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Install Windows 10 on a Mac Pro 5,1

I want to try installing Windows 10 on my Mac Pro 5,1, to use for an online college program that requires this OS (instead of dropping like $1000+ on a dedicated Windows machine that I may never touch again after I finish.) From what I've seen on Apple's documentation, installing W10 on any Mac Pro model before 2013 isn't officially supported, but I've read that it's still possible though not exactly easy. I'm aware that running W10 on virtual machine (e.g., Parallels) is an option, but I may end up having to run 3D graphics software in Windows, and I don't think that would work well on VM.


Between the threads and how-to videos/articles I've seen on this topic, each one seems to use different approaches and steps (like using a bootable USB stick vs. a DVD to install W10, trying to use Bootcamp Assistant vs. not bothering, how to install the necessary Bootcamp drivers, etc.) or install W10 on a different machine than the one I'm using, so I'm now confused on the best way to go about trying to do this on my computer. There's also the fact that some of these threads and videos are a few years old now, so for all I know, they may be outdated. I've also read that newer versions of W10 are problematic (like update 1903) when installed on an older Mac, so I'm not even sure if installing W10 is even possible nowadays.


Here's my current setup:

  • Mac Pro 5,1 (mid-2012)
  • Unpartitioned HDD running macOS High Sierra 10.13.6
  • I want to use a separate 500GB+ SSD dedicated just to W10
  • Dual 6-core processor
  • 64 GB RAM
  • AMD Radeon RX580 Sapphire graphics card (flashed with the Mac BIOS by MacVidCards, so I can access the startup options)
  • Apple keyboard (wired) and speakers, non-Apple mouse and monitor


I have other Apple computers that are new enough to officially support installing W10 through Bootcamp Assistant (a late 2013 MacBook Pro and a late 2015 iMac), but I want to try making it work on my Mac Pro so that I can make use of its beefier hardware (more plentiful RAM and stronger processor and graphics card.)


Any guidance/success stories or reference to an existing and working tutorial would be appreciated.

Mac Pro, macOS 10.13

Posted on Mar 12, 2020 5:30 PM

Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Mar 12, 2020 8:24 PM

Just a note, you don't need all that for what you need it for, my cMP has it in Parallels, but I hear it works just well in the free Virtual box, no dual booting, run Win10 & OSX at the same time...

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Install Windows 10 on a Mac Pro 5,1

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