Graphics Cards – AMD FirePro W9000 6GB GDDR5 (Two of them)
The closest match for the dual GPUs inside the Mac Pro, spec for spec, are the AMD FirePro W9000 graphics cards which have a monster 6GBs of GDDR5 memory onboard. But because the Mac Pro versions are customized editions with no heatsink and appear to connect to the system via proprietary means, upgrades aren’t going to come easy, if at all. We’re also not sure whether these are stock or slightly underclocked due to the unique arrangement of the unified thermal core, which means they may be slower than retail versions on the PC side.
These graphics cards currently are available for $3,400.31 US a piece. Although on the PC side, if you are using the system for Adobe Creative Suite and using Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects, the NVIDIA Quadro K5000’s for $1799.99 US a piece might be a better performance option since CUDA implementation is a little more mature than OpenCL in those apps. You have no choice with the Mac Pro because it’s AMD or bust.
Let’s check out our SSD and memory options next.