Mac Pro Tower (2010) - What kind of gpu cooler?

[Daniel88swe]

Hi!

I have a mac pro that I bought new in 2010. It is the silver tower as you all know.

I am thinking about buying a new GPU for the mac. The mac had a ATI Radeon 5870HD with a blower-style fan applied to it.

Now that I am going to buy a new GPU for my mac pro I don't know what kind cooling-version of the card I am going to buy (thinking about buying the 970, 980 or 980ti - or even wait for the 1070 or 1080 being hacked by mac video cards).

I really like this kind of fan (but is that one optimal in the mac pro tower 2010?):
http://international.download.nvidi...ature-article/NVIDIA_GeForce_GTX_980_3Qtr.png

Should I get a card with this kind of fan instead?:
http://images.bit-tech.net/content_...orce-gtx-980-g1-gaming-review/gig980g1-1b.jpg

Thanks in advance!

/Daniel

 

[Hellhammer]

The first link is an NVIDIA reference design, which is the worst in terms of cooling performance and noise/heat. The second link has a cooling design made by Gigabyte and reviews show it's a decent card (although a bit noisy), and ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Ti is pretty much the best you can get.

http://techreport.com/review/28685/geforce-gtx-980-ti-cards-compared/5
http://www.legitreviews.com/nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-ti-video-card-roundup-asus-msi-and-zotac_176648

 

[Daniel88swe]

@Hellhammer Thanks for your quick reply!

Does what you say; "that the reference design is the worst in all terms", does this apply to all kinds of cards (970, 980, 980ti, 1070 and 1080)? And does this also apply the mac pro silver tower?

My friend is buying a 1080 strix edition for his pc. Would that kind of cooler be a good choice for a mac pro tower aswell? Or is the mac pro tower and it's fan architecture / air flow design designed for a blower-style-fan?

I watched a couple of videos on YT regarding blower-style vs open-air-cooling. But all of these videos they are talking about PC's and PC chassis... I wounder how the combination of a mac pro and a open-air-cooling would work...

Thank you very much for your answer(s)

/Daniel

 

[Hellhammer]

Does what you say; "that the reference design is the worst in all terms", does this apply to all kinds of cards (970, 980, 980ti, 1070 and 1080)? And does this also apply the mac pro silver tower?

Yes. The NVIDIA reference design is pretty much the same for all cards and it's worse because it only has a single fan, whereas third party designs typically have up to three fans (more fans = more air = better cooling and lower noise).

My friend is buying a 1080 strix edition for his pc. Would that kind of cooler be a good choice for a mac pro tower aswell? Or is the mac pro tower and it's fan architecture / air flow design designed for a blower-style-fan?

I watched a couple of videos on YT regarding blower-style vs open-air-cooling. But all of these videos they are talking about PC's and PC chassis... I wounder how the combination of a mac pro and a open-air-cooling would work...

Blowers are typically good for mini-ITX and other space-restricted builds where it's important to tunnel heat straight out of the case. That's partially true for the Mac Pro as well since there's no similar rear fan like in typical desktop PCs, but even then a blower is likely noisier than open-air cooler. Unless you have a ton of other PCIe devices, there should be enough air for an open-air to be the most efficient.

 

[h9826790]

Almost any reference / 3rd party cooler works in the cMP.

Reference cooler usually the worst one, poor cooling and lot of noise.

Open fan type cooler are usually quieter, and better cooling for the card. However, the hot air will recycling inside the cMP. From memory, someone measure the PCIe ambient temperature, it's about >5c warmer. I don't think that extra 5c will cause any issue. There are so many users here have one (or more) open fan type GPU inside their cMP. And I never heard anyone one of them kill their cMP (or any component e.g. HDD) due to the warmer PCIe ambient temperature.

 

[thornslack]

I personally like the reference style designs. My 980 and Titan X were both reference style blowers and worked great. When I had a 780 it was Evga's ACX 2.0 fan style and though it worked fine the fans made an audible noise and almost a whine at low RPM. If you'd like more information I'd consider looking at Guru3d's website which compares decibel level and temps at idle and load for every card they review. IIRC almost all the current cards are competitive with each other, overclocking similarly and producing noise levels within a decibel or two of each other.

