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MP 1,1-5,1 AMD Radeon VII on the Mac Pro 5,1 - Mojave 10.14.4 and 10.14.5 Beta driver results.
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So I randomly decided to buy a Radeon VII and installed a fresh version of 10.14.6. So far, feels super stable and actually more fluid. And Adobe Premiere feels noticeably faster with it as well. It's feeling like a worthwhile GPU upgrade after all, considering I thought it wouldn't be that noticeable coming from a Vega Frontier Edition.
Hallo I have the Mac pro 5.1 2009 cpu i need to upgrade the Mac pro 5.1
i need help please about to build more faster and how to add in my mac pro 5.1 2009 this graphic card and cpu to upgrade 3.46GHz 2x 6-core Intel Xeon
AMD Radeon™ VII
i need help please about to build more faster and how to add in my mac pro 5.1 2009 this graphic card and cpu to upgrade 3.46GHz 2x 6-core Intel Xeon
AMD Radeon™ VII
You need to delid the Intel X5690 or the heatsink won't sit flush.
You need to perform the Pixlas Mod to power the graphic card.
So I recently got my hands on a mac pro 5.1. after studying this forum for a while i decided to get a radean vii as my gpu. i know it's only supported with 10.14.6 but i don't have another metal supported card on my hands to upgrade my mac pro to mojave. So I installed a copy of 10.14.6 from my MacBook to an internal Sata SSD and put it in the macpro but i don't get any video output. i know the vega vii is not EFI compatible but even after a while it doesn't show anything. neither throu hdmi nor dp. any tips on what to do?
best regards anton
best regards anton
what is your current operating system?
what GPU came with the mac pro?
Have you managed to update the firmware?
1. I have installed 10.14.6 onto an internal SATA SSD from my MBP thats now installed in my MP 5.1. I also have a HDD Drive with 10.13.X but not currently installed in my MP 5.1. i also briefly installed a copy of 10.15.1 with the Dosdude1 patcher tool onto another HDD but that one is also not currently installed in the cMP
2. It came with an ATI Radeon HD 5870. I am able to boot mojave from the internal SSD with the 5870 installed so it looks like the mojave install is working fine.
3. I pressed and held the Powerbutton for a couple of seconds until the beeping sound was audible but didn't change anything in regards to the radeon vii outputting video. BootROM Version is still MP51.0089.B00
thanks for your help!
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according to apple the ATI Radeon HD 5870 is not metal compatible, so how is it working fine in mojave?
your firmware should be upgraded to the latest version which is 144-0-0-0-0
Details in this thread https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mp5-1-bootrom-thread-144-0-0-0-0.2132317/
tried to boot with the 5780 and it worked fine but BootROM still at MP51.0089.B00
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it's not metal compatible and i can't run the mojave installer with it but once i have mojave installed i can boot with it and since i'm using mojave in dark mode i'm experiencing minimal graphic errors.
i don't know how to upgrade my firmware since it doesn't seem to work with my VII and i don't have another metal capabale gpu
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unfortunately not since the radeon VII isn't currently recognised at all so the installer will still tell me to put in a metal capable gpu even when the VII is installed and i'm connected throu screensharing...
Any more ideas?
thanks for the help!
boots fine with the 5870 installed but no picture with the VII. If i'm informed correctly those patched installers won't work for firmwareupgrades anyways...
Dual Mini-6PIN to Single 8PIN + 8PIN to dual 8PIN. No pixlas mod. Wanted to downvolt later using h9826790 method
You mean during the remote control section, the installer said that you need a Metal supported GPU?
exactly. when i had the 5780 installed mojave recognised the GPU but obviously since it doesn't support Metal the installer didn't work. When i installed the VII it wasn't recognized by mojave or at least didn't show up in the "about this mac" section and when i launched the mojave installer it also told me to put in a metal supported GPU.
ok so i went back and took a close look at the cables i used and saw one of them had 1 pin missing for some reason. replaced it by another and suddenly the Radeon VII shows up and i was able to flash the latest firmware. ? thanks a lot for the help!!!
After updating to the latest FCPX/Motion/Compressor updates, I had a decent speed increase using my old RX580, I then had further gains (for h264 material) after enabling hardware encode/decode (thanks h9826790).
I'm now in a situation where I'm waiting for the new 7.1 to mature a bit along with waiting for the software to catchup before making a final decision on what spec 7.1 I need before I purchase one in the summer.
In the meantime, I thought I'd see if I could extract anymore speed out of the faithful 5.1 so I just purchased and installed a Radeon VII to replace my Saphire RX 580 (plus I can use it in the 7.1 when I purchase one in the summer).
