Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MP 1,1-5,1 GPU Compatibility List for cMP

Status
The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.
An RX580 will run at 60hz.
You cannot run Mountain Lion with the RX580 (min Sierra).
 
MarkC426 said:
An RX580 will run at 60hz.
You cannot run Mountain Lion with the RX580 (min Sierra).
Click to expand...
I have a EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition in a MacPro3,1. It says compatible with macOS 10.8.3 or later, however, with it, I can boot Leopard 10.5.8, Snow Leopard 10.6.8, and Lion 10.7.5, as well as all the later macOS versions. The earlier macOS versions don't have acceleration and can't change the resolution (except Lion?), but they seem to work fine.

I am wondering for RX580 if it could be used with earlier macOS versions too, as long as their is a EFI frame buffer setup (with special version of rEFInd or OpenCore or whatever...)?
 
Natively MacOS will not recognise an RX580 before Sierra.
There maybe a hack with kext files, but your asking for trouble.
 
  • Like
Reactions: oliverc
MarkC426 said:
Natively MacOS will not recognise an RX580 before Sierra.
There maybe a hack with kext files, but your asking for trouble.
Click to expand...
Not asking for macOS to recognize the RX580 - only the EFI frame buffer that is used before macOS boots.
 
I'm sorry to continue being a pain / thorn...but of the RX 460, RX 550 or RX 560, which is the better brand for compatibility? XFX or Sapphire?
 
I’ve only used a sapphire rx580 and never had a problem.
I’ve heard the xfx cards can be problematic, but have no first hand experience.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Friendly
Dammit COVID! I got a line on a MacPro4,1 8-core for uber cheap, which would have been a great upgrade to my MacPro2,1. However, I was in the midst of a cold, and hadn't gotten my negative COVID test result back yet. So, I decided not to go out to get the machine and let the next person in line get it. Then just hours later I got my negative test result.

Oh well, the wait for a cheap Mojave+ Mac Pro continues.
 
anyone know if High Sierra would get cranky if the RX 550 or 560 I get happens to be the 'lesser' variant that has lower memory bandwidth and fewer stream processors than the normal model? seems all the RX 560's for sale on AliExpress are likely the 560D. I have no issues with this as it's simply for video output and for compatibility as HS prefers Radeon over GeForce. :p

and heck, while I'm asking, is there much of a difference between the 2GB and 4GB RX 550 for video playback? I don't think there will be any 4K playback, primarily 1080p streaming.
 


Friendly said:
anyone know if High Sierra would get cranky if the RX 550 or 560 I get happens to be the 'lesser' variant that has lower memory bandwidth and fewer stream processors than the normal model? seems all the RX 560's for sale on AliExpress are likely the 560D. I have no issues with this as it's simply for video output and for compatibility as HS prefers Radeon over GeForce. :p

and heck, while I'm asking, is there much of a difference between the 2GB and 4GB RX 550 for video playback? I don't think there will be any 4K playback, primarily 1080p streaming.
Click to expand...
I'm interested for this too. MSI AMD Radeon RX 560 AERO ITX 4G OC works perfect in 4,1-> 5,1 High Sierra and later in Mojave. And just for such video playback, Logic Pro X and similar apps maybe Biostar AMD Radeon RX 550 4GB can be enough?
 
Hi all,

I am looking to improve my Steam in-home streaming performance.

I have a Mac Pro 3,1 with dual 3.2 Xeons, 56GB RAM, and a Geforce GTX750Ti 2GB, running High Sierra 10.13.6 (and Windows 10). I am looking to use this machine as a host to stream games to my 2013 Macbook Air so I can play games on the sofa or in bed when I get a spare few minutes - nothing too demanding, I largely play strategy games.

Does anyone know whether it's the CPU or the GPU that does the heavy lifting for the encoding required by Steam in-home streaming?

I tried to play Total War Thrones of Britannia, and while native performance in 1650x1050 is quite decent in High, the streaming performance to the MBA at 1440x900 even in Medium was very choppy. I expected to drop a few frames of course but this was quite unplayable. Tested to my 2012 Mini connected via Ethernet and same result, which leads me to think it's not a network issue but largely a performance issue with the Mac Pro.

Nothing I can do about the CPU of course, but would I benefit from a newer GPU for this particular use? The native performance of this GPU is fine, it just seem to struggle doing the extra work involved in the encoding etc. streaming.

I have been considering upgrading the GPU to something like a GTX680 (£45 second hand) or even a GTX780Ti (£75 second hand). I know Radeon RX580 would also be an option but it's more expensive (£110) and I'm not sure it would work in El Capitan, which I would like the option of booting into for troubleshooting purposes.

