Can you upgrade the GPU?
I'm curious if you can upgrade the GPUs later on. I haven't been able to find any answers, but a lot of people asking.
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Yes. OWC offers a variety of processor upgrades. Those can be found here: Mac Pro Late 2013 & upgrades
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The question was if you can upgrade the GPU (graphics cards) and not the CPU. And yes, you can upgrade the graphics cards. Cards available are D300, D500 and D700. D500 and D700 are hard to come by and quite expensive.
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To clarify You can upgrade the CPU chip still a bit of work!
The graphics board GPU's: dual AMD FirePro D300, dual AMD FirePro D500, or dual AMD FirePro D700 are not discreetly replaceable chips!
You need to replace the complete graphics board. These are custom to the 2013 Mac Pro! (you have two and they need to match!)
I'll warn you they are very expensive! As an example here's the FirePro D700 boards you need one of each:
● Mac Pro Graphics Board with SSD mount (B)
Even more cost than the CPU!
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Leo Leporte bought a 2013 MacPro and showed it on his TV show called Twit. (See YouTube) He stated it can be upgraded in his show. Along with the CPU Which other's have done already.
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Why upgrade later, when at the time to buy you have 3 choices in the GPU.
I bought the 2013 Mac Pro with D3000 3.7 ghz I7, 1TB SSD And added 4gb of ram to the 12gb that comes standard.
A awesome machine. Mine never over heats. :)
Why upgrade later? Because when I bought it two years ago I wasn't trying to do any serious graphics work (aka Premiere Pro). Now I am, and the D300's are PAINFULLY slow.
If three years ago you bought a four door car but then decided you were going in the bricklaying business would you still try to haul bricks in the car? Or would you buy a used truck?
If hauling bricks just required unplugging a board and plugging in a different board...
Silly analogy.
If you're going to recommend watching a tube video, don't you think you should give a link to it?
4 Comments
Hi, Did you upgrade you GPU? I have the same question. I want to replace the GPUs to NIVIDA.
by Meniny
Yes, I upgraded to 12 core. Followed instructions on ifixit
by John Cathey
Apple GPU OEM parts only, internally: D300 (2 GB), D500 (3 GB) and D700 (6 GB). No third party GPUs exists for the Mac Pro 2013 Trashcan internally.
Third party external GPUs (eGPU) are possible also but requires a Thunderbolt 3 to 2 adapter. This machine has built-in Thunderbolt 2 and USB 3 only.
People here are confusing GPU with CPU — not the same thing!
by Adamjg
@adamjg - You are correct! The GPU's are not chips but boards and you need one of each version as they are needed in a pair (dual GPU)
Sadly my answer go long in the weeds!
by DanJ