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MP 1,1-5,1 Bought all upgrade parts. Help me to find the right path (CPU, NVMe, rx470, Monterey)

M

Macmillennial

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 3, 2024
17
0
Hi everybody!
I’ve found a great cMP (4,1 to 5,1) and want to upgrade it.

I’ve read tons of guide but none is specific for my needs.

What I have -> what I want
- high sierra -> monterey
- old firm -> 144.0 firm
- gt120 -> rx 470 8gb
- hdd -> pci NVMe

As I understood I need:
1) change gpu
2) update firm using the Mojave iso
3) install NVMe

Here I don’t understand now…

I want a fresh install. So I need to patch with oclp what? The new NVMe? The usb with Monterey iso? Can I remove the old hdd?

What about the no boot issue with the Radeon gpu? One guide say that if there isn’t a bootable drive (empty NVMe) automatically will be booted the usb drive. Is it true?
 
This transition really is pretty daunting. I have also been sitting on the sidelines, putting off upgrading my 5,1 to Monterey, as its last stop before retirement. I've been running for years on a Dosdude-patched Catalina. Now that Monterey is EOL, it should be stable enough to go to. But with all of the horror stories of people having difficulty, I have been unable to justify changing a stable production machine- especially when OC requires pulling the machine apart down to only one disk, at best.

I made a query of the OCLP folks on their Discord group about how to do this with the absolute minimum risk, and the answer I got was basically "go with the Martin Lo package". So I tried it, and ran into problems with "could not bless the installer". So, no way to boot the installer? Enough for me at this time. I'm not a techno-peasant, having upgraded and kept this thing alive all these years: but I have limited time to spend on cut-and-try, lather-rinse-repeat.

I know that there are people who have made it through all of the various hangs and difficulties, and are finally running reliably in Monterey. I suspect that very few of them got to that situation via the same path, since there are so many variables. And the day may come where I finally decide to take the plunge, over a weekend- because I know that I can get it there, eventually. I just do not know the minimum-risk, minimum-time, best practices way to get there. And the more a person reads about the process here and on the OCLP group, it seems the less likely they are to find it, because of so many well-documented attempts that have ended up in difficulty...

Thanks for understanding.
 
An update to the original question, hoping it is useful for everyone that want to update, basically, every component and is searching the right path.

RECAP:
What I have -> what I want

- high sierra -> monterey
- an old firm -> last 144.0 firm
- GPU gt120 -> rx 470 8gb
- hdd -> pcie NVMe

1) I've updated the high sierra with the last security patch. This needed a script because app store was stuck in "no updates".
2) Inserted the new GPU, now an NVIDIA quadro, but the RX 470 is on my way. To use the nvidia card I've downloaded and installed the official web drivers with the old card, and than switched to the NVIDIA (that is metal compatible).
3) Downloaded the Majave iso
4) Double click and it asked for firmware upgrade, following the instructions now I have the 144.0.0.0 firmware -> GOOD
5) Installed the NVME card, the firmware 144 recognized it like a charm.

5a) SUPERWARNING: my apple account don't works with high sierra (macos 13 requested) and creating a new one return random errors. HOW DO YOU DOWNLOAD APPS? For example in order to bench the NVME??

From here the steps are sperimental, hoping someone validate them:

6) Downloaded monterey and oclp, click on options and:
- selected the MacPro 5,1 as target (I'm on another mac for this)
- checked:
* nvme booting (I want use the nvme as os disk), but I dont know if this is needed in 5,1
* verbose
* AMD and NVIDIA GOP injection: if I well understood this patch the GPU to make it compatible with the boot screen... I've found tons of guides for this task but none say that oclp can do this with 1 click, so I really don't understand...
- Click on create macos installer -> monterey -> usb drive just inserted -> yes at "install to this disk" -> yes at "install?" and select the usb drive -> now I have a patched monteray installer

7) To install monterey on a non boot compatible GPU I need to follow the isntructions in the oclp web site
8) On next boot I will see the OpenCore Picker
9) Now I think I will eject the old HDD, just in case...
10) From here follow the normal macos installation procedure.

Can someone validate the steps 6-10?
Question: can I do this steps with the NVIDIA QUADRO or I need to wait the RX 470? I know that NVIDIA is not compatible with monterey...

THANKS
 
Macmillennial said:
Can someone validate the steps 6-10?
Question: can I do this steps with the NVIDIA QUADRO or I need to wait the RX 470? I know that NVIDIA is not compatible with monterey...

THANKS
Click to expand...
You need to wait for the RX470 if you're trying to install Monterey.

The only other iffy thing is that NVMe drive. I've personally stayed away from those on my 5,1 and stuck with a SATA SSD for boot. Not sure if NVMe as a boot drive will show any practical speed improvements, I think you're ultimately bottlednecked (on this machine) by single-core CPU speed.
 
BeatCrazy said:
You need to wait for the RX470 if you're trying to install Monterey.

The only other iffy thing is that NVMe drive. I've personally stayed away from those on my 5,1 and stuck with a SATA SSD for boot. Not sure if NVMe as a boot drive will show any practical speed improvements, I think you're ultimately bottlednecked (on this machine) by single-core CPU speed.
Click to expand...
Ok I'll wait...
the nvme drive is "technically" far better, 1600mb/s vs 500mb/s. I know that it is not comparable in real world tasks, but the price is almost the same, and it seem well supported.

About the cpu you are right, but I'm surprised how it perform well browsing in modern internet. Anyway I've just found a x5690 with 6 core for about 30 euro, and change it is very simple. No way to switch to a double cpu, as it is very expensive.
 
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