Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I know there is no direct x in Mac OS. I only ask as photoshop only reads 10 bit via OpenGL. That's the issue with GeForce cards. They do 10 bit but only via direct x.

Thanks I'll look into it.

10 bit is rarely used by anyone and rarely benefits you. It’s like a 1 percent case. Nearly all the presentations you have seen selling this idea are complete manipulated nonsense to people in creative industry, but we go along with it.
 
According to AMD for 10-bit OpenGL, “You'll need a Firepro/WX/RadeonPro graphics card.”

“Even though Radeon cards can do 10 bit color, Adobe software will not allow it. ”

“In consumer products (non Firepro) 10 bit rendering is not supported.”

https://community.amd.com/thread/213287

https://community.amd.com/thread/203751
[doublepost=1506182186][/doublepost]The Vega Radeon Pro WX 9100 could be a good fit for the cMP. We’ll have to see if it works with High Sierra out of the box. It’s possible this GPU is the “Radeon Pro Vega 64” featured in the iMac Pro. It has 16 GB of ECC HBM2 memory. It’s rated at 230 watts TDP and has 1 8-pin & 1 6-pin power connector.

https://pro.radeon.com/en/product/wx-series/radeon-pro-wx-9100/

WX 9100 product page says, “Native support for 10-bits per color channel for color-critical tasks. Driving an effective 30-bits per pixel, the Radeon™ Pro WX 9100 is great for any workload requiring that level of detail and color precision.”
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline
According to AMD for 10-bit OpenGL, “You'll need a Firepro/WX/RadeonPro graphics card.”

“Even though Radeon cards can do 10 bit color, Adobe software will not allow it. ”

“In consumer products (non Firepro) 10 bit rendering is not supported.”

https://community.amd.com/thread/213287

https://community.amd.com/thread/203751
[doublepost=1506182186][/doublepost]The Vega Radeon Pro WX 9100 could be a good fit for the cMP. We’ll have to see if it works with High Sierra out of the box. It’s possible this GPU is the “Radeon Pro Vega 64” featured in the iMac Pro. It has 16 GB of ECC HBM2 memory. It’s rated at 230 watts TDP and has 1 8-pin & 1 6-pin power connector.

https://pro.radeon.com/en/product/wx-series/radeon-pro-wx-9100/

WX 9100 product page says, “Native support for 10-bits per color channel for color-critical tasks. Driving an effective 30-bits per pixel, the Radeon™ Pro WX 9100 is great for any workload requiring that level of detail and color precision.”

Yes, I agree

...But at 3 times the cost of the Frontier Edition
 
WOW!

This is the new VEGA version.

...The old W9100 was @ $3K


AMD seems to be serious about pricing

...it changes everything.

Thanks, Andrew
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: MisterAndrew
We’ll have to see if the device ID is in the driver. It looks like it’s 687F for the RX Vega 56 & 64. That may be the same ID as the GPUs in the iMac Pro. It looks like the device ID for the Frontier Edition is 6863.
[doublepost=1506213636][/doublepost]I think MacOS often does not have drivers for workstation cards, but it looks like High Sierra includes drivers for the WX 4100, WX 5100, & WX 7100, so it’s quite possible it has drivers for the WX 9100.

Driver info in this thread thanks to theitsage: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/egpu-support-in-high-sierra-officially-announced.2048480/page-5
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline
I know I am not "supposed" to play games on MacPro 5,1. However, after I got Vega 56, I just want to know what are the capabilities under the high sierra from this card.

so I fired up my steam and played few games that are Mac friendly...
the results, not so good to say the least...

few games I have are not even working;the MacPro just restarted when lunching some of the games.
the only game that works is Stellaris, and it still gives me some artifacts but playable.

I have feeling this has something to do with power, but that doesn't explain most of the games won't even start the title screen...

anyone has this card in MacPro can confirm my results?
 
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline
It is danger to run the Vega 56/64 in the Mac Pro without the pixlas mod. People have already found out that even the 56 shuts the Mac Pro down.

Add onto that, at least with my experience with the RX 580, the drivers are just not there to give a good experience for gaming in MacOS.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline
Yeah, you should do the pixlas mod (power direct from PSU) before using the Vega in the Mac Pro. It's probably starved for power and the Mac Pro is restarting to protect itself.
 
Yeah, you should do the pixlas mod (power direct from PSU) before using the Vega in the Mac Pro. It's probably starved for power and the Mac Pro is restarting to protect itself.