Thought I'd let you all know my experiences with the new card as an upgrade over an RX580.
SPECS
Firstly this 5.1 MacPro (12 core 3.46ghz, 80gb RAM, Pixlas Mod) is one of 3 that I have in the studio and is my main work machine, email, Adobe CC, plus heavily used for FCPX and Motion and Cinema 4D.
My other 2x MacPros are the same spec but are both running dual Nvidia 1080ti's and they are used for Cinema 4D using Redshift renderer.
After I installed the Radeon VII, I ran some benchmarks and then under-volted the card (thanks h9826790) before running all the benchmarks again, under-voting the card did indeed see a slight increase in performance with a reduced power consumption and heat.
SYNTHETIC BENCHMARKS
Luxmark RX580: 14,764 Radeon VII: 52,830
FCPX BruceX RX580: 19 seconds Radeon VII: 11 seconds
So on face value, the vastly more powerful VII seems like a decent upgrade over the RX580.
In the realworld however, the extra power doesn't seem to be fully utilised.
REAL WORLD BENCHMARKS (using projects I've previously worked on)
FCPX Export: (1080p 25fps, 8 minute interview with colour grading, minor effects, titles etc.)
ProRes Export RX580: 99 seconds Radeon VII: 92 seconds
MP4 Export RX580: 131 seconds Radeon VII: 127 seconds
Motion Export: (1080p 30fps, 1:20 duration, fast paced heavy animation, lots of animated text, setting set to BEST with motion blur enabled)
ProRes Export RX580: 130 seconds Radeon VII: 130 seconds
MP4 Export RX580: 189 seconds Radeon VII: 189 seconds
So as you can see, real world project exports don't seem to improve with the VII using FCPX and Motion.
This really surprised me, as iStat menus shows the GPU being heavily used in the export process.
I shall continue to use the VII as its no worse, and hopefully Apple further optimise their software to take advantage of the GPU more.
Overall, I'm still really pleased with how the ageing 5.1 copes in FCPX and motion, still really quick to use compared to the likes of Adobe Premiere & After Effects.
On the 3D front with Redshift and Octane supporting METAL this year, exciting times ahead!!!
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I'm now in a situation where I'm waiting for the new 7.1 to mature a bit along with waiting for the software to catchup before making a final decision on what spec 7.1 I need before I purchase one in the summer.
In the meantime, I thought I'd see if I could extract anymore speed out of the faithful 5.1 so I just purchased and installed a Radeon VII to replace my Saphire RX 580 (plus I can use it in the 7.1 when I purchase one in the summer).
Thought I'd let you all know my experiences with the new card as an upgrade over an RX580.
SPECS
Firstly this 5.1 MacPro (12 core 3.46ghz, 80gb RAM, Pixlas Mod) is one of 3 that I have in the studio and is my main work machine, email, Adobe CC, plus heavily used for FCPX and Motion and Cinema 4D.
My other 2x MacPros are the same spec but are both running dual Nvidia 1080ti's and they are used for Cinema 4D using Redshift renderer.
After I installed the Radeon VII, I ran some benchmarks and then under-volted the card (thanks h9826790) before running all the benchmarks again, under-voting the card did indeed see a slight increase in performance with a reduced power consumption and heat.
SYNTHETIC BENCHMARKS
Luxmark RX580: 14,764 Radeon VII: 52,830
FCPX BruceX RX580: 19 seconds Radeon VII: 11 seconds
So on face value, the vastly more powerful VII seems like a decent upgrade over the RX580.
In the realworld however, the extra power doesn't seem to be fully utilised.
REAL WORLD BENCHMARKS (using projects I've previously worked on)
FCPX Export: (1080p 25fps, 8 minute interview with colour grading, minor effects, titles etc.)
ProRes Export RX580: 99 seconds Radeon VII: 92 seconds
MP4 Export RX580: 131 seconds Radeon VII: 127 seconds
Motion Export: (1080p 30fps, 1:20 duration, fast paced heavy animation, lots of animated text, setting set to BEST with motion blur enabled)
ProRes Export RX580: 130 seconds Radeon VII: 130 seconds
MP4 Export RX580: 189 seconds Radeon VII: 189 seconds
So as you can see, real world project exports don't seem to improve with the VII using FCPX and Motion.
This really surprised me, as iStat menus shows the GPU being heavily used in the export process.
I shall continue to use the VII as its no worse, and hopefully Apple further optimise their software to take advantage of the GPU more.
