My 2013 Mac Pro + Pros & Cons - Mac Pro Series S.4 EP.2

[@eduardowatkinz]

Nice machine, I have one and now it sets on the shelf; when compared against the new Silicon Apple machines, it gets blown away; especially with rendering and exporting videos using most video editing programs. IMHO; it is a beautiful looking machine.

[@HrutkayMods]

It truly is a beautiful looking machine. It’s just too bad. It didn’t age well but still has a good amount of power for other tasks.

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

It’s a cool machine, the lights on the back are something that should have been brought over to the Mac Mini, it’s a really nice feature. A design similar to the cube might have been more useful in terms of extra expansion for upgrades, but obviously with a different layout/components etc. It had a lot of potential but the lack of any updates or even accessories really didn’t help.

[@HrutkayMods]

Totally agree with all that

[@tonyblack3401]

I have a 12 core with 64gb ram running sonoma via the open core patcher. Using it as a home server I can remote into. Considering getting another and installing Linux on it.

[@HrutkayMods]

Awesome 😁

[@cambuchanan5836]

How is Sonoma on it? Is there a lot of things that don’t function correctly? I saw a video going over sequoia and there seemed to be a lot of unusable things.

[@whophd]

Is it just the algorithm, or is there a 2024 resurgence in 2013 Mac Pro interest? (Makes sense, in terms of its supply/demand lifetime curve)

[@HrutkayMods]

Yes it’s affordable now and because of that it popular now

[@FunkyAlphonzo]

The two GPU's worked well for video editing in programs like FCP or Resolve, that in fact can use both GPU's at the same time.

[@laialbert]

I still have my Mac Pro 2013 dual D700 that I got in early 2014 (now fully upgraded to the max). I ran some distributed scientific computing workloads that took advantage of both GPUs. When you had a workload that really worked the GPUs, the fan speed really ramped up and was actually quite loud. I’ve never had any issues with heat and have had it racked in an enclosed rack, but maybe I’m just lucky.

[@HrutkayMods]

Well, I’m sure you maintained it and kept it as clean as you could that really does help

[@eartraffic]

I picked up one just recently. A mid model version. Seems to be in mint condition very clean fans. I haven't noticed any dust at all inside. It also came with a 27-inch thunderbolt Apple monitor. I pick them both up for $500 Canadian. Give me the keyboard and a black Apple magic mouse or whatever they called the black mouse. I grabbed this basically just to run logic pro and other music based programs. There might be some time where I'll need to go ahead and create a small video for music but I have no intention on trying to make full size films. I doubt I'll be using full power at any point using things like logic pro so I don't really worry too much about overheating. I like this much better than my 2017 iMac.

[@HrutkayMods]

with a 27" display that not too shabby of a deal :D

[@cjsebes]

I worked at a video production for about 14 years. In 2013, we got two Mac Pro 6,1 machines to replace the cheese-graters I'd been using. They were much faster compared to the stock 3,1 and 5,1 CMPs we were replacing. To help with the storage, one edit room got a DroBo with 5 drives and one m.2 swap drive. Of course the back of the machine was a spaghetti mess of wires, as every port was used for connections to various video input and output hardware. It was painful in the long run as I sat there and wondered when Apple would release a better Mac Pro.

[@HrutkayMods]

Yeah, the spaghetti is the problem with the whole system lol

[@whophd]

*stares at you in Mac Studio face*

[@MRHOTCAKE]

I got a D700 12 Core on eBay, just for work in my house at the evening, I like that system a lot, so I decided to get another one (because they are cheap) with D300 for $130USD, to use in my office, I think if you consider those machines to work as it, they are great, just be careful to check or at least do a thermalpaste replace, I use noctua`s in my D700 and watching videos, streaming, or even playing Rise of the Tomb Raider (wich I dont recommend even in low graphics) the temps are ok, not great but ok, considering the price for a similar machine (maybe consuming less power) and for the aesthetics I would recommend this Mac Pro only if you can get it for cheap to use like a home office, office, homework or similar, its amazing

[@duckmyass]

I find it works better in Windows than Mac OS when you are trying to use the GPUs... Mac ony uses 1 of the GPUs for graphics and pushes the other to the side for calcs in the rare software available that can use it... while on Windows OS you can get decent video drivers from AMD that make full use of dual GPUs using the crossfire system. Funny how Apple dropped the ball on the biggest feature the system had going for it.

[@hackexpert0003]

Windows 11 (BootCamp), runs very good on this Mac Pro. You jsut need to bypass the Secure boot, TPM 2.0 and CPU requriements (use refus tool to create a bootable usb or run official Windows 11 Setup and do the registry bypass)

[@HrutkayMods]

Good to know :)

[@BrockSuire75]

Happy to see you included the trashcan Mac Pro. Apple’s Mac Pro features D300, D500, and D700 dual AMD FirePro GPUs that roughly equal W7000, W8000 and W9000 existent graphics cards. They are Pitcairn and Tahiti-based GCN Architecture units in customized configuration offering stunning power and range.

