Video Card For Mac Pro Mid 2012: Tips and Tricks for Installing a New Card

This article applies only to video cards that originally shipped with a specified Mac Pro or were offered as an upgrade kit by Apple. Similar cards that were not provided by Apple may have compatibility issues and you should work with the vendor of that card to confirm compatibility.

Apple's new macOS Mojave update is not compatible with mid-2010 and mid-2012 Mac Pros with stock GPUs, but it is supported on 2010 and 2012 Mac Pro models that have been upgraded with graphics cards that support Metal.

Video Card For Mac Pro Mid 2012

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Apple today shared a new support document that provides a list of graphics cards that are Metal-capable, which will be useful for 2010 and 2012 Mac Pro owners who want to purchase a new graphics card to upgrade to macOS Mojave.

You can check to see if your graphics card is compatible by holding down option while selecting Apple logo to access System Information. Under Graphics/Displays, if "Supported" is listed next to the Metal entry, the graphics card will work with macOS Mojave.

I need a new graphics card, one that will run at least 4K on my older mid 2012 Mac Pro. I am trying to have the same visual real estate that I have now spread across two 30" displays on one larger display and at the same size and clarity. Right now I am running an Apple Cinema HD Display (2560 x 1600) and an HP ZR30w (2560 x 1600). This new monitor needs to be able to display all the same graphics, mixing board, editing window, transport window, playback controls ... everything that one of my professional DAWs - Avid's Pro Tools, Apple's Logic Pro, and MOTU's Digital Performer - run. The display needs a have a fast refresh rate as well as being sharp and clear - and sizable. It needs to be quiet as the Mac Pro Is situated in a recording studio -- the computer is in the room. I know that a regular TV will do me nothing. The card in my computer is presently an ATI Radeon HD 5870.

If you do not want Mojave, then there are a lot of PC Nvidia cards that will work since Nvidia had what they call WebDrivers that allow a lot of PC cards to work. However, you will not get a boot screen.

My big question is - does this physically occupy more than one PCIe slot? I run a composing and producing music studio and presently am using all 3 PCIe slots for other things. One is for USB3 card; another is for my DAW interface, an Apogee Symphony 64 cards and finally; a UAD-2-Octo PCIe card. They are all necessary to my set up. Does the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 take up more physical space - block one of the PCIe slots or is there still room to keep all three cards installed? If not, are there any other cards that do not take up the room? Thanks!

If you're not certain which Mac Pro you have, all Mac Pro lines can be identified "closely enough" by the Model Identifier in software to determine the default video card as well as confirm compatibility with aftermarket video cards.

Of course, it always is possible to purchase one of the higher performance video cards that was offered with a particular Mac Pro after the initial system purchase. For the original Mac Pro models, this is your only readily available option without hacking the system by also installing a newer, officially unsupported, version of OS X.

However, for subsequently released Mac Pro models there also are compatible aftermarket video cards available, including the NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X with 12 GB of GGDR5 VRAM, the most powerful video card available for these Mac Pro models.

Site sponsor Other World Computing sells a selection of Mac Pro compatible video cards including default options, video cards that originally were offered as custom configurations, and some aftermarket options listed above.

While Apple may not support the installation of Catalina on this machine, the vendor states that with this graphics card installed, the Mac Pro (mid-2012) can definitely be upgraded to Catalina with no concerns. Also the Mactracker app for IOS states that this machine can be upgraded to the "Latest release of macOS with a recommended Metal-capable graphics card". This would also seem to support the ability to install Catalina on this upgraded machine. Just thought you would like to know.

All of the 2012 MacBook Air models use Intel's HD 4000 processor graphics. Similar to last year, there's no discrete GPU option. In these thermally constrained environments, Intel's HD 4000 does its best to shine compared to the 3000. And it delivers.

Both models deliver over 60 fps in Portal 2 at 1280 x 800. More important is the fact that the 2012 MacBook Air finally delivers better GPU performance, across the board, than the 2010 MacBook Air did with its off-processor NVIDIA GPU.

The Retina MacBook Pro was released in 2012: the 15-inch in June, a 13-inch model in October. It is thinner than its predecessor, made solid-state storage (SSD) standard, added HDMI, and included a high-resolution Retina display. It eliminated Ethernet and FireWire ports and the optical drive.

