Upgrading my Mac Pro for gaming

And finnaly is there any way i can install a thunderport so i can use newer mac hardware?

To use ThunderBolt peripherals, a computer must have come from the factory with ThunderBolt capability installed. The 65lb Mac Pro towers are not memebers of that club.

Take that $2k and add a little to it, maybe maybe not, and buy a Windows desktop system from one of the major Windows PC makers or build one yourself.

No the cost of a Mac Pro makes it a niche product, market item.

Problem comes with actually doing Mac upgrades. Limited on older Mac Pro's and Non existant on all new 2013 MPs and Mac notebooks.

Best of luck to you and happy gaming.

Hakon007 wrote:

2 thinking like that is why mac is such a nieche market, if you can upgrade a mac for similar if not same cost as a pc then your better off. we should encourage mac modification.

Only that tests have shown that the 2008, while it does have two PCIe 2.0 16x lanes, does not do well with modern GPUs as later Mac Pro. You can find a 2010 or later from Apple Store Specials $2100, or 2009 model for $900 range.

http://forums.macrumors.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1

http://www.barefeats.com has these benchtests

July 25th, 2013 -- Inject New Life in your Old Mac Pro with a Fire Breathing GPU

July 12th, 2013 -- Two and Three GPUs rendering Multi-GPU Aware Pro Apps (After Effects, OctaneRender, LuxMark, DaVinci Resolve) -- includes GeForce GTX 770s.

May 30th, 2013 -- Tandem GPUs = Faster Pro App Rendering. (Features Octane and After Effects rendering with dual GPUs; added DaVinci Resolve on June 5th.)

May 10th, 2013 -- Do the newest GPUs run faster on the 2010 Mac Prothan on the 2009 and 2008 Mac Pro?

April 26th, 2013 -- PART THREE: EVGA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Editionversus the 'Sharks' (insane GPUs like the GeForce GTX 580 Classified and GTX 690)

April 18th, 2013 -- PART TWO: EVGA GeForce GTX 680 "Mac Edition"Versus Past and Present Mac GPUs running Pro Apps

April 16th, 2013 -- PART ONE: EVGA GeForce GTX 680 "Mac Edition"versus Past and Present Mac GPUs running OpenGL accelerated Games and Benchmarks

April 5th, 2013 (Appended) -- SHOOTOUT WITH THE 'SHARKS': Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 for Mac versus "big fish" GPUs (Added full results for the Quadro K5000 and a flashed Radeon HD 7970.)

March 22nd, 2013 -- PART DEUX:Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 versus other Mac Pro GPUs (running StarCraft, Diablo, Team Fortress, FCPX, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, and LuxMark)

March 19th, 2013 -- REVIEW: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 versus other Mac Pro GPUs (running DaVinci Resolve, Motion, OceanWave, Heaven 4, Valley, Civilization, and Dirt)

March 12th, 2013 -- The Current State of Mac Pro GPUs -- before the next "shoe" drops -- new benchmarks compare the current 'crop'

Hakon007 wrote:

that spending $2k to upgrade an 08 model will out peferm a $2k purchased 2010 model.

Actually, no. The 2010 models are significantly more powerful, have much faster RAM and faster PCIe interface.

You could sell your current MP for $900 and have $3000 budget for a much better computer. If you're focus is entirely on gaming, you'd be far better off to build a PC since server-grade parts are not needed and nearly all games are windows-based.

$3000 would build a PC that can wipe the floor with ANY MacPro in games because you would have much newer technology (even the very last MacPro sold uses 3 year old tech).

Your loss, we can no longer help you not flush money down the toilet.

Well what games are you going to play? Most are for Windows and only a few run on OS X. So no matter what name in on the outside of the box you'll more than likely need to install a version of Windows.

You do realize that Apple and every other computer maker in the world use the same exact hardware.

Hakon007 wrote:

as i have said any advice on building a pc for gaming is useless in this thread.

this is purely how to get the best bang for buck gaming platform that is mac based.

i will auto dismiss any solution that involves buying a pc.

The 2008s are buggy and do not handle new GPUs that well, have both PCIe 1.1 and 2.0 slots.

so no matter how much $$ you throw at it, a 2009 would fare far better.

To me, seems like PC gamers have tended to use multiple GPUs in SLI/CF to get max settings, run on 3 screens for surround experience. Things you can't do easily if at all on a Mac.

Even iMac 2012 might do better, again Apple Store Specials has good buys there. One with GTX 6xxM or above.

The hatter wrote:

Even iMac 2012 might do better, again Apple Store Specials has good buys there. One with GTX 6xxM or above.

Thats exactly the route I took. The 680MX may be a "mobile" GPU but it walks all over my modified 1,1 with a 5770 in every category. My other choice would have been a 6-core 5,1 but people are demanding ridiculous prices for the 3 year old computer, even more than Apple lists for refurbished units with a warranty.

The 780 may list better than the 680MX on benchmarks: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php

but you will be severely limited by the 800mhz ram, poor PCI-e support and the fact you'll have a flashed PC card with no OSX drivers.

>> My other choice would have been a 6-core 5,1

Two common upgrades (if you are handy) are installing two four-cores in the 1,1 and updating its firmware OR

Taking a four-core 4,1 or a four-core 5,1 and installing a 6-core processor and updating the firmware.

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

Two common upgrades (if you are handy) are installing two four-cores in the 1,1 and updating its firmware

More cores is a waste, few programs and games can use more than 4 cores. Upgrading to 5160's gave a tangible boost to every task for under $30. The next best bang/$ were the 5770 and SSD.

The biggest benefit to the 6-core 5,1 over the 4 and 8 core 4/5,1 is the faster RAM.

But again, with the high $ people are demanding for 5,1 and $600+ for a W3680 to upgrade a 4,1, the value is lost. A top-end 2012/2013 iMac with fusion drive or 256 SSD and an applecare warranty can be had for $1000 less and be more powerful in everything except the most demanding multi-core applications.

Although, if Apple hadn't been fixed on wasting money for dual-GPU's, I would have considered a new MacPro instead.