Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MisterAndrew

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Sep 15, 2015
2,895
2,390
Portland, Ore.
I updated the thread to support the current GPUs officially supported by MacOS 10.13.4. Please let me know if you can identify some of the unknown GPUs, any errors, issues, and support solutions.
 

m3rob

macrumors member
Dec 28, 2010
41
7
Anyone's fan speed issue fixed with the final release of 10.13.4? Or do the fans remain unchanged?

Thanks!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: MisterAndrew

MisterAndrew

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Sep 15, 2015
2,895
2,390
Portland, Ore.
Radeon RX 550 does not work. I've tried it with both the cMP and eGPU enclosures.

Does your RX 550 have one of the Device IDs listed? Are you running 10.13.4?

It’s not listed on Apple’s support page as one of the supported GPUs but it is listed in the driver so you could use Feedback Assistant to report it as not working in the eGPU.
 
Last edited:

MisterAndrew

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Sep 15, 2015
2,895
2,390
Portland, Ore.
RX550 doesn't work in MP5,1. Device ID 0x699f, Revision ID 0x00c7. Upgraded to 10.13.4.

It looks like there are different variants of the RX 550. The ones with Device ID 67FF should work. Perhaps you can edit the BIOS or flash it with a compatible BIOS.
[doublepost=1522478740][/doublepost]It looks like the RX 550 cards that are supported are the Sapphire Pulse that have a different chip. They have the correct 67FF Device ID.

https://www.techpowerup.com/241121/...550-graphics-cards-with-640-stream-processors
 
Last edited:

MisterAndrew

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Sep 15, 2015
2,895
2,390
Portland, Ore.
If you’ve been watching prices you’ve probably noticed these graphics cards are beginning to come back down. :) Ethereum has plummeted so it looks like a lot of miners are bailing. Quite a few Vega cards on eBay at lower prices that haven’t sold which would have been snatched up instantly a few weeks ago. SaberPC was selling the Vega FE Air for $699 yesterday. I was tempted to buy one, but I still don’t like the high fan speed issue and it only has a 1 year warranty. I’ve read you have to ship it to Canada for RMAs which imposes an import duty. I’m leaning towards a Vega 64 liquid if I can find one (and probably flash it with a 56 bios for lower power), but an RX 580 would probably be fine. I’ve also considered the WX 7100, but I’m concerned about higher noise due to the single slot fan. What cards are you all considering? Which ones do you like the best?
 
Last edited:

Unklemac

macrumors newbie
Jan 4, 2018
28
12
Denmark
...What cards are you all considering? Which ones do you like the best?

I have given up on Apple to fix fan speeds, so I am this slapping an Alphacool Eiswolf 120 on an Vega 56 (samsung ram, so flashed to a 64)... to let the motherboard control fan speeds. This is on a hackintosh - not sure if it’s possible on a real mac.

I tested also WX9100, and the speed (not fans) was very similar to Vega 56 (flashed to 64). I couldn’t justify keeping the card for my needs (photo/video - light 3D modelling).
 
  • Like
Reactions: MisterAndrew

PowerMac84

macrumors member
Sep 16, 2016
33
21
Karlsruhe/Germany
For me the fan speed control seem to be working in 10.3.4. Mac Pro 5.1. 12*3,46 GHz. I have a Sapphire Pulse 56. this card has a BIOS switch. You can change the power limit, set the card to be quiet or run at max speed.
The card is quiet when idling. When I use Adobe Premiere, Red Cine X Pro, Furmark or whatever the fans become louder. As soon as the load is reduced the fans decallerate quickly. So something seems to be controlling the fans. Works well!
 
  • Like
Reactions: MisterAndrew

krakman

macrumors 6502
Dec 3, 2009
450
511
For me the fan speed control seem to be working in 10.3.4. Mac Pro 5.1. 12*3,46 GHz. I have a Sapphire Pulse 56. this card has a BIOS switch. You can change the power limit, set the card to be quiet or run at max speed.
The card is quiet when idling. When I use Adobe Premiere, Red Cine X Pro, Furmark or whatever the fans become louder. As soon as the load is reduced the fans decallerate quickly. So something seems to be controlling the fans. Works well!


Thanks for the info. Looks like AMD launched the new Vega 56 Pulse recently. I will be keeping my eye on prices for these as I want to upgrade from my current RX480.

I wonder if any intrepid Reference 56 owner wants to try and flash their card with the bios from this one (if it is available to download somewhere?) Perhaps that might fix the fan problem?

