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Why go 5,1 -> nMP?

akadmon said:
I have a loaded Hex 5,1 (32GB RAM, 1TB RAID0 SSD, 12TB internal spin HDDs), and I love it! I use the machine primarily for photo-editing in Lightroom and occasionally in Photoshop CC. I am intrigued by the possibility of adding a "retina" capable display (which, as I understand it, is not possible with a MP 5,1, at least nit at 60Hz).
Click to expand...

Are you sure about this? I haven't been paying close attention to support for 4K displays at 60Hz on older Mac Pros, but there are a couple of people playing around with it... https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1668673/

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That's what I thought....

MacVidCards said:
...

And you can put an AMD 7950 in your cMP and run a 4K display at the very same resolutions and refresh rates as a nMP in 10.9.3.
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akadmon said:
Does a hex nMP provide enough of a boost to justify the extra expense? How much $ would it take to give me the same RAM and storage as I have now? I am willing to spend max $300 per 10% improvement in photo-editing speed. Doable?
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I upgraded from a 4,1 Quad-Core, 12GB, SATA2 SSDs, USB2, GT120 Mac Pro to a nMP with Hex-Core, 32GB, PCIe SSDs, USB3 and dual D500s and I saw anywhere from a 2-4x improvement in photo editing tasks in Aperture. You can read my review here... https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1692536/

If you upgrade from your 5,1 to a similarly equipped nMP, I'm not sure what kind of benefit you're going to see, but it won't be 2-4 times in real-world photography tasks. And a similarly equipped nMP will cost you about $5-$6K (minus whatever you can get for your 5,1). So I don't think it will offer you the kind of bang-for-the-buck you're looking for. You basically want a doubling of performance for $3K... and for CPU and I/O bound tasks like photography, you're going to have to wait a couple of generations before you're going to see that kind of improvement.

Basically, I wouldn't recommend anyone with a 5,1 upgrade now. On the other hand, the 3,1 and earlier are ripe for upgrading depending on your current config and what you do with it and a good case can be made for upgrading a 4,1 in some instances (such as my case).
 
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pragmatous said:
However, you need to consider that the mac pro has been out for a year now and a refresh is around the corner with haswell-ep.
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I wouldn't be particularly eager about forecasting refreshes, given Apple's track record with the Mac Pro. If it hasn't been announced, it's not "around the corner".
 
VirtualRain said:
Are you sure about this? I haven't been paying close attention to support for 4K displays at 60Hz on older Mac Pros, but there are a couple of people playing around with it... https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1668673/

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That's what I thought....




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I upgraded from a 4,1 Quad-Core, 12GB, SATA2 SSDs, USB2, GT120 Mac Pro to a nMP with Hex-Core, 32GB, PCIe SSDs, USB3 and dual D500s and I saw anywhere from a 2-4x improvement in photo editing tasks in Aperture. You can read my review here... https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1692536/

If you upgrade from your 5,1 to a similarly equipped nMP, I'm not sure what kind of benefit you're going to see, but it won't be 2-4 times in real-world photography tasks. And a similarly equipped nMP will cost you about $5-$6K (minus whatever you can get for your 5,1). So I don't think it will offer you the kind of bang-for-the-buck you're looking for. You basically want a doubling of performance for $3K... and for CPU and I/O bound tasks like photography, you're going to have to wait a couple of generations before you're going to see that kind of improvement.

Basically, I wouldn't recommend anyone with a 5,1 upgrade now. On the other hand, the 3,1 and earlier are ripe for upgrading depending on your current config and what you do with it and a good case can be made for upgrading a 4,1 in some instances (such as my case).
Click to expand...

You probably haven't read the other thread about how to make Mac Pro 5.1 a King of Mac.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1732849/

You think upgraded to nMP give you a great improvement is because you had GT120. If you already have a HD 7950 in your Mac Pro 4.1, I am sure you won't be that much confident to say that. HD 7950 is already much better than GT120. Especially if you are using APPLE photo/videos apps that Apple just updated last year that solely support OpenCL acceleration.

I only spent $300 upgrading 2 HD 7970 (i.e. D700s) in my Mac Pro 5.1. What I don't have is TB. But it outperform most of the nMP that cost $5000-$6000 more.

The recent updated Final cut pro 10.1 efficiently utilise two D700s and so many film maker are happy with it. Same you can enjoy fast FCPX with Mac Pro 5.1 that have same upgrade, which means dual HD 7970 or 7950s.

You are not necessary to upgrade to nMP to feel that same speed up.

Again your base line is low so your gain with nMP seemed much too high...
 
