MP All Models AMD Polaris, Vega, & Navi GPU macOS Support

[09872738]

Hi @Le_Cactus,

Merci,

thanks for trying that out for me. Great to hear it works. I consider using that configuration because the nVidia drivers cause frequent graphics glitches; in particular, the latest driver causes issues on my number cruncher. Curiously on my MBP it works without those issues.

Btw: where do you live in France? I happen to be quite often over there...

 

[Lord John Marbury]

Hi everyone !

I have the opportunity to buy a msi RX VEGA 56 AIR Boost for 249 €. However, the problems of fans make me hesitate a lot.

As stated in the first post: "Some cards do not accept the BIOS from another card. The following cards do not readily accept another BIOS and the failed flash may not be recoverable:
- MSI Air Boost RX Vega 56 & 64 (other version of the same card can be flashed to it)."

Does anyone have a BIOS version compatible with the msi Vega 56 Air Boost that solves the problems of fan under MacOS Mojave?

Thanks for your help.

 

[PowerMac84]

Yeah, I‘d also like to know this. I bought a second VEGA card, a MSI 56. it’s crazy loud. Much louder than my Sapphire Pulse 56. We need a better BIOS.

 

[MisterAndrew]

I gathered the bios flashing info about the MSI Air Boost from other forums. You could try a different bios, but it may brick the card and it’s possible the failed flash may not be recoverable. I suggest avoid purchasing that card (or exchange it for a different card).

 

[Lord John Marbury]

I gathered the bios flashing info about the MSI Air Boost from other forums. You could try a different bios, but it may brick the card and it’s possible the failed flash may not be recoverable. I suggest avoid purchasing that card (or exchange it for a different card).

Damn, it's annoying. I have to find a RX Vega 56 that takes only 2 slots for my Mac Pro and if possible not more than 350 €, and most are 2.5 slots.

Maybe someone (PowerMac84 ) could try to install a bios of a different card on the msi air boost and let us know the result?

Thank you MisterAndrew for your answer.

 

[MisterAndrew]

Damn, it's annoying. I have to find a RX Vega 56 that takes only 2 slots for my Mac Pro and if possible not more than 350 €, and most are 2.5 slots.

Maybe someone (PowerMac84 ) could try to install a bios of a different card on the msi air boost and let us know the result?

Thank you MisterAndrew for your answer.

I’d be surprised if someone volunteers to risk bricking their card. You may want to consider a second-hand reference card.

 

[Lord John Marbury]

I’d be surprised if someone volunteers to risk bricking their card. You may want to consider a second-hand reference card.

I think too. Anyway I was not serious in making this "request" ...

 

[itdk92]

MacPro 5,1 12-core here.

Sapphire Vega 56 working, with an LG5K, see this post.

I do use the two standard 6 (to 8) Pins.
Geekbench OpenCL Score is at 175'000!

BIOS used successfully (to eliminate the fan issue and get a stable boot):

- Sapphire Nitro+ RX Vega 56 (secondary) 113-D0500310-S01
- PowerColor Red Devil RX Vega 56 (Silent) J8B27OAN.HLD

The PowerColor seemed to keep the Card / Fans silent for longer (~56° instead of ~52° with the sapphire).
But I'd stick with the Nitro+ BIOS, cause of the lower TPD.

I do get a power-supply shutdown while GFX Metal Bench is running (/ loading a scene).
No other shutdowns reproducible. Heaven runs through, Gaming (Forza Horizon 4 @5K!) under W10.

PCI-Bus Power seems to stay low at max. 1.5A.
6-Pin Power does exceed / top @7.99A.

FCPX editing works reliable, topping at around 7.5A on the PINS. Normally around 2-4A.

I do see that with the BIOS TPD this "can" get to high.
It would be nice to have a working BIOS with 165w..

Eventually I consider the Pixlas mod. But for now I don't see any noticeable benefit (besides hardcore benchmarking) in day to day use with the 56. I rather lower the TPD for ease of use. I do lower the TPD over wattman in W10 and can monitor the watt's drawn. Which I set to top @ around ~160w.

