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AMD Polaris GPUs Plug and Play in macOS 10.12.6 & 10.13

Rx 580 has the same PCI ID 67DF as RX 480. RX 580 is same chip as RX 480, just "enhanced" for higher clock speeds. If RX 480 works then Rx 580 will work.
 
I've replaced a GTX 680 (2GB, flashed to Mac edition) with a Sapphire Radeon RX 580 PULSE (8GB, SKU 11265-05-20G) in my MacPro5,1. Some findings:
  • Works out of the box in macOS 10.12.6, as expected
  • No boot screen support, obviously
  • Shows as "AMD R9 xxx 8192 MB" in "About This Mac"
  • Fan Stop ("Zero RPM") works (fans spin up at boot, but then stop unless temperatures get too high). Update: a few days after installation, the fans started having sudden, noisy bursts of about 1 second duration. Additionally, the expansion slots fan is now considerably louder (1600rpm) until the GPU is stressed once for a few seconds – then it slows down again.
  • Fits nicely in a Mac Pro 2009-2012. However, for fan clearance, PCIe slot 2 should not be used.
  • 30-Bit color works over DisplayPort (needs to be enabled with SwitchResX, "Billions of colors", and requires a display that can handle it)
  • HDMI audio out doesn't work (might with HDMIAudio kext)
  • Sleep works flawlessly
  • Benchmarks are basically identical with the current iMac's Radeon Pro 580

Geekbench 4.1 (OpenCL):
GTX 680: 45372
RX 580: 135541

Geekbench 4.1 (Metal):
GTX 680: 35519
RX 580: 38629

Geekbench 4.2 (Metal):
GTX 680: (not tested)
RX 580: 131600

Unigine Valley (1920x1080):
GTX 680: 1560 (19.3fps - 70.8fps; 37.3fps avg.)
RX 580: 1790 (21.6fps - 79.0fps; 42.8fps avg.)

Unigine Valley (3440x1440):
GTX 680: 628 (3.5fps - 33.3fps; 15.0fps avg.)
RX 580: 907 (12.6fps - 38.9fps; 21.7fps avg.)

System specs:
Mac Pro 2009, flashed to MacPro5,1
2 x Intel Xeon W5590 Quad Core (3.33Ghz)
48GB DDR3 ECC 1333Mhz
SM951 PCIe SSD


Update: Works even better in High Sierra 10.13 Beta 3.
  • Shows as "Radeon RX 580 8GB" in "About This Mac"
  • HDMI audio works out of the box (note: back to non-working in 10.13 release)
  • DisplayPort audio works out of the box (note: back to non-working in 10.13 release)
  • Benchmark scores are basically identical with 10.12.6
 
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SoyCapitanSoyCapitan said:
Clearly the GPU is held back in the Metal and Valley test.
Click to expand...

This is not the case. In both tests, CPU utilization was between 20-60% (out of 800%). Not even a single maxed core.

Edit: As for Geekbench, according to the results for Metal, the Radeon Pro 580 does score higher, despite it being almost exactly as fast as the RX 580 in other benchmarks. Not sure why that is.

Update: Geekbench 4.2 contains a fix for previously underreported scores for discrete GPUs. Metal benchmark now reports 131600 for my RX 580.
 
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Kris Kelvin said:
I've replaced a GTX 680 (2GB, flashed to Mac edition) with a Sapphire Radeon RX 580 PULSE (8GB) in my MacPro5,1. Some findings:
  • Works out of the box in macOS 10.12.6, as expected
  • No boot screen support, obviously
  • Shows as "AMD R9 xxx 8192 MB" in "About This Mac"
  • Fan Stop ("Zero RPM") works (fans spin up at boot, but then stop unless temperatures get too high)
  • At full throttle still more pleasant than GTX 680
  • Fits nicely in a Mac Pro 2009-2012. However, for fan clearance, PCIe slot 2 should not be used.
  • 30-Bit color works over DisplayPort (needs to be enabled with SwitchResX, "Billions of colors", and requires a display that can handle it)
  • HDMI audio out doesn't work (might with HDMIAudio kext)
  • Sleep works flawlessly

Geekbench 3 (OpenCL):
GTX 680: 45372
RX 580: 135541

Geekbench 3 (Metal):
GTX 680: 35519
RX 580: 38629

Unigine Valley (1920x1080):
GTX 680: 1560 (19.3fps - 70.8fps; 37.3fps avg.)
RX 580: 1790 (21.6fps - 79.0fps; 42.8fps avg.)

Unigine Valley (3440x1440):
GTX 680: 628 (3.5fps - 33.3fps; 15.0fps avg.)
RX 580: 907 (12.6fps - 38.9fps; 21.7fps avg.)

