Is older Mac Pro worth upgrading?

Hi, I am running 10.10.2 on a Mac Pro (Early 2009). I'm a graphic designer and I run Adobe CS4 Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator and Dreamweaver often simultaneously along with other programs. This computer was lightening fast when I first bought it. But after a few years of use and OS grades it's sluggish and quirky. I bought a 2 TB hard drive and moved all of my files as well as the operating system onto it, thinking maybe my old one was failing. I'm still having problems with slowness and quirks. My old graphics tablet acts erratic, the design software acts erratic, so on and so forth. Is there anything I can do to save, update, help etc. this Mac Pro, or is it time to buy something new?
Hardware Overview:
Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro4,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 8 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 4.8 GT/s
Boot ROM Version: MP41.0081.B07
SMC Version (system): 1.39f5
SMC Version (processor tray): 1.39f5
Hardware UUID: 77BFA0E0-04EA-54E7-869E-5C8C79752551

Greetings. I have the same machine purchased with upgraded video cards and 24GB of RAM. I recently installed a 256GB SSD, but I'm still not happy with the level of performance.
I finally broke down and ordered a maxed-out 6-Core Mac Pro. I know that Macs have a much longer life than a PC, but the advances made over the past 6 years make my current Mac Pro just seem like it was time to be relegated to 'back-up' machine status.
The new Mac Pro shipped, yesterday. I hope the difference in performance is 'day and night' noticeable. I spent a ton of money. lol At my advanced age I'm figuring it's the last machine I will be purchasing and having used Macs since 1984 I figured I deserved the best that money can buy.
If you use your machine to make a living, get a new machine. Between the depreciation on taxes and your personal enjoyment, it will be money very well spent.
Cheers. - Frank

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Older Mac Pro users beware of Mountain Lion upgrade

I work at a company where we have 6 edit suites. Five of those suites are still running Mac Pros; three of them are Early 2008 models, two are Early 2009 models. All of these suites have 30" monitors in them running at 2560 x 1600 resolution. The other suite has a new 27" iMac. All but one of the Mac Pros have their original graphics cards.
When Mountain Lion first came out, I upgraded my Mac mini at home that has FCP7 and FCPX installed on it. Both applications ran fine and I was able to edit a project in FCPX with no problem. A co-worker who works remotely on a 27" iMac had also upgraded his machine and experienced no issues.
Seeing no issues with the ability to run FCP7 under Mountain Lion, I proceeded with upgrading the MacPro suites at our office. After an initial test on one machine to confirm that FCP7 would load and launch projects, I proceeded to upgrade the remaining suites. It soon became apparent after other editors began to use their computers that FCP6 and 7 were affected by the upgrade to Mountain Lion.
While the programs still work fine, one fundamental change that Apple has made in Mountain Lion is to push more of the responsibility for displaying the image on the computer monitor to the GPU of the graphics card. Previously these responsibilities were shared with the CPU. Therefore, if you have an older graphics card (even if it is fully compatible with FCPX, as ours are), FCP6/7 has a difficult time playing back 1080 video in the Canvas window (at any size), without breaking up when there is some degree of movement in the video image.The screen cannot refresh quickly enough to draw the video image without showing horizontal banding and some minor digital garbage.
Rest assured that the render files are clean and the output file will be fine. Once exported, a self-contained .mov file will playback fine in Quicktime, showing no banding where there previously was banding when viewed in FCP. This is an issue with display only. If you can live with it, fine. But it is rather distracting while editing.
I attempted to downgrade one of the Mac Pros to Lion earlier today. While I was able to successfully downgrade (not with a clean install, but another method), both FCP7 and FCPX would no longer launch because they were confused about which version of the OS was running. Using FCS Remover, I deleted both FCP7 and X, then reinstalled FCP7. Still no luck with launching FCP7. I finally decided to reinstall Mountain Lion for the time-being. FCP7 now launches again.
Just a warning to those considering upgrading that you may experience performance issues with FCP6/7 if you are using an older Mac Pro and trying to edit 1080 footage. You may have to upgrade your graphics card to achieve best performance.