Any advice very welcome!
 
Friendly said:
and heck, while I'm asking, is there much of a difference between the 2GB and 4GB RX 550 for video playback? I don't think there will be any 4K playback, primarily 1080p streaming.
Click to expand...

r6mile said:
Hi all,

I am looking to improve my Steam in-home streaming performance.

I have a Mac Pro 3,1 with dual 3.2 Xeons, 56GB RAM, and a Geforce GTX750Ti 2GB, running High Sierra 10.13.6 (and Windows 10). I am looking to use this machine as a host to stream games to my 2013 Macbook Air so I can play games on the sofa or in bed when I get a spare few minutes - nothing too demanding, I largely play strategy games.

Does anyone know whether it's the CPU or the GPU that does the heavy lifting for the encoding required by Steam in-home streaming?



Nothing I can do about the CPU of course, but would I benefit from a newer GPU for this particular use? The native performance of this GPU is fine, it just seem to struggle doing the extra work involved in the encoding etc. streaming.

I have been considering upgrading the GPU to something like a GTX680 (£45 second hand) or even a GTX780Ti (£75 second hand). I know Radeon RX580 would also be an option but it's more expensive (£110) and I'm not sure it would work in El Capitan, which I would like the option of booting into for troubleshooting purposes.

Any advice very welcome!
Click to expand...

Running an MSI Radeon RX 560 Aero ITX 2GB here on an original 5,1 6 core 3.33 with :eek:8GB ram. Needed an economical metal card for Mojave and it's smooth and quiet for that. I haven't pushed it hard on gaming, but online reviews claim it can run all but the most demanding games at over 60 fps (likely on Windows), so I would hazard a guess that it would handle the various streaming needs described here.

I can't answer the question on Steam being CPU or GPU intensive, although with your dual cores you're probably in reasonable shape there. Don't know if my RX 560 would run on your 3,1 and work for your video outs or with El Cap but you could check the specs and data sheet here: https://www.msi.com/Graphics-card/Radeon-RX-560-AERO-ITX-2G-OC/Specification (edit: not bootable though, so if you have space look into having both cards installed at the same time. You might have to disconnect video from the RX and hook up the GTX on boot for that to work but others here who know the 3,1 or El Cap better might have ideas.)

So it could be an upgrade for your GTX 750Ti, or an econo alternative to an RX 550 or 580, if you can find one.
 
Last edited:
wallah said:
Running an MSI Radeon RX 560 Aero ITX 2GB here on an original 5,1 6 core 3.33 with :eek:8GB ram. Needed an economical metal card for Mojave and it's smooth and quiet for that. I haven't pushed it hard on gaming, but online reviews claim it can run all but the most demanding games at over 60 fps (likely on Windows), so I would hazard a guess that it would handle the various streaming needs described here.

I can't answer the question on Steam being CPU or GPU intensive, although with your dual cores you're probably in reasonable shape there. Don't know if my RX 560 would run on your 3,1 and work for your video outs or with El Cap but you could check the specs and data sheet here: https://www.msi.com/Graphics-card/Radeon-RX-560-AERO-ITX-2G-OC/Specification (edit: not bootable though, so if you have space look into having both cards installed at the same time. You might have to disconnect video from the RX and hook up the GTX on boot for that to work but others here who know the 3,1 or El Cap better might have ideas.)

So it could be an upgrade for your GTX 750Ti, or an econo alternative to an RX 550 or 580, if you can find one.
Click to expand...

Thank you, I did look into the RX560 but I think it wouldn't have been a huge upgrade over my GTX750Ti, and wouldn't have run on El Cap. (It used to be incompatible with the 3,1 but the dosDude patcher now includes a fix for that).

So I decided to sell my GTX750Ti and for a little bit more get a GTX780Ti which is a bit of an older and power-hungry card, but is the top consumer Kepler card, works out of the box with the 3,1 on Mojave/Catalina as well as El Cap, and is in the same ballpark performance-wise as the RX580. Still waiting for delivery but can feed back on how I get on with it!
 
