Making the move from GTX670 to GTX1080 on X58A

[Coolz]

Hi all,

My hack has served me very well, and has basically been running and stable 24/7/365 since I built it. It's getting very long in the tooth graphics wise, so I've just ordered up a GTX1080 to put in her (I plan to make a new build soon...).

I don't frequent the forums nearly as much as I did in years past, but was checking often enough to know that the pascal cards weren't supported until just recently.

Question: Has anyone else on a similar build upgraded from a 600-series to a pascal-series card willing to share any tips? Are there any "gotchas"?

Thank you for any and all constructive input. (FYI, my build information is current)

 

[bmoag]

I think you may be reaching too far with the 1080 GPU upgrade given your base components, unless you are also planning an upgrade there as well.
For high end Windows gaming the GPU may shoulder the entire load but your CPU could prove to be a bottleneck, at least on synthetic benchmarks. You can research this issue as there are a googleplex of tests out there.
I am not sure what the power of the 1080 brings to OSX, given what OSX is, even with modern high end hack hardware but it is your money and your call. Apple engineers put a low end AMD notebook GPU in their best 5k machine, which should tell you something.
I think the money would be better spent on a motherboard/CPU/RAM upgrade as your socket 950 is quite long in the digital tooth.

 

[Coolz]

Thanks, @bmoag , your points are well taken! This is certainly only step one for my system (it's already ordered) - by the time I'm done it will be a completely new box (probably using tony's MacPro buying guide as a guideline). I dual-boot to Win8.1 to do my gaming, and I'm sure I will see some kind of decent gain there.

What I'm mostly concerned about is just how easy/difficult of a switch it will be on the macOS side - can I simply swap out the cards? I just wonder what macOS will think about it, as it is my main OS and where I actually get work done.

 

[slim.jim]

Thanks, @bmoag , your points are well taken! This is certainly only step one for my system (it's already ordered) - by the time I'm done it will be a completely new box (probably using tony's MacPro buying guide as a guideline). I dual-boot to Win8.1 to do my gaming, and I'm sure I will see some kind of decent gain there.

What I'm mostly concerned about is just how easy/difficult of a switch it will be on the macOS side - can I simply swap out the cards? I just wonder what macOS will think about it, as it is my main OS and where I actually get work done.

You'll need the drivers installed but that is about it. Might have to do some troubleshooting to get them enabled.

 

[Coolz]

@slim.jim , thank you. That's what I'm praying for here. I've been through quite a few battles getting my Hack to perform its best, and it's proven out well. I'm all for a challenge as long as it's conquerable. I'd hate to fight a losing battle.

 

[Coolz]

FYI, received my 1080 Founders Edition today. Remarkably, working well! I'll report back if I find any problems.