Help with Mac Pro G5

lakitu

lakitu

lakitu

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Hi,

I haven't gamed on a Mac/PC for over 10 years and have been gifted a Mac Pro G5 with 3.2 ghz Xeon thingy, 10Gb ram, 1TB, Radeon 5770.

I want to get back in to gaming primarily with Boot Camp but want to know if it is possible to upgrade and if so what would be my best hardware upgrade would be to play newish games. This machine is in my bedroom hooked up to my 1080P TV (I know!).

Would a new graphics card be best? If so what can I go for? I don't want to buy the wrong thing.
 
I'm not entirely sure what you've got as a G5 isn't a Macpro, it's a PowerMac, which isn't really any use as it's not able to run Boot camp, however, if it is a Xeon based Macpro then you can stick in any geforce gfx card, I've got GTX970 in both of my Macpro 3,1s... You will not get a bootscreen, but once the OS (Windows or Osx) has loaded it's perfect.
 
That's a peachy gift!

Here's some things to know:

  • The card needs to have <225W power draw since the Mac Pro provides 2x 6-pin PCIe power connectors only.
  • Those PCIe power connectors actually come from the motherboard rather than the PSU and you'll need cables that are 'mini 6-pin' on one end.
  • It's best to get a card that can be flashed with an "EFI" version of its BIOS because that will make (among other things) switching between MacOS and Windows easier (the Mac's "boot screens" won't be blank), and ensure that the card runs at PCIe 2.0 speeds in Windows.

Specific models of GTX 680 (esp. some EVGA) can tick all these boxes and so be perfectly suited for the Mac Pro.

BTW that 5770 Mac Pro version is worth ~£125 on the Bay.
 
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Sell it and buy/build a PC. If you just want it for gaming in Windows then that will give you a better machine and draw less power.
 
If that was free you got a nice gift there. Like others have said you can either look to get a Mac & Windows happy card or you can sell the whole thing and probably have enough money to put towards a decent Windows only build.

Not sure what the rest of the specs are of your MacPro though.
 
Darryn said:
I'm not entirely sure what you've got as a G5 isn't a Macpro, it's a PowerMac, which isn't really any use as it's not able to run Boot camp, however, if it is a Xeon based Macpro then you can stick in any geforce gfx card, I've got GTX970 in both of my Macpro 3,1s... You will not get a bootscreen, but once the OS (Windows or Osx) has loaded it's perfect.
Click to expand...

Hi Darryn, my mistake, it's a Mac Pro not G5! It has the Radeon 5770 I have been gifted a Radeon R9 270 Gaming card which I can pick up tomorrow. Would this work?
 
Spyhop said:
That's a peachy gift!

Here's some things to know:

  • The card needs to have <225W power draw since the Mac Pro provides 2x 6-pin PCIe power connectors only.
  • Those PCIe power connectors actually come from the motherboard rather than the PSU and you'll need cables that are 'mini 6-pin' on one end.
  • It's best to get a card that can be flashed with an "EFI" version of its BIOS because that will make (among other things) switching between MacOS and Windows easier (the Mac's "boot screens" won't be blank), and ensure that the card runs at PCIe 2.0 speeds in Windows.

Specific models of GTX 680 (esp. some EVGA) can tick all these boxes and so be perfectly suited for the Mac Pro.

BTW that 5770 Mac Pro version is worth ~£125 on the Bay.
Click to expand...

Wow I had no idea it was worth anything like that! I think I will sell both the R9 270 I can get and the 5770. The guy who gave me all this owed me when I lent him money a couple of years back :)
 
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I will actually have a surplus GTX 680 suited and booted to work fully functional in Mac Pro for sale soon. Was planning to sell it on the Bay, but could put it up on MM here if you're interested.
 
Spyhop said:
I will actually have a surplus GTX 680 suited and booted to work fully functional in Mac Pro for sale soon. Was planning to sell it on the Bay, but could put it up on MM here if you're interested.
Click to expand...

Hi Spyhop, yes I am!
 
GT120 for boot screen if you want it (only needs power from PCI bus), and then add another Nvidia card (980 etc) will work. Depending what model you go for you might need an additional external PSU for it but the 225W mentioned earlier is true. Have a look on www.Create.Pro for ideas.
 
bloodiedathame said:
GT120 for boot screen if you want it (only needs power from PCI bus), and then add another Nvidia card (980 etc) will work. Depending what model you go for you might need an additional external PSU for it but the 225W mentioned earlier is true. Have a look on www.Create.Pro for ideas.
Click to expand...

That's a great link, thank you for that, I will take a good look.
 
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