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Video Card for Mac Pro

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markalex

markalex

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Aug 16, 2016
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Hi - newbie here. Looking for a video card.

I gave my old MacPro 4.1 new 5.1 firmware, then maxed the RAM to 128 GB. Also swapped in 2 x 3.46 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon.

But I'm using an OLD ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256 MB. I have a GeForce GTX 570HD, but the Mac crashes whenever it's plugged in. I tried installing CUDA and Nvidia drivers, but no luck.

So, with Mac cards costing a fortune, what PC card will actually work without me needing an engineering degree? (Or can I get the 570 to work? When it's plugged in, system profiler says PCI error.)

(This is NOT a Hackintosh, this is a real MacPro tower -- Early 2009)
 
markalex said:
Hi - newbie here. Looking for a video card.

I gave my old MacPro 4.1 new 5.1 firmware, then maxed the RAM to 128 GB. Also swapped in 2 x 3.46 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon.

But I'm using an OLD ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256 MB. I have a GeForce GTX 570HD, but the Mac crashes whenever it's plugged in. I tried installing CUDA and Nvidia drivers, but no luck.

So, with Mac cards costing a fortune, what PC card will actually work without me needing an engineering degree? (Or can I get the 570 to work? When it's plugged in, system profiler says PCI error.)

(This is NOT a Hackintosh, this is a real MacPro tower -- Early 2009)
Click to expand...
I would go with an R9 280X or a GTX980 (with nVidia web drivers). These are about the most powerful cards at a reasonable price right now. TitanX can be made to work but it is much more expensive.
 
Going Bald said:
R9 280X
Click to expand...
Going Bald said:
I would go with an R9 280X or a GTX980 (with nVidia web drivers). These are about the most powerful cards at a reasonable price right now. TitanX can be made to work but it is much more expensive.
Click to expand...
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Thanks for the reply GB. To clarify, I'm not playing ANY games, and I'm not doing any serious video work. I work in audio - so at most, I need videos to play back in time with my music, but that's it. Considering the power in my CPU, will I even notice any real world difference, or could I just stick with my old ATI ?
 
markalex said:
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Thanks for the reply GB. To clarify, I'm not playing ANY games, and I'm not doing any serious video work. I work in audio - so at most, I need videos to play back in time with my music, but that's it. Considering the power in my CPU, will I even notice any real world difference, or could I just stick with my old ATI ?
Click to expand...
If all you are doing is audio I would just continue to use the old ATI card for as long as it will work and Apple continues to support it with drivers.
 
Thanks GB and Florian. With the 570 plugged in, the Mac crashes, usually within 5 mins of power up - from something simple, like loading a web page. Stable operation with the ATI. But I'd love a 3rd screen. Can I just put in another cheap ATI for two more monitors? I'm just wondering if I'd actually see a performance boost with a better card. I'm doubting it, since the Mac itself is really highly spec'ed now.
 
That's strange, actually sounds like a broken card to me. The 570 won't push more than 2 displays either though, so it won't help you (plus it occupies both power cables).

A HD 5770 can easily be flashed for boot screens and drive 3 screens at a time. More modern AMD cards with 2 DisplayPorts will even drive 4 displays concurrently, as will all Kepler-based GPUs (at least those with 4 ports, obviously).
 
The Original
GA-P55M-UD2 |  i5 750 |  GeForce GTX 660
Skylake
Z170M-PLUS |  i5 6600K |  Radeon HD 7950
What I'm really wondering is if I can just grab another cheap ATI, and have 4 screens from 2 cards. If my mac is super fast (128 GB RAM, 12 core 3.46 GHz) will the GPU really make a difference ?
 
markalex said:
What I'm really wondering is if I can just grab another cheap ATI, and have 4 screens from 2 cards. If my mac is super fast (128 GB RAM, 12 core 3.46 GHz) will the GPU really make a difference ?
Click to expand...

Yes, it's possible to pick up another AMD video card and drive 4 monitors.

For audio work, more powerful GPUs probably won't benefit you much, if at all.
 
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