MP 1,1-5,1 Compatible RX580 8GB Brands on Mac Pro 5,1

[t8er8]

I'm upgrading from my Pulse RX560 4GB which is a great mid range card.

I want the extra VRAM to do some 1440p gaming

I know that the Sapphire Pulse RX580 is the undeniable winner brand for Mac Pro 5,1's but in Canada, especially when looking for 8GB models, I find they're about 40-50 CAD more than most other brand cards. I also know that the Nitro+ version also works well as it doesn't need the optional extra 6 pin power but it isn't cheaper than the other brands, especially in the used eBay market.

I'm trying to find the best bang for my buck and am wondering which brands (gigabyte, MSI, powercolor) people has experience with and can confirm work.

I've also looked on this thread to find little information beyond the nitro+

Thanks

 

[tsialex]

I'm upgrading from my Pulse RX560 4GB which is a great mid range card.

I want the extra VRAM to do some 1440p gaming

I know that the Sapphire Pulse RX580 is the undeniable winner brand for Mac Pro 5,1's but in Canada, especially when looking for 8GB models, I find they're about 40-50 CAD more than most other brand cards. I also know that the Nitro+ version also works well as it doesn't need the optional extra 6 pin power but it isn't cheaper than the other brands, especially in the used eBay market.

I'm trying to find the best bang for my buck and am wondering which brands (gigabyte, MSI, powercolor) people has experience with and can confirm work.

I've also looked on this thread to find little information beyond the nitro+

Thanks

Don't buy Sapphire Nitro+, is a 2.3 slots wide card and use even more power - bad fit for a MP5,1.

PowerColor RX 580 is used a lot down here, cheaper than Sapphire Pulse, some friends have it with MP5,1 but I haven't tested it.

Why you don't look at a Vega 56? I'm upgrading to one soon, until I found a VII.

 

[t8er8]

Don't buy Sapphire Nitro+, is a 2.3 slots wide card and use even more power - bad fit for a MP5,1.

PowerColor RX 580 is used a lot down here, cheaper than Sapphire Pulse, some friends have it with MP5,1 but I haven't tested it.

Why you don't look at a Vega 56? I'm upgrading to one soon, until I found a VII.

Maybe, Vega 56 is a bit out of my price range, good to hear the powercolor works, I find deals on that one much more.

Might be more worth it to shell out the extra cash for the vega though, Doesn't the Vega 56 need a power mod from the disk drives?

 

[tsialex]

Maybe, Vega 56 is a bit out of my price range, good to hear the powercolor works, I find deals on that one much more.

Doesn't the Vega 56 need a power mod from the disk drives?

With the power saving ROM selected, VEGA 56 requires less power than a RX 580. No Pixla's mod needed.

See here https://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/108889-amd-radeon-rx-vega-64-radeon-rx-vega-56/?page=3

Edit:

I think that the safest way is to use an eVGA Powerlink and two mini-PCie 6pin. This way you will balance the power input and always keep it inside the safety parameters of the backplane power connectors (PCIe AUX A and B).

 

[t8er8]

With the power saving ROM selected, VEGA 56 requires less power than a RX 580. No Pixla's mod needed.

interesting, is that rom only on the reference model, or some other brand?

 

[tsialex]

interesting, is that rom only on the reference model, or some other brand?

I think that all VEGAs 56 and 64 that follow the reference model PCB, have the switch. I know that some heavily customised PCBs like XFX RX Vega 56 Double Edition and the NANO versions don't have it.

It's easy to see what cards use the reference model, just open the TechPowerUp list for VEGA 56:

AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 Specs

AMD Vega 10, 1471 MHz, 3584 Cores, 224 TMUs, 64 ROPs, 8192 MB HBM2, 800 MHz, 2048 bit

www.techpowerup.com

[automerge]1577486080[/automerge]
Google Images show a lot of VEGA 56 cards with switches:

 

[t8er8]

I think that all VEGAs 56 and 64 that follow the reference model PCB, have the switch. I know that some heavily customised PCBs like XFX RX Vega 56 Double Edition and the NANO versions don't have it.

