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

[h9826790]

That's great news!
The list is very useful, but sometimes there are multiple versions of the same card which makes it a little confusing. Then again, the forum-search helps a lot
Oh, I just came across someone selling a used Mac-flashed Gigabyte R9 280x. More expensive than the Sapphire HD-7950 Vapor X, but from what I've read here it's more powerful (and also more quiet?). But will it be overkill for "normal" use (non-graphic intensive apps)? I understand it also needs some additional power cables, taking up one of the SATA power plugs.

280X is the same chip as the HD7970, which is about 25% stronger than the 7950.

One of the reason why using 7950 may be a better choice is because the 280X may draw more power than the mini 6pin can deliver, but 7950 doesn't has this issue in general.

By considering even the 5870 is good enough for you, the 7950 sure is already good enough for your daily usage, no need to go further for the 280X. Unless they cost roughtly the same, or the seller is more reliable, etc.

Anyway, the HD7950 Vapor X has dual ROM design, which is practically fail safe for mac EFI flash. So, it will be a good choice if you want to flash the card.

Be aware that the Vapor X most likely come with a 8pin connector, you will need a new cable for this card to work properly. Ideally, you better get two cables.

1) DUAL mini 6pin -> single 8pin
2) single 8pin FEMALE -> dual 6+2pin

This cable combination will allow pretty much any HD7950, HD7970, R9 280, R9 280X able to work on your cMP.

If that card only has a 6+8 pin config, then a single mini 6pin -> 8pin cable may also work, but not recommended in general.

 

[macstatic]

@hwojtek:
Ah, I see. Better just get the cheapest of the two then.
What do you mean by "Barely enough for Monterey"? Do more recent OS versions demand more from the GPU?
As for 4K etc. I just have a single 24" display set at 1920x1200 (which I believe is the maximum resolution of my display).

EDIT: I posted the above before reading h9826790's posting above.
Thanks for explaining the details around those cards. Sounds like the Vapor X is a good choice. The 280x I've found costs quite a lot more.
I assume those cables are more or less standard in the PC world, so I can get them locally much quicker than ordering from a Mac specific dealer abroad.

 

[hwojtek]

@hwojtek:
Ah, I see. Better just get the cheapest of the two then.

Sure, if you don't plan on graphics-heavy workloads, a 7950 will do just fine.

What do you mean by "Barely enough for Monterey"? Do more recent OS versions demand more from the GPU?

Sure enough

As for 4K etc. I just have a single 24" display set at 1920x1200 (which I believe is the maximum resolution of my display).

You will be well catered with a 7950. The 280x (yes, my mistake - it's a rebranded 7970, not a 7950) is about 18% faster in synthetic benchmarks, however they do not express the actual performance of the card in MacOS graphics.

 

[macstatic]

I just bought that second-hand Vapor X HD-7950 with power-cables (one 6 to 6 pin, and one 6 to 8 pin cable if I understood the seller correctly -he's used it in a cMP so I'm sure he's got it right). I expect to have it all here later this week

It's been a while since I looked into all of this issue of installing a "Metal" compatible GPU, upgrading the boot-ROM, upgrading MacOS etc (and in the correct order) so I'll have a bit of re-reading to do, but if I'm not mistaken I can for now, just plug in the new GPU card, power up the Mac and continue using my Mac as before without any noticeable change in MacOS 10.13.
No drivers, hacking or other fancy stuff to do first, right?

When I get the time I'll also look into flashing the GPU so I can get the usual Mac boot screen, but from what I've read in other threads there are several ways to do this. Some "quick & dirty" not so safe hacks and other more failsafe, proper methods. Does anyone know of any good "step by step" guide on doing this the proper/safe way for this card?

 

[hwojtek]

This works https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/guide-to-flash-hd-7950-7970-280-280x-for-mac-efi.2282196/

 

[crusetech]

I"m kind of in the same boat looking for a GPU that will work with my setup.
Currently I have 2 GPUs in my 5.1. First one is the stock NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 which I have connected via mini-displayport to a Monitor off to the side. The second GPU is an NVIDIA NVS 510 which I have connected to 4 x mini-displayport connections. High Sierra runs the 4 monitors just fine. I'd like to get this machine to Monterey. I can boot Monterey if I pull the NVS GPU so I've ordered a Sapphire Nitro+ 580 8GB GDDR5 GPU to run these monitors (I hope). I don't need 4k or anything special. Just my wall of monitors lit up. PS I've recently had a stroke so be easy on slamming me as I"m new to the 5.1 and Apple OS in general.

