Mid 2010 Mac Pro vs Late 2013 Mac Pro

Hi folks,
I am currently running an late 2009 8-core MacPro and an late 2013 quad-core iMac. I mainly use After Effects, Final Cut Pro and Cinema 4D for TV and internet motion graphics. While 3D (espescially with v-ray) is getting more relevant in my daily work I would like to upgrade my Mac Pro to a faster system.
The Cinema 4D community can measure the render speed of a system with a tool called Cinebench. Today I compared the specs of these two:
12-core Mid 2010 2,93 GHz MacPro with two X5670 processors and the new
12-core Late 2013 2,7 GHz MacPro with E5-2697v2 processor.
The 2010 one has a cinebench score of 1400 and the 2013 MacPro has 1600. So they seem to be very close.
Are there any reasons to spend 2-3000 Euros more for the new Mac Pro when Thunderbolt is not that important and the speed of an GeForce GTX 680 is enough compared to the FirePro cards????
Thanks for your input....

indigoblue69 wrote:
Do I have to swap the mainboard too? Or are the sockets the same for the old Nethalem Xenon and the newer Wesmare one???
You DO NOT have to swap the logic board. The 2009 and 2010 Mac Pros use the same hardware (main board included).
The 2010 simply has a modified boot rom firmware that accomodates the Westmere 6-core CPUs and faster ram.
The only thing preventing you from using those Westmeres in your 2009 is firmware. Not hardware.
It should be mentioned that swapping CPUs in a 2009 dual-socket Mac Pro is trickier than the single. Apple used CPUs without the lids (Integrated heat spreaders). Your replacement CPUs will have the lids creating a differenc in height when attaching the heat sinks.
You'll need new thermal padding and you will need to be very careful when tightening the bolts. Many use washers to prevent over-tightening, though some suggest it is not necessary.
There are guides online for this procedure. A bit more of a sweat than the single-socket version where CPU is a simple drop-in replacement.

Similar Messages

MST Support for MacBook Pro Retina Late 2013 - DisplayPort 1.2 - Will it ever happen? (with sources)

