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

[pastrychef]

Going by post #1190, it looks like it's Vega 20.

If, on the other hand, it turns out to be Vega 64 on 7nm, I would be perfectly happy with it. That's assuming that, by moving to 7nm, it brings improved TDP.

Personally speaking, the reason why I went with a Vega 56 over a Vega 64 was entirely due to the significantly lower TDP.

 

[MisterAndrew]

Going by post #1190, it looks like it's Vega 20.

If, on the other hand, it turns out to be Vega 64 on 7nm, I would be perfectly happy with it. That's assuming that, by moving to 7nm, it brings improved TDP.

Personally speaking, the reason why I went with a Vega 56 over a Vega 64 was entirely due to the significantly lower TDP.

The info on that page is based on speculations/rumors and has since been removed.
[doublepost=1553191132][/doublepost]On the iMac Pro page it says the memory bandwidth is 512GB/s. That’s half Vega 20. So they just clocked the Vega 64 higher. Must have got a supply of higher binned chips.

 

[Pentaxer]

It's my turn to tell the story.

1. Bought Reference Vega 56.

2. Got fun issue - flashed Sapphire Nitro+ firmware. The issue has gone.

3. Used dual 6 pins + cable from SATA. Got a lot of bugs: no video signal periodically, reboot after start of FurMark. But games ran good. I was surprised, because that power solution drove 7970 (TDP 250W), Vega 56 has <200 TDP.
Made the mode: additional 8 pin connector direct from PSU PCB. The bugs have gone.

4. The card requires dual 8 pins connector. It doesn’t start with 8 + 6 solution.

5. In my favourite game - World of Warships - Vega 56 is 2-3x faster than 7970 in 2560x1600, makes less noise.

 

[Rolotomasi0212]

Hi all,
I own a 5.1 MacPro with a RX Vega 64 GPU connected to a BenQ video-projector ... through an Onkyo HDMI home cinema amp.

The issue I'm having is that my system crashes and reboots as soon as I turn on the projector.

Things I've done to isolate the problem :

- Bypassing the Onkyo amp and plugging the projector directly : no crash

- Using another display instead of the projector : crash

- Using a friend's RX Vega 56 GPU in case mine was defective : still crash

- Using a RX 580 GPU : no crash

- Clean reinstall of Mojave or high sierra : no crash during the installation process but the problem is back when at the welcome screen after install is complete.

- Boot from windows 10 partition : no crash

Looks like an issue between my amp, the RX Vega chip and the Rx Vega macOS drivers. I tried to tweak the applewindowserver.plist file with alternative resolutions or refresh rates : still the same problem.

Again, what is weird is that during the mojave or high sierra installation, it works. Maybe the RX vega drivers from the installer differ from the ones that are installed afterwards ?

Anyway any suggestion is welcome.

Regards,

Will

 

[Pressure]

Hi all,
I own a 5.1 MacPro with a RX Vega 64 GPU connected to a BenQ video-projector ... through an Onkyo HDMI home cinema amp.

The issue I'm having is that my system crashes and reboots as soon as I turn on the projector.

Things I've done to isolate the problem :

- Bypassing the Onkyo amp and plugging the projector directly : no crash

- Using another display instead of the projector : crash

- Using a friend's RX Vega 56 GPU in case mine was defective : still crash

- Using a RX 580 GPU : no crash

- Clean reinstall of Mojave or high sierra : no crash during the installation process but the problem is back when at the welcome screen after install is complete.

- Boot from windows 10 partition : no crash

Looks like an issue between my amp, the RX Vega chip and the Rx Vega macOS drivers. I tried to tweak the applewindowserver.plist file with alternative resolutions or refresh rates : still the same problem.

Again, what is weird is that during the mojave or high sierra installation, it works. Maybe the RX vega drivers from the installer differ from the ones that are installed afterwards ?

Anyway any suggestion is welcome.

Regards,

Will

How is the graphic card powered?

 

[Rolotomasi0212]

How is the graphic card powered?

Through both connectors from the MP logic board, using 6 to 8 pins pciE auxiliary power cables.

 

[Pressure]

Through both connectors from the MP logic board, using 6 to 8 pins pciE auxiliary power cables.

