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

[Grumply]

UPDATE:

After disconnecting the Cubix Expander, and doing another NVRAM reset, I've been able to boot into Mojave again, and with just single Radeon VII in the machine, I appear to have hardware acceleration again (albeit with SIP enabled, so my downvolting kext for the Radeon VII won't be working (which isn't safe, as I have it powered from the two mini 6-pins).

How can I still have OC giving me hardware acceleration if SIP has disabled it?
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Do you have "-wegtree" boot argument set?

I just used the "universal" config file. I don't know if that contains wegtree.

 

[startergo]

You must have "-wegtree" with PCIE expander or if using any other slot than PCIE 1

 

[Grumply]

You must have "-wegtree" with PCIE expander or if using any other slot than PCIE 1

Is "-wegtree" a command inside of the config file? And if so, is there a version of the "universal" config (that's currently in the step-by-step tutorial) that has it enabled?

I don't know how to modify the configs myself.

 

[h9826790]

wegtree is in the universal config plist.

Disable SIP should not affect OC, I always have SIP disabled.

 

[Grumply]

Alrighty, put my lateral thinking hat on and I now seem to have a solution. Hardware acceleration was working just fine when I had a single Radeon VII mounted in Slot 1, so after fixing my boot drive from the backup copy, I tried moving the x16 PCIe interface card for the Cubix expander from Slot 2 into Slot 1, and then mounted both Radeon VIIs inside the Cubix (so now both GPUs are connected through Slot 1).

System booted up fine, and this time the hardware acceleration worked perfectly. So now I have dual Radeon VIIs running with hardware acceleration for h264/h265 decoding/encoding. And because they're mounted in the Cubix, power is no longer any kind of an issue (though for the timebeing I'm going to keep the 204w downvolt kext in place, as I benchmarked better scores from that than running the Radeon VII stock).

Now all that's left is to start mounting all of my other components back into the 5,1 and the remaining Cubix slots, and hope that doing so doesn't ruin anything - wish me luck guys!

 

[Norbert Mikołajczyk]

Hi,

I have some problems with activating hardware acceleration on Mojave.
My rig MP4.1@5.1 with RVII is super solid without the mod even while gaming.
With lilu or hex edit I get kernel panics, gpurestarts reports in console.
Cursor moves but the rest is frozen, I need to power it down to restart.

Any advice? Halp...

 

[h9826790]

Hi,

I have some problems with activating hardware acceleration on Mojave.
My rig MP4.1@5.1 with RVII is super solid without the mod even while gaming.
With lilu or hex edit I get kernel panics, gpurestarts reports in console.
Cursor moves but the rest is frozen, I need to power it down to restart.

Any advice? Halp...

Never see that with Radeon VII, but only RX580 before 10.14.6.

Anyway, if possible, go for OpenCore. The Lilu / hex edit method is depreciated. I won't update them, or perform any more tests.

 

[Norbert Mikołajczyk]

Ok, thanks, I'll try with OpenCore then.

PS. It's funny but I think I "can do" the kernel panic by playing with wallpaper
Everytime I change I get gpurestarts :>

 

[Earl Urley]

Okay, so should OpenCore be installed in the manner described in the dedicated thread first, or just follow post #594?

 

[Pressure]

Okay, so should OpenCore be installed in the manner described in the dedicated thread first, or just follow post #594?

Follow post #594.

 

[eVasilis]

I sometimes wonder, why would anyone pay for a new macpro with the rx 580 in, if hardware acceleration for this particular gpu is disabled. I also wonder why apple are offering this particular setup as an option for what they see as "professionals". With acceleration enabled on my 2010 macpro, and a prores timeline sent to compressor to be converted to mp4, the gpu usage peaks at 70%; without it it only goes up to 7%. That is on FCX and macos 10.15.3. The whole situation is a bad joke, unless apple plan to re-enable acceleration in a future update of catalina.

 

[Cmp4life]

MacPro 5,1 2010:

I have Catalina installed on one of my NVME boot drives.

I would like to get HWAccel if possible. Is there still no workaround for Polaris card RX580 8GB?

Downgrade to Mojave is my only choice?

Thanks,
David

 

[startergo]

MacPro 5,1 2010:

I have Catalina installed on one of my NVME boot drives.

I would like to get HWAccel if possible. Is there still no workaround for Polaris card RX580 8GB?

Downgrade to Mojave is my only choice?

Thanks,
David

HWA works in Catalina

 

[Cmp4life]

HWA works in Catalina

Would this work for me?

Big thanks to all who contributed @cdf, @h9826790, @startergo, @w1z and especially to @vit9696

I just booted into my cMP with Radeon VII, I have bootselector via OC, bootscreen, full HW acceleration and internal disc icons on Catalina 10.15.3

My EFI is attached below.

