Which graphic card for Mojave on Mac Pro 5,1 (mid 2010)?

Although Apple doesn’t publish a list of which ones work and which ones don’t,

Um, yes they do:

Make sure that your graphics card works with Mojave

Next, check to see if the graphics card in your Mac Pro is compatible. You can use System Information to find out which graphics card your Mac has:

1. Press and hold the Option key while choosing Apple () menu > System Information.
2. In the sidebar, select Graphics/Displays. If your graphics card is compatible, you see "Supported" next to the Metal entry. You can also note the name of your graphics card and see if it's in the list below.

These specific third-party graphics cards are Metal-capable and compatible with macOS Mojave on Mac Pro (Mid 2010) and Mac Pro (Mid 2012):

• MSI Gaming Radeon RX 560 128-bit 4GB GDRR5
• SAPPHIRE Radeon PULSE RX 580 8GB GDDR5
• SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition
• NVIDIA Quadro K5000 for Mac
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition

Some other third-party graphics cards* based on the following AMD GPU families might also be compatible with macOS Mojave on Mac Pro (Mid 2010) and Mac Pro (Mid 2012):

• AMD Radeon RX 560
• AMD Radeon RX 570
• AMD Radeon RX 580
• AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100
• AMD Radeon RX Vega 56
• AMD Radeon RX Vega 64
• AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100
• AMD Radeon Frontier Edition

If the graphics card in your Mac Pro isn't listed above, you need to install one that's compatible with macOS Mojave. If you need additional help, contact Apple Support.

* Third-party graphics cards vary, so you should check with the vendor of your specific graphics card for compatibility details.

from:

the article cited above,

Install macOS 10.14 Mojave on Mac Pro (Mid 2010) and Mac Pro (Mid 2012) - Apple Support

Cards based on the same Big Chips will work, BUT:

List of approved graphics cards is shown in the article, but not the footnotes:

• If you need "boot-up screens" you will need a Mac-edition card, or a specially-flashed card. Others will show their first picture at the USER login screen.

• FileVault encryption of the Boot drive is therefore NOT supported for ANY graphics cards, since you would have to enter the FileVault login on a dark screen in some cases.

I recently bought the Nvidia GTX 680, which is of course an old card, only available second hand, mine is 'flashed' for Mac rather than the Mac Edition, it works very well. I, like you use my MP for photography and the occasional video project. The main concern is the budget, some graphics cards cost more than the MP is worth, so if you are not needing it for 3D animation/ modelling, intense gaming you should be able to pick something up for a couple hundred pounds. Be sure that they are for Macs or have been 'flashed' for Mac so you get the boot screens, unless that doesn't bother you.

Hi there ateliercunha.maybe i can help you. Really-it depends on your budget and how beefy a card you want. Although Apple doesn’t publish a list of which ones work and which ones don’t, we can start from the known and go from there. The sapphire 7950 HD works fine with most Mac Pro’s ( cheese grater ones) , and has 3gigs of vram. After that, if your needs are greater, MacVidCards.com might have what you need. The R9 vega’s are also supposed to work ok right out of the box. Of course you should have el capitan, sierra or the like. About the only other thing i could add is that you could change your own video card. The only things to be mindful of is there’s a button near the fans you have to push so that the whole bit slides back and a bar underneath moves out of the way. And of course there’s the power connectors for the card on the logic board-make sure the power cables for the card are plugged in.

That’s it

John b

No worries-we are users here helping each other out. No need to get a new mac pro..or a new imac.. at least not yet... i’m guessing you did the usual-zap pram, reset smc, etc... also check to make sure the card isn’t clogged up with dust.a can of compressed air should help with that..check the fan fins on the card and that air flows freely through the card, and that the power cable to the card is plugged in, both on the card, and on the logic board. Also check to see if the nvidia mac drivers are up to date and the cuda driver is as well. If so, then I don’t know what else to suggest...maybe a used good card...maybe new...depending on your budget of course... graphics cards do fail from time to time...and the only real option is replacement..( baking the card doesn’t quite count) ..i mentioned macvidcards and the other stuff, so there’s that. I have a 7950 sapphire radeon which has been very reliable for me...anyways good luck to you...

John B

That error is completely specific to your graphics card.

Since you said at the outset you wanted to replace it anyway to get to Mojave, It is not a good investment of your time and attentions to debug this.

I recommend you implement your plan to replace it and move on.

D’oh.. thanks for pointing that out.. must have missed that.. any ways i agree with grant bennett-alder...looks like a replacement is in your future. Skip the advice i gave you about checking for nvidia stuff

John b

Sure- glad to help out. It’s a sapphire radeon 7950 HD mac version. I think i ordered it from macsales a few years ago for around $600 CDN( with shipping and tax) . And it’s in a 12 core mac pro ( mac pro 5,1? From about 2010-2011-got it used for about 2,200 cdn, plus a new 2k monitor( dell) for 650-so that’s it. Maybe you can find one used?

John b

Only cards that are "Mac-Edition" OR are flashed and the vendor says "supports Boot Screens" will show any picture at all before the LOGIN screen. No open-Apple, no progress bar, no Installer screens, no Alt/Option boot, etc.

Cards made from similar "Big Chips" will work fine, edit your videos just fine, but will not show Boot Screens.

So for example, if you expect to run Windows as well, switching back-and forth using a card with no Boot Screens would be very annoying.