Best Gpu For 2010 Mac Pro Laptop
Best eGPU for Mac – 2018 Buyer’s Guide. This eGPU will be compatible with the top Nvidia GeForce video cards, so it will be possible to get Mac Pro levels of graphics performance on your MacBook! Best Laptops with Numberpads for 2018 – Buyer’s Guide. James November 15, 2018. The 13' MacBook Pro features 2560 x 1600 resolution and the 15' MacBook Pro features 2880 x 1800 resolution, making the MacBook Pro ideal for professional photo and graphics work, as well as high-def movies and games.
From the limited resources we’ve gathered to date, the Late 2016 15″ MacBook Pro is currently the best host for external GPU implementation. We found Apple attached the PCIe lanes directly to the quad-core i7 CPU in its newest 15″ MacBook Pro laptops.
Best overall
Microsoft Surface Book 2
Microsoft's Surface Book 2 is about the best Windows laptop on the market today. Its removable keyboard base, Surface Pen, and 13.5-inch or 15-inch touchscreen together create the perfect machine for creatives and professionals alike. Battery life is solid, the keyboard is a pleasure to type on, and the touchpad is precise. What more could you ask for?
Prices start at $1,199 for the 13-inch model.
Bottom line: This is a true Windows laptop for professionals and creators. It's hard to do any better.
One more thing: The Surface Book 2 is available in 13- and 15-inch form factors.
Why the Surface Book 2 is the best alternative to the MacBook Pro
If you're the type of laptop buyer who's considering a 'pro' level machine, then you want it for more than just a name. Whether you're a creator or some other kind of professional user, you're looking for a laptop that offers more than above average. You want the best.
You want the best, so you want a Surface Book 2.
If you're looking for the best, the Surface Book 2 is where it's at. It's a unique product, not just among Windows laptops, with a number of key differentiators. The screen comes away from the base, leaving you with a slim, powerful, high-resolution Windows 10 tablet that you can draw and write on with the Surface Pen. Unless you have the dedicated GPU option (which resides in the keyboard base), you lose nothing else besides battery life by using it as a tablet.
But docked as a laptop you have everything you might need. There's a great keyboard, a sublime trackpad and ports to actually connect things to. If you're a photographer who needs a microSD card slot, you're well looked after.
Runner up
Microsoft Surface Laptop
Microsoft's first proper laptop is also a great alternative to the MacBook Pro and loses out to the Surface Book only because there is no option with a dedicated GPU. For some, that's a dealbreaker, but if it's not something you need you can save some money and have most of the same greatness with a price starting at $999.
You get a pen, a gorgeous touchscreen, great hardware and design and all the benefits of Windows 10 over macOS. Throw in a Surface Dock and you have all the computer that most people could ever need. Best remote desktop software for mac.
Bottom line: It's not quite as powerful as the Surface Book but with many of the same benefits.
One more thing: Any kind of pro user will need to spend a little extra upgrading to Windows 10 Pro, at least after the initial free upgrade offer expires.
Larger screen
Dell XPS 15
The 15.6-inch touch display option on the Dell XPS 15 has a 4K resolution that is perfect for creators. The latest model now has six-core processors from Intel, right the way up to a Core i9, up to 32GB of RAM, an NVIDIA GTX 1050Ti GPU, and a 1TB PCIe SSD — plenty of power for multimedia editing. Those needing to connect things will appreciate the array of ports, including HDMI, USB 3.0, and Thunderbolt 3. Configurations start at $999.
Bottom line: If you want a larger display and 4K resolution, check out the Dell XPS 15.
One more thing: The latest models can be had with an Intel Core i9 processor for ultimate laptop power.
For gamers
Razer Blade
Razer's latest Blade is a beast. It has a full NVIDIA GTX 1060 graphics card with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM, a Skylake Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor, and 16GB of DDR4 RAM.
The 14-inch IPS display has a 1920 x 1080 or 4K resolution, with anti-glare on the full HD option. Get up to a 1TB PCIe SSD to boot Windows crazy fast and hold all your games, and enjoy a Razer Chroma keyboard with 16.8 million color combinations for your keys. It's slim, it's light and it's every bit a 'pro' PC, with the added bonus of crushing your games when you're done being busy for the day.
