Upgradable GPUs

[Andrew Kimery]

What no love for the people that have upgraded their 1,1 Mac Pros?

[Michael Gissing]

I’ll put my hand up. I did upgrade, change Mobo, RAM, system drive and add a GTX680. But I did it rebuilding a PC. My MacPro is locked in Sl Legacy land and with Color, I can’t go NVIDIA and get any advantage. The RAM is already more than Legacy can handle.

Over the years I have upgraded GPU and RAM and system drives in my MacPros. This time I just jumped ship.

[Andrew Richards]

[Andrew Kimery] “What no love for the people that have upgraded their 1,1 Mac Pros?”

None of the modern cards I linked work in a 1,1. Hence the distinction. If you upgraded your 1,1 what did you go from and what do you use now?

Best,
Andy

[Andrew Richards]

[Michael Gissing] “Over the years I have upgraded GPU and RAM and system drives in my MacPros. This time I just jumped ship.”

Kind of my point. My hunch is not very many Mac Pro owners took advantage of their slotted GPU’s upgradability, even if there only ever were a small handful of upgrade options out there.

Best,
Andy

[Michael Gissing]

Given the FCP/Color Preference for ATI cards, there was little to gain unless running Adobe or other software. I think the number who jumped ship to PCs because of that is significant, rather than few people update their MacPro.

To argue that a MacPro was rarely updated to NVIDIA cards is hardly proof that internal upgradable GPU is a non stater.

[Andrew Richards]

[Michael Gissing] “To argue that a MacPro was rarely updated to NVIDIA cards is hardly proof that internal upgradable GPU is a non stater.”

Or newer Radeon cards, like the Sapphire card I linked to. If someone is not a Mac user, the new Mac Pro is hardly relevant regardless of its hardware.

Best,
Andy

[Michael Gissing]

This new MacPro does seem to have enough GPU for most users so I am not arguing that lack of modding is really an issue for most. Apple have certainly solved the GPU deficiency for most users.

Only some want to tinker under the hood and we can play happily in PC land unless we need Mac OS specific software which is the only reason why I bought a G5 all those years ago.

It is a bit like grandads favourite axe but I am using rack mount cases from 15 years ago. Bang for bucks and keeping up to date is why I prefer to tinker so for both those reasons, I am not particularly excited by this announcement but I do understand why many are.

[Jamal Watts]

I upgraded my 3,1’s (2008) GPU but not to one of the cards that you listed. I upgraded the ATI 2600 to an nVidia GTX 470. I keep both in the box. I used to GTX as my main card and use the ATI as a GUI when I’m in Resolve. Only drawback is that I have no grey boot screen. Not really a drawback for me, really.

[Michael Garber]

I upgraded 3 of my Mac Pros to 5770s and 5880s when those were the only options available. One of the systems was a 2008. The other 2 were 2007s.

I sold all three when I consolidated my office and decided to purchased an iMac late last year. I have already started to notice sluggishness on the iMac on certain FCPX projects, so I figure in a year the current system will be ready for Craigslist.

Historically, I prefer upgrading parts vs short-term resale (mainly because that’s been my pattern). Ultimately it comes down to cost. If the resale value works out more in my favor to sell early and purchase new in a shorter time frame, then so be it.

Michael Garber
5th Wall – a post production company
Blog: GARBERSHOP

[Joe Mordecai]

i still have the ATI Radeon HD 5870 from when I bought my Mac Pro 5,1 in 2010. The last few months, especially after using FCPX for my work, I’ve been thinking of upgrading the card.

But I’ll be honest, I haven’t yet because 1) I wanted to wait to see what Apple had in store for this new generation and 2) call me sorta GPU-illiterate, but I never quite got a good sense of what the best card to upgrade to would be for FCPX. The Sapphire seemed like a good bet (especially at the price), but then I heard it didn’t offer too much of an advantage. Any thoughts on the best card for FCPX right now?

Alas, FCPX still runs fine with the 5870, but I would be looking for more zip. Considering it’s been nearly three years of totally fine usage, I’d imagine the new Mac Pro’s GPUs would be good for at least the same amount of time if not longer.

Who the hell knows. I still want one.