So back in October, I purchased a brand new Macbook Pro Retina (MBPr), fully loaded with top of the line specs. I was soooo excited to have Thunderbolt 2 tech which Intel AND Apple describes as having DisplayPort 1.2a compatibility - which up to this point is unfortunately NOT the case. The point of the information/questions and requests in this article is to engage a conversation about the issues of not having MST support after Apple falsely mislead their consumers to think otherwise - especially when it is clear the MBPr is capable. Please read on...
Apple advertises that the Thunderbolt 2 ports on BOTH the MBPr and the new Mac Pro (NMP) will have 4K Display support with the famed 20gb/sec Ports (DisplayPort 1.2 only requires a little above 17gb/sec). Now that the 10.9.1 update has been released, we have failed to see MST or Multi-Stream Transport enabled on the MBPr Late 2013. Now, as for the New Mac Pro- it DOES have MST enabled in 10.9.1 with the AMD GPUs. For all of you out there that's questioning what this means, short answer is basically the Mac Pro will be able to power a 4K Monitor at 60Hz through the Thunderbolt 2 Port but the New MBPr is stuck with only HDMI 1.4 support which tops out at 4K 30Hz. 30Hz is unacceptable for anything but movies or a photo slideshow. At 30Hz the cursor will jump across the screen, eliminating any of the benefits of 4K.
BUT it gets worse...
Apple can be seen advertising that the new MBPr 15" model can power a 4K monitor THROUGH the Thunderbolt 2 Port here: http://www.apple.com/thunderbolt - This article quotes the following:
"Now with Thunderbolt 2 built into the new Mac Pro and MacBook Pro with Retina display, you can connect the latest 4K desktop displays and get double the bandwidth for your peripherals. And the two generations of Thunderbolt technology are compatible with each other."
Does this not let the consumer assume that the newest MBPr will be able to drive a 4K display through the Thunderbolt 2 Port? I would say yes it does, but at the time I wrote this, the TB2 Ports can't power a 4K display because, as previously stated, MST is disabled in Mavericks for the 15" MBPr Late 2013.
NOW, later on Apple posted the following article on 4K support here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6008
4K support on the MacBook Pro (Retina, Late 2013)
MacBook Pro supports 4K displays and Ultra HD TVs at the following resolutions and refresh rates with the built-in HDMI port:
3840 x 2160 at 30 Hz refresh rate
4096 x 2160 at 24 Hz refresh rate (mirroring is not supported at this resolution)
In the article above the New Mac Pro is listed as having support for a 4K Display with the Thunderbolt 2 Port (or MST DisplayPort 1.2a Technology) at 60Hz with no problem. This leads myself and many others to believe that MST will NEVER be enabled on the newest MacBook Pro Retina with Nvidia GPUs. Yes, 4K IS supported but ONLY through the HDMI 1.4 port, which has the limitation of only 30hz. This two-faced advertising is extremely upsetting to a LOT of people, including myself.
Interestingly enough, THIS IS NOT a hardware issue. If one ventures into Windows 8.1 via Bootcamp and connects a 4K Display via the Thunderbolt 2 (or through DP1.2) Port, the Display registers at 60Hz, thus proving that the Thundberbolt 2 Hub Controller is completely capable of MST DisplayPort functionality. Clearly this a driver issue with Apple, Nvidia or Intel or any combination. What Apple has done here is forcing any professional that desires stable and clear 4K technology through their MacBook Pro Retina to do so only using Windows 8.1 on their own machines! Definitely an oxymoron if you ask me...
Later on when the Mac Pro was ready for ordering, Apple placed the Sharp PN-K321 as a compatible option for a 4K Display. On the Store page featuring the (over three thousand dollar) Sharp 4K display, located here http://store.apple.com/us/product/HD971LL/A/sharp-32-pn-k321-4k-ultra-hd-led-mon itor?fnode=53 Apple states the following:
"Note that 4K DisplayPort operation is only compatible with the new Mac Pro (Late 2013)."
All of that being said, and I'm terribly sorry for my wordy ranting...
This brings me to a final two requests to ANYONE reading this post:
a) Has anyone working with the new 10.9.2 Beta Update seen evidence that DisplayPort 1.2 capabilities will be enabled for the new MacBook Pro Retina (Nvidia 750M) with the promised "Graphics Driver Updates" within the next Mavericks update?
and
b) To others that purchased or were/are thinking of purchasing a new MacBook Pro Retina with TB2 Ports: If you are just as upset as me about this crushing blow to consumers that just purchased a $3,000 laptop that were promised something that wasn't delivered - I urge you please, write to Apple and let them know they are making a mistake. You can do this though the support page or through http://www.apple.com/feedback
Thank you for your precious time, and if anyone has anything to contribute to this issue, please jump in....

GOOD NEWS!
The Mavericks 10.9.3 update adds official support for Thunderbolt 2, 4K!
I'm not sure if you will be able to daisy chain anything to the 4K display. I've read that the design of Thunderbolt 2 includes support for DisplayPort 1.2 multi-stream (MST), which allows this type of daisy chaining with 4K, but we don't know if Apple has this supported on it's machines. Apparently it's been buggy in development because the graphics driver needs to work correctly with the Thunderbolt 2 host controller. I'm sure they will work it out if they haven't already.
The above is all via found information on this topic, but you can follow some more discussion here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1713876
One more note on Thunderbolt worth sharing: always keep your fastest peripherals closer to the computer in the chain. If you have a TB1 device directly connected to the computer, anything further down the chain will be limited to TB1 speed/capability regardless of it's native speed. Always connect TB2 devices first, and save anything TB1 for the end of the chain.

Vertical Banding in Photoshop 2014 with late 2013 Mac Pro

After installing the latest version of Photoshop 2014 on my late 2013 Mac Pro my images are showing horizontal banding when editing a layer mask. Adobe said this is the fault of the GPU (Mine: two AMD FirePro D500) and that I should post it here, for Apple to read.