That’s the cause. Those connectors are not able to provide enough power. You need to do the pixlas mod or use an external power supply.

 

[Rolotomasi0212]

That’s the cause. Those connectors are not able to provide enough power. You need to do the pixlas mod or use an external power supply.

Does going through an amp require more power than going straight to a display (or projector for that matter) ? Why does it work with the same machine running windows 10 then ?

 

[Reindeer_Games]

Does going through an amp require more power than going straight to a display (or projector for that matter) ? Why does it work with the same machine running windows 10 then ?

The power envelope for the reference Vega 64 is 295w. That's ~5w shy of the total PCIe power available and these AMD's pull harder on the aux power inputs than they do the slot power; slot power always peaks at 75w, boosters can vary by card design and manufacturers variations. I believe a dual 8 pin can peak up to 240w; dual 6 pins will easily shutdown not only at peak but potenentially even a power load of ~60% or more with a card that hungry, but maybe not a mild load. In my experience though, booting Windows is more likely to trigger a shutdown due to a peak at boot than macOS. Don't use a Vega off the booster's if you really love your machine, IMHO.

Get another PSU or provide your Vega more adequate power and your machine is gonna fly. It's at least your first step in troubleshooting.

 

[Rolotomasi0212]

So I'm just done testing with an external PSU :
Good news : No more brutal shutdowns of the entire system when running some games like RedOut in 4K and using Turbo mode in wattman settings, no I know why they happened.
Bad news : still no luck on macOS when trying to use my Onkyo amp and enabling HDMI passthrough, I get a crash / reboot every single time.
Guess you guys solved one of my issues with the power enveloppe, I've done some testing using the "powersave" mode in the wattman settings and I can run this way with 90% of the tubo mode perfs without the need of external PSU.
If you have any other explanations on why this issue with the onkyo + HDMI still occurs...
Thanks

 

[MisterAndrew]

So I'm just done testing with an external PSU :
Good news : No more brutal shutdowns of the entire system when running some games like RedOut in 4K and using Turbo mode in wattman settings, no I know why they happened.
Bad news : still no luck on macOS when trying to use my Onkyo amp and enabling HDMI passthrough, I get a crash / reboot every single time.
Guess you guys solved one of my issues with the power enveloppe, I've done some testing using the "powersave" mode in the wattman settings and I can run this way with 90% of the tubo mode perfs without the need of external PSU.
If you have any other explanations on why this issue with the onkyo + HDMI still occurs...
Thanks

I don't have an answer, but I'm not able to pass the HDMI signal through a Sony receiver I have here either.

 

[MisterAndrew]

Here's what I've noticed so far with the 10.14.4 update:
-HDMI audio driver installed for RX Vega. Others will need to confirm for Polaris.
-No Vega 20 (Radeon VII) accelerator driver in build 18E226 or build 18E2034 (Looks like this is solid evidence the Pro Vega 64X is not Vega 20.)
-New Vega 10 device ID 0x686F (Present in the accelerator driver, but missing in the primary display driver. Very odd.)

 

[itdk92]

Here's what I've noticed so far with the 10.14.4 update:
-HDMI audio driver installed for RX Vega. Others will need to confirm for Polaris.
-No Vega 20 (Radeon VII) accelerator driver in build 18E226 or build 18E2034 (Looks like this is solid evidence the Pro Vega 64X is not Vega 20.)
-New Vega 10 device ID 0x686F (Present in the accelerator driver, but missing in the primary display driver. Very odd.)

I also think 64X is not Vega20, but this is not necessarily proof.

iMac Pro with VEGA 64X ships in 3-4 weeks here in Europe, and at that point we might get a smaller update with the driver for that and Radeon VII

 

[Pressure]

I also think 64X is not Vega20, but this is not necessarily proof.

iMac Pro with VEGA 64X ships in 3-4 weeks here in Europe, and at that point we might get a smaller update with the driver for that and Radeon VII

VEGA20 has four stacks of HBM for 1TB/s memory bandwidth. The advertised speed for the iMac Pro is still only half = VEGA10.

 

[MisterAndrew]

Yeah, and Apple typically only releases drivers in major macOS updates and we won’t see the final 10.14.5 before the 64X iMac Pro ships. It’s possible we won’t see a Vega 20 driver in Mojave at all. If Apple is reserving it for the new Mac Pro then we can expect it in the 10.15 beta in June.