Does the power-supply security feature work under W10?
Could a warm-boot (to macOS) keep the GPU settings?

Thanks for the vital tips in this thread. This made the upgrade possible!

EDIT: Added iStat images

Nice. As a note, the advantage of Pixlas' mod is just not to stress the traces for no reason. Also, power spikes are bad as well.

So all in all, for best preservation of the Logic Board, which starts to be relatively old on something like a 2009 or 2010 (thinking about capacitors, traces and components).

 

[tamarro]

I just noticed that my Sapphire Vega 56 Pulse runs only at 800 Mhz clock speed with Mojave 10.14.3.
Clock speed on High Sierra is 1590 Mhz. Why is that? Any solution for this?

 

[MisterAndrew]

I just noticed that my Sapphire Vega 56 Pulse runs only at 800 Mhz clock speed with Mojave 10.14.3.
Clock speed on High Sierra is 1590 Mhz. Why is that? Any solution for this?
View attachment 822413

It’s probably inaccurate. Run some benchmarks.
[doublepost=1550518442][/doublepost]No acceleration driver support for Vega 20 (Radeon VII) in today's beta (10.14.4 beta 3).

 

[tamarro]

Ok, CLing's OCL Single Precision scalar and vector benchmarks are about 1000 Gflops slower in Mojave than in High Sierra. Just checked it. Whereas Double precision benchmarks are about the same in both OS.
Metal performance is about 800 Gflops slower running Mojave. Also, High Sierra running CLing shows the correct clock speed of 1590 Mhz.

What does your Vega 56 show in CLing with Mojave? 800 or 1590 clock speed?

 

[h9826790]

Ok, CLing's OCL Single Precision scalar and vector benchmarks are about 1000 Gflops slower in Mojave than in High Sierra. Just checked it. Whereas Double precision benchmarks are about the same in both OS.
Metal performance is about 800 Gflops slower running Mojave. Also, High Sierra running CLing shows the correct clock speed of 1590 Mhz.

What does your Vega 56 show in CLing with Mojave? 800 or 1590 clock speed?

Not Vega but RX580 here. The reported clock speed is wrong in Mojave.

But the card performance few % better than in High Sierra in all aspect (or at least in the normal range). If only running at 300MHz can get this performance, I will be very very happy.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

Not Vega but RX580 here. The reported clock speed is wrong in Mojave.
View attachment 822527

But the card performance few % better than in High Sierra in all aspect (or at least in the normal range). If only running at 300MHz can get this performance, I will be very very happy.
View attachment 822528

Check performance in productivity apps and games. If nothing wrong there then CLing is the culprit and needs to be updated for Mojave.

 

[h9826790]

Check performance in productivity apps and games. If nothing wrong there then CLing is the culprit and needs to be updated for Mojave.

Performance is good.

And Luxmark shows the same clock speed. Since I know the GPU is performing, so I personally don't quite care about that reported speed.

 

[tamarro]

Each OCL app shows wrong clock speed in Mojave (Cling, Luxmark, Oceanwave).
Though performance and most benchmarks look okay - except Cling's Single Precision scores which seem to be too low.

 

[MisterAndrew]

User monotone tested the Radeon VII card with the device ID insterted into the existing Vega accelerator driver. The performance of the card via this method appears to be similar to Vega 10 cards. I don’t recommend this method as SIP would need to be disabled for the modified driver to load, but it could be a temporary solution for those who have already purchased a Radeon VII card.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-1-vega-10-driver-results-and-beyond.2170567/

 

[cube]

Vega 56 price dropped by 30%.

 

[cube]

It was just a Newegg deal

 

[MitchMunro]

Hey! Rookie question here! Are all reference cards the same? I found a local seller in Australia selling a Vega 64 reference style card and he said it was Sapphire (Picture: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/VCEAAOSwHphcVWs2/s-l800.webp). Do you think this card will avoid the fan problem without any mods, since it is Sapphire? Or will I have to do the BIOS mod?

I'm seriously considering trying Pixla's Mod and getting this to work.

