MP 1,1-5,1 Activate AMD hardware acceleration

[kohlson]

Will these method need to be repeated when 10.14.6 arrives? (After you test it, of course!)

 

[Slash-2CPU]

That's not how this works. In both methods, you are using patched versions of Apple's drivers. The difference is that the second method "hardwires" the modifications. The advantage of the first method is that the patches can easily be turned on and off with the original files remaining untouched.

Cool. Correct me by saying what I said but stating it differently without my conclusion becoming untrue. My goal was to keep it simple. The original method uses Apple drivers that are modified with 3rd party code and probably don’t match your OS version’s built in drivers. The new method, you modify the kext yourself and it’s the version of the kext your OS version is supposed to work with. The new method should be more reliable.

 

[Kubat]

Updated with method 1 (Radeon RX 580 nitro+ SE 8 GB) so far so good, no app crashes to report. I'm going to do an effects heavy 4k FCPX edit, will see if reported freezes happen. I'm using Macs Fan Control on PCI.

PS: I've noticed it upgraded my Framebuffer Depth to 30-Bit Colour from 24 before

 

[itdk92]

Thanks for the sharing.

Radeon VII perform better with this Hex edit method?

Actually performance on the VII was unreliable so I switched to a VEGA 56 before switching the hardware acceleration method.

For me exports are kind of the same with both methods, but timeline performance was very different from one method to the other. I’ll swap to a RX580 today, and see how it goes.

At last I might go for either a dual RX 580 or a dual VEGA 56 if I can make some space

 

[alchemistics]

Will use this setup it in a heavy 4k timeline soon as well and report back..

Any thoughts about the much lower (~130k) geekbench score after 10.4.5 upgrade, before it was (~175k)? Does it exist with a powermod?
It hasn't changed with these hacks in here, which was to be expected..

Is it only synthetic?

 

[stockholm80]

I tried the second method (hexedit) for my rx570 and I'm still getting the same system freeze (that I mentioned earlier in this thread) when changing the desktop background. Everything else works well. Is anyone else seeing this?

 

[Kubat]

Any thoughts about the much lower (~130k) geekbench score after 10.4.5 upgrade, before it was (~175k)? Does it exist with a powermod?

I also see the drop (on rx580), but not as high...

 

[h9826790]

I tried the second method (hexedit) for my rx570 and I'm still getting the same system freeze (that I mentioned earlier in this thread) when changing the desktop background. Everything else works well. Is anyone else seeing this?

My wife's profile change desktop background every 5 min, and I haven't see a single freeze because of that yet.

If you have some spare drives and time, do you mind to perform a clean installation and check if still suffer from the same freeze?

 

[Chung123]

Working!!

I redo with your "new" instructions and all ok!! (before you edit your instructions I don't know if I didn't read fine, because I only change "37 42 41 35 42 32 44 39 45 34 32 44 44 44 39 34" one time on the AppleGVA file, but with the pictures in the thread is clean and easiest...)

Thanks!

How's things so far? Might have to try this second method since I am getting a lot of hard crashes with the first method in Final Cut Pro.

 

[donvito4ever]

How's things so far? Might have to try this second method since I am getting a lot of hard crashes with the first method in Final Cut Pro.

Till this moment all it's ok!!

 

[Chung123]

Till this moment all it's ok!!

Thanks for the reply!

I went ahead and removed the kexts from the first method and then followed the instructions for the second method. (I think a much easier method). I used Hex Fiend.

So far, testing with FCPX seems good. (no more inelegant lockups and nasty powering off restarts).

I think I'm okay with sticking with Mojave for at least another year or 2 as long as the Final Cut Pro X will continue to support Mojave.

 

[Kubat]

Thanks for the reply!
I think I'm okay with sticking with Mojave for at least another year or 2 as long as the Final Cut Pro X will continue to support Mojave.

Sadly I believe FCPX will get tons of cool features but supported in Catalina only...

 

[bsbeamer]

Sadly I believe FCPX will get tons of cool features but supported in Catalina only...

This is not limited to FCPX. Most software (even the non-Apple ones) will require the latest OS for all feature enhancements and/or additional features. It's only a matter of time before the hardware is completely unsupported from those vendors, which may even happen before official Mojave OS security updates end (likely in 2021).