 

[MisterAndrew]

Here's the RX Vega 56 Mobile bios (from the Acer laptop). It may be worth a try for those wanting to run an RX Vega card without doing any power mods since it's 120 W. It appears to only support Hynix memory so make sure your card's memory is Hynix before attempting a flash. It says 115 °C limit for the VRM so probably want to avoid flashing it to a Nano PCB.

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/204880/acer-vega56mobile-8192-180905
[doublepost=1553716440][/doublepost]A 2019 iMac user here has shared with us the Device ID for the Radeon Pro Vega 48, which is 0x6869. I was correct that it was a custom Apple GPU. I've updated the first post with this information.

 

[MisterAndrew]

Great news for Radeon VII owners! macOS 10.14.5 beta includes Vega 20 accelerator driver support!
[doublepost=1553723015][/doublepost]I'm anxious to know how the fans behave on the Radeon VII in macOS and how audible they are at idle. Also, let's see those benchmarks!

 

[MisterAndrew]

I attempted to run LuxMark with the RX Vega 56 on 10.14.5 beta and the display went black and the Mac froze up. I had to do a force shutdown. Anyone else experiencing problems?

 

[Pavo]

I attempted to run LuxMark with the RX Vega 56 on 10.14.5 beta and the display went black and the Mac froze up. I had to do a force shutdown. Anyone else experiencing problems?

Nope, Vega 64 here and got 29995 score

 

[MisterAndrew]

Maybe there's something wrong with my card. I just tried a benchmark in 10.14.4 and it also crashed the system. I'll see if it does that in Windows too. Update: Yep. It's crashing in Windows too. I guess I'll have to RMA it.

 

[Pval]

10.14.5 beta fixes fan speed issue, for the Vega 64 LC at least. I've been fixing this in the PPT, which get's overwritten with each OSX update.
Fans spin up under load as temperature rises, fans spin down slowly with temp dropping, fan is now quieter than the case fans when idle.

Vega 64 here and got 29995 score

Initial score : 31071 on a Vega 64 LC
- disabling powercontainment does nothing, exactly the same score (31072), more or less the same score I've been seeing for weeks with powercontainment disabled.
Undervolted score : 35542 (1800Mhz @ 925mV)

 

[AlexMaximus]

That’s really great news! Since Pval states that the new MacOS 10.14.5 has an impact on his vega64 liquid cooled model, is anybody outthere that would try it on a regular cooled vega64 model?

Maybe a flash with the sec. Nitro bios will not be necessary in the future?

 

[Thysanoptera]

Vega FE here on 5.1 with 141 boot rom. In 10.14.5 the fan is alive, sort of. Before it was locked at 40% (2000 rpm) all the time, now it moves between 14% (700 rpm) and 40% depending on load. Spins up and down correctly, but never goes above 40%, thus the temps are over 80C when running Luxmark (~27000 score, doesn't matter what position the bios switch is, 1450 MHz clock on both). This is on bone stock fresh Mojave install, no modifications to power tables.

When running Luxmark multiple consecutive times it starts thermal throttling around 85C , clock drops to ~1400 MHz on average, score stabilizes at 26000. Fan still doesn't go above 40%.

Overall I like it, for some reason I couldn't get the power tables working in Mojave, so was stuck in HS. Now it is working out of the box, won't break any world records though due to limited fan speed and clock speed but good enough for me.

EDIT: HDMI audio is working also!

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

Feeling that Mac Pro with Radeon Pro Vega VII is coming.

 

[MisterAndrew]

I think so too. Perhaps as soon as WWDC. I think there’ll be a couple of GPU options for the new Mac Pro. Probably 16GB and 32GB Pro versions of the Radeon VII and maybe a lower spec Vega 10 option for the base configuration. It’s hard to say what they will call the Vega 20 options. If they called them Radeon Pro Vega 60 that would give the impression that they’re below the older Vega 64, so perhaps they’ll simply be Radeon Pro VII, or maybe they’ll use the WX branding (e.g. Radeon Pro WX 9200). The latter would be more likely if they used standard PC cards.