MP 1,1-5,1 AMD Radeon RX 5700

[Emen Mali]

Just finished the Pixlas Mod. I have a PowerColor Red Dragon RX 5700xt, that I want to use with it, but only get a black screen. The card is working since I had it in a egpu working with my Macbook Pro. I initially bought it for the Mac Pro 5,1. I had to switch back to my RX580 Nitro+. The. only reason I want the 5700xt in there is because I need that slot that the rx580 currently blocks.

Is there something that has to be done for the 5700xt to be seen? Currently using Mojave, since I screwed up my Opencore Big Sur. Just realized... is that the reason I'm unable to use the 5700xt because its booting up in Mojave?

 

[flowrider]

^^^^The RX5700 requires Catalina 10.15.1 or later!

Lou

 

[Stex]

I upgraded from a RX 580 to a new RX 5700 two days ago. I thought to share my experience so far here in this thread, so that forum members/readers who are considering this upgrade have some additional data points.

As per my signature -- I have a 4,1>5,1 with dual X5680 and 96GB of RAM. I'm running macOS 12.0.1 from one NMVe blade and Windows 11 from another separate NMVe blade, both on the same dual NMVe PCIe card.

The Radeon RX 5700 (not the XT, just the reference card) was immediately recognized by macOS 12.0.1. Overall, macOS performs equally well as with the RX 580. The only thing missing in macOS 12.0.1 is the reading for the GPU temperature data. I use iStat Menus and it does not show the RX 5700 temperature info, whereas it did show the RX 580 temperature info.

These are some synthetic benchmark (Geekbench 5) comparisons for my system with the RX 580 and RX 5700 running macOS 12.0.1:

GPU	OpenCL	Metal
RX 580	46,760	52,247
RX 5700	58,034	62,539

The only problem I encountered on macOS 12.0.1 were unexpected random system restarts after I enabled the RadeonBoost Kext via OpenCore 0.7.4. Once I disabled RadeonBoost those random restarts stopped happening. I am not sure, but it seems to be an issue with that specific Kext. I benchmarked (Geekbench 5) the RX 5700 with both RadeonBoost enabled and disabled, but the results were pretty much the same as those listed in the table above. Apparently, there seems to be no obvious benefit enabling it. But I wil need to do some more research on this.

The RX 5700 also works properly under Windows 11 on my cMP. I had to update the GPU drivers via AMD software with a subsequent restart for them to load, as expected. On Windows 11, I tested the system performance with two GPU intensive video games. I monitored the RX 5700 temperature and watt usage while playing each game for about 1 hour. I set the games resolution to 1080p and graphics settings for both games to the very max, not really aiming to make them playable but to stress the system. To my surprise, they were both playable enough at the highest possible settings. Here's some data on this test:

GAME	Average FPS	Peak Watt Reading	Peak Temperature Reading
Cyberpunk 2077	45	130	80C
Red Death Redemption 2	55	130	80C

If anything changes in the next weeks, I will update this post. But so far, it seems to be a successful upgrade. I wish I could monitor the GPU temperature in macOS. I will contact iStat Menus dev team and inquire if adding this reading is something feasible for future updates of their software.


EDIT on Dec 30, 2021: After 1 month from my original post above, I can report that the RX 5700 has worked flawlessly on my cMP now running macOS 12.1. Only thing that seems to be different is a brief "power gap" during cold boots. With the RX 580 my monitors were always powered continuously during startups whereas with the RX 5700 all connected monitors loose power for about 3-5 seconds and then come back, even though the startup process itself is uninterrumpted. Other than that, nothing changed as far as everyday usage/performance. My OpenCore config spoofs with the iMacPro model (I use Martin's package mostly unchanged, only difference is SIP enabled). I will try spoofing with the MP 7,1 model to see if that fixes the brief monitor power loss, even though I am not sure spoofing is the culprit.

EDIT on Apr 21, 2022: Added the omitted 1080p game resolution specification to the original post above. Also as an update, RX5700 has worked flawlessly since the date of the original post above. My cMP is now running the most recent macOS 12.3.1.

 

[avro707]

Excellent! What power connections did you use? I remember you were saying about Pixlas mod.