Christian Castagna1 wrote:
Yes, we previously we had purchased an ATI Radeon 5770 to enable use of FCPX, and 1080 video plays fine through that in both Early 2008 and Early 2009 models, although it is not fully compatible with those computers. Technically it is only compatible with Mid 2010 Mac Pros. It is unclear if there is a card that is fully compatible with Early 2008 computers and FCPX at this point.
We have noticed some small pixelation around the edges of icons with the 5770 in an Early 2008, but that is intermittent and goes away with a restart. We have not noticed any issues in the Early 2009. We have also just purchased a Radeon 5870 and will be testing that in Early 2008 models to see if the same pixelation issue happens. We will install that card eventually in an Early 2009 computer because it is fully compatible with that machine.
If nothing else, hopefully these graphics cards buy us a couple more years with our Mac Pros.
Can you explain a little more about this please... My primary system is a 2008 8X 3.2GHz system with a ATI Radeon 5770 and I have it running two 27" Samsung monitors and a 37" HDTV (all 1080p) on FCS3. None of the displays have any artifacts under any conditions. What are the compatibility issues? If I'm doing a no-no, I want to know before my next big project...

27 LED monitor and older Mac Pro compatability

Will the new monitor work with older Mac Pro's?

Why does the Apple store list the ATI Radeon HD 4870 Graphics Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro as only the Early 2008 & Early 2009 models?
Only Apple knows, but the comments section, and many posts here, show it works in any Mac Pro/
I'd like to use the new 27" LED with my original 2006 Mac Pro 1,1. I currently have the NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT.
You can use it with the dual-link DVI port (only one port is dual-link) on the NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT with a converter
<http://www.atlona.com/Atlona-Dual-Link-DVI-to-Mini-DisplayPort-Converter-USB-Po wered.html>
The ATI Radeon HD 5770 Graphics Upgrade Kit says it's only compatible with the Mid 2010 version.
There are reports that it also will work in any Mac Pro.
<http://blog.macsales.com/6856-owc-reveals-which-radeon-video-cards-work-with-20 06-2009-mac-pros>
OWC says the Mini DisplayPorts didn't work, but that doesn't appear to be true:
<http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=12165151#12165151>
For three DVI displays, you need dual-link adapters
<http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4279>

Advice for updating my older Mac Pro

I have an older Mac Pro running Leopard and I’m starting to have issues with my system running effectively, so I’m making the leap to Snow Leopard and possibly Lion. I’m looking for advice on the best methodology to make the change, suggestions on the best set up, and pitfalls to avoid.
Current Set Up
Processor: 2 x 2.66 Ghz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Memory: 6 GB 667 Mhz DDR2 FB-DIMM
Drive 1: 750 GB internal, with OS 10.5.8. (230 gb used)
Drive 2: 750 GB internal, non bootable backup for Drive 1(225 gb used)
Drive 3: 1TB internal, Aperture Library (906 gb used)
Drive 4: 1TB internal, Aperture Vault (879 gb used)
Drives 5: 1TB external, backup for safe deposit box (912 gbused)
Drives 6,7,8: 250GB external, varying and redundant backup.
The programs I use more often are MS Office, Photoshop CS3 (not quite ready to upgrade, largely because of the pdf presentation removal in subsequent releases), Aperture 2.0, and now iMovie HD 6 (which has an undiagnosed problem and will not function properly).
My current thinking is:
- Ensure back up of Drive 1 on external drives.
- Erase Drive 2
- Install Snow Leopard onto “fresh” Drive 2 as start updrive
- Use migration assistant to transfer user settings to Drive2
- Transfer programs to Drive 2. Can I use MigrationAssistant to transfer CS3, Aperture, and other programs effectively, or should they be reinstalled from disk? What about plugins?
- Leave Drive 1 as is to ensure MSOffice (ver X), CS3 and Aperture functionality. Will these programs run on Snow Leopard? I've seen posts about possible issues with Lion. . .
- Eventually reconfigure backup drives to adequately and effectively utilize available space (my Aperture Library is getting unwieldy and needs reference masters, etc).
As I’m very inexperienced at this, I would appreciate any advice and suggestions.
Thanks!
Steve

