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

Is the RX 5500 XT REALLY better performance than an RX 580 on macOS? Maybe on paper it has matching or better specs. Going with the RX 5700 XT as a real world example, it is absolutely not better than RX 580 for METAL.

RX 580 in Mojave is 15-20% better than RX 5700 XT in Catalina in METAL benchmarks.
RX 580 in Mojave is ~33% faster than RX 5700 XT in Catalina in real world application tests for METAL performance.

Maybe when the W5700X is available drivers will improve? As of right now, would not suggest anyone wastes money on an RX 5700 XT or even looks at an RX 5500 XT. Pickup an RX 580 if you're in the market for a GPU. Can get the Sapphire Pulse RX 580 8GB under $175 on sale.
 
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I agree RX 580 is the best GPU for a cMP (without pixlas mod), and of course officially supported. However, given the choice between it and the RX 5500 XT for Catalina supported Macs I would be more inclined to go for the newer GPU. Drivers will probably improve. Apple definitely has an incentive to improve Navi Metal performance if they're offering the W5700X as an improvement over the Pro 580X.
 
Gosh I'm stuck after upgrading to Mojave with a 7850 (2gb of RAM) it works fine apart form 1 or 2 apps that push its Processor & memory to the max, an RX 580 8GB is £159 surely it's better to buy the newer card? I see the PowerColor Radeon RX 5500 XT Red Dragon 8GB for £179 then again I see the RX590 on sale for £149 at overclockers.
Not sure what wattage they all take though. But I see from a PC gaming chart the 5500 is very low wattage - https://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/powercolor-radeon-5500-xt-red-dragon-8gb-review,6.html
Any advice what to get?
 
MisterAndrew said:
I agree RX 580 is the best GPU for a cMP (without pixlas mod), and of course officially supported. However, given the choice between it and the RX 5500 XT for Catalina supported Macs I would be more inclined to go for the newer GPU. Drivers will probably improve. Apple definitely has an incentive to improve Navi Metal performance if they're offering the W5700X as an improvement over the Pro 580X.
Click to expand...

The 5500M in MBP16,1 is good but not great with METAL performance. Unsure if they're basically the same driver as RX 5500 XT. Was really hoping 10.15.2 would address some of the major issues I have with performance, but seems like I'll have to wait until January or February/March for another update or two.
 
Boomish69 said:
Gosh I'm stuck after upgrading to Mojave with a 7850 (2gb of RAM) it works fine apart form 1 or 2 apps that push its Processor & memory to the max, an RX 580 8GB is £159 surely it's better to buy the newer card? I see the PowerColor Radeon RX 5500 XT Red Dragon 8GB for £179 then again I see the RX590 on sale for £149 at overclockers.
Not sure what wattage they all take though. But I see from a PC gaming chart the 5500 is very low wattage - https://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/powercolor-radeon-5500-xt-red-dragon-8gb-review,6.html
Any advice what to get?
Click to expand...

5500 won't work in Mojave
 
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bsbeamer said:
Is the RX 5500 XT REALLY better performance than an RX 580 on macOS? Maybe on paper it has matching or better specs. Going with the RX 5700 XT as a real world example, it is absolutely not better than RX 580 for METAL.

RX 580 in Mojave is 15-20% better than RX 5700 XT in Catalina in METAL benchmarks.
RX 580 in Mojave is ~33% faster than RX 5700 XT in Catalina in real world application tests for METAL performance.

Maybe when the W5700X is available drivers will improve? As of right now, would not suggest anyone wastes money on an RX 5700 XT or even looks at an RX 5500 XT. Pickup an RX 580 if you're in the market for a GPU. Can get the Sapphire Pulse RX 580 8GB under $175 on sale.
Click to expand...
In essence, RX 5500 XT is worst GPU launch of this generation, of GPUs. Worse than RTX, worse than Navi 10, worse than GTX 1660.

And it is destroyed by one and only one thing. Price to performance ratio.

RX 580 is the same performance, and can be bought for less money, than RX 5500 XT, so the only thing you get from Navi 14 GPU - is less power draw. But not better value.
 
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Boomish69 said:
Gosh I'm stuck after upgrading to Mojave with a 7850 (2gb of RAM) it works fine apart form 1 or 2 apps that push its Processor & memory to the max, an RX 580 8GB is £159 surely it's better to buy the newer card? I see the PowerColor Radeon RX 5500 XT Red Dragon 8GB for £179 then again I see the RX590 on sale for £149 at overclockers.
Not sure what wattage they all take though. But I see from a PC gaming chart the 5500 is very low wattage - https://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/powercolor-radeon-5500-xt-red-dragon-8gb-review,6.html
Any advice what to get?
Click to expand...
I'm running a 590 in Mojave just fine. It's a tad more expensive then a 580, but also offers a tad more performance, so it's a wash really. Powered internally using dual mini-6pin to a single 8pin connector, no issues. Specifically PowerColor RED Dragon Radeon RX590 8GB.
 