 

[Daniel88swe]

Quick question. What does cMP stand for?

Okay! Then I know. Thank you all guys for your help. Now I just have to decide which gtx card; 970, 980, 980 ti, 1070 or 1080.

I need / would like the card flashed by mac video cards also, So that will add to the price.

I once had a 970 (gigabyte gaming g1) with open blower inside my mac pro tower. But I sent that one back to the store when I decided to build my hackintosh. I have my hackintosh at home and my Mac Pro tower at work.

But when I had the 970 in my mac pro I had no boot screen and it only ran in pci 1.0. But this is another question/story. This thread can be closed since I got the right answers for the fan style.

Thank you all guys!

/Daniel

 

[h9826790]

cMP = Classic Mac Pro (the silver tower)

Any non Mac EFI PC graphic card cannot display bootscreen.

Non Mac EFI 970 only stay at PCIe 1.0 in Windows. It works at PCIe 2.0 in OSX with proper web driver.

 

[Daniel88swe]

Okay! Didn't know that thing about the 970 actually!

Guys! Which card do you prefer?

The 1070 and 1080 are in the same price range as the mac-video-card-flashed gtx-cards. But the 1070 and 1080 are not flashed at those prices though... And as far as I know there is no flashes for the pascal cards yet...

I have the 980 ti in my hackintosh. I work with almost all the programs in the adobe collection; photoshop, indesign, premiere, after effects... Currently I have the 5870hd in my cMP.

/Daniel

 

[lowendlinux]

There are still no drivers for the 10xx cards.

 

[Daniel88swe]

@lowendlinux Hi! Yeah I know. I am refreshing the macvidcards blog quite often to read about progress about 10xx cards.

So I hope there will be drivers soon, and also that macvidcards will fix flashed 10xx cards.

 

[rGiskard]

I prefer the reference coolers with centrifugal fans because they expel the hot air out of the case instead of blowing it around the inside. The Mac Pro Tower's PCIe cooling zone was designed specifically to work with a reference VGA cooler, which is why there is only a single fan blowing fresh air directly over the reference cooler's fan.

Those multiple fan coolers are best for cooling zones featuring an exhaust fan that can pull the hot air out of the case. When I've tested them in my 5,1 running Unigine Heaven they significantly heat up the processor cage and logic board. I could test the temp delta with an IR thermometer if anyone want's empirical data, but I'm pretty sure it is far more than 5˚C.

Heating the logic board is best avoided if possible. If you use any other PCIe cards that generate significant heat then I would definitely get a reference VGA cooler.

 

[Synchro3]

@lowendlinux Hi! Yeah I know. I am refreshing the macvidcards blog quite often to read about progress about 10xx cards.

So I hope there will be drivers soon, and also that macvidcards will fix flashed 10xx cards.

After release of GTX 980 it lasted about half a year Nvidia released first Maxwell web drivers for Yosemite, if I remember rightly.

 

[Daniel88swe]

After release of GTX 980 it lasted about half a year Nvidia released first Maxwell web drivers for Yosemite, if I remember rightly.

... Hmmm... Yeah I hope it wont take to long. Because the GTX 970, 980 and 980ti are really dropping in price, at least here in Sweden. I can't wait to long because then the maxwell cards will be out of stock (I think?). And that would be really bad if there are no maxwell cards to buy and there is no nvidia drivers for the pascal cards... So I'm in a hurry in a kind of way... and also I need to wait to see what happens with the 1080 drivers and flashing...

 

[macprobuffalo]

I use this passive cooler with my 1,1. It works great and is silent, just bump up the I/O fan a bit. I had to move the card up to the second slot for it to fit

https://www.arctic.ac/us_en/accelero-s3.html

 

[Daniel88swe]

@macprobuffalo That Seems like a cool solution! The problem is that I currently have a ATI Radeon 5870 HD. The fan on my card started to make noise. So I got myself a third party fan for my 5870. And that makes my GPU card not able to fit in the lowest PCI Slot. And because of that I cant have more than one other pci card for other stuff.

I would like to have my gpu in the bottom / lowest PCI Slot so that I can fit two PCI to M.2-adapters above the gpu card.

/Daniel

 

[gpzjock]

Most decent GFX cards are dual slot like your 5870. Avoid Palit Jetstream coolers some are triple wide.

