#Replacement video card for mac pro 2.8 how to#
#Replacement video card for mac pro 2.8 mac os x#
#Replacement video card for mac pro 2.8 mac os#

In our Speedmark benchmark tests, the new 2.8GHz Mac Pro scored 22 per cent higher than the older 2.66GHz Mac Pro. The processors also talk to the rest of the Mac Pro more quickly – according to Apple, its memory throughput is more than one-and-a-half times as fast They also benefit from a new set of instructions called SSE4, which can improve everything from video encoding to gaming to database searching. They benefit from a few key improvements.įor example, in addition to their improved 45-nanometer efficiency, their on-chip caches have been boosted to 12MB per each quad-core processor, allowing for near-instantaneous access to a larger amount of frequently used data. The Harpertown architecture is essentially the same as that of the previous Mac Pro’s Cloverton processors.

#Replacement video card for mac pro 2.8 how to#

How to Use an Apple RAID Card, Elizabeth Mott, It Still Works, 2017.09.Each of the two Intel Xeon Harpertown processors available in the 8-core iterations carries four processing cores, hence the 8-core claim.

Apple Pro RAID Card for Nehalem Mac Pro versus Third Party Alternative, Bare Feats, 2009.06.15.

2009 Apple RAID PCI Card, Still Useful Today?, Jay, The House of Moth, 2017.07.03.

Apple Mac Pro RAID Card Is an SAS Controller, Seth Weintraub, Computerworld, 2007.11.17.

#Replacement video card for mac pro 2.8 mac os#

If you do want to use one of these cards, be forewarned that a replacement battery will cost more than the used RAID card.įinally, make sure that your Mac Pro and the RAID Card both have the latest firmware installed, as this improves reporting battery status and compatibility with Mac OS X. Boot Camp does not allow for installing Windows on hardware or software RAID drives.įurther, if the battery is shot and will no longer fully charge, the write buffer won’t do a thing for you. If you want to use SAS drives, it might make some sense, but not for SATA.Īnd if you want to use Boot Camp, forget about it. The sad truth is that the software RAID available in the Mac’s Disk Utility program creates a faster SATA RAID system than this hardware solution.

Other World Computing recommended the Highpoint RocketRAID 2721 card, but it is no longer in production. If you really want to improve your Mac Pro’s performance with SATA drives, invest in a 6 Gbps SATA Rev.

Unlike the earlier RAID card, the 2009 one also supports sleep.)įurther, when Bare Feats benchmarked the Mac Pro RAID Card, it discovered that the tested alternatives were all faster than Apple’s $700 card. In fact, unless the battery is fully charged, the buffer is disabled – charging the battery can take up to 12 hours! (According to Bare Feats, the 2009 version of the card allows full-speed writes while the battery is charging.

But if the battery is dead, the buffer is worthless. One unusual feature of the Mac Pro RAID Card is a rechargeable battery that keeps the 512 KB write buffer alive and supplies power to the SATA or SAS drives should the Mac Pro ever lose power.

#Replacement video card for mac pro 2.8 mac os x#

It requires Mac OS X 10.5.6 Leopard or later with the Early 2009 Mac Pro, 10.6.4 Snow Leopard with the Mid 2010 Mac Pro, and 10.7.3 Lion with the Mid 2012 model. The 2009 version of the Mac Pro RAID Card is compatible with all Mac Pro models from 2009 through 2012.