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bsbeamer said:
Is the RX 5500 XT REALLY better performance than an RX 580 on macOS? Maybe on paper it has matching or better specs. Going with the RX 5700 XT as a real world example, it is absolutely not better than RX 580 for METAL.

RX 580 in Mojave is 15-20% better than RX 5700 XT in Catalina in METAL benchmarks.
RX 580 in Mojave is ~33% faster than RX 5700 XT in Catalina in real world application tests for METAL performance.

Maybe when the W5700X is available drivers will improve? As of right now, would not suggest anyone wastes money on an RX 5700 XT or even looks at an RX 5500 XT. Pickup an RX 580 if you're in the market for a GPU. Can get the Sapphire Pulse RX 580 8GB under $175 on sale.
Click to expand...

All our customers are surprised about the RX 5700 XT performance in our Mac Pro, because I told them it was not much better than a 580, but it actually seem to be, in real life scenarios, at least.
 
I've just bought a used Radeon VII for cheap and want to install in my 2010 Mac Pro currently with 10.13.6 and NVidia Titan Xp.

Can I just take out the Xp and put in the VII and run 10.13.6 or do I need to update to 10.14.x before installing?
 
bitnaut said:
I've just bought a used Radeon VII for cheap and want to install in my 2010 Mac Pro currently with 10.13.6 and NVidia Titan Xp.

Can I just take out the Xp and put in the VII and run 10.13.6 or do I need to update to 10.14.x before installing?
Click to expand...

PSU mod required, 10.14.6 required.
 
Already have the PSU mod for the Titan Xp.

So do I install 10.14.6 blind with the Xp installed, power down, and then install VII?
 
bitnaut said:
Already have the PSU mod for the Titan Xp.

So do I install 10.14.6 blind with the Xp installed, power down, and then install VII?
Click to expand...
You will need a supported GPU to do the firmware upgrades needed and Mojave install, Titan XP will not work since it's unsupported by Mojave.

You can always test if your new VII card can upgrade the firmware like the Polaris and VEGA cards can. Read more about: MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)
 
bitnaut said:
Hmmm...if VII doesn't work for firmware upgrades, then I'm hooped. I'd have to find an RX something in order to do the upgrade and then I would install the VII. Damn
Click to expand...
VII support came late in the game, but maybe it can work. You need to start from MP51.0089.B00 and 10.13.6. If you have an earlier BootROM version, you need to install your Apple OEM GPU and upgrade to it.
 
tsialex said:
VII support came late in the game, but maybe it can work. You need to start from MP51.0089.B00 and 10.13.6. If you have an earlier BootROM version, you need to install your Apple OEM GPU and upgrade to it.
Click to expand...

Ok I'll give it a try.
 
Would suggest anyone wanting to keep their MP5,1's (or MP4,1>MP5,1's) going for the next several years pickup an Apple recommended GPU while they are still being sold. At least one on the Apple list can be purchased brand new for under $100 right now and many of the others are well under $200. Newer generation GPUs will require Catalina 10.15.2 or newer for driver functionality.

Install macOS 10.14 Mojave on Mac Pro (Mid 2010) and Mac Pro (Mid 2012) - Apple Support

Learn how to prepare your Mac Pro (Mid 2010) or Mac Pro (Mid 2012) for macOS Mojave.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
 
Not sure if this is off topic for this thread... but a question about the Vega II vs VII.

Many people have said these two cards should perform very similarly since they have the same processor. I'm getting ready to place my order for a MP7,1, and I had came to the conclusion that it makes a lot more sense to buy it with the base 580x, and then add a VII (or 2).

I just checked the GB5 Metal benchmark chart, and there is a big difference between the two cards:
AMD Radeon Pro Vega II: 84,705
AMD Radeon VII: 49,373

I don't have experience comparing benchmarks like this. So to me, it looks like a single Vega II could nearly perform the same as 2x VIIs (taking the efficiency drop of 2x GPUs into consideration).

This decision is driving me nuts. To the point I'm basically losing sleep over it, because just when I think I have my mind made up, I read something that sends me in the other direction again. I plan to keep this machine for 6-10 years, and would like the GPU(s) I start with to not even be a concern for the first ~half of that time. My primary use case is 4K video edit, sometimes with heavy grading and effects. It seems Premiere is improving a lot on utilizing multiple GPUs, and I'll likely start using Davinci Resolve more over time.

