MP All Models AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT / 6900 XT for macOS?

[Vanjus666]

Limitation is the Xeon processor missing AVX2.0 instructions.



Ventura and Sonoma are compiled to require the usage of AVX2.0 with GPU drivers, so, no NAVI GPUs with the combo of Ventura/Sonoma and MacPro3,1/5,1/6,1.

So, yes, currently the newest macOS release that can run a NAVI GPU is Monterey.

I have reinstall Monterey and GPU RX 6600 work! Now i have problem with WIFI. I tried reset PRAM few times, i tried to instal OCLP Post-install patch, and nothing works.

Can anyone help me, please?

 

[tsialex]

I have reinstall Monterey and GPU RX 6600 work! Now i have problem with WIFI. I tried reset PRAM few times, i tried to instal OCLP Post-install patch, and nothing works.

Can anyone help me, please?

This is the thread for issues with OCLP/Monterey:

macOS 12 Monterey on Unsupported Macs Thread

This thread will be dedicated to the discussion of running macOS 12.0 on unsupported Macs At the time of writing, WWDC has wrapped up and Developer Seeds have been sent out. We're eagerly awaiting for all our community developers and enthusiasts to test out the new version of macOS We will...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[MacINCheez]

By design, the Mac Pro EFI BootROM uses UGA (an older standard) for screen output. Mac-compatible cards provide UGA, which lets you see the native boot picker and the early boot screens (before MacOS loads). Without a UGA-compatible card (i.e. with non-Mac/PC cards), you'll see a black screen until something loads a driver that can speak to your video card - that's typically either OpenCore or MacOS itself. OpenCore loads early enough that the native screens aren't really necessary. As I understand it (I've never looked at an MVC card), MVC patches their cards to include UGA support, so you can use the native boot picker and see the boot screens immediately, without the need for OpenCore. (And, in the case of the RX6x00 cards, they've presumably fixed the same AMD bug that my patch fixes.)



Unfortunately, yes. As @tsialex correctly points out, you can't boot a cMP with an unpatched RX6x00 card in it; the card's initialization code contains a bug that prevents booting (fixing that is the whole point of my patch!). So, if you're using software flashing, you'll need to do that on a non-Mac PC.

To simplify things, I've attached a Windows version of the FixRX6x00 patcher program. It's still a command-line program (no GUI), same instructions as the MacOS version in my previous post. At least this way, there's less shuffling back and forth between systems.



Your Python script has a problem. It complains about the EFI ROM not being the last image, but that's not a requirement for EFI option ROMs. In this case, the x86_64 EFI code appears before the ARM64 EFI code - but in the output from your script, the ARM64 code gets removed. Also, while I don't have an RX6900XT to test with, I can state that GOP is most definitely provided by the card's original ROM.



Correct. As I said in my original post, @caingraywood was using a hardware flasher (I think he said it was an RT809F). I don't know his methodology - he may have been flashing in situ, or he may have been physically replacing the chips. In any case, he wasn't using software flashing. Since a cMP can't even POST with an unpatched RX6x00 card, it's necessary to flash it using either a PC (Windows/Linux) or a hardware flasher (or, I suppose, a MP7,1?).

To help simplify things, I pulled all of the RX6600/6600XT/6800/6800XT/6900XT ROMs from TechPowerup, patched them, and have attached them to this post. However, be advised that patching the ROM that came with your particular card will almost always be the better choice. Use the attached ROM images at your own risk. If you choose to use one of the attached ROM images, verify that the make/model and version number matches your card.

Hello..I have an AMD RADEON RX6650XT..which ROM you think would be the best to flash it? thanks

 

[macsoundsolutions]

Question, I just got a 7,1 and I replaced the 5500X with my Sonnet rx6800XT flashed with Syncretics patch because it used to be in my 5,1. When the GPU hits about 64c when playing a 4k youtube video or doing any work the fans kick up to about 1800rpm then back down after a few minutes then it happens again on and off all day. It happens in both in Windows 11 and Mac OS Monterey. Is this normal behavior? Anyone else with this happening? its quite audible. I don't remember it doing this when I first got the GPU. It looks clean and dust free but it is a couple of years old now. I guess I will try to re paste it and see if that resolves the issue.

