Windows on Mac Pro 4.1

[pubrunner]

This might be an obscure question, but please stick with me.

It's probably heresy to some, but via DVD, I've just installed Windows 10 on my Mac Pro 4.1 A1289 (and I soon hope to install Windows 11).

Given that Windows is the sole operating system that's installed, will I still face the same constraints that I'd have with an Apple OS, with regard to upgrading hardware - eg. better PCIE Graphics card etc. In other words, under Windows, do I 'have' to have a "Metal" compatible graphics card ?

Likewise, with Windows, can I just make a straight replacement of the CPUs ? (I'm also looking to fit two Xeon X5675 cpus.

I'd really appreciate any recommendations regarding upgrades (especially graphics cards/ram) that I can make under Windows 10/11 - I'll certainly be going for a SSD PCIe card.

[mmm-five]

You can upgrade CPUs and GPUs in them, but it's the Mac firmware that tends to be the limiting factor not the OS.

I dual-booted my 4,1 MacPro (octo-core 2 x X5570 / 2.93GHz) for year until it became impossible to upgrade it any further. I think the beefiest GPU I could fit was a XFX Radeon HD5870 (all 1024MB of it) and even then had to connect an external PSU to it to provide enough power as the internal PCIe slot didn't deliver enough on it's own.

There was also always issues with installing the latest GPU drivers, as Bootcamp update didn't support them, and the official ones kept splitting the 5K screen into 2 windows, so you'd have to keep DDU'ing them until the single screen worked.

In the end I bought a much later i7 5k iMac with a better GPU and dual booted that (which was really as I needed to transport it around the world for work - and I hate laptops).

[pubrunner]

mmm-five said:

You can upgrade CPUs and GPUs in them, but it's the Mac firmware that tends to be the limiting factor not the OS.

I dual-booted my 4,1 MacPro (octo-core 2 x X5570 / 2.93GHz) for year until it became impossible to upgrade it any further. I think the beefiest GPU I could fit was a XFX Radeon HD5870 (all 1024MB of it) and even then had to connect an external PSU to it to provide enough power as the internal PCIe slot didn't deliver enough on it's own.

Thank you for such a prompt response - much appreciated.

I'm looking to install a couple of X5675 CPUs - if all goes to plan. I understand the need for them to be de-lidded - I believe that it's quite a 'fiddly' job to accomplish.

The one thing of which I'm uncertain, is how to flash the firmware to 5.1 ?

The guidance that I've seen on various forums, is to download the required Mac Pro firmware tools - but surely, those files won't work in Windows, will they ?

{It seems that I've made it difficult for myself, by installing Windows only - sadly, I can't find any user guides which relate to this scenario}.

As you will have gathered, I'm not at all familiar with Mac Pros, but I'm very impressed with the heavyweight construction and modular nature - almost endless upgrades seem possible. By comparison, the PCs that I've had, have been very 'flimsy' - my current GMKtec is tiny, yet very powerful, but it offers no scope for 'tinkering'. I'm really enjoying the process of learning about the Mac Pros and looking into components which will improve it.

Hopefully, I'll find some use for it, when the upgrades have all been completed - my missus doesn't even know I've got the Mac Pro . . . she'll find out about it eventually, because as you'll appreciate, it's not easy to hide away .

[vaud]

pubrunner said:

The one thing of which I'm uncertain, is how to flash the firmware to 5.1 ?

The guidance that I've seen on various forums, is to download the required Mac Pro firmware tools - but surely, those files won't work in Windows, will they

You could create a bootable USB stick with OS X on it, boot to that to flash the firmware?

[mmm-five]

vaud said:

You could create a bootable USB stick with OS X on it, boot to that to flash the firmware?

This, or use a cheap SATA SSD and use the recovery start-up tool to install the last version of MacOS that will run on it.

[mmm-five]

pubrunner said:

Thank you for such a prompt response - much appreciated.

I'm looking to install a couple of X5675 CPUs - if all goes to plan. I understand the need for them to be de-lidded - I believe that it's quite a 'fiddly' job to accomplish.

The one thing of which I'm uncertain, is how to flash the firmware to 5.1 ?

The guidance that I've seen on various forums, is to download the required Mac Pro firmware tools - but surely, those files won't work in Windows, will they ?.

I never went that far, as the performance increase didn't seem worthwhile a the time, I wasn't really capable, and it was my work machine so couldn't risk breaking it.

I haven't even kept any bookmarks from that time, so can't direct you to the resources I used at the time (probably at least 8 years ago).