I agree that Vega should be used with Pixels mod. However, if GPU pulling too much, the Mac should shut itself down but not restart.

I believe that more about GPU driver issue but not power draw.
 
I agree that Vega should be used with Pixels mod. However, if GPU pulling too much, the Mac should shut itself down but not restart.

I believe that more about GPU driver issue but not power draw.
I am not home right now so can't really try if using external PSU would help. But like you said here, if the GPU using too much power, the system should just shut down.
why would a game haven't started, use so much graphics for title screen...

hopefully they can't get better refined driver by December.

thanks for your inputs guys.
 
Yeah, that's odd. I haven't installed mine yet. I just got the 8 pin connectors so I'll wire those to the PSU this weekend so I can do some testing too.
 
Like I said, being that the RX 580 drivers are pretty crappy or gaming (but WORK) that makes me expect that the Vega drivers are no better off, perhaps even worse. I mean, the RX 580 is in the dev. kit, so Apple is not ignoring it.

All my games start up just fine, but the performance seems on par with the 7950. Some cases, my minimum FPS dropped a couple FPS.

Sounds like Apple hasn't done much yet on the driver front for any AMD cards after the 7950.
 
I finally did the Pixlas mod and installed my Vega 56. It made me nervous working on the PSU, but I stitched it all back up and it works. :) So far I've noticed Chrome causes the computer to freeze randomly and it had some graphical glitches so I'm using Safari, which seems to work fine so far. The computer is much more snappy coming from the HD 5870. iStat is at idle.

IMG_6466r.jpg MacOS noserial.jpg System Info 1.jpeg System Info 2.jpeg iStat idle 1.jpg LuxMark 1.jpeg
[doublepost=1506834124][/doublepost]I just tried Steam under MacOS and played the game Portal. It works fine. But opening the Steam store causes the computer to freeze and I had to restart it. Maybe it uses Chrome or something similar.

Update: Steam updated and I opened the store and it's working fine now.
 
Last edited:
I finally did the Pixlas mod and installed my Vega 56. It made me nervous working on the PSU, but I stitched it all back up and it works. :) So far I've noticed Chrome causes the computer to freeze randomly and it had some graphical glitches so I'm using Safari, which seems to work fine so far. The computer is much more snappy coming from the HD 5870. iStat is at idle.

View attachment 722588 View attachment 722568 View attachment 722569 View attachment 722571 View attachment 722572 View attachment 722573
[doublepost=1506834124][/doublepost]I just tried Steam under MacOS and played the game Portal. It works fine. But opening the Steam store causes the computer to freeze and I had to restart it. Maybe it uses Chrome or something similar.

You installed HDMIAudio kext?
 
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline
I agree that Vega should be used with Pixels mod. However, if GPU pulling too much, the Mac should shut itself down but not restart.

I believe that more about GPU driver issue but not power draw.

Unless in power preferences, somebody check the option to restart automatically after a power failure.
[doublepost=1506850479][/doublepost]
I finally did the Pixlas mod and installed my Vega 56. It made me nervous working on the PSU, but I stitched it all back up and it works. :) So far I've noticed Chrome causes the computer to freeze randomly and it had some graphical glitches so I'm using Safari, which seems to work fine so far. The computer is much more snappy coming from the HD 5870. iStat is at idle.

View attachment 722588 View attachment 722568 View attachment 722569 View attachment 722571 View attachment 722572 View attachment 722573
[doublepost=1506834124][/doublepost]I just tried Steam under MacOS and played the game Portal. It works fine. But opening the Steam store causes the computer to freeze and I had to restart it. Maybe it uses Chrome or something similar.

I believe it’s openGL crashing there.

I had crashes with VEGA running for example Heaven
 
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline
I believe it’s openGL crashing there.

I had crashes with VEGA running for example Heaven

Maybe. I ran Heaven and it didn't have problems. And Google Earth works fine.
[doublepost=1506855678][/doublepost]Update: I disabled hardware acceleration and WebGL 2.0 on Chrome and it seems to be working fine now.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline
Unless in power preferences, somebody check the option to restart automatically after a power failure.
[doublepost=1506850479][/doublepost]

I believe it’s openGL crashing there.

I had crashes with VEGA running for example Heaven

I know there is an option, but I think power failure is NOT over draw shut down protection.

If the Mac shut itself down due to internal protection (but not external power failure), auto restart doesn't sounds safe to me.

No, I haven't installed any kexts. Do I need that?

No, there is native HDMIAudio for your graphic card. That's a good sign apple provide more decent support for the up to date GPU.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.