System specs:
Mac Pro 2009, flashed to MacPro5,1
2 x Intel Xeon W5590 Quad Core (3.33Ghz)
48GB DDR3 ECC 1333Mhz
SM951 PCIe SSD
Click to expand...
Thanks for this.
I'm baffled as to why it is not listed accurately in About this Mac.
Is your part number the same as either of these or do we have a third part number for the card?
Part#: 113-4E3531U or 113-4E353BU

See here for details:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/to...ds-on-sierra-high-sierra/page-24#entry2442237

Perhaps Apple only made this tweak in High Sierra along with the eGPU changes.
 
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Squuiid said:
Thanks for this.
I'm baffled as to why it is not listed accurately in About this Mac.
Is your part number the same as either of these or do we have a third part number for the card?
Part#: 113-4E3531U or 113-4E353BU

See here for details:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/to...ds-on-sierra-high-sierra/page-24#entry2442237

Perhaps Apple only made this tweak in High Sierra along with the eGPU changes.
Click to expand...

The only RX 580 showing correct info in System Profiler is the one found in the Apple Dev kit.
 
RX480

Just installed 10.12.6 and rebooted

This is Ungine Valley benchmark after - no scripts or hacking

tACbhqs.png


cKKUbLo.png
 
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Squuiid said:
Yep, the Sapphire RX580 Pulse 8GB with the above listed part numbers. In High Sierra.
Click to expand...

Oh I see!

So you don't think it's a ROM-thingy?

But that it's just a very specific RX 580?
[doublepost=1500624681][/doublepost]
Squuiid said:
Yep, the Sapphire RX580 Pulse 8GB with the above listed part numbers. In High Sierra.
Click to expand...
How can one buy those specific cards?

I can't seem to find them anywhere (by looking for those part number) :/
 
Amazon UK has them available for pre-order:
SAPPHIRE Pulse Radeon RX 580 8G GDDR5 Dual HDMI/DVI-D/Dual DP Graphics Card - Black
Amazon US appear to be out of stock currently.

As far as I'm aware there are only two versions of the RX 580 8GB Pulse, and they have the part numbers I listed. The only difference between them is that they use different RAM manufacturers. Pretty sure any Sapphire RX 580 8GB Pulse will work just fine.

See here for the two BIOS/card versions and the detail on which RAM each one supports:

113-4E3531U - Hynix GDDR
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/191403/sapphire-rx580-8192-170310

113-4E353BU - Samsung and Hynix GDDR
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/191713/sapphire-rx580-8192-170324

Get notified when these are in stock by using this site:
UK - https://www.nowinstock.net/uk/computers/videocards/amd/rx580/
US - https://www.nowinstock.net/computers/videocards/amd/rx580/
 
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Kris Kelvin said:
Update: Works even better in High Sierra 10.13 Beta 3.
  • Shows as "Radeon RX 580 8GB" in "About This Mac"
  • HDMI audio works out of the box
  • DisplayPort audio works out of the box
  • Benchmark scores are basically identical with 10.12.6
Click to expand...
Awesome. This makes the Sapphire RX 580 8GB Pulse the most compatible up-to-date card available for the cMP. It's not a bad performer either and offers HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.4. We'll likely soon see 5K displays using DP1.4 and this card should handle them nicely.
Thanks for the update Kris.
 
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Just remember if you are beta testing High Sierra to submit feedback about the GPUs not displaying card info and not doing HEVC decoding. Then Apple can properly complete drivers and have decent card detection.
 
Thanks for the great info!

For Pro apps the compute performance difference over a GTX680 looks massive for the money but it would be nice to see some MacOS gaming comparisons if at all possible as the difference with the Valley benchmarks isn't that big and for me at least getting a few more years of gaming would be the only reason to change.
 
Mattww said:
it would be nice to see some MacOS gaming comparisons
Click to expand...

No numbers, just impressions (of using the RX 580, compared to GTX 680):
  • Starcraft 2 seems slightly faster (using Metal Renderer)
  • Apple Motion seems slightly slower
  • Sid Meier's Railroads seems slightly slower
  • Rocket League is much faster
In my opinion, if you already have a GTX 680, the upgrade isn't worth it at this time.
 
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How does the rx 580 connect with the 8 pin connector.
Does it just connect to one 6 pin, or does it use both.

Are there any worries with a 6 to 8 pin adapter, i've always avoided 8 pin cards, as i have heard some people concerned with power issues.....is this rubbish?
I have no idea about the different power output from 6 to 8, and why even have different connectors.

Just a bit concerned with damaging motherboard.
 
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