MP All Models Mac Pro CPU Compatibility List

[ProDFX]

@Snow Tiger

Have you tried installing the PCI-e diagnostic board? This card will help you find out the reason the Mac does not start with 6212U.

Spoiler: Diagnostic PCI card

Multi-Purpose Notebook PC PCI-E Diagnostic Card Sale, Price & Reviews | Gearbest

Buy Multi-Purpose Notebook PC PCI-E Diagnostic Card at cheap price online, with Youtube reviews and FAQs, we generally offer free shipping to Europe, US, Latin America, Russia, etc.

www.gearbest.com

 

[Snow Tiger]

@Snow Tiger

Have you tried installing the PCI-e diagnostic board? This card will help you find out the reason the Mac does not start with 6212U.

Spoiler: Diagnostic PCI card

Multi-Purpose Notebook PC PCI-E Diagnostic Card Sale, Price & Reviews | Gearbest

Buy Multi-Purpose Notebook PC PCI-E Diagnostic Card at cheap price online, with Youtube reviews and FAQs, we generally offer free shipping to Europe, US, Latin America, Russia, etc.

www.gearbest.com

We already know why non W Cascade Lake Xeons are not fully compatible with the MP7,1 - the System has a CPU PCIe lane count check during start up . At this time , only the W Xeons have 64 PCIe lanes in-silicon . All other Cascade Lake Xeons have only 48 .

 

[supersaian]

Hi everyone, I have a Mac Pro (Mid 2012), the CPU as listed on apple is

• 12-core (standard configuration)
  • Two 2.4GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5645 processors
  • 12MB of fully shared L3 cache per processor
  • Turbo Boost dynamic performance up to 2.67GHz
  • Hyper-Threading technology for up to 24 virtual cores

I have myself upgrade its graphic display to RX580, I saw a lot of upgrade kit selling in eBay, I would like to go for X5690 CPU upgrade, Is there any further information i need to make sure before I take action?

Thanks in advance.

 

[kohlson]

Is there any further information i need to make sure before I take action?

Get the proper tools and some good quality thermal paste. Be prepared to spend some time cleaning the dust when you take out the tray. I found cotton swabs worked well. The instructions are pretty clear in the Mac Pro Technician Guide <-- google search.

 

[Snow Tiger]

Hi everyone, I have a Mac Pro (Mid 2012), the CPU as listed on apple is

• 12-core (standard configuration)
  • Two 2.4GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5645 processors
  • 12MB of fully shared L3 cache per processor
  • Turbo Boost dynamic performance up to 2.67GHz
  • Hyper-Threading technology for up to 24 virtual cores

I have myself upgrade its graphic display to RX580, I saw a lot of upgrade kit selling in eBay, I would like to go for X5690 CPU upgrade, Is there any further information i need to make sure before I take action?

Thanks in advance.

You already have a factory Mac Pro 5,1 , so no worries about upgrading the model identifier .

No modifications to your Tray are required , but it is recommended you rebuild your Northbridge Controller Heatsink ( just completely tear down your Tray , remove the two push pins , remove the old paste on the Northbridge chip and apply a fresh coating of Arctic MX4 ) . This is a good occasion to examine if those custom push pins need to be replaced due to thermal fatigue - it's becoming a problem after ten years .

It would be a good idea to load first High Sierra 10.13 onto your Mac with the factory EFI graphics card and then to install your RX580 and remove the EFI card to install the latest version of Mojave 10.14.6 . That should bring your Mac's boot ROM up to version 144.0.0.0.0 , which is the one you want .
[automerge]1583858976[/automerge]

Get the proper tools and some good quality thermal paste. Be prepared to spend some time cleaning the dust when you take out the tray. I found cotton swabs worked well. The instructions are pretty clear in the Mac Pro Technician Guide <-- google search.

Bondhus 15356, 3mm Hex T-Handle 9 inch Length for the cMP 2009-12 CPU Tray Heatsink(s) :

Bondhus 15356, 3mm Hex T-Handle 9 inch Length (2) - Bondhus and Felo Tools - German made hand tools

Bondhus 15356 Hex Tip 9 inch T-Handle with ProGuard Finish. Size: 3.0mm Length: 229mm

bondhustools.com

ARCTIC MX-4 for the Northbridge chip , the CPU chips and most GPU chips :

MX-4 | Highest Performance Thermal Compound | ARCTIC

The award-winning ARCTIC MX-4 thermal compound guarantees an extremely high thermal conductivity and is very easy to use with an ideal consistency.

www.arctic.ac

Dynarex Cotton Wood Tip Applicators, 3 inch, 100 Count to remove old thermal paste and generally clean surface areas . These are static neutral because they are made with cotton and wood :

Dynarex Cotton Wood Tip Applicators, 3 inch, 100 Count

Applicators cotton tip. Ns 3 inch 100 per case sold as case by dynarex corporation-please note photo may not represent actual item. Use title only.

www.amazon.com

You should also use high purity ( 90-100 percent ) isopropyl alcohol as a solvent to remove old paste and clean surfaces . It dries quickly . I'd provide a link , but the CV scare has depleted all the online stores of alcohol .

