MP 1,1-5,1 MP 3,1 Question/Upgrades/Opinions

[eddiek2000]

I have a early MP 2008. Haven't used it in a bit and discovered Apple dropped support for this guy. Ended up installing a SSD in bay one and using DosDudes Cat patcher to install Catalina. System runs Ok, but wanted to pep it up. Updated my 6GB RAM to 22GB ram. Now I'm thinking I want to swap out the GPU. I've been looking for a GTX-680 to flash, but haven't found one in my stockpile of parts or even one reasonably priced online (I'm cheap). So if you had to choose from the following, which one should I install:
GTX-780 Ti
GTX-760
GTX-480
GTX-590
Quadro 4000
K-5200 or
Titan X

I'm keeping my eye out for the 680, but until then which one would be the easiest? Not worried about PCIe power, I'll figure it out. What about Catalina, fresh install? With or without original ATI card installed? Talk to me about PCIe SSD carriers? Is there a good cheap one to install my SSD into that is bootable and supports APFS/Catalina? Not planning on any gaming, just want a smooth desktop/web/streaming experience.

 

[OS6-OSX]

The Quadro 4000 runs very hot and only has 2GB
I had it running in Mojave and it struggled to the point where going to 10.13.6 was a must!

 

[Flacko]

I have a early MP 2008. Haven't used it in a bit and discovered Apple dropped support for this guy. Ended up installing a SSD in bay one and using DosDudes Cat patcher to install Catalina. System runs Ok, but wanted to pep it up. Updated my 6GB RAM to 22GB ram. Now I'm thinking I want to swap out the GPU. I've been looking for a GTX-680 to flash, but haven't found one in my stockpile of parts or even one reasonably priced online (I'm cheap). So if you had to choose from the following, which one should I install:
GTX-780 Ti
GTX-760
GTX-480
GTX-590
Quadro 4000
K-5200 or
Titan X

I'm keeping my eye out for the 680, but until then which one would be the easiest? Not worried about PCIe power, I'll figure it out. What about Catalina, fresh install? With or without original ATI card installed? Talk to me about PCIe SSD carriers? Is there a good cheap one to install my SSD into that is bootable and supports APFS/Catalina? Not planning on any gaming, just want a smooth desktop/web/streaming experience.

Here is a list that support Catalina (using the inbuilt Kepler Driver):

Kepler Gen 2:

• GTX Titan (GK 110 Maxwell core)
• GTX Titan Black(GK 110 Maxwell core)
• GTX Titan Z (One of the few dual GPU cards supported in MacOs)
• GTX 780 Ti
• GTX 780
• GTX 770
• GTX 760 Ti
• GTX 760
• GT 740
• GT 730(GK208 variant)
• GT 720
• GT 710(GK208 variant)

Kepler Gen 1:

• GTX 690(Another dual GPU card compatible with macOS)
• GTX 680
• GTX 670
• GTX 660 Ti
• GTX 660(MUST BE RUNNING A GK 104 core, NOT GK 106)
• GTX 650(GK 107 core)
• GT 640(Kepler edition, GK 107/208 core)
• GT 630(Kepler edition, GK 107/208 core)

Quadro:

• Quadro K6000
• Quadro K5200
• Quadro K5000
• Quadro K4200
• Quadro K2000D
• Quadro K2000
• Quadro K600
• Quadro K420
• Quadro 410
  
  So from your list the Titan (check the core) would be best, followed by 780Ti and then the 760. Using a 680 with Mac efi myself and has been faultless in the cMP3.1.
  Info from this web site which is worth a read:
  
  https://khronokernel-3.gitbook.io/catalina-gpu-buyers-guide/
  
  As for the SSD I would just use the SATA bays for now.
  
  
  
  
  
  

 

[eddiek2000]

Thanks. Power adapters will be here tomorrow and I'll give it a shot. Thinking about Striping across 2 drives to get better ssd speed. As long as the 3,1 can boot from that.

 

[Flacko]

Thanks. Power adapters will be here tomorrow and I'll give it a shot. Thinking about Striping across 2 drives to get better ssd speed. As long as the 3,1 can boot from that.

I have a raid 0 with 2 ssd in my cMP5.1 and Catalina does not boot from this! I would keep things simple for now until you have it all working properly. Does your cMP3.1 have the APFS ROM update?

 

[eddiek2000]

It boots Catalina and I see the efi messages during boot. All I did was run dosdude's cat patcher.

 

[Flacko]

It boots Catalina and I see the efi messages during boot. All I did was run dosdude's cat patcher.

Ok, so you are using the software APFS patch. This is what gives you the scrolling text during startup. This should be no problem for simply running Catalina from your ssd but will probably cause problems If you go to raid.

The APFS ROM update works well for the cMP3.1 but there is an element of risk that you can brick your machine if the ROM update goes wrong. Depends on how dangerously you want to live!

 

[eddiek2000]

Update - Couldn't get the Titan X working. After a little more searching, seemed like it wasn't going to work. Tried the GTX 780TI, and it worked like a champ. Weird how the original ATI card doesn't get desktop video, just gets left with a partially finished progress bar, but login window appears on 780.

Video WAY faster, screen sharing actually works comfortably. Thrilled this card works.