If you have a 2009 Mac Pro, however, you need to first upgrade your 4,1 firmware to the 5,1 specification before swapping the CPUs. If you're already at 5,1 or have a 2010 - 2012 Mac Pro, you're good to go. The Mac Pro 5,1 is a strong workstation with expandability and still holds its hands up against the likes of its newer baby brother the Mac Pro 6,1 or its cousin the iMac Pro. The Mac Pro 5,1 starts off at £1,100 and for a user with a limited budget can be a great place to start. CPU upgrade for Mac Pro 5,1 solved Up to what size resolution monitor will work well with a mid 2012 Mac pro retina 15' with an Intel 4000 graphics card? Solved 2.1 Audio setup - Mac Pro 2012. Mar 03, 2018 At my studio we have two MacPros 5,1 (8-core / 2,4 GHz) and one MacPro 4,1 (4-core / 2,26 GHz) flashed to 5,1. I wonder what would be the best options to upgrade the processors and GPU. 50% of our work is graphic (Adobe CC Suite) and the other 50% 3D stills (Cinema 4D - 80% w/integrated rendering engine and 20% w/VRAY).
Upgrading the processors in a Mac Pro isn't a trivial task. No matter how often you may have heard that new processors can just be popped in, in reality, it can be a difficult process. This is especially true with the 2009 model of the Mac Pro, which uses processors that don't have top cases or heat spreaders. The 2010 and 2012 models, however, are much more conventional, and a seasoned DIYer should be able to complete the process.
Before you decide whether or not to upgrade your processors, you must decide if performing an upgrade, including the chance of a failed upgrade, is worth the cost and risk.
Mac Pro Cpu
There are quite a few Mac Pro upgrades projects you may want to consider before you undertake a processor upgrade, such as a memory upgrade or storage upgrade.
2009 Mac Pro Processor Upgrade
You can upgrade a 2009 Mac Pro's processors, however, you may find it isn't practical to do so. The problem is that the processors that can be used for easy upgrades are no longer being sold new. Best mouse for mac pro laptop for design. It's possible to find used processors on the salvage market, on eBay, and in other places, but they are usually sold as is, or with very limited guarantees, such as 'pulled from a known working computer.'
Firmware Hack and 6-Core Westmere
Another option is to upgrade to a 6-core Westmere processor, like the ones used in the 2010 and 2012 Mac Pros. Normally, the 2009 Mac Pro wouldn't work with the 6-core Westmere processor, due to the limitation of the EFI firmware included in the 2009 Mac Pro.
There are, however, hacked versions of the firmware that can be installed to enable support for the 6-core processor. But once again, DIYer beware; a firmware install that goes wrong can turn your Mac Pro into a very expensive paperweight. This unsupported hack also may not work with future OS X releases.
Still, using the much more readily available 6-core Westmere processors in the 2009 Mac Pro may be worth the risk. The Mac Pro EFI upgrade was created by MacEFIRom, a member of the Netkas forums. Be sure to read the entire forum thread at the above site. Besides the firmware hack from MacEFIRom, you will also need the actual Mac Pro EFI firmware from Apple.
2010–2012 Mac Pro Processor Upgrades
Best Cpu Upgrade For Mac Pro 5 1 Firmware
Upgrading the processor in a 2010–2012 Mac Pro is much easier than the 2009 model, mainly because of the changes Apple made to the processor socket and the types of processors it chose to use. Instead of a heat sink assembly to hold the CPU in the LGA-1366 socket, Apple changed to the more commonplace LGA socket, with the conventional clamshell clip to hold the processor in place.
In addition, the 2010–2012 Mac Pro processors are standard models from Intel that include a heat spreader/case, unlike the 2009 Mac Pros, which use open processors with no top case or heat spreader. https://belamyi.weebly.com/best-mac-blushes-for-light-skin.html.
This means the processor upgrade process is fairly conventional, other than contending with the humongous heat sinks that Apple uses.
Best hot sauce for mac and cheese. In addition, it's fairly easy to find processors for upgrading these later Mac Pros.
The 2010 and 2012 Mac Pros were originally available in single-processor models that used either quad-core Xeon processors or 6-core processors. The dual-processor models incorporated a pair of quad-core processors for 8 total cores, or a pair of 6-core processors for 12 total cores.
The most common upgrade is to jump from using quad-core processors to 6-core models. Adding two (single-processor models) or four (dual-processor models) processors makes a lot of sense, and definitely provides the best bang for your buck. Remember that all of the processors you can use for upgrading the 2010–2012 Mac Pros make use of hyper-threading so that a two-core upgrade will be able to run four processing threads, not just two.
Merely upgrading processor speed while staying with the same number of processor cores probably isn't a good use of your budget.
If you're thinking about going from a single-processor to a dual-processor configuration, we would advise against it because it's not cost-effective. While it can be done, you will need to replace your Mac's existing single processor tray with a dual tray. You will also have to purchase two processors, not one because the single-processor Xeons won't work in a dual configuration; you'll need Xeons designed for use with multiple processors.
Processors for Upgrading Single-Processor 2010–2012 Mac Pros
- 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Nehalem W3565
- 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Nehalem X3570
- 3.33 GHz 6-Core Westmere X3680
- 3.46 GHz 6-Core Westmere X3690
Processors for Upgrading Dual-Processor 2010–2012 Mac Pros
![Mac pro 4 1 upgrade Mac pro 4 1 upgrade](/uploads/1/2/6/4/126433409/643311309.jpg)
- 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Westmere E5640
- 2.66 GHz 6-Core Westmere E5650
- 2.93 GHz 6-Core Westmere E5670
- 3.33 GHz 6-Core Westmere E5680
- 3.46 GHz 6-Core Westmere E5690
Mac Pro Upgrade Advice
It's much easier to upgrade the processors in the 2010 and 2012 Mac Pros than the 2009 models. Bumping up from a quad-core to a 6-core can be an effective way to get a few more years out of your Mac before you need to consider replacing it. Latest version of kodi 2017.
If you look here http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/index-macpro.html you can see all the standard configurations of Mac Pro. It would clearly be safer and simpler to upgrade yours to another standard configuration. Therefore 1 x 3.33 GHz 6 Core Xeon W3680 would be the logical choice.
On a MacPro 5,1 this is as simple as unscrewing and removing the heatsink unclipping the processor, fitting a new processor, cleaning the heatsink, applying fresh heatsink compound, and putting it all back together.
However to be able to use 1333MHz RAM I believe requires having dual processors and yours appears to be a single quad-core processor. Your processor interconnect speed would also not change for the same reason. Also the maximum RAM is similarly limited compared to a dual processor system.
It is possible to 'upgrade' to a dual-processor configuration but this requires exchanging the entire CPU system tray and will therefore cost significantly more.