The Asus Strix GTX 970 is much thinner:

With AMD about to release the RX 480 at $200 many older Nvidia cards are going to drop in price very fast. Pick up a GTX 970 or 980 for cheap as the market adjusts.

 

[Daniel88swe]

@gpzjock - Yes I can't have a triple wide since I want two PCI cards above the GPU. It is like a race in terms of waiting. And I will get a new GTX GPU. But I would like to see what price the 10xx card lands on since the 1070 card are the same price as the 980 TI.

And regarding the discussion in the story... Isn't there a reason why apple shipped the cMP with a blower style (closed gpu chassi) fan? It also seems like a question of preference / taste?

What GPU do you guys think is the best one for photoshop / premiere / after effects;

- GTX 970
- GTX 980
- GTX 980 TI
- GTX 1070
- GTX 1080

/Daniel

 

[lowendlinux]

@gpzjock - Yes I can't have a triple wide since I want two PCI cards above the GPU. It is like a race in terms of waiting. And I will get a new GTX GPU. But I would like to see what price the 10xx card lands on since the 1070 card are the same price as the 980 TI.

And regarding the discussion in the story... Isn't there a reason why apple shipped the cMP with a blower style (closed gpu chassi) fan? It also seems like a question of preference / taste?

What GPU do you guys think is the best one for photoshop / premiere / after effects;

- GTX 970
- GTX 980
- GTX 980 TI
- GTX 1070
- GTX 1080

/Daniel

There is only one small fan to cool the expansion bay so it's best to evacuate the GPU heat out the case as quickly as possible. If it was an open bay and went in like designed like it is in most PC cases it wouldn't be as much of an issue. It's still not really and issue though

 

[Baunkjaer]

I think the ref design looks awesome.

 

[h9826790]

I think the ref design looks awesome. View attachment 638063

Apart from the word looks upside down

 

[ActionableMango]

I am really bothered by the drive sled numbering in that picture.

 

[Baunkjaer]

I am really bothered by the drive sled numbering in that picture.

Well spottet. I was´t aware of that Only two sled´s is in use, so I think i can live with it...

 

[rGiskard]

@macprobuffalo That Seems like a cool solution! The problem is that I currently have a ATI Radeon 5870 HD. The fan on my card started to make noise. So I got myself a third party fan for my 5870. And that makes my GPU card not able to fit in the lowest PCI Slot. And because of that I cant have more than one other pci card for other stuff.

I would like to have my gpu in the bottom / lowest PCI Slot so that I can fit two PCI to M.2-adapters above the gpu card.

/Daniel

You can try to lubricate the fan on your card, here's a how-to video. Silicone lube is plastic safe but guys use 3 in 1 oil with success. Remember, less is more, and avoid application of bodily fluids!

If the lube doesn't work, you could just buy a new fan for $10.

Another possibility is to buy a non-working 5870 on ebay, like this one. But you would need to confirm with the seller that the fan works fine. And once you add shipping this solution costs more than the new fan!

I sold a few Mac EFI 6870 Radeons on ebay with active aftermarket coolers, but I also tested passive coolers. The problem, at least with the one I tested, was that it wasn't effective. I don't have the data around, but under heavy use (like Unigine Heaven demo for over 20 minutes) GPU temp rose too high for me to feel confident enough to sell such cards. The 5870 has an even higher TDP than the 6870 (188W vs. 151W).

You can jack the PCIe zone fan's rpms to run the passive card, but then what's the point of a passive cooler? And the PCIe zone fan costs a LOT more to replace than the 5870 fan I linked above.

Active aftermarket coolers are dead quiet, but you'll probably need to splice the old fan's plug onto the aftermarket cooler's fan lead if you want the video card to control fan speed. Don't mix up the wires or bad things can happen. The alternative is to plug the cooler fans into one of the HDD bays SATA power with an adapter, but then the fans run at a constant speed and are noisy.

Edit: Why not just drop in a GTX 680? Used ones aren't much more than an aftermarket cooler, just flash it yourself. Best to stay with reference cooler designs for Mac EFI compatibility.

 

[gpzjock]

I am really bothered by the drive sled numbering in that picture.

The drive sled numbers look fine if you are a roadie.