 

[Gustav Holdoff]

AMD HIP ray tracing is available for windows (and machine learning- with stable diffusion)

System requirements (Windows) — HIP SDK installation (Windows)

Windows GPU and OS support

rocm.docs.amd.com

has anyone tried it yet?
I’m not an expert, I just installed it,
the GPU rendering speed was about 30% better in blender,
and 30% worse in twinmotion.
It’s probably just that the installation for non-expert users doesn’t work well, and the expert installation requires some complex commands

 

[tsialex]

I have created a patch that allows AMD RX6600/RX6800/RX6900 cards to work on a Mac Pro 4,1/5,1 (and maybe a 3,1? I have no idea if that's even possible). I examined ROM dumps of RX6600/6600XT and RX6800/6800XT/6900XT from various manufacturers, and every one I looked at used the same (broken) AMD reference code in the x86_64 EFI section (the manufacturer-specific differences are in the non-EFI section). While it's certainly possible that some cards won't do that, it looks like a one-size-fits-all patch may be possible here. (As with all such things, this comes without any warranty, use at your own risk, the usual caveats apply.)

I do not possess an RX6x00 card to test with. @caingraywood was generous enough to perform tests on his XFX SWFT309 RX6800XT and Sapphire Nitro+ RX6900XT cards. Many thanks to him.
(NOTE that this has been tested on RX6800XT and RX6900XT, but the RX6600/6600XT has NOT yet been tested. There is no reason it shouldn't work, but you should be aware that if you try it, you're the tester. Please let me know if you do try an RX6600/6600XT.)

Because I don't have one of these cards, I can't offer any real assistance with the flashing process. As I understand it, the ATIflash/AMDVBFlash utilities will work with the RX6x00 cards, but you'll need to investigate this on your own (and hopefully post your findings here, so others can benefit as well). (Note that @caingraywood was using a hardware flasher for his tests, so I don't think he can offer software flashing advice, either.)

Attached is a ZIP file containing a MacOS program named FixRX6x00ROM. It's a command-line program you run from a Terminal session. You should not need any special permissions; however, programs sometimes lose their executable mode bits when using ZIP, so you may need to execute chmod 755 FixRX6x00ROM after unzipping.

You'll need to acquire a dump of your current ROM, using whatever means you have available (ATIflash/AMDVBFlash/other). Once you have that, make a copy and put it somewhere safe, then you can run ./FixRX6x00ROM {filename} from a Terminal session (e.g. ./FixRX6x00ROM RX6800XT.XFX.SWFT309.original.BIN)

FixRX6x00ROM does the following:

• Reads the dump of your current ROM, verifies that it's of the expected format
• Searches the dump of your current ROM for the AMD Reference code (6600 or 6800/6900).
• If the AMD Reference code is found, replaces it with the correct (6600 or 6800/6900) patched code.
• Creates a patched file named the same as the original, but with ".PATCHED" appended (e.g. RX6800XT.XFX.SWFT309.original.BIN.PATCHED). Your original ROM dump file is left unmodified.

If your current ROM does not appear to be properly formatted, or it does not contain the AMD Reference code, FixRX6x00ROM will display an appropriate message and do nothing else. If the patcher fails for your ROM, please zip up the ROM dump and PM it to me. I'll take a look at it when I can.

If FixRX6x00ROM successfully patches your ROM, you can then flash the patched ROM back to your video card (again, using whatever means you determine to be appropriate), and it should then work with MacOS. IMPORTANT NOTE: apparently, for the RX6x00(XT) to work with MacOS, you'll need to be running OpenCore, WhateverGreen, Lilu, and include agdpmod=pikera in your boot-args. Failure to do this will almost certainly result in a black screen after booting. (Again, I don't have a card to play with, so any questions regarding the boot-args or the specific configuration of OpenCore, WhateverGreen, and/or Lilu need to be asked of someone else.)

The patch itself is only five bytes. The EFI code in the ROM is compressed, though, so making any change causes the entire EFI section to change - that's why, if you compare your original ROM file and the patched ROM file, you'll see a lot more than 5 bytes changed.