I have a similar problem. Adobe said Apple needs to fix the bug in the driver for my GPU. I have a Mid 2010 Mini with a NVIDIA GeForce 320M.
The pattern shows up in layer masks in Photoshop CC 2014. I have not seen this problem in previous versions of PS.

Will the late 2013 Mac Pro boot from an external drive (4Tb, USB 3) with a cloned Win7 x64 partition on it?

Hello all,
I ordered a CTO Mac Pro for heavy rendering and animating work, and I am planning on using bootcamp to install a windows partition (for 3DsMax). As I am now using a HP Elitebook 8770W that has several valuable files and projects on it, I have bought a Seagate 4Tb external Desktop Drive that uses USB 3.0 to use as a backup drive. Now, as I saw that Bootcamp Assistant only supports installing a x64 version of Windows 8, my question is:
Will a late 2013 Mac Pro using bootcamp assistant boot from an external USB drive with a cloned partition running x64 win7? Or do I really have to buy Windows 8 and install that to my internal SSD, and then use the migration assistant to copy over my projects?
Thanks!

Posted? or found in new builds?
BCA should really just pull whatever the latest drivers are when run.
If it is with how it partitions and sets up nMP and its partition for Windows that is another matter and makes sense.
Some people want UEFI native booting in Windows, and my experieince with that on PCs has been that it boots faster and runs well, but has different partitions that it wants. For one thing, there is now a backup "system reserved" partition, just as Apple GUID has some volume information blocks and backup and areas that were once optional (and if format erase was not able to, it would not create one) are now mandatory.
Windows 8.1 is req'd, reason a backup should be a big must - is it might overwrite and use another OS's partition table entries. Especially when doing UEFI install.
There was something about which linux OS was safe and how they would each add entries in the table, but one would not place nice. That one had to be done first or not at all.

Why do USB drives plugged into USB hubs make my Mac Book Pro (Retina late 2013) wake from sleep?

I have 2 x USB hubs, a Logitech USB 2.0 hub and a Broway USB 3.0 hub. Tested both and both seem to be the cause of my late 2013 Mac Book Pro waking from sleep. I ran syslog to find out why (syslog |grep -i "Wake reason") and the reason I got back was "kernel[0] <Notice>: Wake reason: XHC1" - this means nothing to me, but it didn't take too much mucking about to hunt the problem down and figure out it was the USB hub with any USB drive attached. If the drive is attached directly to the computer. No problem, computer sleeps fine.
This was a problem I encountered (and never solved) with OSX 10.6.8, a 2008 Macbook Pro the same Logitech USB 2.0 hub, but with different drives. I put the problem down to a bug that never got solved in an old system. But I am simply AMAZED after my update to a new MBP and new system that it is still about almost 6 years, a dozen MBP's and 4 systems later.
The other problem is that not only does the USB drive/ USB hub combo wake the computer it also loses the drive upon sleep and mounts it again upon wake. Then repeats this process every couple of minutes. And it obviously doesn't eject the drives properly because each time I return to the computer after I put it to sleep or let it go to sleep I get a giant list of "Disk Not Ejected Properly" notifications about it. Which I'm guessing could eventually cause some file damage.
I've tried combinations of different drives, different hubs (a Belkin and a no-name Chinese brand 2.0 hub) and the problem persists. Is there a solve to this problem? I'm surprised to see so little posts on forums about this. Am I just unlucky and got another combination of faulty/problematic hardware, or is this a real problem that exists for everyone? If not I would love to know if people have found winning combos of USB hubs and drives. But if it is, then it HAS to be solved.
If you have a Macbook Pro, then you are limited to 2 USB outlets, this is obviously a bare minimum and I would say that 95% of people using their laptop computer in the office or at home have a hub, and very likely a USB drive attached to it. I know actual Apple reps don't really pay much attention to the community support posts, but I've got 6 months worth of Applecare left and would like suggestions about how to get Apple's attention about this problem.
BTW Jettison (a 3rd party app that ejects drives properly before sleep) is not a solve. It is a 3rd party app that tries to fill a hole in a broken system. I don't want to eject my drive upon sleep, I want it to got the **** to sleep.

