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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Latest "BEST" GPU Upgrade for 2010 MacPro?

Terry VerHaar

Terry VerHaar

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This question has been asked and answered a zillion times but does seem to change rapidly. I am hoping to ramp up the performance of my 2010 6-core, 3.33GHz Mac Pro while I wait for/decide about the new Apple offering coming. I have the standard nVidia 5770 now. Looking at GeForce 680. Good choice? Anything better for the price?

Looks like any additional card will exceed the 300w power capacity. Do I just remove the old card? Or is it with keeping them both and adding some sort of additional power supply? (How hard is that?)

(Jeff, you out there? lol)

As always, THANKS!
 
GeForce 680 Mac Edition is a nice card. Replaces your ATI 5770 and is faster for Resolve and Premiere. It's a pain, but you would get more out of adding a second CPU and more RAM.
 
Hey Jeff, have you had much of a chance to test/ use the GTX Titan in the current gen MacPro? I was about to pull the trigger on a GTX 690 to beef up my Resolve system but after hearing from BMD that Titan is likely the top dog for V10 it seems like a better long-term buy.
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
GeForce 680 Mac Edition is a nice card. Replaces your ATI 5770 and is faster for Resolve and Premiere. It's a pain, but you would get more out of adding a second CPU and more RAM.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Jeff. Do you think it would it provide any help to FCP-X, rendering and proxy generation, etc?

Adding another CPU is pretty pricey, I think. (I am not the DIY guy bin this area.) At that level, I think I'll sink that money into the new MP in the fall. RAM might be a good idea. I am at just 4 x 4 now.
 
I want to thank folks for the input. As I was contemplating my options it occurred to me to ask one more question. Perhaps you guys could weigh in on which option gives me the most performance bang for the buck...

1) Upgrade RAM from 16G to 48G (max) ~ $650
2) Replace nVidia 5770 GPU with GeForce 680 ~ $600
3) Replace boot drive (HDD) with an SSD ~ $750 - 1300

Looking for the best performance out of RCX, FCP-X, Resolve.

Thanks again for any thoughts. :smiley:
 
Adrian Jebef said:
Hey Jeff, have you had much of a chance to test/ use the GTX Titan in the current gen MacPro? I was about to pull the trigger on a GTX 690 to beef up my Resolve system but after hearing from BMD that Titan is likely the top dog for V10 it seems like a better long-term buy.
Click to expand...

Only tested a Titan in a Mac Pro way back when... At the time, drivers were pretty much non-existent, but it did kinda work, or at least I got a full resolution desktop going. Never went back to it. Ultimately, I think the Titan would over-draw the onboard power of the Mac Pro, so you would need to pull extra power from somewhere else -- lower drive bay or additional PSU. I've heard that it works better now with latest OSX revision and nvidia drivers, just have not checked it out for myself.

I think when all things are considered, I'd have to go for the GTX680 Mac Edition. It is performing great! They did a fine job of tuning firmware / EFI and power consumption for the Mac Pro. It holds pace with the flash-modded GTX780 out there that BareFeats got their mitts on for some benchmarking a week or so back.

Back on the subject of the Titan, that's what I'm running in my Z820. Nice card for sure. Only thing better is the new Quadro K6000, which is actually the same GPU, but with a more robust memory interface and 2X the RAM. ...And a much steeper price tag.

Terry VerHaar said:
1) Upgrade RAM from 16G to 48G (max) ~ $650
2) Replace nVidia 5770 GPU with GeForce 680 ~ $600
3) Replace boot drive (HDD) with an SSD ~ $750 - 1300

Looking for the best performance out of RCX, FCP-X, Resolve.
Click to expand...


I would say it's a toss-up between the GPU and the RAM upgrade with sensibility leaning toward the RAM. The SSD will make the system start up faster and apps will load faster, but you're not working off that drive, so it's not your bottleneck. Assuming you have adequately fast storage for all your media, cacheing, etc.., then I would go with the RAM upgrade next. It will give you much more room to buffer in RC-X and the OpenCL performance of the 5770 card is only about 15% slower than a GTX680 anyway, so FCP-X is going to benefit far more from the RAM and REDCINE currently doesn't do much with GPUs anyway. Resolve needs the RAM if you want to make use of the GPU, so you'll have to do it either way. Of the three apps you list, the only one that is going to benefit from the GTX680 in any meaningful way is Resolve. For Resolve the GTX680 will show a nice boost in speed. But 16GB RAM and only having a single 6-core CPU would hold you back.

Seriously the single 6-core CPU is a hinderance on the Mac Pro. Not the end of the world by any stretch, but you basically have half a system there with no economical or readily available way to upgrade. Obtaining the CPU is the easy part, rounding up the proper CPU cooler and RAM board is near impossible without navigating the Apple Parts system and technically only Authorized service centers can do that. :(

So, RAM first, fast RAID working storage if you don't have it comes next, then GPU third, SSD 4th.... Don't go too wild. We're probably 6 to 12 weeks away from that new Mac pro and should have pricing within the next month. If you had a 12-core Mac, the future of your tower would be a bit brighter and I wouldn't caution you about upgrading.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all the good info, Jeff, as always. Turns out I guessed right and ordered my 3 x 16G RAM upgrade a few days ago. I might go for the new GPU but, based on your recommendation, I am hesitant. Might just wait for the new machine, getting the most out of this one in the meantime.