 

[jscipione]

In case anyone was wondering, and I assume nobody was, the Xeon L5640 CPU runs fine on a Mac Pro 5,1 even though it's not listed as an option in the table of CPU upgrades. It's the fastest L-series 6-core Xeon you can get.

 

[flowrider]

^^^^Fastest "L" series but not fastest CPU:

Intel Xeon X5690 vs L5640

Lou

 

[jscipione]

^^^^Fastest "L" series but not fastest CPU:

Intel Xeon X5690 vs L5640

Lou

Yeah it’s a tallest midget type situation. Sorry if I got somebody’s hope up that there was a new kid on the block to take on the X5690. L stands for “low-power” so it’s not going to break any barn doors off for speed and afaik there’s no special properties enabled by the L-series part, it’s just a 60W TDP with a slower clock speed.

 

[Snow Tiger]

Yeah it’s a tallest midget type situation. Sorry if I got somebody’s hope up that there was a new kid on the block to take on the X5690. L stands for “low-power” so it’s not going to break any barn doors off for speed and afaik there’s no special properties enabled by the L-series part, it’s just a 60W TDP with a slower clock speed.

Back in the day , these were nice chips to install for inexpensive 12 Core Nehalem cMPs .

They are still nice for reducing System wide power consumption in special builds involving internally powered Dual 300 W class GPU cMPs .

 

[jscipione]

Back in the day , these were nice chips to install for inexpensive 12 Core Nehalem cMPs .

They are still nice for reducing System wide power consumption in special builds involving internally powered Dual 300 W class GPU cMPs .

Perhaps the L5640 should be added to the CPU Compatibility list then, along with the 2.00Ghz L5638 Xeon which I assume also works fine even though I can't verify that one.

 

[jscipione]

^^^^Fastest "L" series but not fastest CPU:

Intel Xeon X5690 vs L5640

I'm laughing over here because in the link you posted it says:
Winner
Intel Xeon L5640

CPUBoss recommends the Intel Xeon L5640 based on its cost to run and value.

uhhhh... it does?

 

[Snow Tiger]

I'm laughing over here because in the link you posted it says:
Winner
Intel Xeon L5640

CPUBoss recommends the Intel Xeon L5640 based on its cost to run and value.

uhhhh... it does?

Perhaps the L5640 should be added to the CPU Compatibility list then, along with the 2.00Ghz L5638 Xeon which I assume also works fine even though I can't verify that one.

I don't believe I have ever used the L5638 in a retail build , but I actually loved the L5639 in particular because they were cheaper and easier to obtain than the L5640 .

The L5639 and L5640 share the same stepping , B1 . That alone should be a slam dunk compatibility indicator .

Here's a fun trip back on Memory Lane .

According to my archives , the last System I built with a pair of L5639s was in the Summer of 2013 :

Item number 130510 R for $2250 .

MacPro 5,1 ( 2009 model )
Twelve Core 2.13 GHz CPU ( 2 x L5639 Six Core Intel Xeon processors ) .
28 GB 1066 MHz ECC memory .
ATI Radeon HD 5770 genuine Mac Edition 1 GB Vram with one DVI and two MiniDisplay ports . Open CL capable .
Not a flashed PC card .
250 GB SATA II SSD Solid State boot Drive .
1 TB SATA II HDD data hard drive . 7200 RPM WD Black .
BluRay burner 128GB quad layer . Reads and writes CD , DVD and BluRay disks . LG WH14NS40 brand new drive .
DVD-RW Dual Layer optical burner . Read and write CD and DVD discs . Apple shipping drive . lower bay .
Internal Bluetooth card (Apple )
Internal WiFi card (Apple)
PCIe card with two external FireWire 400 ports (for legacy devices and equipment .)
Has OS X 10.8.3 Mountain Lion freshly installed with all updates . This is the latest OS X from Apple .
(We can also load Snow Leopard 10.6 and Lion 10.7 for you as well)
Case has some minor scratches and stains . Rear handle bent , does not affect performance .
known issues : none .
64 bit Geekbench = 18129 . (Baseline 2012 model 2.4 GHz Twelve Core Mac Pro 64 bit Geekbench = 19887 ) .