A final thought, the Pulse has a redesigned PCB, I wonder if it draws more power from the PCI slot than the reference card???? I'm off to google the answer to this question. I'll let you know if i find anything....

update: AMD Spec sheet says Power Consumption - 180W

http://www.sapphiretech.com/productdetial.asp?pid=19E343EE-46D4-45E8-9E3E-1693AB30DF14&lang=eng
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: itdk92

MisterAndrew

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Sep 15, 2015
2,895
2,390
Portland, Ore.
For me the fan speed control seem to be working in 10.3.4. Mac Pro 5.1. 12*3,46 GHz. I have a Sapphire Pulse 56. this card has a BIOS switch. You can change the power limit, set the card to be quiet or run at max speed.
The card is quiet when idling. When I use Adobe Premiere, Red Cine X Pro, Furmark or whatever the fans become louder. As soon as the load is reduced the fans decallerate quickly. So something seems to be controlling the fans. Works well!

That’s interesting. Thanks for the info! The Pulse line is recommended by Apple on their support page. Apparently that increased support extends to the Pulse Vega 56. Does the card prevent you from using the 2nd PCIe slot?

[doublepost=1522739543][/doublepost]I ordered the Pulse 56 per PowerMac84's recommendation. It looks like the price was recently lowered at Newegg to $679.99. Kinda high still IMO, but about $200 less than I got for my reference card so I'm happy. :)
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: itdk92 and krakman

thevidness

macrumors member
Nov 1, 2013
60
35
Berlin, Germany
hey,

i can confirm, that fan behaviour is still not fixed with 10.13.4 final. (tested with original sapphire rx vega 56 in mac pro 5,1)

am going to sell that thing.

best regards
 

MisterAndrew

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Sep 15, 2015
2,895
2,390
Portland, Ore.
hey,

i can confirm, that fan behaviour is still not fixed with 10.13.4 final. (tested with original sapphire rx vega 56 in mac pro 5,1)

am going to sell that thing.

best regards

Yeah, it looks like the fan behavior is only normal with the Pulse model, not the original reference model.

Has anyone tested the Nitro+ model?
 

MisterAndrew

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Sep 15, 2015
2,895
2,390
Portland, Ore.
Is the Vega 64 Liquid Edition working on macOS 10.13.4?

I don't know. But if it doesn't you can use the air bios. Either the 56 or 64 air bios should work fine with the LC. Most 56 and 64 airs can't handle the LC bios because they can't handle the higher frequencies. LC's have a higher binned chip.
 

PowerMac84

macrumors member
Sep 16, 2016
33
21
Karlsruhe/Germany
The Sapphire Pulse Vega 56 occupies both lower X16 PCI slots unfortunately. Which riser cable might work?

So it’s just the Sapphire Card plus two pci slots left at the moment. Had to deinstall my usb 3.0 card...
 

MisterAndrew

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Sep 15, 2015
2,895
2,390
Portland, Ore.
The Sapphire Pulse Vega 56 occupies both lower X16 PCI slots unfortunately. Which riser cable might work?

So it’s just the Sapphire Card plus two pci slots left at the moment. Had to deinstall my usb 3.0 card...

I don’t know. Is there any room above the slot to fit one? This one on Amazon looks good. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y1SX7ZN/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_dp_4mvXAbJVBD0ZK

Here's a review of some different ones: https://videocardz.com/review/pci-express-riser-extender-test
 
Last edited:

chrissomos

macrumors member
Feb 16, 2018
57
29
On another note.

How come nobody has figured out how to make it play well with Pcie 2?

How does Nvidia achieve that in their drivers?

I have been scouring the internet looking for another way to verify the link speed. The system profiler says PCIE 3.0 speed which isn't possible, Oceanwave says 1.0 link speed. Does anyone have another way to verify?

Also, I run a Vega FE in my 5,1 connected to an external PSU. When running furmark the GPU shuts off while the computer is still running. Has anyone else had this happen?
 
  • Like
Reactions: itdk92

MisterAndrew

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Sep 15, 2015
2,895
2,390
Portland, Ore.
Here's something interesting about the Sapphire Pulse 56 in case you already didn't know. It's actually the Vega Nano AMD showed off at SIGGRAPH 2017, just with an enormous cooler on it. Since it's a reference PCB design it's possible the Pulse BIOS may work on the regular reference cards. What's also interesting is that the Vega Nano only had a single 8-pin power connector (even though the connections for the second power connector are present on the PCB) and the Pulse is rated at 180W, so it might be safe to power the card using the Mac Pro's existing power connectors using the appropriate 6 to 8 pin cables (although you may want to first combine them into a single 8-pin to balance the draw).

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/88jypl/confirmed_sapphire_vega_pulse_is_vega_nano/
 

Brian Y

macrumors 68040
Oct 21, 2012
3,776
1,064
Odd thing here - the final release has completely resolved fan issues on my Vega Frontier!

Fans no longer spin up when idle, the card is properly recognised, and I can have different displays on different GPUs with no lag taking apps between them! They've finally sorted the FE drivers.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.