I originally went for the 6 core wit the faster (3.33 GHz) processor because, at the time, not too many apps were really using all the cores available. I decided to put some of my money in the faster chip. A lot has changed since then. 12 core, dual processor may have been the better deal in hindsight. :-(
 
I have the below machine, with an SSD as my boot drive.

With Epic footage, Resolve works great. Final Cut Pro X works great, with playback set to "performance" rather than "quality". Neither plays back footage without stutters or dropped frames, but it's perfectly usable, and better than cutting 1080p footage circa 5 years ago. I haven't used Premiere.

Redcine-x plays back reliably at 1/8. 1/4 is a wait. 1/2 is acceptable for checking frame to frame over a dozen or so frames. "Full" is pretty much useless for motion. It takes several seconds to render each frame.

I'm in the Bay Area too. Let me know if you want to try some footage on my machine, and/or vice versa. Is anyone ever sure that they haven't missed some important gap in their setup?

hth,
-n


Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro5,1
Processor Name: 6-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number of Processors: 2
Total Number of Cores: 12
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache (per Processor): 12 MB
Memory: 40 GB

Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 5870
Slot: Slot-2
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 1024 MB

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 1280 MB
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
I think when all things are considered, I'd have to go for the GTX680 Mac Edition. It is performing great! They did a fine job of tuning firmware / EFI and power consumption for the Mac Pro. It holds pace with the flash-modded GTX780 out there that BareFeats got their mitts on for some benchmarking a week or so back.
Click to expand...

I think you may have confused the GTX770 for the GTX780

Completely different architecture, the GTX780 is a Titan with less RAM and slightly slower clocks. Both GK110.

Here is a good read to learn more:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6973/nvidia-geforce-gtx-780-review/18

It is 25% or so faster than a 680.

The cards we (MacVidCards) sent to Barefeats were the 770s, they are 680s with faster clocks. (GK107)

He won't have 780s to test until we send him some.

Going to make some nice cards for Mac Pros to finish come to bat against the iCan.

We have now got 100% functional EFI that offers boot screens and PCIE 2.0 speed in OSX and Windows.

MUCH faster than a 680.
 
Nice! I have one of Dave's Flashed GTX 570s in my tower and it runs great. I just moved it from the Cyclone Chassis to the Gfx slot in the tower and it works perfectly for GUI. I'm going to order one of the 780's and check it out. I assume it will be awesome, in which case I'll get another to double up in the chassis.

CB
 
Dave, may you do a Resolve-benchmark with different GFX cards in OSX? It would be good to see the difference between the options you're selling.
 
Barefeats.com just finished up with some more benchmarks, including Resolve and AE.

He will soon be adding GTX780/Titan ones...as soon as I get a couple free cards I can send him.

But the 770 vs others are up now. A few more will be up in a day or two.

http://barefeats.com/gpu680v7.html

There are another few tests if you look through main page at past tests.

If you can think of better, more appropriate tests, feel free to send him and email and suggest what and why.
 
Any input on:
Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition 3GB DDR5
AND
AMD Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card

....I'm in the air on which card to buy OR if i just go wtih NVDIA 680 card with 4GB ram.... It seems the big question is if one is looking for CUDA or OPEN CL support if i'm correct in all my reading....My main use is FCPx and Reslove with a bit of photoshop. I rarely if ever use Pr.Pro and AE, although i do have those two programs and have used them in the past....My current card is an Quadra 4000mac and it's in my 2009, MacPro 4.1 --- which i am upgrading CPU and RAM to 5.1 and 1333ram next week ---therefore i now want to move to the next generation of GPU that will assist me in crunching dragon footage in FCPx which is a huge pull on my system at the moment.
 
So here again on THIS thead: latest news about findings for best GPU for macpro 2009 or 2010---but with $$ in mind and best bang for buck:

I had a chance to test a Quadro 4000 + GTX 680 installed simultaneously.

BAD NEWS: FPCX 10.1 ignores the second NVIDIA non-display GPU.

GOOD NEWS: The single GTX 680 renders the effects as fast as dual 5770s and faster than the single 7970.
 
Johnny Friday said:
Any input on:
Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition 3GB DDR5
AND
AMD Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card

....I'm in the air on which card to buy OR if i just go wtih NVDIA 680 card with 4GB ram.... It seems the big question is if one is looking for CUDA or OPEN CL support if i'm correct in all my reading....My main use is FCPx and Reslove with a bit of photoshop. I rarely if ever use Pr.Pro and AE, although i do have those two programs and have used them in the past....My current card is an Quadra 4000mac and it's in my 2009, MacPro 4.1 --- which i am upgrading CPU and RAM to 5.1 and 1333ram next week ---therefore i now want to move to the next generation of GPU that will assist me in crunching dragon footage in FCPx which is a huge pull on my system at the moment.
Click to expand...

Johnny,
7950 did not work for me: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?110569-Issue-with-full-debayer-on-Radeon-HD-7950

-n
 
Hello everyone.
Some days ago I put a GTX 770 in my mac pro 2008. The gpu looks well and work much better in mountain lion than mavericks. It´s not a "flashed" version, is a pc card. REDCINE-X works very well at 1/4 resolution after adjust and tune color correction.
Adobe CS6 isn´t friendly with 770 but you can modified list about GPU compatibility of Premiere and AF to use this card with CUDA enable.

PD: I have not managed CUDA enable in Adobe Media Encoder Cs6.
 
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