 

[alchemistics]

Hey! Rookie question here! Are all reference cards the same? I found a local seller in Australia selling a Vega 64 reference style card and he said it was Sapphire (Picture: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/VCEAAOSwHphcVWs2/s-l800.webp). Do you think this card will avoid the fan problem without any mods, since it is Sapphire? Or will I have to do the BIOS mod?

I'm seriously considering trying Pixla's Mod and getting this to work.

Hey there. You probably have to do a BIOS flash cause all the reference (incl. My sapphire 56) seem to have the fan issue.

Good thing is the Sapphire does accept the BIOS, you just need windows for it. Takes like 10minutes then, pretty easy..

Good luck!

 

[MitchMunro]

Hey there. You probably have to do a BIOS flash cause all the reference (incl. My sapphire 56) seem to have the fan issue.

Good thing is the Sapphire does accept the BIOS, you just need windows for it. Takes like 10minutes then, pretty easy..

Good luck!

Thanks for this! I appreciate the info.

That means pretty much all the reference cards are the same right? And would flash like the Sapphire one (even MSI reference that isn't the air boost)? This opens up my options when looking for available cards. I might also be able to get a good deal on a Gigabyte Vega 64.

 

[superparati]

Amost ready to do the move as I don’t see any hope with Nvidia.
I found a nice Sapphire Radeon RX VEGA64 Nitro+.
Does anyone tried this card?
Fan issue /power issue?

Would you suggest to take the Sapphire (not nitro +)?
I’ll move from a 980ti to this vega. Power is not a big deal as I already have the additional 8pin.

I do mainly photoshop/lightroom with.
Maybe a 56 would be better but the price difference is not huge!

Thanks for your feedback.

 

[XNorth]

Amost ready to do the move as I don’t see any hope with Nvidia.
I found a nice Sapphire Radeon RX VEGA64 Nitro+.
Does anyone tried this card?
Fan issue /power issue?

Would you suggest to take the Sapphire (not nitro +)?
I’ll move from a 980ti to this vega. Power is not a big deal as I already have the additional 8pin.

I do mainly photoshop/lightroom with.
Maybe a 56 would be better but the price difference is not huge!

Thanks for your feedback.

According to the OP, the Sapphire Nitro+ Vega 56/64 has no fan issue. But it’s 2.5 slot width, blocks PCIE slot 2 and it’s too long.

For photo editing only, an RX 580 isn’t too shabby. It’s actually the sweet spot.

 

[AlexMaximus]

Finally upgraded my old 280X to Reference Vega 64 after adding the Pixlas mod.

View attachment 814913

Really didn't want to mess with Bootcamp for BIOS flashing, so I had to improvise with my ultra slim fanless HTPC and used Mac Pro as a power donor. Used the secondary BIOS (as per original post).

View attachment 814912

Fan is off on idle, spins up under load and then stops properly. Valley Benchmark on Extreme settings is 63 fps, and LuxMark Luxball is 28567. Of course on Windows Valley is 82 fps, but I'm still happy with MacOS performance.

Thank you so much for sharing! Your setup really looks awesome. Since the Vega 64 has this mini switch close to the connectors on the PCB, could you elaborate on the Bios flashing method? Does it make a difference which position the switch has during the sencondary Bios flashing process? I am all set and done, my Vega runs great with the Pixlas cable. But somehow I am a bit worry about the Flashing process. I don't want to brick my Vega. Could you give a recommendation or advice?

 

[alchemistics]

Thank you so much for sharing! Your setup really looks awesome. Since the Vega 64 has this mini switch close to the connectors on the PCB, could you elaborate on the Bios flashing method? Does it make a difference which position the switch has during the sencondary Bios flashing process? I am all set and done, my Vega runs great with the Pixlas cable. But somehow I am a bit worry about the Flashing process. I don't want to brick my Vega. Could you give a recommendation or advice?

About the bios switch.

You can only overwrite the second bios. Primary bios is fixed and cannot be overwritten. I've tried, it doesn't allow the flash there.

This means nothing can go wrong. In case, you can always switch back to the working primary bios, boot, switch to secondary and flash.

You should be fine ;-)..