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Advice on shopping for GPU: rx 290/390/ Gtx 980ti/1080ti

pat500000

pat500000

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Original poster
Jun 3, 2015
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Needs: FCPX, Adobe, gaming (on the side...mostly for editing)

Don't know much about AMD side...but is it treated same as gtx meaning that it needs to be flashed to get recovery booting?

secondly, rendering...what would be suitable out of these choices?

lastly, temp and power?
 
pat500000 said:
but is it treated same as gtx meaning that it needs to be flashed to get recovery booting?
Click to expand...

There is no flashing of AMD cards after HD7970/50 anymore. On new Macs EFI is on the motherboard, so if you flash new AMD GPU youll get bootscreen but wont be able to enter OS. It will boot into Recovery if there are drivers in OS for it.

Btw, i don't know how 1070/80 perform in FCPX, but i have GTX980 in my cMP (X5680) and it is heavily underutilized in FCPX.
 
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SoyCapitanSoyCapitan said:
No, no card does
Click to expand...
what i meant is that people flash gtx cards to get that booting up thing.
[doublepost=1498758902][/doublepost]
owbp said:
There is no flashing of AMD cards after HD7970/50 anymore. On new Macs EFI is on the motherboard, so if you flash new AMD GPU youll get bootscreen but wont be able to enter OS. It will boot into Recovery if there are drivers in OS for it.

Btw, i don't know how 1070/80 perform in FCPX, but i have GTX980 in my cMP (X5680) and it is heavily underutilized in FCPX.
Click to expand...
no more flashing, huh? if i buy rx series, it should show bootscreen?
980 gtx underutilized in FCPX? yikes.
 
pat500000 said:
what i meant is that people flash gtx cards to get that booting up thing.
[doublepost=1498758902][/doublepost]
no more flashing, huh? if i buy rx series, it should show bootscreen?
980 gtx underutilized in FCPX? yikes.
Click to expand...

NO, RX card CANNOT shows boot screen on ANY Mac.
 
SoyCapitanSoyCapitan said:
Yes but RX will be sufficient and you can fit dual in a cMP. If you find them cheap!
Click to expand...
now i'm working with a gtx 960 4GB (plus a GT120 for bootscreen) and i feel quite good, but i'd would know if there are real improvements with some new graphic card...maybe the Vega? How could they works?
 
pat500000 said:
So how do you get to boot screen? Install gt 120?
Click to expand...

Yes, that's the way to go, not necessary GT120, any GPU that can provide boot screen will do the job. GT120 is just one of the simplest option. Also, it only provide boot screen from GT120, it won't magically make the RX card can show any boot screen.
 
h9826790 said:
Yes, that's the way to go, not necessary GT120, any GPU that can provide boot screen will do the job. GT120 is just one of the simplest option. Also, it only provide boot screen from GT120, it won't magically make the RX card can show any boot screen.
Click to expand...
Ok. makes sense now. Thanks.
 
owbp said:
There is no flashing of AMD cards after HD7970/50 anymore. On new Macs EFI is on the motherboard, so if you flash new AMD GPU youll get bootscreen but wont be able to enter OS. It will boot into Recovery if there are drivers in OS for it.

Btw, i don't know how 1070/80 perform in FCPX, but i have GTX980 in my cMP (X5680) and it is heavily underutilized in FCPX.
Click to expand...

I expect the EFI will store on the logic board on the coming 7,1.

So, anyone know even if it comes with PCIe slots. Is it possible to use flashed card to show boot screen (theoretically)? Oe only the card that match the EFI can shows boot screen? Is it possible that a flashed card may only work like a PC card on the 7,1?
 
I've recently found that boot screens are overrated. Just keep the Mac card on-hand and quit limiting yourself with requiring boot-screen.

Switching between OS's is actually easier to do while in the OS, rather than doing it via the "Alt" method (takes longer).
 
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pat500000 said:
really? i guess some don't really need it.
Click to expand...

I don't need it from day to day either. That's something nice to have in general.

HOWEVER, when the computer in deep trouble (e.g. must use single user mode to fix something). That can be very very important.

Or if we lucky enough to have firmware update (e.g. due to High Sierra APFS bootable requirement), an EFI GPU may be a requirement to get the job done.
 
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Now is not a good time to buy a new CPU. Prices are insane, and products are missing from shelves from the mining craze. My advice is to look for used deals on Craigslist for the time being while the Vega cards become released and prices/products settle back on the shelves.

As mentioned above, some of the cards you've listed are above the Mac Pro's power capacity. It's possible to go above a TDP of 225w with some tweaks/mods, but I personally don't find it worth the effort when there's plenty of super fast cards that fall under the envelope.

A 7950 (RX 280) or a GTX 680 is a baseline choice (and the only choice) if you require boot screens. I wouldn't spend any effort going below these performance level of cards (from a gaming perspective). For me, they are not good enough, but they are astronomically faster than the 5770, so for $70 I made a wise choice obtaining a 7950 OC for the time being. These cards are also flashable. Keep in mind that currently, the 7950 does not play nice when flashed with a Windows EFI drive, so I chose to flash it back and just live without boot screens (which is easier than I thought after H9826790's help after getting the right version of bootcamp installed). Also keep in mind that if you are stubborn like me and demand a Windows EFI installation, SIP must be installed in order to boot back and forth without boot-screens. Easy to do.

I'd be looking for an RX 470, RX 480, GTX 980, GTX 1060, GTX 1070, and GTX 1080. I'm sure there's others, but these are the main big-dawgs.

For 1440p and VR, RX 480, 1070, and 1080.

Notice that I left the "Ti's off for a reason--they go above the power envelope of the supplied 2x 6-pin connectors.

Basically, if the card has two 6-pin connectors, there's no worry. If the card has a single 8-pin connector, there's no worry. If the card has one 6-pin connector, there's no worry. If the card has 1 6-pin and 1 8-pin, there's reason to worry and start doing research. If the card has 2 8-pin connectors, don't buy.
 
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fendersrule said:
Switching between OS's is actually easier to do while in the OS, rather than doing it via the "Alt" method (takes longer).
Click to expand...

Well, only if you are already booted up. If I want to turn the computer on and boot to Windows but the last OS was OS X, then I have to boot all the way into OS X, select Windows, then reboot into Windows.

Also I never saw EFI Windows and EFI Linux drives as choices in OS X's Startup Disk preference pane--they just didn't show up. So I had to use boot-time OS selection anyway, even if I was already in OS X.
 
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