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AMD Radeon RX 580 works in macOS

Thanks for all advice past & present. Free patches for all my [new] friends!
I guarantee this will be my only spam. So, pls, Mods, don't ban me now....

MacPro2009.jpg
 
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MarkC426 said:
That is actually cool.....;)
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Thanks. Since my wife won't let me get it tattooed anywhere (after my "Aldus FreeHand Forever" forehead debacle), I had to resort to "embroidery."

Kudos to this guy for his recursive 'rithms:
https://creativemarket.com/designvillage/1543899-Embroidery-Photoshop-Action

This is the next Mac Golden Age for art directors & designers.
[doublepost=1554329485][/doublepost]...And with that, enough hijacking already.

I'll post downstream to report my RX580 installation success.
 
Thanks for all the great previous posts.

I've just installed a Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX580 8GB (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06ZZ6FMF8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) with the COMeap Dual Mini 6 Pin to 8 Pin cable, which seems sturdy enough, into my MacPro 5,1 (2 x 2.4 GHz Quad Core, 20 GB RAM, High Sierra 10.13.6). Current monitor is 23" Cinema Display.

Everything came up fine after the short boot delay. The only issue I'm having is that 4K video is having some serious lagging. A lot of the posts have mentioned the amazing performance of this GPU, but I'm not seeing it. I've played the videos (mp4s in h.264 and HEVC) both from a partition on the internal OS drive and from an external drive via USB 3. Is there something I'm missing in the settings needed?

Also, I haven't seen it mentioned here, but have tried the switch on the side in both default Gaming mode and Compute mode. Compute seems to work slightly better, but still has lagging/jittering.

Thanks very much!
 
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WoodFiredFilms said:
The only issue I'm having is that 4K video is having some serious lagging.
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What were you using previously that 4K video was playing more brilliantly and via what application(s) in High Sierra? Are you using ATY,AMD,RadeonFramebuffer or ATY,Orinoco natively? The MP5,1 should accelerate H264 varieties with some GPUs, but HEVC is (at least partially) processor limited on MP5,1. Whether that can be overcome is up for debate and exploration currently in some other threads.
 
bsbeamer said:
What were you using previously that 4K video was playing more brilliantly and via what application(s) in High Sierra? Are you using ATY,AMD,RadeonFramebuffer or ATY,Orinoco natively? The MP5,1 should accelerate H264 varieties with some GPUs, but HEVC is (at least partially) processor limited on MP5,1. Whether that can be overcome is up for debate and exploration currently in some other threads.
Click to expand...

I still couldn't find any evidence that H264 acceleration is available on cMP (macOS).
 
h9826790 said:
I still couldn't find any evidence that H264 acceleration is available on cMP (macOS).
Click to expand...

Across the board or with AMD/RX580 specifically?

April 2008 Press Release:
https://www.nvidia.com/object/io_1208339777927.html

"Compatible with any Intel-based Mac Pro, the GeForce 8800 GT includes NVIDIA’s video processing technology which offloads H.264 decode enabling silky smooth playback of high-definition video."

H264 decode acceleration is (at least supposed to be) present with NVIDIA GPUs dating back to 8800GT. This does not help anything with macOS Mojave, however. This report does nothing for HEVC or H264 encode. Do not expect full HEVC acceleration for encode on MP5,1 due to CPU. H264 is another story entirely and should be compatible.

VideoProc is what many on this forum are citing for testing this, but there is no confirmation the software can/would properly enable or if MP5,1 is actually compatible in any capacity (aside from CPU-based). The manufacturer does not respond to any inquiries.

Sorenson Squeeze was compatible with H264 acceleration for encode at one point, but the quality was garbage. Changes in Sierra (and later versions of El Cap) may have broke this since the older version of Squeeze was no longer supported on Mac. This MIGHT have something to do with OS changes due to Metal's first implementations, but I'm not 100% positive.
 
bsbeamer said:
Across the board or with AMD/RX580 specifically?

April 2008 Press Release:
https://www.nvidia.com/object/io_1208339777927.html

"Compatible with any Intel-based Mac Pro, the GeForce 8800 GT includes NVIDIA’s video processing technology which offloads H.264 decode enabling silky smooth playback of high-definition video."

H264 decode acceleration is (at least supposed to be) present with NVIDIA GPUs dating back to 8800GT. This does not help anything with macOS Mojave, however. This report does nothing for HEVC or H264 encode. Do not expect full HEVC acceleration for encode on MP5,1 due to CPU. H264 is another story entirely and should be compatible.

VideoProc is what many on this forum are citing for testing this, but there is no confirmation the software can/would properly enable or if MP5,1 is actually compatible in any capacity (aside from CPU-based). The manufacturer does not respond to any inquiries.