Greetings all; just finished doing a job for a client with a cMP that had 3 nVidia GT120 cards in it. (Apple part A1310.)
I put a new Samsung SATA 1Tb SSD in, then ran Dosdude1's Catalina installer. I bumped up the RAM to the full 64 Gb, but it still ran very slowly. Found part of the reason was some of the software he was running, but I decided to try a few video cards I had around the shop to replace the GT120s.
A Mac Quadro 4000 would let me boot to Safe mode, but hung about half way through. A non-Mac Quadro 1000 wouldn't boot at all (but I have reason to suspect it might be a dead card,and I'm testing further), nor would a GTX 1050.
BUT! With the right power cables, an Asus RTX-2060 Phoenix booted fine and the system runs very quickly now. System information reports only 9 Mb of RAM, which is odd, considering how quickly it runs, but video seems to be fine, pictures display crisply etc. I'm waiting for him to try it out. (He's a photographer). The 9mb is probably because no KEXTs are running, but I'm impressed it booted at all!

A few details on the box: It's a Mac Pro 4,1 with 2 2.66 Xeons, Mac Pro Early 2009. It's running DD1's Catalina 10.15.5. System report shows the Display Device is Device ID 0x00A1, no KEXTs loaded. Boot ROM version is MP41.0081.B07,SMC version is 1.39f5.
Hope this is helpful, interested if you have any comments.
 
  • Like
Reactions: wallah
DoodyFree said:
Greetings all; just finished doing a job for a client with a cMP that had 3 nVidia GT120 cards in it. (Apple part A1310.)
I put a new Samsung SATA 1Tb SSD in, then ran Dosdude1's Catalina installer. I bumped up the RAM to the full 64 Gb, but it still ran very slowly. Found part of the reason was some of the software he was running, but I decided to try a few video cards I had around the shop to replace the GT120s.
A Mac Quadro 4000 would let me boot to Safe mode, but hung about half way through. A non-Mac Quadro 1000 wouldn't boot at all (but I have reason to suspect it might be a dead card,and I'm testing further), nor would a GTX 1050.
BUT! With the right power cables, an Asus RTX-2060 Phoenix booted fine and the system runs very quickly now. System information reports only 9 Mb of RAM, which is odd, considering how quickly it runs, but video seems to be fine, pictures display crisply etc. I'm waiting for him to try it out. (He's a photographer). The 9mb is probably because no KEXTs are running, but I'm impressed it booted at all!

A few details on the box: It's a Mac Pro 4,1 with 2 2.66 Xeons, Mac Pro Early 2009. It's running DD1's Catalina 10.15.5. System report shows the Display Device is Device ID 0x00A1, no KEXTs loaded. Boot ROM version is MP41.0081.B07,SMC version is 1.39f5.
Hope this is helpful, interested if you have any comments.
Click to expand...
Since Mojave, a METAL supported GPU is required for macOS acceleration. GT120 support ended with High Sierra.

While NVIDIA 20xx cards have display working with Mojave/Catalina, it's totally unacellerated and only works for diagnostics. No one knows why NVIDIA added EFI support to the 20xx series and it's the motive that you have a working display, the cards works with the EFI basic drivers.

You don't need to use hacked installs with a MP4,1 at all and if you use it, you won't have Software Updates. Upgrade the firmware it to 144.0.0.0.0, see the stickie thread for more info, and then use OpenCore with a supported METAL GPU - Software Updates will then work as if you have a supported Mac.

forums.macrumors.com

MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)

Please fully read this first post, you will probably find that you have one or more problems described into the various notes below. Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM to the current release and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU*. If you are trying to install Mojave...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
 
  • Like
Reactions: oliverc and OddyOh
Macschrauber said:
and check Audio output is stable. Dual 4.1 have an issue with audio if they run on the stock Xeons.
Click to expand...
Not just audio, but sleep too. I explained this today on another thread:

​
The problem it's not with power management, but with multiple CPU support.

A single CPU Nehalem Mac Pro have sleep and audio working perfectly with Mojave, but not a dual CPU one - some single CPU mid-2010 Mac Pros have Nehalem Xeons from factory, but all mid-2010 and mid-2012 dual CPU Mac Pros are Westmere.

Like I said before, dual CPU Nehalem Xeons are not a officially supported configuration since ElCapitan while dual CPU Westmere Xeons are still supported officially up to Mojave. Catalina have some problems with the now unsupported multiple socket CPU configs (AppleIntelMCEReporter.kext needs to be disabled for a dual CPU Mac Pro/hackintosh with dual socket to work with Catalina) and BigSur removed support for Westmere, or wording better, BigSur now require CPU instructions that are not present on Westmere Xeons (more specifically, XSAVE instructions are now a requirement for AppleHypervisor support from beta6 on).​
​
 
Last edited:
Adding some GPU testing notes here. Let me know if you experience different behavior with the same GPU.