Overall, I'm still really pleased with how the ageing 5.1 copes in FCPX and motion, still really quick to use compared to the likes of Adobe Premiere & After Effects.
On the 3D front with Redshift and Octane supporting METAL this year, exciting times ahead!!!
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While for most compute jobs the speed gain of a VII is considerable when comparing with a RX 580, for decoding or encoding the performance is basically the same.
AMD improved almost everything with GCN5.0 microarchitecture, but the UVD/VCE performance is the same for a VII/VEGA or a Polaris GPU, since it's the same UVD/VCE as implemented with GCN4.0 with little tweaks like two simultaneous video decoding with VII. You get a little more performance from the bigger clock speeds and the enormous memory bandwidth of the GCN5.0 cards, but it's just that. Only NAVI has a new UVD/VCE with considerable improvements and performance over the older ones.
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thanks for the info, I Knew beforehand that the hardware encoder on the VII was the same as the RX580, it’s also the same with the massively expensive vega II’s in the new 7.1.
Ironically, the yet to be released cheaper 5700xt will be faster at encoding/decoding.
The Apple Motion project that I used as one of the tests however should have seen an improvement as most of the export is compute limited, which is why I also exported as prores for one if the tests as this wouldn’t touch the hardware encoder.
The Motion project I used comprised series of high resolution images and text, all comped with various effects and movements, this should lean on the GPU for render but it’s obviously not using the GPU as much as it should be. (Or I hoped)
It is possible that Apple will continue to optimise Motion more and more now the new MacPro exists with, potentially, multiple GPU’s.
Fingers crossed!
Thanks for the writeup. At its core, the compute performance in a VII is there, but as you say, looking at various tasks in isolation, the performance is a bit all over the place.
Had you been using DaVinci Resolve you would have seen a huge difference in performance as well.
Over the summer/fall 2019 I upgraded my MacBook Pro and iMac to Catalina early on, since I wanted to get into SwiftUI, but as we all know the initial releases of iOS and MacOS were pretty flaky. As a consequence I decided to let my Mac Pro chug along with Mojave to have at least one stable configuration among my computers. I've been undecided as to whether I should bring it to Catalina and include the "latest" modifications you mention that especially @h9826790 has outlined.
I have a Vega Frontier Edition that might have some untapped performance waiting to get out. I'm thinking mostly about the encoding/decoding. If there's been any boost to HEVC (especially 10bit) that would be super. Have you had any issues at all on that front? Thanks.
Hello @AndreeOnline - I have lined up a Vega Frontier Edition for purchase early next week.
Reviews of Radeon RX Vega VII have been consistently excellent BUT I am committed to macOS High Sierra for another 12 months and so I can't buy the Vega VII.
I am very interested in your assessment of / experience with the Vega Frontier Edition in the cMP 5,1 (I have read a smattering of unfavourable comments by PC users and I just want to know that a seasoned Mac Pro user is happy with it).
Specifically:
(1) are there any racing fans issues you have observed?
(2) power draw* - is there a 'low power' bios switch profile that I can choose if I wish?
Initially I was excited about this purchase but I'm getting "cold feet" so ANYTHING else you can think of that might be important would be appreciated..
*In my case, I will not have typical power supply issues because I have a Netstor Turbobox which contains an independent PSU. 8-pins will be draw from the internal auxillary and 8-pins will draw from the Netstor.
I just purchased a second VII to keep in stock so I can then use Dual VII's when I purchase the 7.1.
However (and you know what's coming), I'm thinking about tinkering with the 5.1 to test it with dual VII's.
@h9826790 I currently have dual 8 pin connectors (pixlas) and the standard dual 6 pin connectors, as the cards are going to be running downvolted (using about 220 watts each), will it be safe to run each card using 1 8pin from the PIXLAS lead and the second input on each card using a single 6pin>8pin adapter plugged into the original 6 pin sockets?
Or shall I just run another Dual 8 pin lead from the PSU and leave the standard 2 6pin plugs unused?
However (and you know what's coming), I'm thinking about tinkering with the 5.1 to test it with dual VII's.
@h9826790 I currently have dual 8 pin connectors (pixlas) and the standard dual 6 pin connectors, as the cards are going to be running downvolted (using about 220 watts each), will it be safe to run each card using 1 8pin from the PIXLAS lead and the second input on each card using a single 6pin>8pin adapter plugged into the original 6 pin sockets?
Or shall I just run another Dual 8 pin lead from the PSU and leave the standard 2 6pin plugs unused?