Is there a pattern to the time of day or other detail that may be
traced back to a OS X system cause of this odd phenomenon?
Are there any copies of system files on any of the attached USB
external drives? Any libraries, such as iTunes, iPhoto, etc?
Once the drives are indexed by Spotlight, are their permissions
ignored by the OS X? Content, if neutral, should not affect the
wake or sleep cycle; especially if they're ignored by the OS X.
Could there be a bad cable or other component? If so that would
be a difficult process of elimination to detect it. Usually replacing
most suspect components in the USB stream (external to Macs)
is a rote way to mechanically test that idea; & not 100% sure.
Does the equipment all have a good ground to the utility or house
electrical field? An intermittent ground may affect more than sleep.
Hard to say at this point. Maybe a late-night talk radio guru on
remote viewing could peer into your situation and sleuth it out?
Sorry to have run out of ideas, but the process must be electrical
& mechanical to some extent. - Or perhaps odd software inspired.
Do you have any phone-home spyware items inside, just jumping
at the chance to spill your information? Little Snitch may help.
PS: Perhaps the computer needs to go into Apple & have a genius
or product specialist at AASP test the unit thoroughly... BlueTooth?
see:
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Wake+reason:+XHC1
Good luck & happy computing!
edited 2x

Performance Issue Premiere Pro CC 2014 with Late 2013 Mac Pro

Hi all!
Im working Premiere Pro CC 2014 on a Late 2013 Mac Pro 6 core D700s and 32GB RAM on OSX 10.9.4
After the 2014 update i have experience some drop frames and hangs with a new 1080p timeline project.
And it later results in software hang and crashing . even after a quit (force quit) and re-poen, it seems to happen again and again.
Even after a system reboot seems to be fine at first, but it still crashes on the project.
Tired to render the timeline and still the same. Also tried to delete rendered file and play right with timeline with yellow bar, same.
Even drop the preview playback to 1/2 and still..
files are mixed 1080p footage from Canon 5d3, 60D, T2i.
I have 3 layers (interview video with different angles) and a title layer (hard subtitle)
had some light color correction with fast color corrector and a sharpening on the 5d3 layer.
Ive work with the CC premiere pro before with mac pro and everything is fine and never hand an issue.
All my memory setting are set for performance and i have open GL on my D700s
Im not sure if this a software issue or someone my hardware is not working right?!
Thanks in advance!

I am having the same issues.
Im working on a late 2012 iMac, 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7. 32 Gb ram, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX, OS X 10.9.4.
I'm editing RED footage, about 3 TB worth for this project from a Promise Pegasus drive.
The software really slows down when using the TYPE tool and also when scrubbing through footage.
When I attempt to quite the software and restart, the interface goes away but the app is still running but says "not responding" when I attempt to force quit.
If you've figured it out since then Id love to know what works.
Thanks!
G

Late 2013 Mac Pro wake from sleep crashes - which logs to look at?

I started encountering wake-from-sleep crashes with my late 2013 Mac Pro a couple of weeks ago. Prior to that the system had been pretty solid. Other than app and OS updates installed from the App Store, I can't think of any software changes that might be responsible.
What logs should I be looking for that could be helpful in diagnosing the problem? Looking at other posts where people have been trying to diagnose similar issues I see people posting portions of panic logs that show which modules were loaded and might help point to a culprit, but I can't seem to find a log with a panic message in it.
I had thought I'd determined my Anker USB3 powered-hub was related to the crashes, as when I disconnected it from my system I went several days without a crash. Today I reconnected the hub with just a few devices on it and got a crash. I disconnected the devices but left the hub attached but got another crash. I then disconnected the hub again, assuming I'd proved it was the culprit, but the machine has now crashed twice without the hub attached.
I'm running OS 10.9.4. Looking at other reports people reported some specific programs that added kernel extensions that were suspected to be the problem, but I don't have any of those programs installed on my Mac. The problem doesn't happen every time I wake the machine, but has happened at least four times today alone (after about three days of no crashes.)

