MP 1,1-5,1 WX 7100 or 5500XT?

[Zen_Arcade]

Have a 5,1 coming as a hobby machine. Has a 5770.

I *think* I’ve narrowed down GPU to the 2 in the title - I’d like to have something that is effectively plug and play and that can also be powered with just the pci-e slot and one 6 pin connector.

Thoughts? (I know, unusual decision matrix . . . )

 

[Snow Tiger]

Consider an AMD RX 480 8 GB Reference edition . It will take your Mac Pro 5,1 as high as Catalina ( if you think that is wise ) . I would not normally go beyond Mojave .

It will cost you used on eBay around $100 . If you rebuild it with MX4 thermal paste , it will last some 3 or 4 years longer than otherwise .

RX 480 8GB = 2304 Cores . used ~ $100 . Nice blower type fan to cool your Mac .
RX 5500 XT 8GB = 1408 Cores . new ~ $200 .
WX 7100 8GB = 2304 Cores , again . new ~ $500 . This is an enterprise card .

Your Mac can also have installed two RX 480s since they each only require one six pin booster power .

Programs like Blender , FCPX and Resolve just love matching Dual GPUs for compute .

RX 480 Reference looks like this :

 

[tsialex]

Have a 5,1 coming as a hobby machine. Has a 5770.

I *think* I’ve narrowed down GPU to the 2 in the title - I’d like to have something that is effectively plug and play and that can also be powered with just the pci-e slot and one 6 pin connector.

Thoughts? (I know, unusual decision matrix . . . )

WX7100 is just the professional version of RX 480, exactly the same Ellesmere GPU, but costing 5x times than one on the used market.

5500XT only works with Catalina. Since Catalina don't support MP5,1 anymore and you have to go to several hops to get it installed with your Mac Pro, it's not a wise choice. I liked a lot the 5500XT reviews, btw, but since you don't have a card that have Mojave support, it's better to choose something else.

Btw, never buy a Dell RX 480/580 for a MP5,1. Dell OEM cards are designed to get most of the power needed from the PCIe slot, Dell Workstations and gamer PCs are made this way, and when installed in a MP5,1 this GPUs cause frequents shutdowns when in heavy use.