Prince134 said:
You probably haven't read the other thread about how to make Mac Pro 5.1 a King of Mac.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1732849/

You think upgraded to nMP give you a great improvement is because you had GT120. If you already have a HD 7950 in your Mac Pro 4.1, I am sure you won't be that much confident to say that. HD 7950 is already much better than GT120. Especially if you are using APPLE photo/videos apps that Apple just updated last year that solely support OpenCL acceleration.

I only spent $300 upgrading 2 HD 7970 (i.e. D700s) in my Mac Pro 5.1. What I don't have is TB. But it outperform most of the nMP that cost $5000-$6000 more.

The recent updated Final cut pro 10.1 efficiently utilise two D700s and so many film maker are happy with it. Same you can enjoy fast FCPX with Mac Pro 5.1 that have same upgrade, which means dual HD 7970 or 7950s.

You are not necessary to upgrade to nMP to feel that same speed up.

Again your base line is low so your gain with nMP seemed much too high...
Click to expand...

Yes, I've seen your thread.

I'm not sure what I said to invoke such a snarky response?... Maybe you didn't notice this, but I am on your side. I did strongly encouraged the OP to upgrade his 5,1 rather than replace it - did I not?

In fact to paraphrase my previous post I said to the OP:
(a) you're wrong about not being able to upgrade your video cards to support 4K
(b) I got a big gain out of replacing my dated 4,1 but you probably won't see big gains going from a 5,1
(c) I don't recommend replacing a 5,1

And, I'm guessing you didn't read my review, or you would know why I replaced my 4,1 rather than upgrade it. You have to keep in mind that new GPUs aren't the only things that matter. Things like the cores, clocks, SSD, and even USB3 also play a key role in my workflow. Sure, I could have upgraded the CPU, bought a pair of high-end GPUs like you, added a USB3 card, and a new PCIe SSD (although I'd have run out of slots)... but ultimately with my entire system getting rather dated and every component in need of an upgrade (and previous upgrade experiences being anything but seamless) I opted to replace rather than upgrade. I recognize it's not the ideal solution for everyone (especially those with a 5,1) but it was the right thing for me. I made this very clear in my closing paragraph (which I'm assuming you didn't bother reading).
 
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VirtualRain said:
Yes, I've seen your thread.

I'm not sure what I said to invoke such a snarky response?... Maybe you didn't notice this, but I am on your side. I did strongly encouraged the OP to upgrade his 5,1 rather than replace it - did I not?

In fact to paraphrase my previous post I said to the OP:
(a) you're wrong about not being able to upgrade your video cards to support 4K
(b) I got a big gain out of replacing my dated 4,1 but you probably won't see big gains going from a 5,1
(c) I don't recommend replacing a 5,1

And, I'm guessing you didn't read my review, or you would know why I replaced my 4,1 rather than upgrade it. You have to keep in mind that new GPUs aren't the only things that matter. Things like the cores, clocks, SSD, and even USB3 also play a key role in my workflow. Sure, I could have upgraded the CPU, bought a pair of high-end GPUs like you, added a USB3 card, and a new PCIe SSD (although I'd have run out of slots)... but ultimately with my entire system getting rather dated and every component in need of an upgrade (and previous upgrade experiences being anything but seamless) I opted to replace rather than upgrade. I recognize it's not the ideal solution for everyone (especially those with a 5,1) but it was the right thing for me. I made this very clear in my closing paragraph (which I'm assuming you didn't bother reading).
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My fault, sorry.
 
See you all scared the poor guy away! He posted on 6-11-14 about the possible 5.1>nMP? move and has not returned! :p
 
OS6-OSX said:
See you all scared the poor guy away! He posted on 6-11-14 about the possible 5.1>nMP? move and has not returned! :p
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He's probably busy with work. :D His profile shows he has 1900+ posts and his last activity was Sept 2. He had a similar topic about this last Jan, 2014 :cool:
 
If I had the money.....

Of course I would buy a nMP if I had the money. Why do we buy shiny new cars with updated hardware and software? Because they are a little faster, and usually a little better. Saying that, we actually had the money to upgrade to a nMP, but I am cheap, and I upgraded a 4,1 --> 5,1 with dual X5670s, and I am getting around 24000 geek bench scores. Not stellar, but hey, I spent maybe $2k on buying a used cMP 4,1, bought two new X5670s, sweated like a pig when swapping out the old quad core Xeons for the hexa core Xeons, and then spent days trying to figure out how to add 16GB to the 48GB I already had on the machine (not as easy as you think -- I finally had to get the EXACT memory mine already had -- Hynix, registered 8Gb sticks). Price/performance ratio favored the upgrade path I took -- still, if I did not care about expenditures at all, I would (and will eventually get a nMP) get one right away. For now, this modded 4,1 -- 5,1 rig is more than fast enough for what I need it for. :p
 
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