This $2250 machine was compared favorably to the 12 Core Mac Pro 5,1 ( 2012 ) Apple was shipping at that time for $4100 . I paid $260 for both the upgrade L5639s . Memory must have been really expensive then since I used 1066 MHz . In December of that year , Apple started to ship the Cylinder .

 

[jscipione]

I don't believe I have ever used the L5638 in a retail build , but I actually loved the L5639 in particular because they were cheaper and easier to obtain than the L5640 .

The L5639 and L5640 share the same stepping , B1 . That alone should be a slam dunk compatibility indicator .

Here's a fun trip back on Memory Lane .

According to my archives , the last System I built with a pair of L5639s was in the Summer of 2013 :

Item number 130510 R for $2250 .

MacPro 5,1 ( 2009 model )
Twelve Core 2.13 GHz CPU ( 2 x L5639 Six Core Intel Xeon processors ) .
28 GB 1066 MHz ECC memory .
ATI Radeon HD 5770 genuine Mac Edition 1 GB Vram with one DVI and two MiniDisplay ports . Open CL capable .
Not a flashed PC card .
250 GB SATA II SSD Solid State boot Drive .
1 TB SATA II HDD data hard drive . 7200 RPM WD Black .
BluRay burner 128GB quad layer . Reads and writes CD , DVD and BluRay disks . LG WH14NS40 brand new drive .
DVD-RW Dual Layer optical burner . Read and write CD and DVD discs . Apple shipping drive . lower bay .
Internal Bluetooth card (Apple )
Internal WiFi card (Apple)
PCIe card with two external FireWire 400 ports (for legacy devices and equipment .)
Has OS X 10.8.3 Mountain Lion freshly installed with all updates . This is the latest OS X from Apple .
(We can also load Snow Leopard 10.6 and Lion 10.7 for you as well)
Case has some minor scratches and stains . Rear handle bent , does not affect performance .
known issues : none .
64 bit Geekbench = 18129 . (Baseline 2012 model 2.4 GHz Twelve Core Mac Pro 64 bit Geekbench = 19887 ) .

This $2250 machine was compared favorably to the 12 Core Mac Pro 5,1 ( 2012 ) Apple was shipping at that time for $4100 . I paid $260 for both the upgrade L5639s . Memory must have been really expensive then since I used 1066 MHz . In December of that year , Apple started to ship the Cylinder .

I bought an L5639 off eBay because it was listed here and the supported option and the L5640 wasn’t. I wasn’t familiar with every kind of Xeon out there. If I had known that the L5640 was a thing I never would have bought the L5639. I ended up delidding the L5639 as a test before delidding my more expensive X5680’s to go in my dual socket 4,1. I use the more power efficient 5,1 most of the time and only pull out the 4,1 to encode HEVC video. I’ve been paying close attention to the OpenCore thread and it seems like it might be possible to use the GPU to encode h.265 video but the iMacPro1,1 Rom still has some limitations like making iStatsMenus not work. If crafty hackers can make this work I’ll be able to get rid of my 4,1. I wanted you to be aware that your once expensive L5639 CPUs are so cheap that they can be used as a delid test and that their absence from the table did throw me off and caused me to buy a ~$15 CPU that I didn’t need and was worse than a ~$18 CPU that does the job better.

 

[h9826790]

I bought an L5639 off eBay because it was listed here and the supported option and the L5640 wasn’t. I wasn’t familiar with every kind of Xeon out there. If I had known that the L5640 was a thing I never would have bought the L5639. I ended up delidding the L5639 as a test before delidding my more expensive X5680’s to go in my dual socket 4,1. I use the more power efficient 5,1 most of the time and only pull out the 4,1 to encode HEVC video. I’ve been paying close attention to the OpenCore thread and it seems like it might be possible to use the GPU to encode h.265 video but the iMacPro1,1 Rom still has some limitations like making iStatsMenus not work. If crafty hackers can make this work I’ll be able to get rid of my 4,1. I wanted you to be aware that your once expensive L5639 CPUs are so cheap that they can be used as a delid test and that their absence from the table did throw me off and caused me to buy a ~$15 CPU that I didn’t need and was worse than a ~$18 CPU that does the job better.

That iStat Menu issue fixed for a few months already. Anyway, this is the package to enable HEVC encoding (if you have the applicable GPU).

Activate AMD hardware acceleration

I created a new "easy to install package" as per many requested (based on the official OpenCore). [The attached package updated to 0.7.9] For those who only need HWAccel, post #594 has everything you need. This new package mainly offer HWAccel + boot screen. Also, this package should work in...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[worldburger]

Have there been any updates on whether the non-M Xeons work in the 7,1 Mac Pro?