Prices start around $1,800.
Bottom line: It's a slim, light, ultra-stylish gaming laptop that's good for any occasion.
One more thing: With its GTX 1060 GPU, the Razer Blade can also get you into VR as well as anything else you might want to throw at it.
Conclusion
There are so many great Windows laptops out there nowadays it can be hard to pin it down to the right one for you. In this case, if the MacBook Pro is attractive to you but you'd prefer Windows, these four are your better options. The Razer Blade is great if you'd also like to game, the XPS 15 is perfect if you want that larger display and the Surface Book 2 is the best all-rounder you can get right now.
Best overall
Microsoft Surface Book 2
Microsoft's Surface Book 2 is about the best Windows laptop on the market today. Its removable keyboard base, Surface Pen, and 13.5-inch or 15-inch touchscreen together create the perfect machine for creatives and professionals alike. Battery life is solid, the keyboard is a pleasure to type on, and the touchpad is precise. What more could you ask for?
Prices start at $1,199 for the 13-inch model.
Bottom line: This is a true Windows laptop for professionals and creators. It's hard to do any better.
One more thing: The Surface Book 2 is available in 13- and 15-inch form factors.
Updated May 18, 2018: The Surface Book 2 is our new top pick as an alternative to the MacBook Pro.
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In our article Apple Announce New Operating System At WWDC 2018 Called Mojave Apple announced that Mojave would be supported on Macs introduced in mid-2012 or later, plus 2010 and 2012 Mac Pro models as long as they had a recommended Metal-capable graphics cards. This triggered questions from a number of you like Karl Mainzer who asked: “Can you recommend a decent Metal compatible graphics card?” Once I started to research this it became clear it would be better to answer this with a dedicated article.
The first thing to be aware of is that neither of the stock graphics cards used in the cheese-graters, the Radeon 5770 or the Nvidia GeForce GT120 graphics cards are metal compatible. If you wish to use a Mid 2010 or Mid 2012 Mac Pro with macOS Mojave then you will need to upgrade your graphics card if you wish to run Mojave on your cheese-grater.
Which leads to the obvious question that Karl and a number of others have asked on social media. Which card should I upgrade to?
The reality is that definite information was hard to come by, there didn’t appear to be any Apple recommended Metal compatible graphics cards. In checking the Apple Support site more recently there has been a response from a level 8 responder, which states that…
After much digging, there are only two official cards for a 5,1 Mac Pro that support Metal. That is, cards that were designed for these Macs. Not flashed PC cards.
AMD Sapphire HD 9750 for Mac
EVGA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition
The GeForce is much easier to find, and roughly half the price the Sapphire goes for.
There was a response is from a Level 9 responder in the Apple Support community who basically quotes a Wikipedia entry..
On macOS, Metal supports Intel HD and Iris Graphics from the HD 4000 series or newer, AMD GCN-based GPUs, and Nvidia Kepler-based GPUs or newer.
AMD Radeon HD 7000, HD 8000, 200, 300, 400 and 500 series
Nvidia - Most GeForce 600 series, most GeForce 700 series, and some GeForce 800M series
Our friends from OWC also say that there are a number of other graphics cards available that will work with your Mac Pro and support Metal…
AMD: Radeon HD 7000 and HD 8000, as well as the 200, 400 and 500 series of cards. Little app factory.
NVIDIA: Most GeForce 600, 700 and 800 series.
As I have already upgraded my graphics card in my 2010 Mac Pro replacing the ATI Radeon HD5770 1024MB graphics card at the recommendation of UK based Create Pro with an AMD R9 280X 3GB card, which is an AMD 7xxx series card, which is a custom flashed special Mac compatible version. I contacted their tech support and asked them whether my AMD R9 card was Metal compatible and the good news is that it is.
