 2 theory so far, including lots of knowledgeable guy e.g. MVC.

What you shows us so far is that your 980Ti can be OC, which is good. A dual 8pin card works well, which is also good. And I always says 8+8 is better than 6+8 because the more balanced power draw. You proved that. (The lower TDP reference 6+8 pin TitanX will shutdown the cMP but not your 8+8 980Ti). And you also show us that the 980W rate PSU can do it's job properly.

However, None of your post can conclude that a single mini 6pin was delivering anything about 150W. So, I think we better leave it as the theory at this moment. And should clearly tell the others that may not be true.
 
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That was my conclusion, too.

A lot of cards come with a single 8-pin connector. Is that of any reason to be concerned with using both pci-e aux ports to power it (2->1 splitter)?

Or again, does it go back to the "sorry, 75 watts max rule per each connector" thing.

What I'm trying to conclude, is what cost-effective graphics card can I throw in a 5,1 and "safely" run it without sweating anything in order to do some HTC VIVE gaming?
 
Alchemist said:
Great. Thanks so much for the info. When I get the machine plugged into a lower res display that the GT120 can drive I will reset the SMC and then load the relevant drivers into the Windows Bootcamp side. Thanks for helping this 'ere n00b!
Click to expand...
Just remember to pull the GT 120 out when your done. I have a GTX 1060 and, if I leave my GT 120 in, when I boot in to Windows the GTX 1060 is ignored and the GT120 takes over. Nothing I could do to stop it. In macOS this isn't a problem.
 
I power my reference 980Ti with the two PCI Aux connections and Furmark forces a shutdown, pretty sure those two connections don't have the ability to push through enough wattage. I mean, that's fine like 99% of the time as hardly anything pushes your GPU to that extreme.
 
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My two cents, I just bought an evga 1070FE but am returning it as I found the idle fan noise too irritating. It made a droning noise which my 1080FE does not!
Does anyone know of a good 1070 with one 8-pin but silent idling?
 
Squuiid said:
My two cents, I just bought an evga 1070FE but am returning it as I found the idle fan noise too irritating. It made a droning noise which my 1080FE does not!
Does anyone know of a good 1070 with one 8-pin but silent idling?
Click to expand...

I think lots of after market 1070 only spin up the fan when the GPU reach certain temperature. Therefore, the card itself should be silent when idle.
 
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Currently running an ASUS GTX 970 Mini in my Mac Pro for gaming (W3690, 24GB RAM), via both 6 pin connectors going into an 8 pin. Battlefield 1 runs around 55fps on my Dell P2416D (23.8" 2560x1440) via Bootcamp on Windows 7 Pro.
https://www.asus.com/au/Graphics-Cards/GTX970DCMOC4GD5/

Considering moving up to the Zotac GTX 1080 Mini though, it uses less power (180w vs 225w) and should give me enough to hit the 75Hz overclock that the monitor runs at (custom setting).
https://www.zotac.com/us/product/graphics_card/zotac-geforce-gtx-1080-mini

Very happy with the performance of this machine, picked it up cheap, upgraded the CPU, upgraded the RAM and it's running a 500GB EVO SSD for macOS Sierra music production and another one for Bootcamp Win 7 Pro gaming.

Considering changing the boot drives over to DT-120 PCIe cards with Samsung AHCI SM951 SSD's for a snappier system :)
 
frankle said:
Currently running an ASUS GTX 970 Mini in my Mac Pro for gaming (W3690, 24GB RAM), via both 6 pin connectors going into an 8 pin. Battlefield 1 runs around 55fps on my Dell P2416D (23.8" 2560x1440) via Bootcamp on Windows 7 Pro.
https://www.asus.com/au/Graphics-Cards/GTX970DCMOC4GD5/


Very happy with the performance of this machine, picked it up cheap, upgraded the CPU, upgraded the RAM and it's running a 500GB EVO SSD for macOS Sierra music production and another one for Bootcamp Win 7 Pro gaming.