[@HrutkayMods]

Good to know Brock

[@stephencawker1565]

We so repsect this channel Bigtime!

[@HrutkayMods]

Thank you, Stephen

[@jimcabezola3051]

This is valuable information. Most folks such as I would try to get the largest numbers of cores and the fastest dual GPUs, only to find that Final Cut was essentially the only software that could take advantage of them all. Unless video editing is all one does, this little curiosity isn't the best bang for the buck. However, if faced with buying one of these, I'd be happy with the weakest CPU and the least powerful single GPU. My hope would be that there would be less waste heat generated in the "lower power" configurations. Electrical power costs here in Hawai'i are 2.5 to 3 times the equivalent price of electrical power in the continental U.S.. That price would STING me every time I turned this one on. But...just LOOK at this thing! I think it's gorgeous! Just as you showed here, it reminds me of the G4 Cube I was "saddled with" at my workplace long, long ago. I loved THAT thing, too. Everybody else at work hated it... Why? I'll never understand... I always fall in love with the odd-looking ones... I'd max out the RAM if it were not maxed out already. I'll bet this Mac Pro would really fly with whatever flavour of Linux I happened to chose to put on it. Even the smallest storage size would be enough for me. My disk-attached storage would more than suffice for this computer, that's for sure. I hope YOU are enjoying the task of documenting these cybernetic works of art! I'll be here to watch! Aloha and take care!

[@HrutkayMods]

Agreed Jim thank you

[@setoth1234]

Bought a 12-core D300 model for $229 without an SSD and am waiting for the 128 GB Apple SSD to come in to install Mavericks and upgrade it from there (the firmware still has the older chime). Will also have to see if it really is the D300 model as you said, this is great information to have about the D300 models only being on the low-end models, so this makes me even more excited to try to see what's up with the hardware.

[@HrutkayMods]

Either way, that’s a great deal on a 12 core. That’s half what I paid for for mine.

[@rickkarrer8370]

I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've had to carry 2 cheese grater Mac pros at the same time. Really helps you feel all the muscles in your upper body for a few days lol.

[@HrutkayMods]

Yeah, they are damn heavy for sure

[@sjgrall]

I’m considering selling my i9 2019 MBP and replacing it with a 2013 Mac Pro. I recently bought a new old stock M1 Max for 42% off and only use the i9 for VMs, and I’m sure VMs will run faster on a 2013 Mac Pro, based on past experience at work. The cooling on the 2019 MacBook Pro leaves much to be desired, even with fan control software installed.

[@HrutkayMods]

Honestly, it would be perfect for VMs

[@jazzlover10000]

Funny... I keep my Mac Pro 6,1 by my bed on the floor. So y'know stuff tends to work its way into the vent. So I clean it. As you say, just grab it by the lip and lift it up- easy to clean. I also run it next to a Dyson fan that blows air on it. Keeps things from cooking. So far anyway!

[@HrutkayMods]

Yeah other than cooling and expansion it was a great design

[@rickkarrer8370]

We need to figure out how to swap that 2nd GPU out for a PCIe card, maybe another NVMe.

[@HrutkayMods]

I agree there’s gotta be a way to do it

[@rickkarrer8370]

@@HrutkayMods right after watching this video, I decided to try googling to see if anyone’s attempted this. Someone has a very long Macrumors thread, trying to figure out if they could get a Vega GPU into those slots. The thread was also in mixed with NVMe SSD in the 2013 Mac Pro, but I skimmed through every single page, it looks like he didn’t get anywhere, and the last post was sometime and last April. But I did learn is that the computer will boot without GPU A. This is the “compute” GPU, while B is un used for standard graphics functionality (and is the one that SSD is on top of). So there is hope that could be done.

[@rickkarrer8370]

Now that I’m thinking about it, if almost nothing uses that second GPU, I wonder how much power and heat could be saved by pulling it out? I’ll have to test when I get mine.

[@stephencawker1565]

The 3.7 1660 4.0 ghz cpu,and the v2 2667 ghz 4.0 cpu are really fast upgrades,,,with a samsung 980 pro ssd,with sintech adaptor

[@stephencawker1565]

But I day all have the razor box, just alone hooked up, thanks to you showing us...that is huge to know!..A even faster trashcan!...to Cool..oclp is so good too!

[@ericbauer4559]

Love my 6,1. Bought the base model about a year ago and upgraded to an 8 core cpu (for the single core performance). Running Sonoma on it now. Don’t really use it for much except for playing around with. So much slower than my Mac Studio 😂. Always good to have an intel machine laying around though.

[@HrutkayMods]

Exactly. In the future it will be essential to have an old Intel machine laying around.

[@macgamer1973]

can’t come to term own a silicon , if I can’t do my own upgrades. I love fact I can play 32 and 64 games and apps, run multi version of Mac OS

[@DavidStahlOLDHAPPyMACs]

Great Video Greg I Bought one for $203 base model D300 per your suggestion

[@HrutkayMods]

I hope you enjoy it Dave

[@MuhammadJafniJusof]

Can you actually boot a 2013 Mac Pro without any of its GPU plug in and just use the eGPU?