The MP5,1 is extremely limited for future use even if it can be "hacked" for acceleration and Catalina support. The lack of microcode updates from Intel and basically the end of relevant firmware updates from Apple makes these machines chugging on life support. The new ECC RAM vulnerability will also not be patched. It's seriously time to explore options to move on.

 

[thomasthegps]

This is not limited to FCPX. Most software (even the non-Apple ones) will require the latest OS for all feature enhancements and/or additional features. It's only a matter of time before the hardware is completely unsupported from those vendors, which may even happen before official Mojave OS security updates end (likely in 2021).

The MP5,1 is extremely limited for future use even if it can be "hacked" for acceleration and Catalina support. The lack of microcode updates from Intel and basically the end of relevant firmware updates from Apple makes these machines chugging on life support. The new ECC RAM vulnerability will also not be patched. It's seriously time to explore options to move on.

Guys your macs won't get exposed to 99% of these vulnerabilities. Let's stop all the fear mongering, it's simply blown way out of proportion. Get a firewall and you'll be fine. Unless you're working for the CIA there is very little need to get worried.

 

[Ludacrisvp]

Yay! finally got this working in the 3,1 with a RX 580.

AirPlay doesn't quite work yet though, not sure what magic sauce is missing there.
The AppleTV goes black like it should get an image but nothing ever shows in Display Prefs for the second display.

 

[h9826790]

View attachment 843139
Yay! finally got this working in the 3,1 with a RX 580.

AirPlay doesn't quite work yet though, not sure what magic sauce is missing there.
The AppleTV goes black like it should get an image but nothing ever shows in Display Prefs for the second display.

Thanks for the confirmation that this mod can work on 3,1.

Airplay not working is a known issue. This function require HEVC hardware encoding, which we still have no idea how to get it work yet.

 

[Ludacrisvp]

While this may venture slightly off topic ... tried running both GTX650 and RX580 (testing for boot screen retention).
VideoProc seems to be able to leverage the card, but the display attached to the card doesn't work to display an image (black screen).

It is, however able to be used for VideoToolbox H264 encoding, a test of a 1080p source video encodes around 20fps using an appleTV preset using CPU, but is around 65fps and GPU processor is reported at about 50% usage for the 580. It's possible this could go faster as I was just testing this from a file located on a NAS with a 1Gbps link vs local file system.

The point being here if you want an AMD card just for video acceleration for encoding video only this works.
Note that the display connected to the GTX650 isn't able to display the HW accelerated decoded video (meaning I can't watch the jellyfish UHD videos)

Would be nice to understand why MacOS has such an issue with Dual GPUs these days, I wonder if Catalina will change anything there.

 

[h9826790]

While this may venture slightly off topic ... tried running both GTX650 and RX580 (testing for boot screen retention).
VideoProc seems to be able to leverage the card, but the display attached to the card doesn't work to display an image (black screen).

It is, however able to be used for VideoToolbox H264 encoding, a test of a 1080p source video encodes around 20fps using an appleTV preset using CPU, but is around 65fps and GPU processor is reported at about 50% usage for the 580. It's possible this could go faster as I was just testing this from a file located on a NAS with a 1Gbps link vs local file system.

The point being here if you want an AMD card just for video acceleration for encoding video only this works.
Note that the display connected to the GTX650 isn't able to display the HW accelerated decoded video (meaning I can't watch the jellyfish UHD videos)

Would be nice to understand why MacOS has such an issue with Dual GPUs these days, I wonder if Catalina will change anything there.

This mod sure won't able to activate any Nvidia card's hwaccel. That GTX650 has nothing to do with hwaccel, just cosmetic error same as "N/A" if no other GPU installed.

But it's good to know that now allow 3,1 to watch some demanding videos that was not playable, also has much better H264 encoding speed.

 

[startergo]

While this may venture slightly off topic ... tried running both GTX650 and RX580 (testing for boot screen retention).
VideoProc seems to be able to leverage the card, but the display attached to the card doesn't work to display an image (black screen).

It is, however able to be used for VideoToolbox H264 encoding, a test of a 1080p source video encodes around 20fps using an appleTV preset using CPU, but is around 65fps and GPU processor is reported at about 50% usage for the 580. It's possible this could go faster as I was just testing this from a file located on a NAS with a 1Gbps link vs local file system.

