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aman88

macrumors regular
Mar 21, 2019
115
18
I bought a new 27 inch iMac back in May and I still haven’t put in Catalina... my old 2010 21 inch iMac has high Sierra, more ram and a new SSD installed and it works great... I’m guessing for gaming and normal use Mojave will be good for a few more years?
 

macguru9999

macrumors 6502a
Aug 9, 2006
817
387
I heard the RX580 could be powered from the optical bay but I'm no whizz kid. That's wjy i'm asking you guys !

I love my 5,1. It still kicks ass for a 2009 Mac :)
you will need a pixlas mod for the radeon 7 and you lose the boot screen. but you can always put your 580 back in for that . There is a 5700 model that should work without the pixlas, (needs catalina) single 8 pin, but for the 5700xt and radeon 7 you need pixlas. or sell the car and get a 7,1 :)
 
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MarkC426

macrumors 68040
May 14, 2008
3,700
2,097
UK
It's actually for playing 360 VR videos not games. I'm editing in FCPX and exporting to YouTube.

Here's an example - an 8k stereoscopic (3D) 360 video.


The sound is ok but the lips don't sync as the GPU is overloaded.
This is just a long shot as I don’t use FCPX.
Is there not an option to edit at a lower proxy rez then export to 8k?

I would think editing 8k 360 at full resolution would be a struggle unless you had a new Mac Pro.
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,587
Hong Kong
Did you enabled AMD hardware acceleration already? Maybe asks someone with a VII to see if it will make a difference, dual GPU probably won't.

I doubt if HWAccel can help.

AFAIK, both all VCE, UVD , and VCN only work up to 4K. The GPU itself support 8k, however, not the video engine.
 
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rodedwards

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 7, 2010
208
69
This is just a long shot as I don’t use FCPX.
Is there not an option to edit at a lower proxy rez then export to 8k?

I would think editing 8k 360 at full resolution would be a struggle unless you had a new Mac Pro.

Yep i do already use Proxy media and export at 8k. You may well be right about the 8k stereographic 3D 360º resolution being a struggle regardless of what i try and do. The video is 7680 x 7680 pixels with audio - so pretty intense. My Mac Pro already plays 8k monoscopic 7680 x 3840 360 video so i guess i should be happy. :)

I was just wondering ... I still have my old NVIDIA GTX 680 Pro Mac Edition 2Gb metal card. Is there a way to add that and get power boost - so i have two GPU? Plug in and play ?! :D
 

AlexMaximus

macrumors 65816
Aug 15, 2006
1,237
582
A400M Base
Yep i do already use Proxy media and export at 8k. You may well be right about the 8k stereographic 3D 360º resolution being a struggle regardless of what i try and do. The video is 7680 x 7680 pixels with audio - so pretty intense. My Mac Pro already plays 8k monoscopic 7680 x 3840 360 video so i guess i should be happy. :)

I was just wondering ... I still have my old NVIDIA GTX 680 Pro Mac Edition 2Gb metal card. Is there a way to add that and get power boost - so i have two GPU? Plug in and play ?! :D

Sounds to me you really need super strong Metal power. Since Pixlas is out of the question, I would recommend the AMD Radeon Vega 56 Power Color Red Dragon. This card works with the low power bios setting and a simple EVGA PowerLink adapter. Superior cooler design with three fans and strong HBM2 Video Ram. With Pixlas Mod, you could have two of those.

By the way, one forum member uses two Vega VII with a dual Pixlas cable and it works. Expanding the horizon, the 5.1 is way better then most people think, -even in 2020.
 
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tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,455
13,602
I was just wondering ... I still have my old NVIDIA GTX 680 Pro Mac Edition 2Gb metal card. Is there a way to add that and get power boost - so i have two GPU? Plug in and play ?! :D
You can use AMD and NVIDIA simultaneously only up to High Sierra and the improvements most of the time are not very consistent. Btw, you will need Pixla's mod or external PSU.
 
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rodedwards

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 7, 2010
208
69
Thanks guys ... The Pixlas Mod looks too complicated for me at this stage. I'll look into the AMD Radeon Vega 56 Red Dragon and see how much faster it is than the RX 580.

I can already edit and play 8k 360º 7680 x 3840 video on Youtube but the 8k 3D 7680 x 7680 is double the size (effectively 16k) and causes my GPU to hit the roof. Maybe if i can wait a few months there will be a faster GPU i can install ...