It's easy to see what cards use the reference model, just open the TechPowerUp list for VEGA 56:

AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 Specs

AMD Vega 10, 1471 MHz, 3584 Cores, 224 TMUs, 64 ROPs, 8192 MB HBM2, 800 MHz, 2048 bit

www.techpowerup.com

[automerge]1577486080[/automerge]
Google Images show a lot of VEGA 56 cards with switches:

View attachment 885115

I found a good deal on a rx580 nitro+, are you sure it'll pull too much power if i only use the 8pin power split between both mini 6 pins?
[automerge]1577565130[/automerge]

I found a good deal on a rx580 nitro+, are you sure it'll pull too much power if i only use the 8pin power split between both mini 6 pins?

My mistake, I misread what you said earlier, but does a 2.3 slot width block off an x4 slot?

 

[tsialex]

I found a good deal on a rx580 nitro+, are you sure it'll pull too much power if i only use the 8pin power split between both mini 6 pins?

Yes, PowerPlay settings from Nitro+ firmware shows us that is a 238W card. Some people use it successfully, but some had to use Pixla's mod. It's a bad choice, power and fit wise.

Even if it works with your Mac Pro, you still block a slot, since it's a 2.3 wide card and will block slot 2. Sapphire Pulse it's a little more wide than 2, but it's millimetres and work with a lot cards installed with slot 2.

 

[bjar]

I'm upgrading from my Pulse RX560 4GB which is a great mid range card.

I want the extra VRAM to do some 1440p gaming

I know that the Sapphire Pulse RX580 is the undeniable winner brand for Mac Pro 5,1's but in Canada, especially when looking for 8GB models, I find they're about 40-50 CAD more than most other brand cards. I also know that the Nitro+ version also works well as it doesn't need the optional extra 6 pin power but it isn't cheaper than the other brands, especially in the used eBay market.

I'm trying to find the best bang for my buck and am wondering which brands (gigabyte, MSI, powercolor) people has experience with and can confirm work.

I've also looked on this thread to find little information beyond the nitro+

Thanks

I have a gigabyte aorus rx580 that works great.

 

[tsialex]

I have a gigabyte aorus rx580 that works great.

I'm curious since I don't know anyone with this card, do you have the same problems that we have with slot-2 with Sapphire Pulse?

 

[MacManu77]

does the vega 64 need to change the psu also setting it with the energy saving mode?

 

[Snow Tiger]

The official Sapphire RX 580 8GB card for Mojave also is a little bit too chunky . If you have an adjoining PCIe add on card , the Sapphire might damage the other card's SMC on the PCB if the Mac gets roughly moved or suffers from shock during transit .

The reference workstation class ( blower type cooler ) RX 580 cards ( like from Dell ) also will be recognized only as RX 480s due to sub-optimal drivers from Apple .

If you are after cheap , RX 480 workstation blower type cooler card is a sweet deal . Costs around a hundred USD and is only 10-15 percent lower performing than a 580 . Doesn't matter what make you choose , except I like AMD label ( Radeon ) and Sapphire brand build quality . I've had durability problems with Power Color . Only uses one 6 pin for booster power . You can actually install two of them . Looks like this :

 

[StuAff]

I'm curious since I don't know anyone with this card, do you have the same problems that we have with slot-2 with Sapphire Pulse?

I've got an Aorus 580 as well. Never had a problem with mine, GT 120 in slot two worked fine.

 

[wallah]

The official Sapphire RX 580 8GB card for Mojave also is a little bit too chunky .
...
The reference workstation class ( blower type cooler ) RX 580 cards ( like from Dell ) also will be recognized only as RX 480s due to sub-optimal drivers from Apple .

If you are after cheap , RX 480 workstation blower type cooler card is a sweet deal . ...

This looks like a great option for me because I'm not doing any heavy lifting. Thanks for sharing since a 480 isn't on Apple's list, great to know it'll run Mojave.