Considering moving up to the Zotac GTX 1080 Mini though, it uses less power (180w vs 225w) and should give me enough to hit the 75Hz overclock that the monitor runs at (custom setting).
https://www.zotac.com/us/product/graphics_card/zotac-geforce-gtx-1080-mini
Considering changing the boot drives over to DT-120 PCIe cards with Samsung AHCI SM951 SSD's for a snappier system :)
Click to expand...
How did you like the 1080 mini?
 
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Alchemist said:
Great. Thanks so much for the info. When I get the machine plugged into a lower res display that the GT120 can drive I will reset the SMC and then load the relevant drivers into the Windows Bootcamp side. Thanks for helping this 'ere n00b!
Click to expand...

How did you get on with your installation?

I had a stab at installing a new GPU into my 5,1 6-core W3690 3.46GHz machine with 48GB RAM, and 1TB SSD system last Christmas. I ended up getting nowhere and returned the new cards.

I’d be really keen to see/hear of your results with X-Plane 10/11 if possible.

Also, which cable adapters did you buy and from where?
 
Forbesie2k said:
How did you get on with your installation?

I had a stab at installing a new GPU into my 5,1 6-core W3690 3.46GHz machine with 48GB RAM, and 1TB SSD system last Christmas. I ended up getting nowhere and returned the new cards.

I’d be really keen to see/hear of your results with X-Plane 10/11 if possible.

Also, which cable adapters did you buy and from where?
Click to expand...

Hi! I succeeded in the end though it was a moderately complex process. The GTX1080 runs well, but my OS X won't drive my 4K LG monitor in 60fps which is a bit annoying. To enable the 60Hz mode on the monitor you have to turn on a setting (via the monitor menu) which is obliquely called 'HDMI Ultra HD Deep Color'. It needs to be off to work reliably on the Mac OS X side of things in though occasionally it will work. It's all a bit of a fudge, but OS X is useable for productivity apps at 30Hz. I am using the OS X side of things for handbrake and RipIt and Aperture slideshow creation while I edit in LR on my main machine. I have yet to update to High Sierra (currently running the latest version of 10.12) as I've heard that there may be some GPU web driver issues. That said, I think I may have seen someone mention that those are now resolved.

On Windows 10, things run great. No 60Hz issue there. I am playing a fair bit of Witcher 3 on Ultra everything at 2560. It runs GREAT. As a gaming machine it is great. X-Plane is a more so-so experience and it's not a huge step up from my iMac 5K 2014, though performance is improved in some ways. X-Plane is very CPU bound so that's the issue really. I can run some more in depth tests if you have something else in mind?

As for the GPU power cable, I could only find it in a single place. Mod DIY in the US. I am from the UK so had to have it shipped. I bought this cable, Apple Dual Mini PCI-E 6-Pin to Standard PCI-E 8-Pin and it has worked a treat.

My biggest issue was when a OS X update broke the Web Driver meaning that no display output occurred. For a ghastly 10mins I thought might new rig had fried. Some calm troubleshooting and a bit of remote desktop solved the issue once I'd moved to the latest version of the Nvidia web driver.

Hope that helps, I am not a pro at this so it took some figuring out, but it's been an interesting and largely successful process.
 
Alchemist said:
X-Plane is a more so-so experience and it's not a huge step up from my iMac 5K 2014, though performance is improved in some ways. X-Plane is very CPU bound so that's the issue really.
Click to expand...

In your honest opinion, and with the sole purpose and focus on increasing performance in X-plane, would it be worth the upgrade?

I’m currently running with the ATi Radeon HD 5770 that my machine came with. Do you believe the same card you purchased would be the best choice to improve X-plane performance on my machine (bang for buck)? Or would another option be better?

I have windows installed via bootcamp, but have only ever ran X-Plane on OSX. Would changing everything over to run on bootcamp give any better an experience over OSX?

Out of interest, what FPS are you getting over the likes of London (with the main scenery add-ons installed), and at what X-plane settings? And also with graphics hungry aircraft add-ons?

Many thanks in advance.
 
Someone have a Source for this Power cable Dual 6 pin to 8 pin in Europe?
Best would be amazon.de (germany)

thanks
 
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