[@HrutkayMods]

You would have to have the GPU in it to set up everything and then it might work, but there’s a good chance it wouldn’t

[@macgamer1973]

I’m learning to be a Mac game developer, I’ll make games that require the dual cpu. I love my Mac Pro 2013. Apple should use cpu that supported aux2

[@HrutkayMods]

Do you mean GPU? And I don’t even think macOS has an API that supports dual GPU in games? But it might it would be neat to see for sure. 👍

[@Manhattanman52]

Thanks, Greg. Maybe show what it's like online, KZbin, etc.

[@HrutkayMods]

Honestly, that would be a waste of time because it performs like basically any other computer with this kind of power that has been made in the last 10 years at least. Good idea I’m not trying to downplay it, but it would just be a very short kind of pointless video because it does online like an Apple Silicon Mac does. Thank you for the suggestion though. It was a good idea. It just wouldn’t make a good video. ❤️

[@BrockSuire75]

I just picked up a 2013 Mac Pro. Now I can play too! :O)------

[@Derpy1969]

The Mac Pro would rock an Apple Silicon M5 processor.

[@HrutkayMods]

Eventually, it will one day and honestly, it would be kind of neat to try to cram one into one of these

[@jabbawok944]

Just got myself a D500 trashcan. I’ve maxed out the ram and the cpu and put a 1TB Apple SSD in it and still spent less than £300. I always wanted one but could never justify the £££ but for £300 I’m well happy. The trashcan got a lot of criticism, but look at the studio. Apple had the right idea, just too early. I think perhaps it should have been complimentary product to a 2013 cheese grater that took two E5-V2s

[@HrutkayMods]

agreed

[@Patchedmac]

Ive been seeing so many 2013 Mac Pro videos recently that i managed to find one for $100; thing is its quite a mystery as I don't know the gpu or cpu, but I do know it was made in 2014.

[@HrutkayMods]

Well, hopefully you scored one great spec one and even if you didn’t, you can build into one pretty cheaply

[@Patchedmac]

@@HrutkayMods either way, I wouldn’t mind a low spec or a high spec, as it’s not going to be used for too demanding tasks.

[@stephencawker1565]

execellent value..run windows 10 with bootcamp on these,,3.7 6ore upgrade 32 gbs unbuffered 1866ghz memory,and ps5 compatible 980 pro for like 600$..roku 40" 4k monitor works execellent here guys

[@mfmayes]

I have the d500 model and the USB ports are USB 2.0, not 3.0

[@HrutkayMods]

then you’ve got some kind of controller issue or driver issue they all came with 3.0

[@stephencawker1565]

So Ya!..Can you you please do the ps4,razorcore,990 pro,64 gb memory Vid,you are so good at this,,everyone with a 2013 trashcan so needs to see this,,you and constant geekery are the best at covering this still great can..with all the ports.Thanks bro..push the fps in hd,,and see what 4k at 60fps can do, with bootcamp windows ok..use windows profaned update bootcamp.and apple software update on windows bootcamp...use windows pro,,not home. etc..we need to see this ok. we can't do it alone,,especially the razor core box...thanks so much..I love the trashcan. the 1660 3.7 has been in for 15 mins..lol

[@stephencawker1565]

Maybe you can do this upgrade ,bootcamp,crossfire,ps5,right here on your channel,we,d like that..pick your poison,,2tb wd black x.etc...lol

[@HrutkayMods]

Possibly but the newest PlayStation, I have is a PS4 lol

[@stephencawker1565]

@@HrutkayMods That's Ok!..ps4 is Good enough.I so like your 100% way, to just use the razor core gpu, Terminal etc..ii will need that video soon,,thanks so much,,my 1660 3.7 6ore 4.0 turbo is so fast..I highly recommend it ok..with the 990 Pro 1tb with heatsink,,that is the fastest..I tried every combo

[@stephencawker1565]

1606 read...1480 write..Cyrstaldiskmark...and. 1470 read...1355 write black magic speed test..with this combo...64 gas apple memory. twin 700 gpu.

[@stephencawker1565]

Ater these few little upgrades..you be playing UFC ps5 like Mick Jagga...lol

[@HrutkayMods]

Great info 👍

[@stephencawker1565]

Ginna go with ps4 first..i saw 2 on marketplace 10 mins down the street for like 175$. 3games. 2 controllers to start..will be my 1st ever UFC gaming rigg...lmao..im 60 years old...i dont care...lol

[@dancook4993]

they all have screws its tape hiding the screws

[@HrutkayMods]

Good to know

[@dancook4993]

@@HrutkayMods Just take you driver and push through the center of the tape covered screw

[@stephencawker1565]

See! 200 likes already...Show the ps4 setup Video..with a nice overshoot that tube still see,s and you will get so may hits...please do this,,I already scribed cause I don't have a razor box yetis I need to watch your video about that,,about 6 times!..lol. terminal...arrr....lol

[@stephencawker1565]

My trashcan has never been faster than now!...the 1660 3.7 6 core is the best cpu...I tried very one...lmao..if you just want straight speed its the one ok guys..I know