MacPro3,1 with EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition:
  • Boot screen can be seen with any of the ports (DVI-I, DVI-D, HDMI, VGA from DVI-I analog part) except DisplayPort.
  • If only DisplayPort is connected, then boot does not happen (gray screen does not appear, keyboard caps-lock key does nothing, EFI boot loader is not loaded).
  • DisplayPort works with the following macOS versions:
    10.9.5 Mavericks
    10.10.5 Yosemite
    10.11.5 El Capitan
    10.12.6 Sierra
    10.13.6 High Sierra
    10.14.6 Mojave
  • DisplayPort doesn't work with the following macOS versions:
    10.5.8 Leopard
    10.6.8 Snow Leopard
    10.7.5 Lion
    10.8.5 Mountain Lion
    10.15.7 Catalina (update: need to modify AppleGraphicsDevicePolicy.kext)
  • All the ports can do 4K 30Hz (tested with Gefen Dual Link DVI to DisplayPort adapter which is similar to the Atlona AT-DP400).
  • DisplayPort can do 4K 60Hz
  • EFI driver (which means only a single resolution is usable and there's no graphics acceleration) is used in the following macOS versions:
    10.5.8 Leopard
    10.6.8 Snow Leopard
  • Multiple resolutions (including scaled and HiDPI resolutions) are supported in the following macOS versions:
    10.7.5 Lion
    10.8.5 Mountain Lion
    10.9.5 Mavericks
    10.10.5 Yosemite
    10.11.5 El Capitan
    10.12.6 Sierra
    10.13.6 High Sierra
    10.14.6 Mojave
    10.15.7 Catalina
I didn't test VGA for all the macOS versions - I think it was removed from macOS in one of the later versions.

Update: I am able to use 10.4.11 Tiger. I suppose it behaves similar to 10.5.8 Leopard in regards to compatibility with the GTX 680. I have also tested 11.6 Big Sur and 12.4 Monterey (both using OCLP). 12.5 may have issues (kepler drivers are not compatible - must disable acceleration so it will have behaviour like 10.6.8 and earlier - maybe can enable IOFramebuffer without acceleration to have at least multiple resolutions? I haven't checked or tried that.).

I don't think I tested timings wider or taller than 3840x2160. Scaled modes up to 8191x8191 should be possible.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: Amethyst1, MrCheeto, flynnyfalcon and 5 others
All,

Hopefully this info helps (maybe I can give something back for all the help you all provide.)

XFX AMD Radeon HD 7970 installed in 2010 Mac Pro A1289 equipped with a X5680. Connected using the stock power connectors with the exception of a 6 to 8 pin adapter.

No issues, no boot screen. Steam works well.

Thanks,
DOM
 
Does anyone know how the 5600XT BE (castrated version) behaves in macOS? It should share the same device ID, but the port layout is different (2HDMI, 2 DP).

Also what do you guys think, will prices of 5600/5700 drop with the release of Big Navi this month? They're only releasing high end models, but i'm not following GPU market closely so i'm not sure how the prices of mid-tier would behave. Don't know if i should buy the card now or wait for them drop.

EDIT:
Another thing, this time concerning power. I can't find a dual mini 6PIN to 8 PIN cable anywhere close to me, so i wanted to use a normal 2x 6 PIN to 8 PIN and my 2 existing mac video card cables. Unfortunately most of those adapters connect all 6 cables from one 6 PIN socket but only 4(2x12V, 2xground) from the other one. So in total there is 5 12V lines and from what i've read those mini-6pin slots on cMP actually use all 6. Is this even something to worry about for a card with 150W TDP (5600XT) and i should add the missing 12V line or just let it be? Example photo of an EVGA adapter
 

Attachments

  • s-l1600.jpg
    s-l1600.jpg
    257.1 KB · Views: 157
Last edited:
will a AMD Radeon 6800 work in a 5,1? Curious since I want to upgrade from Sapphire 3gb to either a 5700xt or 6800. I've read that some people can get away with the 5700xt and no pixlas, but if I'm upgrading (and get super lucky finding) I'd rather get the 6800.
 
Emen Mali said:
will a AMD Radeon 6800 work in a 5,1? Curious since I want to upgrade from Sapphire 3gb to either a 5700xt or 6800. I've read that some people can get away with the 5700xt and no pixlas, but if I'm upgrading (and get super lucky finding) I'd rather get the 6800.
Click to expand...
I am quite sure it can work in cMP. Just a matter of how, and in which OS.

As long as the PCIe slot is there, I can’t see why wouldn't work.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back