Sorenson Squeeze was compatible with H264 acceleration for encode at one point, but the quality was garbage. Changes in Sierra (and later versions of El Cap) may have broke this since the older version of Squeeze was no longer supported on Mac. This MIGHT have something to do with OS changes due to Metal's first implementations, but I'm not 100% positive.
Click to expand...

I simply check the CPU / GPU usage when playing some very high bitrate 4k H264 video. And I never ever see any usage that points to using GPU decoding on cMP yet (OSX / macOS).

But I never use 8800GT, and I never ever used any Nvidia GPU that has native macOS support. So, not sure about that. However, I contacted Nvidia and confirmed that web driver doesn't enable any GPU hardware encoding / decoding yet.
 
bsbeamer said:
What were you using previously that 4K video was playing more brilliantly and via what application(s) in High Sierra? Are you using ATY,AMD,RadeonFramebuffer or ATY,Orinoco natively? The MP5,1 should accelerate H264 varieties with some GPUs, but HEVC is (at least partially) processor limited on MP5,1. Whether that can be overcome is up for debate and exploration currently in some other threads.
Click to expand...

This replaced the ATI 5770, which wasn't playing so brilliantly either. The 580 is better, but was hoping it would play this really smoothly all the way through, if that's possible. This is just using QuickTime Player. I'm not sure about Framebuffer - still learning about that. I haven't changed anything from default.

Sounds like it may be a limitation of the MP5,1 then?
 
About This Mac > System Report > Hardware > PCI
Then select/highlight your GPU (usually in Slot 1)
First line under description will tell you either ATY,AMD,RadeonFramebuffer or ATY,Orinoco

Your CPUs and RAM are on the low end, especially for lots of 4K.
VLC may be worth looking at depending on your needs.
 
bsbeamer said:
About This Mac > System Report > Hardware > PCI
Then select/highlight your GPU (usually in Slot 1)
First line under description will tell you either ATY,AMD,RadeonFramebuffer or ATY,Orinoco

Your CPUs and RAM are on the low end, especially for lots of 4K.
VLC may be worth looking at depending on your needs.
Click to expand...

Thanks - it's ATY,Orinoco. I just tried with FCP 10.4.6, optimized media to ProRes 422 and playback at Better Quality Optimized/Original, and it looks great. Very smooth. VLC looks good as well. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll just use that instead of QT Player.
 
WoodFiredFilms said:
Thanks - it's ATY,Orinoco. I just tried with FCP 10.4.6, optimized media to ProRes 422 and playback at Better Quality Optimized/Original, and it looks great. Very smooth. VLC looks good as well. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll just use that instead of QT Player.
Click to expand...

Do you mind sharing the exact model and part number (PN) of your GPU? Looking to compile a list of OOTB RX580 GPUs that can get ATY,Orinoco without hacking/modifying.
 
bsbeamer said:
Do you mind sharing the exact model and part number (PN) of your GPU? Looking to compile a list of OOTB RX580 GPUs that can get ATY,Orinoco without hacking/modifying.
Click to expand...
Sure, it's SKU#: 11265-05-20G, PN: 299-4E353-830FA. Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8G GDDR5 DUAL HDMI / DVI-D / DUAL DP OC W/BP (UEFI) is the description on the label.
 
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WoodFiredFilms said:
Sure, it's SKU#: 11265-05-20G, PN: 299-4E353-830FA. Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8G GDDR5 DUAL HDMI / DVI-D / DUAL DP OC W/BP (UEFI) is the description on the label.
Click to expand...

Thanks. That is two reports for this exact PN with ATY,Orinoco for anyone interested. Do not pay attention to the SKU when purchasing. Mine has identical SKU but is ATY,AMD,RadeonFramebuffer natively (PN 299-1E387-000SA).
 
Hi All, Are you saying that that part number will boot up directly (showing the boot screen, and or the Drive Choice screen if Option is held down? If so I'm ordering it ASAP. I need to get my 2009 4,1-flashed to 5,1 up on Mojave. One of my apps updated and I can't run the new version :(
 
BlackKnight6667 said:
Hi All, Are you saying that that part number will boot up directly (showing the boot screen, and or the Drive Choice screen if Option is held down? If so I'm ordering it ASAP. I need to get my 2009 4,1-flashed to 5,1 up on Mojave. One of my apps updated and I can't run the new version :(
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No, the last AMD GPU that had pre-boot configuration support was Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition. After that, not one card has pre-boot configuration support (boot screens). The SKU mod inside the ROM is just to get Orinoco framebuffer and nothing more.

RX 580 can be flashed by MVC to have pre-boot configuration support, you have to pay for that.
 
