GPU upgrade for Mac Pro 3,1

[Essence_of_War]

I'm looking for a new GPU w/ EFI firmware for a Mac Pro 3,1 to use for FCPX and Premiere to replace a radeon 2600 XT and a non-EFI 7950.

I'm looking at the following options:

5770 for ~$230
5870 for ~$400
7950 for ~$450

The card is going to be used primarily for FCPX/Premiere rendering of HD (but not 4k) video, driving two (possibly 3 displays) and no gaming or coin mining whatsoever. Granted the 5870 and 7950 outperform the 5770, but do they outperform the 5770 sufficiently to justify the +$180 and +$220 respective price bumps?

If I could find an EFI version of the GTX 285 or Quadro FX 4800 for comparable price to the 5770, would either of those be a better choice?

 

[HurleyBird]

The 7950 is almost twice as fast as the 5870 (but much faster if you can saturate the smaller frame buffer on the 5870), and the 5870 is almost twice as fast as the 5770. In other words, the 7950 gives you the best performance per dollar while the 5770 is cheap and may be "good enough." Unfortunately I don't know enough about FCPX/Premiere to give a solid recommendation, but I can tell you that there's no reason at all to get the 5870 given the $50 difference in cost to the far superior 7950.

 

[Essence_of_War]

Yeah, I too was suspicious about the price jump from 5770->5870 vs. 5770->7950.

 

[BrightCandle]

I can literally find zero reviews showing the performance differences in these applications. Doesn't mean there isn't a huge difference, a 7950 is more than twice as quick as the 5870 but how much that impacts on these applications I have no idea.

On Mac OS do you have a GPU-Z like tool that can show GPU usage? If so it might at least be worth looking at it while doing something that goes slow to determine if the GPU is involved and how much. If the GPU isn't touched at all or it makes up just 20% of the time at 100% load then you may find a new GPU is not what is needed. This is about the only route I can think of towards getting at least a bit more information on the potential improvement you would see.

 

[Essence_of_War]

If the GPU isn't touched at all or it makes up just 20% of the time at 100% load then you may find a new GPU is not what is needed.

So the question really isn't IF I need a new GPU, it's only a matter of which GPU, because:
1) The 2600 XT is not OpenCL capable, so I can't even run FCPX with it
2) The 2600 XT can't playback HD video without stuttering
3) The non-EFI 7950 was causing all sorts of boot issues under Mavericks and Mavericks is needed for FCPX.

I'm leaning towards the 7950 now.

 

[Emulex]

you can find on ebay a dude that sells modded nvidia cards with EFI bios flashed to them for cheap.

 

[BrightCandle]

If it doesn't work at all I would say get a modern card, no point going for old stock now. What do the developers recommend in terms of GPUs? That usually tells you a lot about what will be sufficient. I know you mentioned the 7950 but can't you buy things like the 7850 or other lower end GPUs?

Do you even know if the functions you are using are openCL programmed? Its not clear to me reading through a load of material what is and isn't accelerated and to what extent.

 

[Essence_of_War]

What do the developers recommend in terms of GPUs?

For FCPX:

OpenCL-capable graphics card or Intel HD Graphics 3000 or later w/ 256MB of VRAM (1GB recommended for 4K)

For Premier:

Adobe-certified GPU card from list below with at least 1GB VRAM for GPU accelerated-performance

Mac CUDA:
GeForce GTX 285
GeForce GTX 675MX
GeForce GTX 680
GeForce GTX 680MX
GeForce GT 650M
GeForce GT 750M
Quadro CX
Quadro FX 4800
Quadro 4000
Quadro K5000

Mac OpenCL:
ATI Radeon HD 6750M
ATI Radeon HD 6770M
AMD Radeon HD 7950
AMD Radeon HD FirePro D300
AMD Radeon HD FirePro D500
AMD Radeon HD FirePro D700
GeForce GT 650M
GeForce GT 750M
GeForce GTX 675MX
GeForce GTX 680
GeForce GTX 680MX
Quadro K5000

Mostly my takeaway seems to be 1GB+ of VRAM. Premier claims that almost everything (short of, I think, Gaussian blur) can be accelerated through either OpenCL or CUDA. I think that FCPX does all of its accel through OpenCL.

 

[BrightCandle]

That is such a random list of cards. Its not like the 7950 is any different to the 7970, or that the 290 can't do everything the 7950 can. Totally random smattering.

 

[Essence_of_War]

It's the scattershot effect of "whatever GPUs Apple has deigned to allow EFI firmware for". :\

 

[Essence_of_War]

I ended up going with the Sapphire 7950 from OWC, everything seems to be working well, and in initial tests it benches MUCH better than the 2600 XT.

 

[tweakboy]

buy the cheapest one, as new 8xx series is around the corner and with the money left it would be nice,, gl