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cMP bootcamp and gaming concern

J

jkh911208

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 6, 2017
14
3
Hi, I know there were few threads discussed about the gaming in cMP, but I want to make a new thread to discuss up to date information.

So I have Mac Pro 4,1 -> 5,1 6cores@3.46GHz, 140.0.0.0.0, Apple Pcie SSD (AFPS) booting Mojave with RX 580.
I know RX 580 is not a good gaming card, but I think I will deal with the options.

I want to install windows 10 in bootcamp and play the overwatch.

first thing first, I can not install windows in this machine, I think due to the AFPS, if I reinstall and reformat the disk to old file system, would I be able to use bootcamp to install the windows 10?

second, there is no boot screen, I think I can choose the startup disk on the macOS to specify the Windows, but how can I boot back to macOS from Windows?

Third, is 6cores@3.46 CPU good enough for overwatch with RX580?
I want AMD GPU because the compatibility with the MacOS and the FreeSync monitor.

any thoughts, concerns or ideas please leave the comments.
 
jkh911208 said:
Hi, I know there were few threads discussed about the gaming in cMP, but I want to make a new thread to discuss up to date information.

So I have Mac Pro 4,1 -> 5,1 6cores@3.46GHz, 140.0.0.0.0, Apple Pcie SSD (AFPS) booting Mojave with RX 580.
I know RX 580 is not a good gaming card, but I think I will deal with the options.

I want to install windows 10 in bootcamp and play the overwatch.

first thing first, I can not install windows in this machine, I think due to the AFPS, if I reinstall and reformat the disk to old file system, would I be able to use bootcamp to install the windows 10?

second, there is no boot screen, I think I can choose the startup disk on the macOS to specify the Windows, but how can I boot back to macOS from Windows?

Third, is 6cores@3.46 CPU good enough for overwatch with RX580?
I want AMD GPU because the compatibility with the MacOS and the FreeSync monitor.

any thoughts, concerns or ideas please leave the comments.
Click to expand...

For booting from Mojave to Windows:
https://github.com/abdyfranco/boot-manager
 
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I play Overwatch on my 8-core 3.46GHz cMP with a GTX 1080. I play on low settings. I have vsync on so I get a fairly solid 144Hz. With vsync off, it bounces around between 150 and 200 usually. The machine definitely seems CPU-bound as far as Overwatch goes. I had a 1060 before, and upgrading to a 1080 didn’t really increase the framerate (at low settings, anyway... I imagine it might make a difference at higher graphics settings, but I haven’t tried).

It sounds like you already have the best CPU available for the cMP, and I would think that an RX580 should pair with that just fine and give you a nice framerate.

For installing Windows, maybe you could shrink the APFS container and then install Windows in the remaining space?

Also for BootCamp drivers, I used the newer version from my 2014 Mac mini, which worked for everything except the internal speaker. For that, I had to use the BootCamp utility on the Mac Pro to get the older version, which included the Realtek drivers. Once I installed that, everything worked great.
 
I game in Windows on my Mac Pro 5,1 with an RX 580. Depending on what you play you'll find that you max out the GPU before you become CPU bound.

I believe my settings on Overwatch are maxed out. That's true in most games apart from the Witcher 3 which needs to be dialled back quite a bit.
 
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BillyBobBongo said:
I game in Windows on my Mac Pro 5,1 with an RX 580. Depending on what you play you'll find that you max out the GPU before you become CPU bound.

I believe my settings on Overwatch are maxed out. That's true in most games apart from the Witcher 3 which needs to be dialled back quite a bit.
Click to expand...
how do you get back and forth from mojave and win10?
 
that is super helpful to know.

in that case all of these dudes [or dudettes] are sitting around with efi installs on their 5,1s?!:eek:

i can hear tsialex weeping in his sleep.
 
Last edited:
I haven’t been able to boot into Windows 10 EFI.

I can install it fine, with 5770 installed.

As soon as I put 580 or 1070 in, it’s black screen. Tried reinstalling twice.

I’ve since given up on windows after 10 hours.
 
fendersrule said:
I haven’t been able to boot into Windows 10 EFI.

I can install it fine, with 5770 installed.

As soon as I put 580 or 1070 in, it’s black screen. Tried reinstalling twice.

I’ve since given up on windows after 10 hours.
Click to expand...
have you tried installing the rx580 drivers before booting it? also you should uninstall the5770 drivers first.

i had the gt120 installed with it and loaded both drivers. i was actually getting a 2k signal from the gt120 dvi.
[doublepost=1543306385][/doublepost]also be
fendersrule said:
I haven’t been able to boot into Windows 10 EFI.

I can install it fine, with 5770 installed.

As soon as I put 580 or 1070 in, it’s black screen. Tried reinstalling twice.

I’ve since given up on windows after 10 hours.
Click to expand...
also, be careful if you haven't heard about the bricked efi installs yet
 
BillyBobBongo said:
I game in Windows on my Mac Pro 5,1 with an RX 580. Depending on what you play you'll find that you max out the GPU before you become CPU bound.