SSD Killer-fast Mac Pro
Upgrade RAM to 16GB (4 x 4GB)
Upgrade all the hard drives to 2TB
Upgrade to 10.6.8 and CS5.5
Replace graphic card with ATI 5770
Upgrade the processors with X5355s, which is what many are doing now with theirs.
Forget Lion. Dropped PowerPC and Rosetta code support
Clone your drives.
Keep 40% or more free space on any drive.
Move any non-OS or applications off the boot drive to a data drive.
Move system and apps to SSD
Use SSD(s) for Aperture Library or stripe RAID.
None of the above, sell yours and pick up a 2010 2.8GHz $2100 (people that want or need to run Tiger and PowerPC will likely pay $700 range for MacPro1,1). Upgrade the processor in 2010, with 6-core 3.33GHz $590.
Apple Special Refurbished Mac Pro 2.8GHz Quad
Intel Xeon W3680 3.33 GHz, SLBV2
Intel Xeon UP W3680 3.33 GHz Processor - Hexa-core
W3670 Upgrade photos
At some point, it doesn't make sense to pour money into older system.
But you can, and do it gradually one step at a time.

I have used my older Mac Pro and now my new 2011 imac fo play the many movies and TV shows I have dowloaded. Great results. But I also have a lot of Blu Ray disks.

I have used my older Mac Pro and now my new 2011 iMac fo play the many movies and TV shows I have dowloaded. Great results.
But I also have a lot of Blu Ray disks.
I am going to load windows 7 via Boot Camp for other reasns. After that is done, and even with an external Blu Ray player, is it still not possible to play Blu ray movies?
Thanks for your consideration.....

I have used my older Mac Pro and now my new 2011 iMac fo play the many movies and TV shows I have dowloaded. Great results.
But I also have a lot of Blu Ray disks.
I am going to load windows 7 via Boot Camp for other reasns. After that is done, and even with an external Blu Ray player, is it still not possible to play Blu ray movies?
Thanks for your consideration.....

I am trying to do a migration transfer from an older Mac Pro, running Leopard, to a newer Mac Pro, running Lion. There is a step that asks for a "passcode" to proceed. I have no idea what that passcode is. It seems to want a numeric code.

I am trying to do a migration transfer from an older Mac Pro, running Leopard, to a newer Mac Pro, running Lion. There is a step that asks for a "passcode" to proceed. I have no idea what that passcode is. It seems to want a numeric code. Has anyone had this experience?

This general-purpose article gives detailed step-by-step instructions for using Migration assistant, Setup Assistant, and other mehtods, and discusses the Pros and cons of each mtheod. It is very approachable and easy to understand. Wriiten by Pondini, the resident Time Machine guru.
Setting-up a new Mac from an old one, its backups, or a PC

I have an older Mac Pro (2006). I want to install Boot Camp and Windows. I have installrg a purchased Snow Leapord on the machine. To install Windows, am I limited to Windows 7? And where are the Windows 7/Boot Camp Drivers? On the OS disk? Download? Tha

I have an older Mac Pro (2006). I want to install Boot Camp and Windows. I have installed a boxed Snow Leapord on the machine. And it says the download of the Boot camp drivers cannot continue because they are not available. But at that point I have not inserted a windows disk, so how does it know i have XP?
So it appears I am limited to Windows 7? And where are the Windows 7/Boot Camp Drivers? On the OS disk?
Finally, since I have necer considered Windows 7 before, I assume there are no compatability issues with mainstream applications that were running in XP?
Thank you.

You're welcome
Just remember to reformat the partition (bootcamp partition) to NTFS with the windows installer, ensure to pick the correct partition.

Top two best video cards for older Mac Pros?

I have some older Mac Pro towers that vary from:
2.66 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon
..to this:
2 x 2.93 GHz 6 Core Intel Xeon
Looking for at least the top two video cards that are tried and tested that would work best with at least Premiere Pro and AME. I just need to narrow down the unwieldy list that can be found here: http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/tech-specs.html

MikeJamesG wrote:
Looking for at least the top two video cards that are tried and tested that would work best with at least Premiere Pro and AME.
Are you adverse to using aftermarket cards that have been converted to work properly in a Mac? If you aren't, then I'd recommend talking to Dave @ MacVidCards because he can cook you up an nVidia 700-series card that will boot properly in a Mac Pro, run at PCI-E 2.0 speeds, and work wonderfully in Pr/AME.