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
If you don't see any reports listed, but you know there was a panic, you may have chosen Diagnostic and Usage Messages from the log list. Choose DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION instead.
In the Console window, select
DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION ▹ System Diagnostic Reports
(not Diagnostic and Usage Messages) from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
There is a disclosure triangle to the left of the list item. If the triangle is pointing to the right, click it so that it points down. You'll see a list of reports. A panic report has a name that begins with "Kernel" and ends in ".panic". Select the most recent one. The contents of the report will appear on the right. Use copy and paste to post the entire contents—the text, not a screenshot.
In the interest of privacy, I suggest that, before posting, you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.)
Please don’t post other kinds of diagnostic report.
I know the report is long, maybe several hundred lines. Please post all of it anyway.

Late 2013 Mac Pro graphics problem

I have a late 2013 Mac Pro with dual AMD FirePro D300's. Although this could be coincidence, it appears that after updating to 10.10.2, I find my graphics "freeze" after a random period of time (I updated late last week). I can unfreeze by rebooting, or by unplugging the HDMI cable and plugging it back in again. In the latter case, it takes about 30 seconds for the graphics to re-enable, and they are very sluggish after they do re-enable. I have run the standard Apple diagnostics to no avail. Has anyone else seen anything like this? Any suggestions? Any help would be great! Thank you in advance.

Thanks for this response. With nothing else to go on, I guess I have to assume it is some sort of bug somewhere. In looking at the console log, what I see is causing the display to be slow after I unplug the hdmi cable and plug it back in again is what appear to be UI update disables:
2/4/15 5:33:37.955 PM WindowServer[145]: disable_update_timeout: UI updates were forcibly disabled by application "Google Chrome" for over 1.00 seconds. Server has re-enabled them.
2/4/15 5:33:37.963 PM WindowServer[145]: common_reenable_update: UI updates were finally reenabled by application "Google Chrome" after 1.01 seconds (server forcibly re-enabled them after 1.00 seconds)
This does not happen prior to the GPU crash; which from the console log appears to be what hangs the system in the first place.
Note that it is not just Google Chrome that is doing this, every application I use results in the same message. Forcing the WindowServer to quit doesn't do anything (other than log me out).
I am frustrated by this. Googling these issues shows many many other people have similar problems. Being a long time and loyal Apple customer, I am very disappointed........

Is Photoshop Elements 13 compatible with late 2013 Mac Pro?

Does anyone here run PSE 13 smoothly on the late 2013 Mac Pro? My copy runs very sluggish on my Mac Pro even though it has a 3.7GHz quad-core Xeon processor with 16GB of RAM. For example, if I drag a slider, it does not move smoothly. The slider will jump after a second or two. Then a few seconds later, its effects are shown. If I move the mouse to a button, it will take awhile before it displays its name.
I use a 2nd copy of PSE 13 on my MacBook Pro with no problem at all.
I contacted Adobe support and they asked me to re-launch the PSE and reset the preference. It did not work. I then un-installed the PSE and re-installed it. The same problem still exists. What is worse is now my Mac Pro does not enter sleep mode.
Anyone here with good experience with PSE 13 on the latest Mac Pro? All other programs on my Mac Pro run well.

Thanks
I can't understand why I can't install it on my MacBook Air. I continue to get Exit Code: 7 with DW063 being the dominant errors. the error statement says it is unable to get permissions of /Applications/Adobe Photoshop Elements 13/Support files/ etc.
There is no Adobe Photoshop Elements folder on my computer.
I added a 2nd account with Admin privileges and got the same results.
I downloaded the install file from both Adobe and Amazon.

