Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Best plug&play gfx for MP 5,1?
- Thread starter cube
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Well I use one of those myself, but your list of requirements says no EFI hacking.
For cards that meet your requirements, that Sapphire 7950 Mac Edition is the last card from AMD. The last card from Nvidia is GTX680 Mac Edition. They are both getting to be pretty old, and they are both definitely overpriced.
I meant no hacking the Mac, not the card.
I think having to use Web Drivers might be asking for trouble.
So maybe the best option would be to get a 225W 7950 with 6 pins and flash it. Even without the resistor hack it would operate at TB3 speed, so very good.
The Gigabyte RX 460 4GB VRAM worked flawlessly for me OOB. Supports Metal; No hacking; has boot screen (I see the progress bar; is that the boot screen?) No PCIE cable required. So, consumes less power than HD 7950 with only .7 less TFLOPS performance than the HD 7950 (RX 460 = 2.2 TFLOPS; HD 7950 = 2.9 TFLOPS). Also, has more VRAM than HD 7950 and is listed at $130 for the 4GB version.
The only caveat with the RX 460 is that you need Mac OS Sierra. And, it's an "unofficial card," so future updates might brick it or something. And, System report doesn't report it under PCI. And, the name for it under "About this Mac" is "AMD R9 xxx 4096 MB," which can be cosmetically altered, I think. You also need to get the Gigabyte one as other RX 460's won't work for some reason....
Here are some pictures:
Really? It goes to black in Unigine Heaven? Are you running this from an eGPU? Because it runs fine on my Mac Pro 5,1. There used to be lag or a mini pause in Heaven in Sierra 10.12.0 but it dissappeared in 10.12.1, so for being "unofficial" I thought that was cool.... I could reproduce the mini pause also when playing COD: MW 1, which is also now gone after Sierra updated to .1 version....
For me, The GB RX460 is running well, smooth even in games and even when editing in FCP X, Photoshop, etc....
But, the HD 7950 Mac Edition if you have $500 to spare might still be more "worry-free."
But, I just needed a little boost from my HD5770 that came with the Mac Pro and I found it in the RX460. Well it's actually a considerable boost, especially in Luxmark 3.1 Luxball score, which the RX460 got over 6,000 and the HD 5770 was only over 1,000...
So...
If, you get the HD 7950, you should do a benchmark for us against your RX 460. And, don't connect it to an eGPU. I thought this thread is called "Best Plug-n-Play GFX card for Mac Pro 5,1?"
Are you double-speaking or something?
GTX680. Uses native Apple drivers. Easy to flash for boot screens (see my signature). Faster than the 7950. Supports Metal. Once flashed, it supports PCIe 2.0 without any hardware mods like the resistor hack. 4GB versions available.
It's normal if you install Windows 10 in BIOS/CSM mode. If you install Windows 10 as EFI, then there's a long delay. I do not have personal experience with it, but someone else said a couple of minutes.
Yes, there is a long thread about how to flash and power the 280x, the search function can help you.
A lot of people, myself included, use a 280X with a 6 to 8 pin adapter. It does run just a little over the official power limits, but most people have not had problems. In my case, one single game results in occasional crashes (not sure if it's a power issue or not), but otherwise, it's been perfect and I'm not worried about it at all.
To add: If I were buying now, I'd look at an RX 460 if its speed is competitive (haven't looked at that). Those are way under the power limits, and they are new and dirt cheap. No boot screen, I suppose, but I don't care about that very much.
I think you can put almost any graphic card in the cMP.
I think you better ask him. Anyway, he still provide the flash service if you prefer he do that for you.
I am thinking about buying an MP that already comes with one of his cards, but I was wondering why there are no AMD cards on his own site.
If everyone can do that by themselves, I think it's very logical for him to only provide flash service.
If you can set your monitor to stay at 4K 30Hz (e.g. DP 1.1), then you can have the boot screen at 4K. And after boot to desktop, you can switch it back to 4K 60Hz (e.g. DP 1.2).
But in general, boot screen is not important for daily use. Since the 280X should have dual ROM design. I will prefer to boot from the non Mac EFI BIOS, just keep everything at 4K 60Hz. And only boot from the Mac EFI @ 4K 30Hz when really need it.