So the legendary MacPro Tower 5,1 has fallen off of the approved hardware list.  But I am sure that there are many out there still using it.

Anybody want to give real world reviews if they are using 2018.12?  Is it really the end of the road?

Thanks,

Jef

We're running MC 2018.12.1 on a few Macpro 4,1 machines with OS 10.12.6... No major issues that I've encountered (at least nothing exclusive to those machines.)

They have updated Nvidia cards- an old Quadro 4000 and a K5000- not the original GT120s. They also have more RAM installed and an SSD to boot from.

We definitley got our money's worth out of these, and they'll probably be replaced with iMacs in the next few months, but they're still usable as assist stations.

Hope this helps.

-Ryan

Thanks for responding Ryan.  What type of work are they doing?  Raster / frame rate / etc?

Jef

Very lightwieight stuff- DNxHD 36 1080p, 23.98... A few streams.

Storage is on Nexis, though we've put Sonnett USB 3.0 cards in there for the occasional external drive.

We just keep these machines around for the assistant editors. When we're really busy and there's no iMacs left, these work fine for posting, email, etc.

-Ryan

I have a Mid 2010 5.1 that was upgraded a few years ago, instead of going to the Mac Trash Can.  I replaced the original 12-core 2.66 with a 12-core 3.46 and added an NVIDIA Quadro K5000 video card.  I use it extensively with both Media Composer and After Effects, as well as encoding with Media Encoder.  

The bulk off our work is broadcast 1080i using DNxHD 220x codec and the performance is very responsive with multiple streams. The few 4K projects I've edited went surprisingly well with no major issues.  

I have been very happy with the performance, especially the encoding speed with the Quadro card.  I've been editing with Avid Media Composer/Symphony systems since 1993, on both Mac and PC platforms, and for me this old cheese grater is the most rock-solid box I've used.  

However, the maximum 64GB of RAM is about half of what I'd prefer for After Effects. And the lack of native Thunderbolt 3 or other high-speed data ports are very limiting with todays faster drive enclosures.  So I'm very much hoping a new Mac Pro will be introduced soon.  

I'm in a similar boat, upgraded the processor from 2x2.26 to a pair of 3.46, then the gpu to a Pulse RX580. Of course had added usb 3 and esata before that. This machine is far from ridicule for a 10 years old computer, rivals the iMac in many tasks. 

Been reading about people adding thunderbolt to it, it's not plug and play yet but there is a very active community so many hopes!