Is the late 2013 mac pro compatible with 10.8.5

Is the late 2013 mac pro compatible with 10.8.5

No, except through emulation inside a product such as VirtualBox, Parallels Desktop, or VMware Fusion.
(105011)

HT201364 why i don't install mac os x maverick for macbook pro retina later 2013?

why i don't install mac os x maverick for macbook pro retina later 2013?

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
The Late 2013 MacBook Pro already comes with OS X Mavericks. However, if you try to download OS X Mavericks from the Mac App Store, you will get a message telling you that your MacBook Pro is not compatible, when it is.
This is caused because the Late 2013 MacBook Pro is running a special OS X Mavericks version which is different than the version available in the Mac App Store. This makes that you get an error message when you try to download OS X Mavericks even when you are using it.
Instead of downloading OS X Mavericks from the Mac App Store, you can still download OS X Mavericks to reinstall OS X through OS X Recovery > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718 You will be able to download OS X Mavericks from the Mac App Store when your MacBook Pro uses the same version as all other Macs

Late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina 15' will not boot an external disk from a Mid-2012 MAcbook Pro. What should I do?

In order to simplify moving all my files from the previous mid-2012 macbook pro 15' when moving to my new late-2013 macbook pro, i superdup-ed the full hard-disk to an external ssd. Unfortunatelly the new mac resuses to boot from this external disk (i get the grey disk with a line over it). The external disk works just fine so if I boot the new mac from its internal SSD I can read/write the external disk without problems.
Old OS X is 10.9 as is the OS on the new mac.
What I need to do is to boot the new mac from the external ssd, use the same superduper to copy the external content onto the internal ssd.
How can I solve this issue?

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
If you made a backup of your files with SuperDuper, use Migration Assistant (in /Applications/Utilities) to transfer your files from the external drive > http://pondini.org/OSX/MigrateLion.html It will create a new user account with the transferred files, so you may want to merge both user accounts > https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-5472
The Late 2013 MacBook Pro uses a special OS X Mavericks version which makes OS X compatible with it, and older OS X versions do not work with it. That's the reason why you cannot start up from the external drive created from the Mid 2012 MacBook Pro

Trying to restoring a late 2013 macbook pro from a 2010 macbook pro

Hi I have problems with my 13"retina macbook pro from late 2013.There is something on it that makes it 4 times slower in boot up than the other two one from 2009 and 20010 all are running 10.9.5, so I thought I would clone one of them that has all the programs I need on it .
Having cloned it with ccc to a external hard disc and testing to see that it boots, witch it dose in the machine it was cloned on, but when I tried to boot from it on the retina it will not.
Any one who could shed some light on why this is so would be very welcome.
Thanks
Chrisus

anything that shipped with a 2.5" form factor SATA Hard Drive can be upgraded to an Apple or aftermarket 2.5" form factor SATA "SSD-in-a-can".
the early SSD-only MacBook Air models shipped with a "stick" form factor SSD-ONLY in a special SATA socket. No room for a 2.5" form factor Hard drive. OWC and perhaps some others developed some aftermarket "drives" that are compatible.
I think it is only the 2013 models MacBook Air and MacBook Pro and Mac Pro (that do not have a 2.5" hard drive option) that made the leap to the "stick" form factor with a PCIe connection with a different special connector.
These PCIe SSDs are really fast, possibly on the order of 800 MBytes/sec. Compare to a 7200RPM Hard drive's 125 M Bytes/sec burst.

Will a Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Single Unit Version Internal Solid State Drive MZ-7TE500BW work in a late 2013 Mac Mini

Will a Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Single Unit Version Internal Solid State Drive MZ-7TE500BW work in a late 2013 Mac Mini

Would you happen to know if it will work in a mid 2007 iMac running Mavericks with 4GB of RAM? I need this to last this year and next year I am buying my MacPro, anyway, I dont want to put all the work in to installing it if its not going to work, thanks for any help!

How to get new Macbook Pro Retina (late 2013) to detect external monitor via HDMI?