What's it like for sound levels? I have my 5,1 on my desktop at the moment (desk has a panel underneath that blocks good placement on the floor) with a Radeon HD 5870 and for reference, it has a clearly audible steady hum, even on idle. Some research reveals that both the 480 and the 5870 run around 40 decibels. Ideally, I'm looking for "the cheapest AND the quietest" card, so curious what your experience is with these, even tho I gather you are running two of them.

 

[Snow Tiger]

This looks like a great option for me because I'm not doing any heavy lifting. Thanks for sharing since a 480 isn't on Apple's list, great to know it'll run Mojave.

What's it like for sound levels? I have my 5,1 on my desktop at the moment (desk has a panel underneath that blocks good placement on the floor) with a Radeon HD 5870 and for reference, it has a clearly audible steady hum, even on idle. Some research reveals that both the 480 and the 5870 run around 40 decibels. Ideally, I'm looking for "the cheapest AND the quietest" card, so curious what your experience is with these, even tho I gather you are running two of them.

I'm a System Builder by profession , so I've had a lot of experience with Systems primarily made for media editing .

To be truthful , I'm still not overjoyed with AMD's ability to cool their products in a manner we could claim is reasonably "quiet ." They've made progress , but nVidia still claims the gold metal .

Case in point , I recently performed a stress and power distribution test with a mixed array of four 300 W class compute GPUs in a Windows UP Cascade Lake Xeon workstation . The four cards were two AMD Vega F.E. , one GTX 1080 Ti and one GTX 980 Ti . This was a synthetic test and the configuration should not be used for production purposes . These cards were all wedged side by side together , which is common for an array . These cards ran concurrently at sustained full load for a day or two , so they all had a good chance to heat up some . I was forced to bump up the Vegas' fans to 4500 RPM each using an AMD enterprise utility to keep them cool enough . And I rebuilt both of them with upgraded cooling materials . They were loud . The nVidia cards ran at factory RPMs and were fairly quiet .

We can't currently use nVidia cards with the latest macOSes , unfortunately . Why Apple won't let us use nVidia is unfathomable to me .

 

[Coyote2006]

What GPU is recommended in the 5,1 with standard power supply that allows running a 970 in the next PCI slot with Mojave to run a monitor in 3.840 x 2.160 Pixel resolution? I guess a double fan card isn't recommended?

 

[tommy chen]

........ Why Apple won't let us use nVidia is unfathomable to me .

again, it's not apple alone

 

[Snow Tiger]

What GPU is recommended in the 5,1 with standard power supply that allows running a 970 in the next PCI slot with Mojave to run a monitor in 3.840 x 2.160 Pixel resolution? I guess a double fan card isn't recommended?

This configuration will get you a dual GPU solution at 4K and a fast NVME M.2 drive :

PCIe Slot 1 = Blower fan type workstation RX 480 8GB graphics card . One 6 pin booster power needed .
PCIe Slot 2 = NVME M.2 PCIe SSD on an adapter .
PCIe Slot 3 = Blower fan type workstation RX 480 8GB graphics card . One 6 pin booster power needed .

Each card will provide around 85 percent of the performance of a RX 580 . But you'll have two of them which makes this a good dual GPU compute machine for those programs that can take advantage ( FCPX , Blender , Resolve ,etc ) .

Looks like this :

 

[Coyote2006]

Thanks but the other slots are taken so I need a single GPU solution.

 

[bsbeamer]

Thanks but the other slots are taken so I need a single GPU solution.

true single slot? WX5100 and WX7100 are the most “popular” but there was a thread specifically about this and exact model options with confirmations.

slot 1 in MP5,1 is a double slot, so you’re fine with most standard GPUs

 

[Snow Tiger]

Thanks but the other slots are taken so I need a single GPU solution.

If you mod the card's I/O bracket of PCIe Slot 3 RX 480 , we could place it in PCIe Slot 4 . It would be a tight squeeze and you would lose access to two or three HDD Bays . And you'd still get four electrical lanes of PCIe Rev 2 for that card , which is OK for rendering .

But PCIe Slot 3 will now be available for repurposing for any single slot height card you'd like . Also four lanes electrical of PCIe Rev 2 . I'd recommend an USB 3.1 Gen 2 card with Type A and Type C ports .