Good wireless cards for older Mac Pros

I have a Mac Pro Dual-Core Intel Xeon 2.66 GHz at work that we are trying to get online wirelessly. A couple of months ago, we bought a Hawking Hi-Gain Wireless-N USB Adaptor, which was working fine until a recent update was performed. Since then, the computer crashes almost immediately if the wireless adaptor is plugged in, but runs fine when it is taken out. I am curious if anyone else has run into a similar problem when using a wireless adaptor. I also wanted to know if anyone had a recommendation for a different, reliable wireless card for an older Mac Pro.
Thanks in advance.

I have almost the exact same situation.
Same system, a d-link wua 1340 usb wireless adaptor.
Worked fine for several weeks or so until i updated to snow leopard.
Now frequent system crashes, grey screen and the box that tells me to use the power button to shut down.
I tried going back to 10.5 and still the same problem.

Mac benchmarks: iMacs vs older Mac Pro towers

I've been having a great discussion in a PPro Facebook group regarding new editing systems; I have a limited budget for 3 new Macs in our company and I feel confident about purchasing a new Mac Pro (for PPro, AE, color correction and finishing work) and 2 iMacs with Thunderbolt RAIDs (just for editing with PPro).
I'm curious though: when I look at the Geekbench scores for the latest Mac models there are older Mac Pros (2009 - 2013) that seem to outperform the newest iMacs in 64-bit multicore performance. The single core performance has the iMacs coming out on top (I'm only looking at the 27" retina, not the new 5K model). So which score is more indicative of performance while editing with Premiere Pro? I've heard from editors who say their new iMacs run circles around the older towers they replaced so I'm inclined to believe that a new iMac would feel faster than even the last silver Mac Pro tower (2012); but a 12-core beast with a beefy GPU has got to be a serious contender when it comes to intense multiprocessing tasks.
I know that there a lot of factors that determine overall "speed" (GPU, RAM, storage speed) so it won't always be an easy 1:1 comparison with these models. I just want to make sure I'm investing in the right hardware and very curious as to how these benchmarks translate into real world Premiere Pro performance.
TIA,
JVK

jvknowles wrote:
I'm inclined to believe that a new iMac would feel faster than even the last silver Mac Pro tower (2012); but a 12-core beast with a beefy GPU has got to be a serious contender when it comes to intense multiprocessing tasks.
There's a lot involved in this comparison, such as:
CPU core count and speed
GPU capacity
Storage speed
The old Mac Pros are excellent rigs, but limited to SATA2 storage speeds, and their Xeons don't have Intel's AVX available, which will speed things up a bit. One advantage they do have is an open catalog of AMD or nVidia GPUs, assuming you can get them powered by the internal connectors. The new Pros are AMD-only, though the advantage is that they have 2 GPUs versus 1.
Comparatively, the new iMac with its desktop Core i7 processor will be able to push faster GHz, and it also has Intel's QuickSync tech available (hardware h.264 encoding). So if you're doing a lot of output with h.264, you'll see a bit of a kick in the *** with those. The limitations? The GPUs aren't as capable as the ones in the nMP now. And you only have access to a single GPU, where the new Pro has 2. But, if you're not doing any work that can be off-loaded to the GPUs, it won't matter.
As Eric mentions: AE is all CPU, all the time. It wants cores and GHz. It'll make your machine cry, regardless of what it is.

How to install Lion on older Mac Pro

I had a Macbook Pro that I installed Lion onto. The Macbook pro overheated and is now dead. I'd like to install Lion on my older Mac Pro (can't install Maverick on this computer) and when I go to the app store it says Lion isn't available in the U.S. Anyway to get it onto this computer? If not, I have no way of syncing this Mac.

Then: Contact Customer Service: Contacting Apple for support and service - this includes international calling numbers.

Update OS on older Mac Pro effect on CC

Has anyone updates their older Mac Pro (2009) to OS 10.10? I'm wondering if CC works well and might be faster.

I don't do Mac, but I have some saved links to read
Yosemite sometimes has problems, often related to "default" permissions needing to be changed
-one person's solution https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1689788
-and a Java update https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1507936
-http://blogs.adobe.com/creativecloud/creative-cloud-and-yosemite/
-https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/mac-os-yosemite-compatability.html

Can I install Windows 8 on an older Mac Pro with Mavericks upgrade?

