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New Mac Pro + Thunderbolt graphics card(for games)

Tags:
  • Thunderbolt
  • Mac OS X
  • Macbook Pro
  • Games
  • Graphics
  • Graphics Cards
Last response: in Mac Os X
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June 19, 2013 10:16:37 AM

Hello i thinking bout buying a mac pro when it comes out later this year, im a student at the moment and will going in to animation and cgi production, as i want to get a computerthat will last i will most likely get the mac pro with 12 cores, so my question to you, is as the mac pros GPU's are mainly aimed for programs, in which i will use, i would also would want to play games on his system, so my question is, as companies for example silverstone are making a thunderbolt GPU case, as seen here:

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2013/06/06/silver...

Would it possible for these to work together, or atleast if was to put windows on the mac pro(via bootcamp), could i use the thunderbolt gaming graphics card in windows only so if i was going to play games i would just switch to he windows side.
Lastly also would it be better to build a hackintsoh but also barring in mind the compitability issues would be a mess especially if i have to go through so much if i was going to upgrade the os and also would not have all the I/O of the mac pro.

Would be very grateful for an answer

Thanks

More about : mac pro thunderbolt graphics card games

a b U Graphics card
June 19, 2013 10:24:31 AM

Kasharn Johnson said:
Hello i thinking bout buying a mac pro when it comes out later this year, im a student at the moment and will going in to animation and cgi production, as i want to get a computerthat will last i will most likely get the mac pro with 12 cores, so my question to you, is as the mac pros GPU's are mainly aimed for programs, in which i will use, i would also would want to play games on his system, so my question is, as companies for example silverstone are making a thunderbolt GPU case, as seen here:

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2013/06/06/silver...

Would it possible for these to work together, or atleast if was to put windows on the mac pro(via bootcamp), could i use the thunderbolt gaming graphics card in windows only so if i was going to play games i would just switch to he windows side.
Lastly also would it be better to build a hackintsoh but also barring in mind the compitability issues would be a mess especially if i have to go through so much if i was going to upgrade the os and also would not have all the I/O of the mac pro.

Would be very grateful for an answer

Thanks


It sounds like the only thing you need to make this work is a Thunderbolt connection port. As long as your computer has that, according to the article, you should be good to go. It doesn't say whether it is designed to only work with the Apple OS or if it will work with a Windows OS on Apple hardware though. My suggestion would be to email the manufacturer and ask them.
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a b U Graphics card
June 19, 2013 10:24:55 AM

The Mac Pro is not a gaming system. It is designed for one purpose and one purpose only, and that's content creation. It cannot accommodate a full size GPU, nor does it have the expansion room for one. That's why it's designed the way it was designed.
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June 19, 2013 10:28:27 AM

g-unit1111 said:
The Mac Pro is not a gaming system. It is designed for one purpose and one purpose only, and that's content creation. It cannot accommodate a full size GPU, nor does it have the expansion room for one. That's why it's designed the way it was designed.


we know it cant house one thats why he posted the external gpu with thunderbolt
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a b U Graphics card
June 19, 2013 10:31:35 AM

RaisingTheBarHD said:
g-unit1111 said:
The Mac Pro is not a gaming system. It is designed for one purpose and one purpose only, and that's content creation. It cannot accommodate a full size GPU, nor does it have the expansion room for one. That's why it's designed the way it was designed.


we know it cant house one thats why he posted the external gpu with thunderbolt


Even the GPUs that are available for the current generation Mac Pros aren't designed to play games on them, even though it may say it's a Radeon 7950, it's really more like a Fire Pro V5800.
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a b U Graphics card
June 19, 2013 10:43:40 AM

g-unit1111 said:
RaisingTheBarHD said:
g-unit1111 said:
The Mac Pro is not a gaming system. It is designed for one purpose and one purpose only, and that's content creation. It cannot accommodate a full size GPU, nor does it have the expansion room for one. That's why it's designed the way it was designed.


we know it cant house one thats why he posted the external gpu with thunderbolt


Even the GPUs that are available for the current generation Mac Pros aren't designed to play games on them, even though it may say it's a Radeon 7950, it's really more like a Fire Pro V5800.


The thing is, he's talking about an external enclosure, not a GPU. He can pick and choose whichever GPU he wants to put in the enclosure according to the article. So he could very well choose a Radeon 7950 off the shelf from a store that sells it and that's exactly what he'd have. It's not hardware that comes with the Mac that is being discussed.
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June 19, 2013 12:25:23 PM

Zooshooter said:
g-unit1111 said:
RaisingTheBarHD said:
g-unit1111 said:
The Mac Pro is not a gaming system. It is designed for one purpose and one purpose only, and that's content creation. It cannot accommodate a full size GPU, nor does it have the expansion room for one. That's why it's designed the way it was designed.


we know it cant house one thats why he posted the external gpu with thunderbolt


Even the GPUs that are available for the current generation Mac Pros aren't designed to play games on them, even though it may say it's a Radeon 7950, it's really more like a Fire Pro V5800.


The thing is, he's talking about an external enclosure, not a GPU. He can pick and choose whichever GPU he wants to put in the enclosure according to the article. So he could very well choose a Radeon 7950 off the shelf from a store that sells it and that's exactly what he'd have. It's not hardware that comes with the Mac that is being discussed.


thank you for realizing haha, idk what he is thinking about
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a b U Graphics card
June 19, 2013 12:35:26 PM

RaisingTheBarHD said:
thank you for realizing haha, idk what he is thinking about


Probably just didn't check out the link, although it is fairly important to the post over-all.
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June 19, 2013 6:40:56 PM

Thank you Zooshooter and RaisingTheBarHD so much, so in thoery if the external GPU case worked with the mac pro, i could then have 2 different GPU's and in theory but not pratical render files while playing a game?

But mainly thanks you two have helped me alot in my decision to get a mac pro
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June 20, 2013 12:31:39 AM

I also have my eye on the new Mac Pro, but I already have a number of Thunderbolt devices (and expensive cables), so I'll be waiting to see how compatible Thunderbolt 1 and 2 are; it also took Apple over a year to get the original Thunderbolt 1 stable (still occasional stability updates), don't want to go through that again!
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a b U Graphics card
June 20, 2013 8:20:17 AM

Kasharn Johnson said:
Thank you Zooshooter and RaisingTheBarHD so much, so in thoery if the external GPU case worked with the mac pro, i could then have 2 different GPU's and in theory but not pratical render files while playing a game?

But mainly thanks you two have helped me alot in my decision to get a mac pro


That's a good question. I know with Windows computers, unless the cards are run in SLI, if you have an onboard graphics engine and a discrete graphics card, the discrete card will trump the on-board and the OS won't even use the on-board engine. I'm assuming that is how this device would work, but I can't say for sure.
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June 24, 2013 5:27:28 AM

There are thunderbolt PCIE expansion cases out there already (Sonnet echo, Magma express box etc) but their internal PSU is too weak to power a decent GPU. You can build yourself a eGPU or buy a ViDock 4 Plus (designed for graphics card expansion) but it's express card interface so you'll need an adapter for it to work with thunderbolt (sonnet echo adapter). The Vidock has been proven to work with the 2012 Macbook airs and Macbook Pros but I don't know how well it would work with the new Mac Pro.

A hackintosh on the other hand is a messy solution. I had one before and there are so many driver problems (audio, ethernet, usb 3.0) If you want OSX then you should get a Mac. Hope this helps :) 
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June 26, 2013 10:48:24 AM

Thanks everyone for there answers i think the best thing to do is wait until the thunderbolt enclosures come out and how it will effect the current GPU in the Mac Pro
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