The point being here if you want an AMD card just for video acceleration for encoding video only this works.
Note that the display connected to the GTX650 isn't able to display the HW accelerated decoded video (meaning I can't watch the jellyfish UHD videos)

Would be nice to understand why MacOS has such an issue with Dual GPUs these days, I wonder if Catalina will change anything there.

I tried RX-580 and GTX Titan+GT-640 on my Mojave ( I believe it was the latest beta) and I could output 2 screens (Titan and RX-580, also tried GT-640 and RX-580) In fact only Mojave worked, my Windows 10 EFI got black screens after logging in. Maybe Windows 10 CSM would have worked I don't know.

 

[Chung123]

As awesome as this activation hack is– I still have some instability with my Mac and Final Cut Pro X. When the Mac locks up, it locks up bad, and forces a hard reboot. I can live with it, but may revert as I don't think the hard reboots is good for the internal SSD drive.

 

[h9826790]

As awesome as this activation hack is– I still have some instability with my Mac and Final Cut Pro X. When the Mac locks up, it locks up bad, and forces a hard reboot. I can live with it, but may revert as I don't think the hard reboots is good for the internal SSD drive.

Next time if happen, try Command + Control + power button (may need to wait up to a min or 2, but not more than that). The cMP should warm reboot itself, this should be better than hard shutdown.
[doublepost=1560693143][/doublepost]I still wondering what causing the instability. I did lots of ridiculous editing in FCPX (stress test), but unable to lock up my cMP.

 

[startergo]

I still wondering what causing the instability. I did lots of ridiculous editing in FCPX (stress test), but unable to lock up my cMP.

Maybe high temperature, high CPU utilization(improper CPU seating/cooling)?

 

[h9826790]

Maybe high temperature, high CPU utilization(improper CPU seating/cooling)?

But I can't quite understand why only lock up if hwaccel is activated (if that's CPU problem).

If GPU temperature issue, then it should also happen even hwaccel is not activated. Very impossible high temperature only cause the video engine (hardware) part unstable. I haven't search if RX580 (or Polaris) has problem with hwaceel in Windows yet. If yes, then higher change hardware design fault.

At this moment, I tend to believe this is software issue. However, don't know how to find the root cause. Anyway, at least we know Vega and Radeon VII is good so far. No lock up reported yet. For those who really want this function, Vega56 can be a low cost solution.
[doublepost=1560698243][/doublepost]I just found that hwaccel can be switch ON/OFF WITHOUT reboot (if using the hex edit method).


To turn OFF:

1) Rename the modded AppleGVA.framework to AppleGVA.framework.mod.bak.

2) And rename the original AppleGVA.framework.bak to AppleGVA.framework.


To turn it back ON:

1) Rename the original AppleGVA.framework to AppleGVA.framework.bak.

2) And rename the modded AppleGVA.framework.mod.bak to AppleGVA.framework.

 

[Chung123]

But I can't quite understand why only lock up if hwaccel is activated (if that's CPU problem).

If GPU temperature issue, then it should also happen even hwaccel is not activated. Very impossible high temperature only cause the video engine (hardware) part unstable. I haven't search if RX580 (or Polaris) has problem with hwaceel in Windows yet. If yes, then higher change hardware design fault.

At this moment, I tend to believe this is software issue. However, don't know how to find the root cause. Anyway, at least we know Vega and Radeon VII is good so far. No lock up reported yet. For those who really want this function, Vega56 can be a low cost solution.
[doublepost=1560698243][/doublepost]I just found that hwaccel can be switch ON/OFF WITHOUT reboot (if using the hex edit method).

I noticed it happens when I'm making a lot of quick changes/trims rapidly in FCPX. Suddenly --- I can sense the background rendering about to begin... and then bam!--The spinning beachball of death. The mouse still moves, but I can't quit FCPX at all--everything is choked up.

I do have the Astropad Luna Dongle installed, but I only occasionally use it, and not since the activation hack. (possible suspect).

I also had this crash once while surfing the web.

 

[Kubat]

I noticed it happens when I'm making a lot of quick changes/trims rapidly in FCPX. Suddenly --- I can sense the background rendering about to begin... and then bam!--The spinning beachball of death. The mouse still moves, but I can't quit FCPX at all--everything is choked up.

I just had my first crash - it happened just as described above