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tsialex said:
No, the last AMD GPU that had pre-boot configuration support was Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition. After that, not one card has pre-boot configuration support (boot screens). The SKU mod inside the ROM is just to get Orinoco framebuffer and nothing more.

RX 580 can be flashed by MVC to have pre-boot configuration support, you have to pay for that.
Click to expand...
OK, Thanks for that. How much are they charging over at MVC?
 
tsialex said:
No, the last AMD GPU that had pre-boot configuration support was Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition. After that, not one card has pre-boot configuration support (boot screens). The SKU mod inside the ROM is just to get Orinoco framebuffer and nothing more.

RX 580 can be flashed by MVC to have pre-boot configuration support, you have to pay for that.
Click to expand...
Actually, that is incorrect. The AMD RX-5070/RX-5070XT will boot with the Apple logo and Option for boot device. This was added in Catalina 10.15.1. I purchased a Gigabyte RX-5070XT specifically for this reason, and use it in a Sonnet eGPU chassis with a 2018 Mac mini.
 
nicholfd said:
Actually, that is incorrect. The AMD RX-5070/RX-5070XT will boot with the Apple logo and Option for boot device. This was added in Catalina 10.15.1. I purchased a Gigabyte RX-5070XT specifically for this reason, and use it in a Sonnet eGPU chassis with a 2018 Mac mini.
Click to expand...
Please explain me why pre-boot configuration support with 2018 Mac mini will have anything to do with MP5,1?

MP5,1 is EFI/UGA
MM8,1 is UEFI/GOP
 
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tsialex said:
Please explain me why pre-boot configuration support with 2018 Mac mini will have anything to do with MP5,1?

MP5,1 is EFI/UGA
MM8,1 is UEFI/GOP
Click to expand...
You stated, "No, the last AMD GPU that had pre-boot configuration support was Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition. After that, not one card has pre-boot configuration support (boot screens). The SKU mod inside the ROM is just to get Orinoco framebuffer and nothing more.

RX 580 can be flashed by MVC to have pre-boot configuration support, you have to pay for that."

That was incorrect.

I have a MacPro5,1 (currently with an unpatched RX-580) - I'll move the AMD RX-5700XT to it, and see if Catalina 10.15.1 shows boot screen, Options boot options, etc... Update to come! (MacPro5,1 has Catalina via DOSDude1's patcher)
 
nicholfd said:
You stated, "No, the last AMD GPU that had pre-boot configuration support was Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition. After that, not one card has pre-boot configuration support (boot screens). The SKU mod inside the ROM is just to get Orinoco framebuffer and nothing more.

RX 580 can be flashed by MVC to have pre-boot configuration support, you have to pay for that."

That was incorrect.

I have a MacPro5,1 (currently with an unpatched RX-580) - I'll move the AMD RX-5700XT to it, and see if Catalina 10.15.1 shows boot screen, Options boot options, etc... Update to come! (MacPro5,1 has Catalina via DOSDude1's patcher)
Click to expand...
You are posting without knowing the underlying requirements.

Catalina don't support MP5,1 and firmware updates for MM8,1 that brought eGPU GOP pre-boot configuration support will change absolutely nothing for MacPro5,1.

Like I said, MM8,1 is a UEFI Mac that supports GOP pre-boot configuration support. MP5,1 is a EFI Mac that requires UGA pre-boot support.

The last AMD GPU that supports UGA pre-boot configuration is Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition. This HD 7950 Mac Edition EFI can be used for GPUs with the same Tahiti graphics processor like HD 7970, R9-280 and R9-280X. After that, all newer AMD GPUs are GOP and won't work with MP5,1 UGA.

MVC modified RX 580 firmware to interoperate with MP5,1 EFI/UGA combo and that's the only way to have pre-boot configuration support with a newer than R9-280X AMD GPU.
 
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nicholfd said:
You stated, "No, the last AMD GPU that had pre-boot configuration support was Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition. After that, not one card has pre-boot configuration support (boot screens). The SKU mod inside the ROM is just to get Orinoco framebuffer and nothing more.

RX 580 can be flashed by MVC to have pre-boot configuration support, you have to pay for that."

That was incorrect.

I have a MacPro5,1 (currently with an unpatched RX-580) - I'll move the AMD RX-5700XT to it, and see if Catalina 10.15.1 shows boot screen, Options boot options, etc... Update to come! (MacPro5,1 has Catalina via DOSDude1's patcher)
Click to expand...
BTW, it's pre-boot support environment - so it's before loading macOS and Catalina has nothing to do with it, but the firmware update for MM8,1 released around Catalina time that brought eGPU GOP support.

Anyway, it's totally off-topic here where we are talking MP5,1 pre-boot configuration support.
 
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