On my other Mac I'm only really using Zwift for about 2 hours at a time (because the Apple TV version of Zwift has many bugs). Sounds like a good upgrade if I need it.

 

[Stex]

Excellent! What power connections did you use?

6-pin to 8-pin + 6-pin to 6-pin to the backplane, the same cables I used in the past for my Radeon 7970.

 

[prefuse07]

@Stex thank you for this! I hope someone (*cough*macvidcards*cough*) finds a way to hack the 6K series Navi2xx cards, because I really want to throw an RX-6600XT into this bad boy. I just got a 4K Dell monitor, and I really want to take advantage (though I am hearing that my RX-580 will play 4K movies?) heading to youtube now to see...

Anyway, thanks again for keeping us posted man, cheers!

 

[avro707]

@Stex thank you for this! I hope someone (*cough*macvidcards*cough*) finds a way to hack the 6K series Navi2xx cards, because I really want to throw an RX-6600XT into this bad boy. I just got a 4K Dell monitor, and I really want to take advantage (though I am hearing that my RX-580 will play 4K movies?) heading to youtube now to see...

Anyway, thanks again for keeping us posted man, cheers!

I watch 4K stuff on Youtube all the time with the RX580 (eg, like Autogefuhl). I've got a LG Ultrafine 5K screen connected to my Thunderbolt card and it is running at 5120x2880. It's fine. Second screen is the old Apple LED Cinema Display 27"

I think the newer Navi series cards won't work because they are totally incompatible with our old 5,1 Mac Pros. Makes it all the worse given the older cards are now rare and all the good ones are snapped up by the crypto-mining people.

I wouldn't mind a 5700XT or 5700.

 

[prefuse07]

I watch 4K stuff on Youtube all the time with the RX580 (eg, like Autogefuhl). I've got a LG Ultrafine 5K screen connected to my Thunderbolt card and it is running at 5120x2880. It's fine. Second screen is the old Apple LED Cinema Display 27"

I think the newer Navi series cards won't work because they are totally incompatible with our old 5,1 Mac Pros. Makes it all the worse given the older cards are now rare and all the good ones are snapped up by the crypto-mining people.

I wouldn't mind a 5700XT or 5700.

It's because Navi2xx has an updated AVX instruction set, and the cMP hardware cannot read it, thus the cpu doesn't know what to do, and it won't even boot/recognize the card.... However, the big navi cards DO have legacy BIOS built in, so if someone can hack the EFI rom, as macvidcards have done in the past to flash a boot screen (for example), they may be able to get it to work on our machines!

At this point it's just a matter of time/waiting. I am really hoping that it's possible, because Radeon VII's are nonexistent in the marketplace (sucks), and that was supposed to be the holy grail card for our cMPs...

Also curious to see what Intel Arc is going to be all about.

I shoul've clarified -- I meant 4K gaming

BTW -- how are you liking 12.1 beta 2? Were you on BigSur 11.6.1? I installed it onto a spare HDD, but it was running like absolute crap, and I couldn't figure out why.

 

[bsbeamer]

BTW -- how are you liking 12.1 beta 2? Were you on BigSur 11.6.1? I installed it onto a spare HDD, but it was running like absolute crap, and I couldn't figure out why.

HDD or SDD? Friend of mine tried on a spare HDD and said it was an awful experience, speculated that the OS basically needs to be on an SDD moving forward.

 

[tsialex]

It's because Navi2xx has an updated AVX instruction set (AVX2), and the cMP hardware cannot read it, thus the cpu doesn't know what to do, and it won't even boot/recognize the card.... However, the big navi cards DO have legacy BIOS built in, so if someone can hack the EFI rom, as macvidcards have done in the past to flash a boot screen (for example), they may be able to get it to work on our machines!

If that was the case, using it via eGPU would work and more than one person tested this already.

No one got a Xeon earlier than IvyBridge working with a NAVI2x, Mac or Hackintosh, PCIe or eGPU.

