MP 1,1-5,1 How to boost my Mac Pro 5,1 mid-2012

[sandora2023]

I have a Mac Pro 5,1 (mi-2012 ) Quad-Core Intel Xeon 3.2 GHz with one processor

The exact serie is: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU W3565 @ 3.20GHz

32 memory ram (2x 8G DDR3 and 2x 8G DDR3 ECC)

Graphic card: Radeon Pro WX 7100 Metal: Supported, feature set macOS GPUFamily2 v1

Sonnet’s M.2 4x4 PCIe Card with 2x Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 2TB for the RAID

1x Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 2TB as boot volume

System Version: macOS 10.14.6 (18G9323)

Kernel Version: Darwin 18.7.0

I use mainly this computer for after effect and davinci resolve.

So that I have a EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT) problem with after effect and 4k editing in davinci is too slow, I have those questions:

-would it worth to change my ram with 3x 16 giga + 1x 8 giga or 4x 16 giga DDR3 if its possible?

-upgrading core, to how many cores?

-upgrading to Catalina?

-can it make a noticeable difference one of theses upgrades?

Thank you very much for help,

Sandra

 

[krakman]

The exact serie is: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU W3565 @ 3.20GHz

Upgrade to 6 core Xeon X5690 or W3690

32 memory ram (2x 8G DDR3 and 2x 8G DDR3 ECC)

Memory upgrade is very cheap. 64GB (4X16gb) would be my choice. I thought it was not recommended to mix EEC with non ECC money???

Graphic card: Radeon Pro WX 7100 Metal: Supported, feature set macOS GPUFamily2 v1

if you stick with Mac OS 10.14.6 buy a AMD Vega56 GPU, If you update via OCLP then you can consider a AMD VII GPU

System Version: macOS 10.14.6 (18G9323)

You can use Open Core Legacy Patcher to upgrade your OS to Monterey.

-can it make a noticeable difference one of theses upgrades?

These suggestions are cheap upgrades which can be bought on Ebay. They will add some more years of life and productivity to your computer. How valuable that is depends on your use and requirements but its cheaper than spending money on a new computer.

 

[sandora2023]

Thank you very much for your quick and precise responses.
Is it better 4x 16 DDR ECC or 4x16 DDR3?
Is the Radeon Pro WX 7100 Metal not good, I bought it not so long ago?
It would worth to change it?
Thanks for your help

 

[doobydoooby]

Fwiw, I was running a 2008 3,1 mac pro upgraded to the max with Ram, graphics card, SSDs etc all the way up to Catalina. There's a limit to the point at which its worth throwing more money at it because the basic motherboard becomes the bottleneck.

I recently bought a tiny mac mini and it runs rings around the old beast, which I was kinda pleased about but kinda also sad about. Its not my main machine, I have a modern workhorse mac pro for the heavy lifting but honestly the little mac mini for $500 is a sprinter vs the 2008 mac pro. Turns out, sometimes youth does trump wisdom

 

[sandora2023]

Thanks, I do hesitate, because I like my old machine...
But I am looking to buy either Mac mini, or Mac studio or macbook m2 max...
What Mac mini did you bought? what would be the minimum requirement to beat my Mac 5,1 ?
thanks!!

 

[doobydoooby]

Thanks, I do hesitate, because I like my old machine...
But I am looking to buy either Mac mini, or Mac studio or macbook m2 max...
What Mac mini did you bought? what would be the minimum requirement to beat my Mac 5,1 ?
thanks!!

Well, my use case might be slightly different from yours because this is a second machine, I already have a modern Mac Pro which I use for heavy lifting. But for what its worth the Mac Mini is the bog standard most recent m2 version, and I haven't seen it stutter once. It is streets ahead of the 3,1 mac pro even though I had that souped up. Everything is faster. I can still use all the peripherals I had with the old pro so that was appealing. I would never compare it against a laptop because they are designed for different jobs, but at such a cheap replacement cost it was a no-brainer vs attempting any further upgrades to the creaking 3,1 (which is still there in case I need it!)

 

[sandora2023]

Thank you its very clear, I will make the step to the mini!

 

[TzunamiOSX]

I have a Mac Pro 5,1 (mi-2012 ) Quad-Core Intel Xeon 3.2 GHz with one processor

The exact serie is: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU W3565 @ 3.20GHz

32 memory ram (2x 8G DDR3 and 2x 8G DDR3 ECC)

Graphic card: Radeon Pro WX 7100 Metal: Supported, feature set macOS GPUFamily2 v1

Sonnet’s M.2 4x4 PCIe Card with 2x Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 2TB for the RAID

1x Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 2TB as boot volume

System Version: macOS 10.14.6 (18G9323)

Kernel Version: Darwin 18.7.0

I use mainly this computer for after effect and davinci resolve.

So that I have a EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT) problem with after effect and 4k editing in davinci is too slow, I have those questions:

-would it worth to change my ram with 3x 16 giga + 1x 8 giga or 4x 16 giga DDR3 if its possible?

-upgrading core, to how many cores?

-upgrading to Catalina?

-can it make a noticeable difference one of theses upgrades?

Thank you very much for help,

Sandra

Hi Sandra,

first I would do is to install a 6-core 3.46 GHz CPU.

32 GB are absolutely ok. You get a bit more speed when installing only 3 modules (24 GB or 48 GB). Buy a kit with 3 modules.

The WX7100 is a Polaris GPU, not the fastest, but OK.

Important!!! It is not allowed to mix ecc and normal modules, because the system go unstable. Remove ecc or normal modules.

 

[h9826790]

Hi Sandra,

first I would do is to install a 6-core 3.46 GHz CPU.

32 GB are absolutely ok. You get a bit more speed when installing only 3 modules (24 GB or 48 GB). Buy a kit with 3 modules.

The WX7100 is a Polaris GPU, not the fastest, but OK.

Important!!! It is not allowed to mix ecc and normal modules, because the system go unstable. Remove ecc or normal modules.

For info, I tested ECC mixed with non ECC for a few months (many years back). It was OK indeed, no stability issue.

This is what I did. For testing purpose, I intentionally installed a 2GB ECC DIMM with another three 8GB non ECC DIMM. And ran that for a few months without any issue.

 

[sandora2023]

Hi Sandra,

first I would do is to install a 6-core 3.46 GHz CPU.

32 GB are absolutely ok. You get a bit more speed when installing only 3 modules (24 GB or 48 GB). Buy a kit with 3 modules.

The WX7100 is a Polaris GPU, not the fastest, but OK.

Important!!! It is not allowed to mix ecc and normal modules, because the system go unstable. Remove ecc or normal modules.

Thank you for your reply and the precious information.
So for the ram its better to install 3x16 giga than 4x16 giga (all the ram either ecc or not)?

 

[TzunamiOSX]

Thank you for your reply and the precious information.
So for the ram its better to install 3x16 giga than 4x16 giga (all the ram either ecc or not)?

With 3x16 giga you will get triple channel support. This can bring a performance boost. With 4x16 you will have dual channel.

 

[sandora2023]

That's great, thank you

 

[TzunamiOSX]

That's great, thank you

Oh, and ECC or not.

If I'm right, ECC is better to find on Ebay for example and Apple recommends ECC in the manual.

 

[Macschrauber]

Oh, and ECC or not.

If I'm right, ECC is better to find on Ebay for example and Apple recommends ECC in the manual.

Maybe you got mixing registered with non registered sticks in mind... what to avoid.