Hi everyone, this is my first Mac and for the most part it's been really, really wonderful.
This is my first major glitch: I cannot get it to detect my external display: It is an ASUS PA248Q, manufactured Aug 2012.
The HDMI cable according to my Amazon history is at least 1.3c from 2010, "Fanatic Digital Imperial Series Gold-Plated HDMI Cable (6 feet)".
It works with perfectly connecting an AmazonTV box to an old Samsung TV, with vivid clarity, unlike our cableTV signal.
Just in case, I have a new HDMI cable on order, which claims to be of newest standards.
The Macbook Pro Retina (late 2013) has the standard Intel Iris from the Haswell chips, as well as Nvidia GT 750M, the latter which I don't think has been used yet.
The ASUS display says: HDMI NO SIGNAL.
I have tried shutting them down and replugging the cable. I don't know what the ideal order is. The Macbook Pro is plugged into AC power, as suggested.
In System Preferences>Display, I press the Option key to select "Detect Displays" option (seriously unintuitive).
I have also tried resetting the NVRAM:
I shut the machine down. Pressed the power button, then quickly held the quadruplet: Option-Command-P-R (a double handful) and waited for the machine to chime a 2nd time. Tried to detect external display no luck.
Next, I reset the SMC:
I shut the machine down. Then I pressed Shift-Control-Option-Power for about 5 to 10s. Then I turned on the machine normally.
NVRAM & SMC steps were from an old youtube video, as the instructions I had did not explain how to do so clearly.
Please let me know if I"m doing something wrong.
Seems so exorbitant to pay $350 for Apple Care; that's a the cost for a whole new cheap laptop.
I will search the forums again. If anyone answers this, thank so much!

Hello there, willr314.
It sounds like you've covered most of the practical steps found in this Knowledge Base article:
Apple computers: Troubleshooting issues with video on internal or external displays
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1573#1
No video or no signal, image distortion, "snow," or flickering
Check connections
When using an external display be sure to check the following:
If you're using an Apple notebook, confirm the AC power cable or adapter is securely connected to the computer and the cable providing power to the display is also secure. It is always good to have your notebook connected to AC power when an external display is in use.
Confirm display adapters are fully seated in their respective connections and that they are supported models and for the computer and display. Refer to these articles to assist you with adapter compatibility and further configuration information:
Monitor and Display Adapter Table
About Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapters
Apple Mini DisplayPort adapters: Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Thunderbolt ports and displays: Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Remove all display cable extenders, KVM switches, or other like devices and retest to determine if the issue is resolved.
Try unplugging the video adapter or cable and then plug it back in.
If more than one video adapter is in use (or "daisy-chained"), troubleshoot by using only one adapter.
Example: A mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter connected to a DVI to HDMI adapter is an unsupported configuration because there is a series of adapters in use.
If available, try using a different display and or adapter (or use a different connector by using DVI instead of VGA, for instance).
Reset the system
You can reset the Mac's parameter RAM and SMC.Reset the resolutionStart by resetting the Mac's parameter RAM. If the display does not come up, was previously set to an unsupported resolution, and still results in no video:
Start up in Safe Mode.
From the Apple () menu, choose System Preferences.
Choose Displays from the View menu to open the preferences pane.
Select any resolution and refresh rate that your display supports.
Restart your computer.
The article does offer some additional links and recommendations as well:
These articles may offer additional assistance and information about displays and video adapters:
Apple Portables: How to use your computer in closed lid mode with an external display
Apple Cinema Display (30-inch DVI) has 1280 x 800 as the maximum available resolution
Mac Pro (Early 2009), Mac Pro (Mid 2010): Supported display configurations
For assistance with Retina displays, please see Frequently asked questions about using a Retina display.
If you tried all of these steps for your display and the video issues persist, contact Apple technical support or take your Apple computer to the nearest Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP) for diagnosis. If you plan to visit an Apple Retail Store, make a reservation at the Genius Bar using http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/ (available in some countries only).
Note: Diagnostic fees may apply for issues not covered under warranty or the AppleCare Protection Plan (APP).
Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Pedro.

Mid 2010 Mac Pro vs Late 2013 Mac Pro

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