 

[prefuse07]

HDD or SDD? Friend of mine tried on a spare HDD and said it was an awful experience, speculated that the OS basically needs to be on an SDD moving forward.

ah! that makes sense... Yeah it's just a spare 120gb Toshiba HDD

 

[prefuse07]

If that was the case, using it via eGPU would work and that's not the case. No one got a Xeon earlier than IvyBridge working with a NAVI2x, Mac or Hackintosh, PCIe or eGPU.

I stand corrected -- so the only (final) options for GPU that we have are: Vega 56, 64, RX-5700XT and Radeon VII, correct? (nothing beyond those at this point)

 

[tsialex]

I stand corrected -- so the only (final) options for GPU that we have are: Vega 56, 64, RX-5700XT and Radeon VII, correct? (nothing beyond those at this point)

All the supported NAVI 1x models and all the VEGA GPUs (there are several more supported than the models you wrote, like Vega 48, Radeon RX Vega FE also the Instinct and Pro lines, but those cards are even more expensive).

 

[prefuse07]

All the supported NAVI 1x models and all the VEGA GPUs (there are several more supported than the models you wrote, like Vega 48, Radeon RX Vega FE also the Instinct and Pro lines, but those cards are even more expensive).

And just to clarify this once and for all, no Nvidia cards after Kepler, right? (unless I want to be in High Sierra? I think Pascal works with HS?)

 

[tsialex]

And just to clarify this once and for all, no Nvidia cards after Kepler, right? (unless I want to be in High Sierra? I think Pascal works with HS?)

NVIDIA webdrivers and CUDA work with Kepler, Maxwell and Pascal up to High Sierra.

Apple NVIDIA Kepler drivers works natively up to Big Sur (hacking Monterey works, but it's a hassle at every update), no CUDA.

 

[prefuse07]

NVIDIA webdrivers and CUDA work with Kepler, Maxwell and Pascal up to High Sierra.

Apple NVIDIA Kepler drivers works natively up to Big Sur (hacking Monterey works, but it's a hassle at every update), no CUDA.

Thank you!

 

[MarkC426]

I think the newer Navi series cards won't work because they are totally incompatible with our old 5,1 Mac Pros. Makes it all the worse given the older cards are now rare and all the good ones are snapped up by the crypto-mining people.

Considering these machines are 10+ years old now, I think we have done very well, with the current options.

 

[jameslmoser]

Considering these machines are 10+ years old now, I think we have done very well, with the current options.

Bought my 4,1 when it first came out in 2009. I can't believe I'm still using it. =)

 

[prefuse07]

@tsialex What are your thoughts on this video? (This is where I got most of my ideas for my comments above)

Specifically what Petri Krohn recommends about preventing the GOP EFI code from running and booting with the legacy BIOS only, which includes instructions for 128-bit XMM registers, which can be read by SSE4.2?

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="

" </iframe>

 

[tsialex]

@tsialex What are your thoughts on this video? (This is where I got most of my ideas for my comments above)

Specifically what Petri Krohn recommends about preventing the GOP EFI code from running and booting with the legacy BIOS only, which includes instructions for 128-bit XMM registers, which can be read by SSE4.2?

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="

" </iframe>

Just wrong.

No one knows the real issue yet, at least now we know that via eGPU don't make it work, could be PCIe v3.0 Atomics/Read-Write-Transactions like the Instinct line requires, could be something else.

 

[Emen Mali]

I upgraded from a RX 580 to a new RX 5700 two days ago. I thought to share my experience so far here in this thread, so that forum members/readers who are considering this upgrade have some additional data points.

As per my signature -- I have a 4,1>5,1 with dual X5680 and 96GB of RAM. I'm running macOS 12.0.1 from one NMVe blade and Windows 11 from another separate NMVe blade, both on the same dual NMVe PCIe card.

The Radeon RX 5700 (not the XT, just the reference card) was immediately recognized by macOS 12.0.1. Overall, macOS performs equally well as with the RX 580. The only thing missing in macOS 12.0.1 is the reading for the GPU temperature data. I use iStat Menus and it does not show the RX 5700 temperature info, whereas it did show the RX 580 temperature info.