What is the difference between the non-M and M Xeons?

I understand the M is a mobile processor, but even on Intel's site the specs are the same across both.

 

[tsialex]

Have there been any updates on whether the non-M Xeons work in the 7,1 Mac Pro?

What is the difference between the non-M and M Xeons?

I understand the M is a mobile processor, but even on Intel's site the specs are the same across both.

Xeons with M suffix are the models that have extended memory quantity support and are not mobile models at all. Non-M nominally support up to 1TB, while M models support up to 2TB.

M and non-M models of Cascade Lake Xeon W are supported natively with MP7,1 firmware, just check the first post table. BTW, only models that are on the table are supported.

 

[Macschrauber]

Glitch in post 1 ?

Isnt the W3690 also a Westmere ?

 

[h9826790]

Glitch in post 1 ?

Isnt the W3690 also a Westmere ?

Intel® Xeon® Processor W3690 (12M Cache, 3.46 GHz, 6.40 GT/s Intel® QPI) Product Specifications

Intel® Xeon® Processor W3690 (12M Cache, 3.46 GHz, 6.40 GT/s Intel® QPI) quick reference guide including specifications, features, pricing, compatibility, design documentation, ordering codes, spec codes and more.

ark.intel.com

 

[tsialex]

Glitch in post 1 ?

Isnt the W3690 also a Westmere ?

Westmere are the 32nm Xeon processors, these processors are subdivided on:

• uni-processors/single CPU platform are called Gulftown and use LGA-1366,
• dual-socket processors are called Westmere-EP and use LGA-1366,
• multi-socket (up to 8-sockets) are called Westmere-EX and use LGA-1567.

 

[h9826790]

Westmere are the 32nm Xeon processors, these processors are subdivided on:

• uni-processors/single CPU platform are called Gulftown and use LGA-1366,
• dual-socket processors are called Westmere-EP and use LGA-1366,
• multi-socket (up to 8-sockets) are called Westmere-EX and use LGA-1567.

I don't think that's an accurate description, because the W3680 also belongs to Westmere EP officially.

Intel® Xeon® Processor W3680 (12M Cache, 3.33 GHz, 6.40 GT/s Intel® QPI) Product Specifications

Intel® Xeon® Processor W3680 (12M Cache, 3.33 GHz, 6.40 GT/s Intel® QPI) quick reference guide including specifications, features, pricing, compatibility, design documentation, ordering codes, spec codes and more.

ark.intel.com

 

[tsialex]

I don't think that's an accurate description, because the W3680 also belongs to Westmere EP officially.

Intel® Xeon® Processor W3680 (12M Cache, 3.33 GHz, 6.40 GT/s Intel® QPI) Product Specifications

Intel® Xeon® Processor W3680 (12M Cache, 3.33 GHz, 6.40 GT/s Intel® QPI) quick reference guide including specifications, features, pricing, compatibility, design documentation, ordering codes, spec codes and more.

ark.intel.com

Yep, my post needs more nuance, I forgot that the i7-970 to i7-990X are called Gulftown too.

I'll have to check the CPUIDs to understand what Intel really did here.

 

[1985dan]

Hi everyone, I have a Mac Pro 2,1 with no hard drive and no graphics card which I intend to restore, but I want to check that it will function well before spending money in a hard drive, a GPU and more RAM. I plugged it in and the Superdrive works, the RAM trays lights turn on, the motherboard diagnostic lights all light up except the CPU failure ones and the last one to the right that says EFI, and the fans seem to work properly according to the current temperature. However, the ports don't seem to work properly: my phone doesn't charge in any of the 5 USB ports, so I tried plugging a pen drive to see if the light turns on, but it only does so for one second and then it turns off. I don't have any firewire device to check if it's just the USB ports or every port. I already tried more than 10 SMC resets and it is still the same. Any ideas? What else should I check to see if it works properly before sinking any money into it? I would really appreciate if you answer. Thank you for reading.

 

[VaZ]

Westmere are the 32nm Xeon processors, these processors are subdivided on:

• uni-processors/single CPU platform are called Gulftown and use LGA-1366,
• dual-socket processors are called Westmere-EP and use LGA-1366,
• multi-socket (up to 8-sockets) are called Westmere-EX and use LGA-1567.

Are the Gainestown part of this family too?

 

[tsialex]

Are the Gainsworth part of this family too?

Gainestown are Nehalem, 45nm.

 

[MisterAndrew]

What exactly are the benefits of running a Xeon E5-2673 V2 as opposed to a Xeon E5-2667 V2 in a 6,1? Does it generate less heat? I haven't found very much info about that lower TDP CPU online.