IMPORTANT: This patch does not attempt to provide pre-boot support (e.g. it won't let you see the native Apple boot picker). If you require that, MVC apparently provides that functionality. This patch simply fixes the bug in the AMD code that prevented the card from booting properly. With the patch, these cards should behave just like any other non-Mac video card - black screen until either OpenCore initializes or the MacOS drivers load.
ALSO: The patch does not modify clock speeds, temperature thresholds, timing data, or anything other than the EFI initialization process - if you've tweaked your card, the tweaks should still be there after patching (alternatively, you can tweak the card after patching as well, assuming your tweak program doesn't overwrite the patch).

The patched ROMs have also been tested on a non-Mac system. The nature of the patch is such that it shouldn't affect operation on non-Mac systems (i.e. it should work just fine on a Windows or Linux system), and small-scale testing supports that. I'm interested to hear if anyone finds an exception where a non-Mac doesn't work properly.

And before anyone asks: even though patching the Mac Pro BootROM seems like the cleaner solution (which would allow these cards to work unmodified), that's a much larger project that creates some new problems of its own. In this case, patching individual cards is actually the better solution, at least IMHO.

[EDIT: to cut down on the back-and-forth between MacOS and Windows during this process, in a later post I attached both a Windows (command-line) version of the patcher program and copies of various RX6x00 ROMs from TechPowerUp, already pre-patched.]

Courtesy of @caingraywood:

And now, back to the AVX integration problem that's been driving me up the wall...

[EDIT (for clarity): that last sentence refers to my AVX emulator, which is an entirely separate project that has nothing to do with the RX6x00 patch. I only detoured into the RX6x00 code because I was frustrated with the AVX project.]

Apple started to identify FixRX6x macOS binaries as malware, after searching about it this is happening since January XProtect update:

Apple has just released an update to XProtect

Apple has just released an update to XProtect for all versions of macOS from El Capitan or so, bringing it to version 2181. Apple doesn’t release information about what security issues this u…

eclecticlight.co

 

[Macschrauber]

should be cleared with xattr -c binary.bin

 

[tsialex]

should be cleared with xattr -c binary.bin

xattr has no effect with XProtect, anyway, I've tested:

 

[Macschrauber]

Just updated xprotect, for me it works on Mojave:

$ xattr -c ~/Downloads/FixRX6x00ROM 
$ ~/Downloads/FixRX6x00ROM
FixRX6x00ROM v0.11
Usage: /Users/username/Downloads/FixRX6x00ROM {ROM filename}

 

[tsialex]

Just updated xprotect, for me it works on Mojave:
View attachment 2374599

$ xattr -c ~/Downloads/FixRX6x00ROM
$ ~/Downloads/FixRX6x00ROM
FixRX6x00ROM v0.11
Usage: /Users/username/Downloads/FixRX6x00ROM {ROM filename}

Tested with Monterey and Catalina, no go.

 

[Macschrauber]

Worked also on Big Sur 11.7.6 after Xprotect updates on a MBA 6,1
Seems it depends.

Also discovered: When I run the tool directly in Terminal it worked on Mojave and Big Sur (before xattr -c).

But if started via Finder it gave the Xprotect message.

% xattr -l ~/Downloads/FixRX6x00ROM
com.apple.quarantine: 0083;663679e8;Safari;0AD332A4-6003-4B47-B6B8-DB49BBC4B9F3

% ~/Downloads/FixRX6x00ROM      
FixRX6x00ROM v0.11
Usage: /Users/user/Downloads/FixRX6x00ROM {ROM filename}

edit:
what we also can try, if it don't works that way:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ~/Downloads/FixRX6x00ROM

 

[koji5.1]

I have created a patch that allows AMD RX6600/RX6800/RX6900 cards to work on a Mac Pro 4,1/5,1 (and maybe a 3,1? I have no idea if that's even possible). I examined ROM dumps of RX6600/6600XT and RX6800/6800XT/6900XT from various manufacturers, and every one I looked at used the same (broken) AMD reference code in the x86_64 EFI section (the manufacturer-specific differences are in the non-EFI section). While it's certainly possible that some cards won't do that, it looks like a one-size-fits-all patch may be possible here. (As with all such things, this comes without any warranty, use at your own risk, the usual caveats apply.)