The original MacBook Pro used the design of the PowerBook G4, but replaced the PowerPC G4 chips with Intel Core processors,[4] added a built-in iSight camera, and introduced the MagSafe power connector. The optical drive was shrunk to fit into the slimmer MacBook Pro; it runs slower than the optical drive in the PowerBook G4 and cannot write to dual-layer DVDs.[4][5] The 15-inch model was introduced in January 2006;[6] the 17-inch model in April.[7] In 2007, the 15-inch model added Intel Core 2 Duo processors, and LED-backlit displays, and 17-inch did in 2008.[8][9] The 2007 revision received new Nvidia Geforce 8600M GT video cards[10][8] and the 2008 revision upgraded the processors to "Penryn" cores while adding multi-touch capabilities to the trackpad.[9][11]

On October 14, 2008, in a press event at company headquarters, Apple officials announced a new 15-inch MacBook Pro featuring a "precision aluminum unibody enclosure" and tapered sides similar to those of the MacBook Air.[21][22] Designers shifted the MacBook Pro's ports to the left side of the case, and moved the optical disc drive slot from the front to the right side, similar to the MacBook. The new MacBook Pro computers had two video cards that the user could switch between: the Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT with either 256 or 512 MB[23] of dedicated memory and a GeForce 9400M with 256 MB of shared system memory.[21] The FireWire 400 port was removed. The DVI port was replaced with a Mini DisplayPort receptacle.[21] The original unibody MacBook Pro came with a user-removable battery; Apple claimed five hours of use,[21] with one reviewer reporting results closer to four hours on a continuous video battery stress test.[24] Apple said that the battery would hold 80% of its charge after 300 recharges.[25]

At Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 8, 2009, it was announced that the 13-inch unibody MacBook would be upgraded and re-branded as a MacBook Pro,[31] leaving only the white polycarbonate MacBook in the MacBook line.[32] It was also announced that the entire MacBook Pro line would use the non-user-removable battery first introduced in the 17-inch MacBook Pro.[33] The updated MacBook Pro 13- and the 15-inch would each have up to a claimed 7 hours of battery life, while the 17-inch would keep its 8-hour capacity.[31][33] Some sources even reported up to eight hours of battery life for the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pro computers during casual use,[34] while others reported around six hours.[26] Like the 17-inch MacBook Pro, Apple claims that they will last around 1,000 charging cycles while still containing 80% of their capacity.[35] Graphics card options stayed the same from the previous release, although the 13-inch[36] and the base model 15-inch, came with only the GeForce 9400M GPU.[37] The screens were also improved, gaining a claimed 60 percent greater color gamut.[36][37] All of these mid-2009 models also included a FireWire 800 port and all except the 17-inch models would receive an SD card slot.[22] The 17-inch model would retain its ExpressCard/34 slot.[33] For the 13-inch MacBook Pro, the Kensington lock slot was moved to the right side of the chassis.[38] In August 2009, Apple extended the "matte" anti-glare display option to the 15-inch MacBook Pro.[39]

Thunderbolt technology, Sandy Bridge dual-core Intel Core i5 and i7 (on the 13-inch model) or quad-core i7 (on the 15- and 17-inch models) processors, and a high-definition FaceTime camera were added on February 24, 2011. Intel HD Graphics 3000 come integrated with the CPU, while the 15- and 17-inch models also utilize AMD Radeon HD 6490M and Radeon HD 6750M graphics cards. Later editions of these models, following the release of OS X Lion, replaced the Expose (F3) key with a Mission Control key, and the Dashboard (F4) key with a Launchpad key. The chassis bottoms are also engraved differently from the 2010 models.[42] The Thunderbolt serial bus platform can achieve speeds of up to 10 Gbit/s,[43] which is up to twice as fast as the USB 3.0 specification, 20 times faster than the USB 2.0 specification, and up to 12 times faster than FireWire 800.[44] Apple says that Thunderbolt can be used to drive displays or to transfer large quantities of data in a short amount of time.[44]

On June 11, 2012, Apple showcased its upgraded Mac notebooks, OS X Mountain Lion, and iOS 6 at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco.[45] The new MacBook Pro models were updated with Ivy Bridge processors and USB 3.0 ports, and the default RAM on premium models was increased to 8 GB.[46] Following this announcement, the 17-inch model was discontinued.[citation needed] After a media event on October 22, 2013, Apple discontinued all unibody MacBook Pros except for the entry-level 2.5 GHz 13-inch model.[47] Apple discontinued the 13-inch aluminum MacBook Pro on October 27, 2016. Prior to its discontinuation it was Apple's only product to still include an optical drive and a FireWire port, and only notebook with a hard disk drive and Ethernet port.[48] It is also the only MacBook Pro to support 9 versions of macOS, from Mac OS X Lion 10.7 through macOS Catalina 10.15. 2ff7e9595c