Any advice interpreting this information is greatly appreciated.
 
Z28McCrory said:
Not sure if this is off topic for this thread... but a question about the Vega II vs VII.

Many people have said these two cards should perform very similarly since they have the same processor. I'm getting ready to place my order for a MP7,1, and I had came to the conclusion that it makes a lot more sense to buy it with the base 580x, and then add a VII (or 2).

I just checked the GB5 Metal benchmark chart, and there is a big difference between the two cards:
AMD Radeon Pro Vega II: 84,705
AMD Radeon VII: 49,373

I don't have experience comparing benchmarks like this. So to me, it looks like a single Vega II could nearly perform the same as 2x VIIs (taking the efficiency drop of 2x GPUs into consideration).

This decision is driving me nuts. To the point I'm basically losing sleep over it, because just when I think I have my mind made up, I read something that sends me in the other direction again. I plan to keep this machine for 6-10 years, and would like the GPU(s) I start with to not even be a concern for the first ~half of that time. My primary use case is 4K video edit, sometimes with heavy grading and effects. It seems Premiere is improving a lot on utilizing multiple GPUs, and I'll likely start using Davinci Resolve more over time.

Any advice interpreting this information is greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...


I just posted a new thread asking something that might affect you decision...... currently with the old 5.1 Mac Pro you will not have boot screen if you use a non Apple GPU, so is this the same case with the 7.1 ? if you buy an aftermarket VII you might have to keep the original 580 in the computer to have boot screen. This might not be so bad as you can set FCPX to use a specific GPU for Compute/Render, not sure how resolve/premier work in this situation.

Perhaps someone can enlighten us ???
 
krakman said:
I just posted a new thread asking something that might affect you decision...... currently with the old 5.1 Mac Pro you will not have boot screen if you use a non Apple GPU, so is this the same case with the 7.1 ? if you buy an aftermarket VII you might have to keep the original 580 in the computer to have boot screen. This might not be so bad as you can set FCPX to use a specific GPU for Compute/Render, not sure how resolve/premier work in this situation.

Perhaps someone can enlighten us ???
Click to expand...

Dang... this is the first I've heard of a potential issue like that.

*continues to bang head against desk*
 
See this thread for WHY MP5,1 and earlier do not "see" boot screens:
forums.macrumors.com

MP5,1: Boot screens/UGA/GOP/HEVC GPU support and GPU SMC problems discussion

Let's talk about Mac Pro 5,1 boot screens/UGA/GOP/HEVC GPU support and SMC issues with current GPUs here. We can talk about this without cluttering the BootROM thread. It's a wiki post, let's use this first post to summarise things.
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com

Has anyone confirmed MP7,1's boot is UEFI or something else?
[automerge]1576704103[/automerge]
Appears there is a specific thread for MP7,1 boot screen now:
forums.macrumors.com

Boot screen on 7.1 with aftermarket GPU

I'm wondering..... Lets say you buy a 7.1 with a RX580 GPU and you remove that gpu and repalce it with a Vega 64 or a Radeon VII, will there be boot screens???? Presumably the boot rom on a 7.1 supports the latest protocols so we won't have missing boot screens like we do with the 5.1. Or is...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
 
Last edited:
tsialex said:
You will need a supported GPU to do the firmware upgrades needed and Mojave install, Titan XP will not work since it's unsupported by Mojave.

You can always test if your new VII card can upgrade the firmware like the Polaris and VEGA cards can. Read more about: MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)
Click to expand...

I think the firmware update can be done in HS.

I tested with my 1080Ti before. As long as web driver is loaded in HS. The system will recognise the 1080Ti as Metal supported card. And the Mojave installer can continue.

Since bootscreen isn’t a requirement anymore for firmware update. He may actually able to update the firmware with TitanXP.

The associated graphic card need to be Metal supported in HS (or the OS that currently running), not really Mojave.
 
h9826790 said:
I think the firmware update can be done in HS.

I tested with my 1080Ti before. As long as web driver is loaded in HS. The system will recognise the 1080Ti as Metal supported card. And the Mojave installer can continue.

Since bootscreen isn’t a requirement anymore for firmware update. He may actually able to update the firmware with TitanXP.

The associated graphic card need to be Metal supported in HS (or the OS that currently running), not really Mojave.
Click to expand...
If he already have MP51.0089.B00, Titan XP with the webdrivers running probably can work from 10.13.6, you are correct. If not, he needs to install an Apple OEM or a Mac EFI card to get to MP51.0089.B00 first.

Some NVIDIA cards don't work for this, I had problems with TITAN X and a non-reference eVGA 970, but it's worth to try before anything.
 
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