I then asked them for their advice for the situation with other possible cards and they confirmed that neither the ATI Radeon HD5770 and the Nvidia GeForce GT120 graphics card support Metal and so will not support macOS Mojave. Their recommendations are the AMD 5XX series and Nvidia 10XX series. However, they don’t know when Nvidia will release drivers for 10.14 yet so the AMD cards are the best bet as they will work out of the box and they have tested it successfully with the macOS Mojave 10.14 developer beta release.
Looking further afield for information on this Mac Rumours Mac Pro Metal Compatible Card thread there was confirmation of the AMD R9 280X 3GB card that I have as long as it has been flashed for use with a Mac. There are mixed views about the Nvidia GTX680 saying that the 680 Metal drivers are not good, especially with macOS High Sierra, and suggesting that the GeForce GTX TITAN X (Maxwell) or a GTX 1080 (Pascal) are OK with High Sierra,
On another Mac Rumours thread - Best Metal-compatible graphics card for MacPro5,1 (Mid 2010) running High Sierra question again confirmation of the AMD R9 280X 3GB card as well a recommendation to go with AMD cards rather than Nvidia as the AMD cards don’t need drivers.
2010 Mac Pro Rumors
In the same thread was a recommendation for the Sapphire RX 580 pulse 8gb as apparently, it is plug-and-play in High Sierra, but we have no confirmation of this.
Unfortunately, the AMD R9 280X 3GB card that I have got is no longer a current model but can be found on stores like Amazon and eBay for between £175 and £239 for a custom flashed version for the Mac Pro.
Create Pro are offering the following options in your Create Your Own Cheese-grater Mac Pro page…
AMD RX 560 4GB (1204 Stream Processors) (OS X 10.13.4+) £245 plus taxes
AMD RX 570 4GB (2048 Stream Processors) (OS X 10.13.4+) £395 plus taxes
AMD RX 580 8GB (2304 Stream Processors) (OS X 10.13.4+) £445 plus taxes
Nvidia GTX 1050Ti 4GB (768 CUDA Cores) (OS X 10.12.4+) £245 plus taxes
Nvidia GTX 1070 8GB (1920 CUDA Cores) (OS X 10.12.4+) £545 plus taxes
Nvidia GTX 1070TI 8GB (2423 CUDA Cores) (OS X 10.12.4+) £645 plus taxes
Nvidia GTX 1080 8GB (2560 CUDA Cores) (OS X 10.12.4+) £745 plus taxes
Nvidia GTX 1080Ti 11GB (3584 CUDA Cores) (OS X 10.12.4+) £995 plus taxes
Macbook Pro Gpu
So a new AMD RX 560 4GB card looks a cost-effective solution if you want a new graphics card or a secondhand AMD R9 280X 3GB card could be worth considering if you can find one at a good price. Either way, make sure you get one that a custom flashed Mac compatible version. If you don’t, it should still work, but not seeing the boot screen etc could be an issue if you need to select a different startup disk or need to boot on single user mode, or recovery, because these things happen during the startup sequence and before the normal video drivers load. An unflashed PC graphics card won't display anything until the startup sequence is finished.
I hope that helps to answer the question about what maOS Metal compatible graphics card there are out there for Mac Pro 2010 and 2012 cheese-grater computers.
Whilst we are talking about macOS Mojave compatibility if you have any other Mac and you want to know about macOS Mojave compatibility then it would seem that these Macs that should be OK with Mojave are…
2010 Macbook Pro
MacBook (Early 2015 or later)
MacBook Air (Mid-2012 or later)
MacBook Pro (Mid-2012 or later)
Mac mini (Late 2012 or later)
iMac (Late 2012 or later)
iMac Pro (all models)
Mac Pro (Late 2013)
Mac Pro (2010 or later with Metal-compatible GPU)
Best Gpu For 2010 Mac Pro Laptops
Because of the need for graphics cards that support Metal with Mojave, the list is even shorter than it was with macOS High Sierra and that rules out the Late 2009 MacBook, the Mid-2010 MacBook Pro, Late 2010 MacBook Air, Mid-2010 Mac mini, and Late 2009 iMac.