These are some synthetic benchmark (Geekbench 5) comparisons for my system with the RX 580 and RX 5700 running macOS 12.0.1:

GPU	OpenCL	Metal
RX 580	46,760	52,247
RX 5700	58,034	62,539

The only problem I encountered on macOS 12.0.1 were unexpected random system restarts after I enabled the RadeonBoost Kext via OpenCore 0.7.4. Once I disabled RadeonBoost those random restarts stopped happening. I am not sure, but it seems to be an issue with that specific Kext. I benchmarked (Geekbench 5) the RX 5700 with both RadeonBoost enabled and disabled, but the results were pretty much the same as those listed in the table above. Apparently, there seems to be no obvious benefit enabling it. But I wil need to do some more research on this.

The RX 5700 also works properly under Windows 11 on my cMP. I had to update the GPU drivers via AMD software with a subsequent restart for them to load, as expected. On Windows 11, I tested the system performance with two GPU intensive video games. I monitored the RX 5700 temperature and watt usage while playing each game for about 1 hour. I set the graphics quality for both games to the very max, not really aiming to make them playable but to stress the system. To my surprise, they were both playable enough at the highest possible settings. Here's some data on this test:

GAME	Average FPS	Peak Watt Reading	Peak Temperature Reading
Cyberpunk 2077	45	130	80C
Red Redemption 2	55	130	80C

If anything changes in the next weeks, I will update this post. But so far, it seems to be a successful upgrade. I wish I could monitor the GPU temperature in macOS. I will contact iStat Menus dev team and inquire if adding this reading is something feasible for future updates of their software.

View attachment 1921092

Since you mentioned you upgraded to 96gb of RAM, anything special you did to get the Mac Pro to recognize the 96gb? Or just a still boot? I'm using OCLP vs the Martin Lo and only 80gb was recognized when I removed the "missing" dimm the machine would get stuck on the boot process.

 

[Emen Mali]

Bought my 4,1 when it first came out in 2009. I can't believe I'm still using it. =)

Same here, with Pixlas mod (5700xt) and Monterey, its with me for at least 2-3 years.

 

[Stex]

Since you mentioned you upgraded to 96gb of RAM, anything special you did to get the Mac Pro to recognize the 96gb? Or just a still boot? I'm using OCLP vs the Martin Lo and only 80gb was recognized when I removed the "missing" dimm the machine would get stuck on the boot process.

I did not do anything special, I just installed the RAM and it worked right away. I used to have 8 16GB DIMM installed for a total of 128GB RAM, but I removed 2 of them recently mainly to test my new GPU with the suggested optimal 6 DIMMS, and only for the synthetic benchmarks since in everyday use I don't really see a difference between 96Gb and 128GB. FYI, multiple users have been able to install 256GB of RAM in our cMPs. There is a thread in this sub-forum dedicated to that effort.

EDIT: FYI I use Martin's OpenCore package, and the 256GB RAM sub-forum thread I referenced above was initiated by Martin, if I am not mistaken... if I find it will add the link here.

EDIT 2: Here's the link to the 256GB RAM thread, OP is not Martin although he was/is very active in the thread discussion.

 

[avro707]

Since you mentioned you upgraded to 96gb of RAM, anything special you did to get the Mac Pro to recognize the 96gb? Or just a still boot? I'm using OCLP vs the Martin Lo and only 80gb was recognized when I removed the "missing" dimm the machine would get stuck on the boot process.

All the ram must be of the same type, all registered or all non-registered, not a mix of both. The Mac won't even start with a mixture.

I just did the upgrade to the latest firmware 144 whatever it is then I was able to have 8x16GB. I can take two of them out and it will still work. Taking two out was one from each bank.

I use Martin Lo 0.7.5 opencore package and this recognises 128GB without problem. I've also used just 4x16, two in each bank, that works.

 

[prefuse07]

Any RX-5700XT owners getting black screen and kernel panics (on macOS)?

Mine started doing the above in both macOS as well as Windows (I can't even boot into Windows because after the Windows logo, it just goes completely black), on macOS I get a black screen randomly, followed by the watchdogd 120 seconds kernel panic and then the system reboots with the "your system reset because of a problem" message when I come back into macOS from the OC boot picker.

Since i've swapped my trusty old RX-580 back in, i've not had any issues, and have been able to get into both OS' without any issues. *sigh*