I have an Early 2008 Mac Pro which I just upgraded to Mavericks, which came with Boot Camp 5.1. Can I install Windows 8 on my machine? The information on this site suggests I can only use Windows 7 with Boot Camp 4 on my system, but does this take an upgraded OS into account? Put another way, is the version compatibility determined only by my OS, or also by my hardware (processor, memory, etc.). This is the first time I will be using Boot Camp to install Windows on this machine.

no, it is determined mainly by machine type then by requisite driver support in the OSX
officially, x64 w7 is as far as you can go but google around, i'm sure there have been people who got w8 to work
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5634

Is it possible to upgrade an older Mac Pro to accept OSX Mountain Lion?

I know mine would need another gig of memory, but would that do it?

Pre 2008 Mac Pro (65lb tower) models lack the required EFI-64 firmawre for 10.8 Mountain Lion.
And the minimum RAM means it runs, but not well.

Need help with video on older Mac Pro

I have a 2008 Mac Pro that more than meets all of the specs for FCP X, except the Mac App store won't let me buy and download because the video card in the system doesn't meet specs. I've found an apple support page that lists the compatible video cards for FCP X. Here's my issues:
1. Most of the cards on the list are older and not easily obtainable anymore.
2. Even with models that are newer, it's had to find one labeled for Mac - so can I just use any old model of, say, a Radeon HD 5670 or do I need one specificlaly made for Macs?
3. Bottom line is what card can I use in a 2008 Mac Pro that will meet the specs and that I can actually purchase?
Thanx...Jon

jhyiesla wrote:
I've found an apple support page that lists the compatible video cards for FCP X.
. . . . . . . . . so can I just use any old model of, say, a Radeon HD 5670 or do I need one specificlaly made for Macs?
A Radeon HD 5670 is a Radeon HD 5670 - if it's on the compatible list, it will work in your Mac.
This is my pet checklist for questions regarding FCP X performance - you may have already addressed some of the items but it's worth checking.
Make sure you're using the latest version of the application - FCP X 10.0.5 runs very well on my 2009 MacPro 2 x 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 16 GB RAM and ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024 MB. I run it with Lion 10.7.5.
First, check that you have at least 20% free space on your system drive.
For smooth playback without dropping frames, make sure 'Better Performance' is selected in the FCP X Preferences - Playback Tab.
If you have not already done so, move your Projects and Events to a fast (Firewire 800 or faster) external HD. Make sure the drive's formatted OS Extended (journalling's not required for video). You should always keep at least 20% free space on the Hard Drives that your Media, Projects and Events are on.
Check the spec of your Mac against the system requirements:
http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/specs/
Check the spec of your graphics card. If it's listed here, it's not suitable:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4664
If you are getting crashes, there is some conflict on the OS. Create a new (admin) user account on your system and use FCP X from there - if it runs a lot better, there's a conflict and a clean install would be recommended.
Keep projects to 20 mins or less. If you have a long project, work on 20 min sections then paste these into a final project for export.
If you ever experience dropped frames, I strongly recommend you use ProRes 422 Proxy - it edits and plays back like silk because the files are small but lightly compressed (not much packing and unpacking to do) - but remember to select 'Original or Optimised Media' (FCP X Preferences > Playback) just before you export your movie, otherwise it will be exported at low resolution.
If you have plenty of processor power, for the ultimate editing experience, create Optimised Media - most camera native files are highly compressed and need a great deal of processor power to play back - particularly if you add titles, filters or effects. ProRes 422 takes up much more hard drive space but is very lightly compressed. It edits and plays back superbly.
Hide Audio Waveforms at all times when you don't need them (both in Browser and Storyline / Timeline). They take up a lot of processor power. (Use the switch icon at the bottom-right of your timeline to select a format without waveforms if you don't need them at the moment, then switch back when you do).
Create folders in the Project and Events libraries and put any projects you are not working on currently, in those folders. This will help a lot. There's a great application for this, called Event Manager X - for the tiny cost it's an invaluable application.
http://assistedediting.intelligentassistance.com/EventManagerX/
Unless you cannot edit and playback without it, turn off Background Rendering in Preferences (under Playback) - this will help general performance and you can always render when you need to by selecting the clip (or clips) and pressing Ctrl+R.
The biggest single improvement I saw in performance was when I upgraded the RAM from 8 GB to 16.
Andy

Is older Mac Pro worth upgrading?

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