I do not possess an RX6x00 card to test with. @caingraywood was generous enough to perform tests on his XFX SWFT309 RX6800XT and Sapphire Nitro+ RX6900XT cards. Many thanks to him.
(NOTE that this has been tested on RX6800XT and RX6900XT, but the RX6600/6600XT has NOT yet been tested. There is no reason it shouldn't work, but you should be aware that if you try it, you're the tester. Please let me know if you do try an RX6600/6600XT.)

Because I don't have one of these cards, I can't offer any real assistance with the flashing process. As I understand it, the ATIflash/AMDVBFlash utilities will work with the RX6x00 cards, but you'll need to investigate this on your own (and hopefully post your findings here, so others can benefit as well). (Note that @caingraywood was using a hardware flasher for his tests, so I don't think he can offer software flashing advice, either.)

Attached is a ZIP file containing a MacOS program named FixRX6x00ROM. It's a command-line program you run from a Terminal session. You should not need any special permissions; however, programs sometimes lose their executable mode bits when using ZIP, so you may need to execute chmod 755 FixRX6x00ROM after unzipping.

You'll need to acquire a dump of your current ROM, using whatever means you have available (ATIflash/AMDVBFlash/other). Once you have that, make a copy and put it somewhere safe, then you can run ./FixRX6x00ROM {filename} from a Terminal session (e.g. ./FixRX6x00ROM RX6800XT.XFX.SWFT309.original.BIN)

FixRX6x00ROM does the following:

• Reads the dump of your current ROM, verifies that it's of the expected format
• Searches the dump of your current ROM for the AMD Reference code (6600 or 6800/6900).
• If the AMD Reference code is found, replaces it with the correct (6600 or 6800/6900) patched code.
• Creates a patched file named the same as the original, but with ".PATCHED" appended (e.g. RX6800XT.XFX.SWFT309.original.BIN.PATCHED). Your original ROM dump file is left unmodified.

If your current ROM does not appear to be properly formatted, or it does not contain the AMD Reference code, FixRX6x00ROM will display an appropriate message and do nothing else. If the patcher fails for your ROM, please zip up the ROM dump and PM it to me. I'll take a look at it when I can.

If FixRX6x00ROM successfully patches your ROM, you can then flash the patched ROM back to your video card (again, using whatever means you determine to be appropriate), and it should then work with MacOS. IMPORTANT NOTE: apparently, for the RX6x00(XT) to work with MacOS, you'll need to be running OpenCore, WhateverGreen, Lilu, and include agdpmod=pikera in your boot-args. Failure to do this will almost certainly result in a black screen after booting. (Again, I don't have a card to play with, so any questions regarding the boot-args or the specific configuration of OpenCore, WhateverGreen, and/or Lilu need to be asked of someone else.)

The patch itself is only five bytes. The EFI code in the ROM is compressed, though, so making any change causes the entire EFI section to change - that's why, if you compare your original ROM file and the patched ROM file, you'll see a lot more than 5 bytes changed.

IMPORTANT: This patch does not attempt to provide pre-boot support (e.g. it won't let you see the native Apple boot picker). If you require that, MVC apparently provides that functionality. This patch simply fixes the bug in the AMD code that prevented the card from booting properly. With the patch, these cards should behave just like any other non-Mac video card - black screen until either OpenCore initializes or the MacOS drivers load.
ALSO: The patch does not modify clock speeds, temperature thresholds, timing data, or anything other than the EFI initialization process - if you've tweaked your card, the tweaks should still be there after patching (alternatively, you can tweak the card after patching as well, assuming your tweak program doesn't overwrite the patch).

The patched ROMs have also been tested on a non-Mac system. The nature of the patch is such that it shouldn't affect operation on non-Mac systems (i.e. it should work just fine on a Windows or Linux system), and small-scale testing supports that. I'm interested to hear if anyone finds an exception where a non-Mac doesn't work properly.