I believe my settings on Overwatch are maxed out. That's true in most games apart from the Witcher 3 which needs to be dialled back quite a bit.
Click to expand...
What drivers do you use for your RX580 on Win10? AMD Adrenalin? Or just the drivers that Bootcamp installs (bootcamp 6 I suppose)

Thanks in advance.
 
jkh911208 said:
Third, is 6cores@3.46 CPU good enough for overwatch with RX580?
I want AMD GPU because the compatibility with the MacOS and the FreeSync monitor.

any thoughts, concerns or ideas please leave the comments.
Click to expand...

yesterday I just installed windows 10 build 1809 and installed latest AMD Radeon driver on my separate SSD and tested using Witcher 3 using ultra setting @ 3440x1440 I can run around 45 FPS also tested Battlefield V with ultra setting @ 3440x1440 the game can run quietly smooth at 65 FPS

cMP Dual Xeon X5680, 48Gb DDR3 (6x8Gb), RX VEGA 64, My monitor has FreeSync
 
dapperfapper said:
have you tried installing the rx580 drivers before booting it? also you should uninstall the5770 drivers first.

i had the gt120 installed with it and loaded both drivers. i was actually getting a 2k signal from the gt120 dvi.
[doublepost=1543306385][/doublepost]also be

also, be careful if you haven't heard about the bricked efi installs yet
Click to expand...

I’ve tried booting in safe mode with 5770 and removing the display drivers completely. Black screen. I haven’t tried installing the AMD drivers, just thought that windows should naturally display a card regardless if drivers are installed.

I’ve tried installing nvidia drivers, but without an nvidia card in, it won’t install.

What’s a bricked EFI install?

I feel like something changed after the firmware update for high sierrra. It never used to be this hard to install windows EFI.
 
fendersrule said:
I’ve tried booting in safe mode with 5770 and removing the display drivers completely. Black screen. I haven’t tried installing the AMD drivers, just thought that windows should naturally display a card regardless if drivers are installed.

I’ve tried installing nvidia drivers, but without an nvidia card in, it won’t install.

What’s a bricked EFI install?

I feel like something changed after the firmware update for high sierrra. It never used to be this hard to install windows EFI.
Click to expand...
i found windows efi install to be much much easier. although now that i know how to get it working properly in legacy it is not that difficult either. my problem was that you cannot apparently boot win10 from nvme without doing a clone process [which i haven't tried yet. maybe in march?]

i too think that something might have changed with the new firmware as far as the bricking goes. goping to research that now and double check if people were getting bricks on just the 89 fw or whatever.

but you should definitely know that most people are sticking to legacy since there have been guys with stray certificates in their bootroms which seems to be the common link amongst the bricks
 
Good to know. Glad I stopped messing with it when I did. No problem booting to MacOS still, so it didn't brick anything. It's just whenever that Windows 10 EFI drive is in place, I get a black screen with the RX 580 and 1070 when trying to boot into Windows. Interestingly enough, I can boot into Windows with the 5770 in place, but the screen is monochrome after a driver update. Strange.

At this point, why not just build a PC and really utilize the 1070 in a separate system. The RX580 is an alright card but the 1070 is significantly better. In MacOS gaming, it's pretty moot and that's why I'm back to my 580 again while my 1070 sits in my girlfriend's customer being utilized by Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. Ugh!

Yes, the only thing that has changed since I last did this (without a hitch) was a) I was using Sierra, and b) it was pre-firmware update. I was able to do it first try and found it was super easy. After 10 hours last weekend of swapping GPUs, reinstalling windows several times, restoring/repairing windows, removing drives, trying different monitors, I just gave up and got tired of it.

I "could" install Windows in legacy mode, but that doesn't excite me. 800 x 600 boot screens, and probably slower start-up times. My "just build a PC" meter has moved towards the "yes" finally that this functionality has been bricked. I've been thinking how I'd do without MacOS. That's still a scary thought.

Per my case, with the High Sierra firmware update, it seems to have bricked functionality of booting into a Windows EFI drive. Tread carefully or don't tread it all (now reading about the bricked systems).
 
well, for me it's purely a price thing. i am poor and so i must make this bitch dance until she drops.

i bought the rx580 and an nvme for black friday, less than $500 CDN and now my system runs the latest win and OSX. pretty good deal.

a few things to consider before you build a pc:

1] 7nm processors are around the corner. why not wait for those? save power, save the planet, run a 9th gen in your laptop.......

2] if you're going to buy a pc anyways, what are you worried about bricking your macpro mobo for?

3] the bricks are still speculation based on evidence provided by tsialex. he has worked with many bootroms [fixing them for people via binwalk and even soldering them and tapping into them with other tools]. his caution is worth considering, but why not become a test bench for uspoor guys if you're going to buy new anyhow ;p

4] i WAS running EFI just fine. it was just a pita to switch between the two systems [because apple only supports legacy on 5,1]. you would probably have this pain anyways so why not just install legacy?

5]legacy runs just fine. i'm booting on an internal ssd and getting ~250MB/s rates. the bootscreen is non-existant with rx580 [you don't need it anyhow]. and the win logo appears for about 3s? maybe? because my system can power down and reboot in less than 30s.
also, when i was in efi on an nvme [bootable, but not easily switchable] i was getting 1400MB/s r/w.

anyhow, hopes this helps you
 
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