More than this , I'm outta magic 🙃 .

 

[Coyote2006]

true single slot? WX5100 and WX7100 are the most “popular” but there was a thread specifically about this and exact model options with confirmations.

slot 1 in MP5,1 is a double slot, so you’re fine with most standard GPUs

Single GPU, not single Slot.

I currently have a GTX 480 then a 970 in the next slot followed by a sinatec card where I've attached two SSDs. The last PCI slot is free. I'd like to replace the 480 with a stronger card in order to run a LG 32UL950-W 3.840 x 2.160 Pixel.

I think I'd need a card that has only one fan as otherwise one of the fans directly blows on the 970. The 580 seems to have problems with the fans anyway so are there options/cards that wouls solve this? I'm running Mojave.

 

[Shortadvice]

true single slot? WX5100 and WX7100 are the most “popular” but there was a thread specifically about this and exact model options with confirmations.

slot 1 in MP5,1 is a double slot, so you’re fine with most standard GPUs

The WX4100 is also a single slot card, and I can confirm it works with Mojave.

 

[Snow Tiger]

Single GPU, not single Slot.

I currently have a GTX 480 then a 970 in the next slot followed by a sinatec card where I've attached two SSDs. The last PCI slot is free. I'd like to replace the 480 with a stronger card in order to run a LG 32UL950-W 3.840 x 2.160 Pixel.

I think I'd need a card that has only one fan as otherwise one of the fans directly blows on the 970. The 580 seems to have problems with the fans anyway so are there options/cards that wouls solve this? I'm running Mojave.

This is a fun Build . What's our budget ?

PCIe Slot 1 = Blower fan type workstation RX 480 8GB graphics card . One 6 pin booster power needed .
PCIe Slot 2 = HighPoint SSD7101A-1 Four x M.2 Ports PCIe RAID Controller for $400 . Your Sammy 970 M.2 should like this as its new home as a boot device . You will be able to install four NVMe M.2 drives on this card at full bandwidth as its PCIe Slot is 16 lanes electrical . One Boot device and three drives in a RAID 0 for a very fast working drive , maybe . The card will accept 4 x 2TB . maybe 4 x 4TB with the new capacity drives just released . Recommended Mac boot ROM version - 144.0.0.0.0 .
PCIe Slot 3 = maybe an USB 3.1 Gen 2 Card , for a fast interface connection . It's also possible to use this slot with a 10 GbE card for ethernet networking .
PCIe Slot 4 = Blower fan type workstation RX 480 8GB graphics card . One 6 pin booster power needed . You'll need to mod this card's PCIe I/O bracket , as before .

The RX 480s only cost $100 each and I recommend you rebuild them with MX4 thermal paste .

 

[Coyote2006]

This is a fun Build . What's our budget ?

PCIe Slot 1 = Blower fan type workstation RX 480 8GB graphics card . One 6 pin booster power needed .
PCIe Slot 2 = HighPoint SSD7101A-1 Four x M.2 Ports PCIe RAID Controller for $400 . Your Sammy 970 M.2 should like this as its new home as a boot device . You will be able to install four NVMe M.2 drives on this card at full bandwidth as its PCIe Slot is 16 lanes electrical . One Boot device and three drives in a RAID 0 for a very fast working drive , maybe . The card will accept 4 x 2TB . maybe 4 x 4TB with the new capacity drives just released . Recommended Mac boot ROM version - 144.0.0.0.0 .
PCIe Slot 3 = maybe an USB 3.1 Gen 2 Card , for a fast interface connection . It's also possible to use this slot with a 10 GbE card for ethernet networking .
PCIe Slot 4 = Blower fan type workstation RX 480 8GB graphics card . One 6 pin booster power needed . You'll need to mod this card's PCIe I/O bracket , as before .

The RX 480s only cost $100 each and I recommend you rebuild them with MX4 thermal paste .

I would consider to spend around $400 for a (ONE) new card. RX580 are even cheaper. You mean using a highpoint also in order to keep the NvMe cool next to the GPU?