And before anyone asks: even though patching the Mac Pro BootROM seems like the cleaner solution (which would allow these cards to work unmodified), that's a much larger project that creates some new problems of its own. In this case, patching individual cards is actually the better solution, at least IMHO.

[EDIT: to cut down on the back-and-forth between MacOS and Windows during this process, in a later post I attached both a Windows (command-line) version of the patcher program and copies of various RX6x00 ROMs from TechPowerUp, already pre-patched.]

Courtesy of @caingraywood:

And now, back to the AVX integration problem that's been driving me up the wall...

[EDIT (for clarity): that last sentence refers to my AVX emulator, which is an entirely separate project that has nothing to do with the RX6x00 patch. I only detoured into the RX6x00 code because I was frustrated with the AVX project.]

I'm trying to flash a Radeon RX 6800 Swift. When I load the Navi 21 ROM into the Syncretyic FixRX6x00ROM tool, it doesn't produce the patched BIOS. According to the Mac Sound Solution video, I should just drop the Navi ROM into the Syncretyic tool for it to patch, but nothing happens. Should I uninstall my antivirus software? I've tried everything, including installing the 2022 drivers for the 6800 and the 2022 versions of GPU-z.

 

[macsoundsolutions]

I'm trying to flash a Radeon RX 6800 Swift. When I load the Navi 21 ROM into the Syncretyic FixRX6x00ROM tool, it doesn't produce the patched BIOS. According to the Mac Sound Solution video, I should just drop the Navi ROM into the Syncretyic tool for it to patch, but nothing happens. Should I uninstall my antivirus software? I've tried everything, including installing the 2022 drivers for the 6800 and the 2022 versions of GPU-z.


View attachment 2389575 View attachment 2389576

are you logged in as administrator? When I did this I was using Windows 10. The drag and drop method worked for others as well. But you can try the method Syncretic shows in his OP.

 

[koji5.1]

are you logged in as administrator? When I did this I was using Windows 10. The drag and drop method worked for others as well. But you can try the method Syncretic shows in his OP.

Yes, I'm logged into Windows 10 as an administrator. I think I'll need to take the long route. Is there a YouTube video that shows someone doing this process? I apologize, but I'm not very good with codes.

 

[macsoundsolutions]

Yes, I'm logged into Windows 10 as an administrator. I think I'll need to take the long route. Is there a YouTube video that shows someone doing this process? I apologize, but I'm not very good with codes.

Send me your rom and I can see if I can patch it on with my 7,1 with Windows 11. macsoundsolutions@gmail.com normally you just drag it on syncretics patcher and it creates a copy. I am not aware of a video that shows how to do it via the command prompt

 

[koji5.1]

Send me your rom and I can see if I can patch it on with my 7,1 with Windows 11. macsoundsolutions@gmail.com normally you just drag it on syncretics patcher and it creates a copy. I am not aware of a video that shows how to do it via the command prompt

Thanks Lance,

I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out with this. It's going to be a lifesaver!

I've attached the RAM to this message and I'm also sending it to your email.

 

[macsoundsolutions]

Thanks Lance,

I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out with this. It's going to be a lifesaver!

I've attached the RAM to this message and I'm also sending it to your email.

Ok so seems there is an issue with your .rom file. I was able to patch my old rx6800xt file again with know issue in Mac OS using terminal in Mojave, Apple sees the patcher tool as malware in Monterey 12.7.5 and wont run the app, but I did get it to run in Mojave and it shows the issue below. Did you buy this card used? I just went through hell and back with a RX580 that had a modded bios and once I finally flashed it back to it's original bios all was good. I think your bios has been modded and you will have to first flash it back to its factory bios / rom or download the factory bios and then patch that, or Syncretic has some patched roms on his post with the app and you could try one of his pre patched files but thats a bit more risky. I tried in Windows first and then in Mac OS so I think it is your bios, as mine patched again without issue. UGH! To patch in Mac OS put the .rom and the patcher tool in a folder on your desktop then launch terminal and just drag the patcher into the terminal window and then drag the rom in the terminal window and hit enter and bingo it creates the patched rom. I would just grab your cards rom https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/ and try patching it, then flash it to your card. The only problem you might run into is you need to use the older ATIFLash version or you may get the miss match error and it won't let you flash the card, this is what I learned yesterday the hard way.