I read somewhere AMD promises NAVI GPU soon ... Are these likely to just slot into my Mac Pro and work without fancy mods ? Or too early to tell ...
Screenshot 2020-01-30 at 21.17.33.png
 

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,455
13,602
Thanks guys ... The Pixlas Mod looks too complicated for me at this stage. I'll look into the AMD Radeon Vega 56 Red Dragon and see how much faster it is than the RX 580.

I can already edit and play 8k 360º 7680 x 3840 video on Youtube but the 8k 3D 7680 x 7680 is double the size (effectively 16k) and causes my GPU to hit the roof. Maybe if i can wait a few months there will be a faster GPU i can install ...

I read somewhere AMD promises NAVI GPU soon ... Are these likely to just slot into my Mac Pro and work without fancy mods ? Or too early to tell ... View attachment 891422
AMD 5700 has the same, maybe even a little smaller, power requirements as RX 580, but only works with Catalina.

NAVI is Catalina only.
 
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Zdigital2015

macrumors 601
Jul 14, 2015
4,144
5,624
East Coast, United States
I bought a new 27 inch iMac back in May and I still haven’t put in Catalina... my old 2010 21 inch iMac has high Sierra, more ram and a new SSD installed and it works great... I’m guessing for gaming and normal use Mojave will be good for a few more years?

My 2019 27” iMac is still on Mojave and I have no plans to update to Catalina. Using the hot mess that is Catalina on my 2016 15” MacBook is tedious on a daily basis. Too many unnecessary beach balls. I am disappointed in both iOS 13 and Catalina as they are simply not up to snuff compared to iOS 12 and Mojave. Fix it Apple!
 

rodedwards

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 7, 2010
208
69
AMD 5700 has the same, maybe even a little smaller, power requirements as RX 580, but only works with Catalina.

NAVI is Catalina only.

Maybe my Mac is maxed out now then without some hardcore hardware mods. :(

Thanks for everyone's input !
 

Zdigital2015

macrumors 601
Jul 14, 2015
4,144
5,624
East Coast, United States
Maybe my Mac is maxed out now then without some hardcore hardware mods. :(

Thanks for everyone's input !

Your Mac is either 8 or 10 years old and it’s had a good run. At some point, you may need to put it out to pasture. There is a point of diminishing returns. I remember when my 1997 Honda Civic DX hit 254,000 miles and then the head gasket, manifold and O2 sensor all need to be replaced at the same time and the car was NOT worth $1600 worth of work. So, I finally bit the bullet and bought a 2011 RAV4. 15 years was a pretty good run.

You would be well served by a 2019 Mac Pro 8-core or 12-core, 96GB of DRAM, a W5700X (when it ships!!! Hello, Apple, WTF!?!) and an Afterburner Card.

The wild card is your credit line and whether or not you can deal with Catalina...check your app compatibility before diving in head first!!! Just my 2¢.
 
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rodedwards

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 7, 2010
208
69
Your Mac is either 8 or 10 years old and it’s had a good run. At some point, you may need to put it out to pasture. There is a point of diminishing returns. I remember when my 1997 Honda Civic DX hit 254,000 miles and then the head gasket, manifold and O2 sensor all need to be replaced at the same time and the car was NOT worth $1600 worth of work. So, I finally bit the bullet and bought a 2011 RAV4. 15 years was a pretty good run.

You would be well served by a 2019 Mac Pro 8-core or 12-core, 96GB of DRAM, a W5700X (when it ships!!! Hello, Apple, WTF!?!) and an Afterburner Card.

The wild card is your credit line and whether or not you can deal with Catalina...check your app compatibility before diving in head first!!! Just my 2¢.

But the new Mac Pro's are soooooo expensive !!!

I've done tests with Geekbench 5, and my existing system is in the top ten of Apple's fastest ever computers - so life in the old beast yet. ?

It also scores as high as the bottom of the range 2019 Mac Pro.

OI'll keep doing the lottery - or maybe start charging my clients more!
 

leoaf79

macrumors member
Mar 28, 2013
51
7
Yes, one Sapphire Pulse RX 580 is safely powered by a dual mini-PCIe 6-pin to 8-pin.
[automerge]1580245650[/automerge]

Activate AMD hardware acceleration

I tried this Hwaccel and it worked in Mojave, but in Catalina I got half Geekbench score compared to Mojave when smbios spoof is on.
My GPU is a Sapphire RX 580 Pulse @ a 5,1(4.1) cMP.

I was wondering what may cause that in Catalina and if everyone who use a RX580 have the same issue.
 
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