No more need for a Mac Pro 2019

View attachment 894152

 

[jeffhalmos]

Deleted.

 

[PowerMac84]

I found some errors with the Open Core method. In Mail all signatures I save are lost after quitting the program. The same applies to ‘rules‘ I set up in Apple Mail to sort incoming mail. Also the contact sync doesn't seem to work. iMessage on the Mac Pro works but the iCloud Sync doesn't work. So I‘m messaging with phone numbers instead of contacts. And I ran into another problem: since on Open Core I am not able to download Pixelmator Pro. I bought the Pixelmator to Pro upgrade but it doesn't allow to download the App from the App Store. Also twice an hour my 4K monitors looses it‘s image and goes to black for about two seconds.

 

[h9826790]

Which OS? Which config?

To other members, any of you have similar problems?

In Mail all signatures I save are lost after quitting the program. The same applies to ‘rules‘ I set up in Apple Mail to sort incoming mail. Also the contact sync doesn't seem to work.

My signatures and rules still working, and I am able to add new signature.

If that's not what you mean, can you provide the etc procedure for me to test?

Also the contact sync doesn't seem to work. iMessage on the Mac Pro works but the iCloud Sync doesn't work. So I‘m messaging with phone numbers instead of contacts.

I am not heavy iCloud users, not quite sure what's stop working after the mod. But so far, I have no iCloud issue.

I am not able to download Pixelmator Pro. I bought the Pixelmator to Pro upgrade but it doesn't allow to download the App from the App Store.

Is this the only software affected? I don't own this software, can't test it

Also twice an hour my 4K monitors looses it‘s image and goes to black for about two seconds.

This only happen after you boot via OpenCore? If you use the old methods to activate HWAccel, but not boot via OpenCore, then the Vega work flawlessly?

 

[roobarb!]

Which OS? Which config?

To other members, any of you have similar problems?

My signatures and rules still working, and I am able to add new signature.

If that's not what you mean, can you provide the etc procedure for me to test?

I am not heavy iCloud users, not quite sure what's stop working after the mod. But so far, I have no iCloud issue.

I am a heavy iCloud user and everything is ticking over nicely on my system (all details in sig). Booting with a self-compiled 0.5.6 version of OC from 22nd Feb.

 

[cdf]

And I ran into another problem: since on Open Core I am not able to download Pixelmator Pro. I bought the Pixelmator to Pro upgrade but it doesn't allow to download the App from the App Store.

Actually, this is a well-known problem that predates OpenCore:

Pixelmator Pro on 2012 Mac Pro? - Pixelmator Community

In fact, since Pixelmator uses a CPU-feature check to permit the update, OpenCore may very well be the solution!

 

[Earl Urley]

Does this method only work for Mac Pro 4,1/5,1? What if you have a 6,1?

And you have only the D300/500/700?

 

[tsialex]

Does this method only work for Mac Pro 4,1/5,1? What if you have a 6,1?

And you have only the D300/500/700?

Older AMD GPUs don’t have the hardware Units needed for AMD hardware acceleration, only Polaris/VEGA/VII/NAVI.

First AMD GPU that have AMD hardware acceleration is Ellesmere (chip used on RX 480/580).

 

[Cmp4life]

HWA works in Catalina

I finally troubleshoot after a week. Thank you for your EFI folder and your contributions to macrumors forum.

 

[eVasilis]

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First AMD GPU that have AMD hardware acceleration is Ellesmere (chip used on RX 480/580).

Isn't the RX 580 a polaris GPU?

 

[h9826790]

Deleted
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Isn't the RX 580 a polaris GPU?

Polaris is the family, Ellesemere is the code name

 

[Earl Urley]

I sometimes wonder, why would anyone pay for a new macpro with the rx 580 in, if hardware acceleration for this particular gpu is disabled. I also wonder why apple are offering this particular setup as an option for what they see as "professionals". With acceleration enabled on my 2010 macpro, and a prores timeline sent to compressor to be converted to mp4, the gpu usage peaks at 70%; without it it only goes up to 7%. That is on FCX and macos 10.15.3. The whole situation is a bad joke, unless apple plan to re-enable acceleration in a future update of catalina.

View attachment 895733

Does enabling HWA actually speed up your work, though? If it does, then yes it is indeed downright stupid for Apple to be disabling it!

Still thinking about enabling it on my BOINC 5,1, I'd be able to tell if it was running any faster by seeing how long it takes to finish a GPU work unit.

If it actually winds up improving work unit time as much as Apple's gradual tweaks to OpenCL / Metal itself I'd have to say its ridiculous for Apple not to implement it across the board, unless its something that causes the GPU to heat up faster. It's not like it's not an issue for laptops, but in the new Mac Pro there's just no excuse to not have it when you have an industrial strength cooling system to make up for it! Unless Apple feels it would shorten the life of the GPU or something.