Here is the message that reports the problem:
"FixRX6x00ROM v0.11
The file /Volumes/SYNCRETIC/Navi 21.rom does not appear to contain a copy of the reference RX6600/RX6800/RX6900 code.
This patch could not be applied. No output was generated, no files were modified"

 

[koji5.1]

Hi there,

I encountered a problem with the Syncretic tool as it wasn't patching my ROM, and I wanted to share how I fixed it. My issue began when I tried to flash my RX 6800 on a PC with Nvidia drivers instead of AMD drivers. This caused my card's BIOS to become corrupted. When I tried to restore the original BIOS from [TechPowerUp](https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/?architecture=AMD&manufacturer=&model=RX+6800&interface=&memType=&memSize=16384&since=), I used AMDVFlash but got the "Subsystem ID P/N Mismatch ERROR".

Many videos suggest forcing the flash using CMD with the -f command, but I kept getting an error saying the command didn't exist. To solve this, you need to download the latest version of AMDVFlash, run the installer, and open CMD as an administrator. Then, type `cd` followed by the directory where your AMDVFlash folder and the original ROM are located. In my case, it was `C:\Users\ADMINISTRADOR\Desktop\flashfolder`.

After pressing enter, type `./amdvflash.exe -p 0 XFX.RX6800.16384.201112.ROM (the ROM you downloaded) -fv -fp`

Some videos mention unlocking the ROM, but for the latest version of AMDVFlash, this command isn't necessary. Once you've done this, you can follow the steps in Mac Sound Solutions' videos on his channel. It's important to use version 3.31 of AMDVFlash for this final step.

Additionally, if you are doing this process, I don't recommend installing the 2024 amd drivers for your card. Instead, use the 2022 amd drivers.

 

[Xenobius]

AMD and Intel is DEAD.

Get Apple Silicon and enjoy your Mac instead of wasting time trying to fix something that can't be fixed and will only get worse with each passing day.

 

[macsoundsolutions]

AMD and Intel is DEAD.

Get Apple Silicon and enjoy your Mac instead of wasting time trying to fix something that can't be fixed and will only get worse with each passing day.

Some folks still like to use their older macs obviously, and koji5.1 did fix the issue. I was using a RX6800XT in my 5,1 for several years and it ran like a champ, while also running Windows 11 for games. Thanks to Marin Lo's OpenCore Package and Syncretic I got several more years our of my beloved 5,1. Some folks love to tinker myself included.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Also, I'm calling it. Mainstream tech is now loser tech.

There are far more interesting tech developments in the retro scene than the supposed high tech mainstream. IMO, all the most talented tech people are there. People that are actually enthusiastic about tech are all there.

Mainstream has a bunch of library jockeys that will soon be replaced by LLMs and no one will even notice.

 

[lowendlinux]

AMD and Intel is DEAD.

Get Apple Silicon and enjoy your Mac instead of wasting time trying to fix something that can't be fixed and will only get worse with each passing day.

A challenge is a challenge there are still people making newish stuff work on PowerPC, heck I'm on eBay right now looking for another G5 Quad.

 

[Xenobius]

Ok, as far as retro sentiment is concerned, I understand. Everyone is entitled to their quirks and hobbies.. "Once upon a time, things were better...". This was nicely shawn by Woody Allen in "Midnight in Paris".

 

[avro707]

AMD and Intel is DEAD.

That's your opinion.

For others, it's rather Apple is dead and those people are moving over to PC workstations as our next powerful workstations.

I would have probably accepted a AS based machine but given how Apple stuffed me around recently I won't be buying any more new computers from them. I'll stick with platforms that are more open.

My 7,1 was purchased new in end of 2022, it isn't old despite what Apple and it's supporters suggest It's still got plenty of time under AppleCare.

 

[avro707]

Send me your rom and I can see if I can patch it on with my 7,1 with Windows 11. macsoundsolutions@gmail.com normally you just drag it on syncretics patcher and it creates a copy. I am not aware of a video that shows how to do it via the command prompt

I can also do this for people if they need it the same way.

Just need them to zip up the file and share it.