Cheers,

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

With the dropping of Bitcoin, swarms of mining cards are flooding the 2nd PC parts market in my country.
A mining RX580 can be purchased at 50$/piece. Saphire Nitro RX 580 cost a little more, like 60$/piece.
With a compatible new vBIOS chip, an RX580 might be able to be flashed with Mac Vid Card vBIOS to produce a pre-boot configuration screen (boot screen)
RX6600 (still in warranty period) are offered at 150$/piece and this card can be flashed for boot screen, too. And this can be done without replacing the vBIOS chip.

 

[crusetech]

What currency are you quoting? Definitely not CAD. What GPU do you have in your 2,1? Understood there are a ton of over-taxed GPUs about to flood the market and finally bring GPU prices back into reality.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

What currency are you quoting? Definitely not CAD. What GPU do you have in your 2,1? Understood there are a ton of over-taxed GPUs about to flood the market and finally bring GPU prices back into reality.

I quoted equivalent amount in USD.
The original prices are in VND.
Ex: RX 580 = 1,200,000 VND
Saphire Nitro = 1,400,000 VND

RX 6600 = 3,000,000 VND

I have the Gigabyte Winforce GTX680 2GB in my cMP 2,1. It's good enough for El Capitan, but no boot screen.
Whenever I need boot screen, I would just install the stock 7300GT.
From a Youtube video, I saw a guy flashed the RX580 and got bootscreen on his MP2,1. Of course it's only usable in Windows, not El Capitan, but very impressive to me.

 

[sfalatko]

I quoted equivalent amount in USD.
The original prices are in VND.
Ex: RX 580 = 1,200,000 VND
Saphire Nitro = 1,400,000 VND

RX 6600 = 3,000,000 VND

I have the Gigabyte Winforce GTX680 2GB in my cMP 2,1. It's good enough for El Capitan, but no boot screen.
Whenever I need boot screen, I would just install the stock 7300GT.
From a Youtube video, I saw a guy flashed the RX580 and got bootscreen on his MP2,1. Of course it's only usable in Windows, not El Capitan, but very impressive to me.

If you want to be bold you can install an EFI rom in your GTX680 and get the boot screen.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

If you want to be bold you can install an EFI rom in your GTX680 and get the boot screen.

I did flash the vBIOS provided by dosdude1.
Bootscreen is not working on cMP2,1. not for GTX680.
It only works on cMP 3,1, 4,1 and 5,1.

 

[macstatic]

I've just received my Vapor X HD-7950 which I popped into my cMP 5,1 (replacing the "non-Metal compatible" HD-5870) and it right away without any configuration. This is in MacOS 10.13.6. So I've passed the first step and can move on to the rest of the upgrading process

This works https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/guide-to-flash-hd-7950-7970-280-280x-for-mac-efi.2282196/

Cool! I've had a quick read through and it looks like something doable. There was mention of using PC software there, and I hope it'll work with Windows within Virtualbox which I have working within my MacOS 10.13.6 setup.

I think I really need to flash it soon because I've messed up and am now in a chicken and egg situation....
I wanted to try the new GPU with OSX 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) which I have on a separate SSD inside the cMP. So I first selected the startup disk while in 10.13.6 (High Sierra), but I forgot that of course the HD-7950 isn't recognized within Snow Leopard, so now the computer boots into 10.6.8 every time I turn it on but the screen is black.
I've already tried booting with the ALT key pressed down, which should present me with the boot menu where I can select the startup drive, but of course I can't see anything because the screen is black due to not having been Mac-flashed yet.
First I don't know how long it is until the boot-menu comes up, but I keep holding down ALT for quite a while, then press the left arrow key followed by RETURN as I think that's where my 10.13.6 boot drive is in the menu, but obviously not.
Short of putting the HD-5870 card back in (so I can see the boot-menu) and change the startup drive, is there any other way to solve this problem, now that I'm basically "blind"?

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I've just received my Vapor X HD-7950 which I popped into my cMP 5,1 (replacing the "non-Metal compatible" HD-5870) and it right away without any configuration. This is in MacOS 10.13.6. So I've passed the first step and can move on to the rest of the upgrading process



Cool! I've had a quick read through and it looks like something doable. There was mention of using PC software there, and I hope it'll work with Windows within Virtualbox which I have working within my MacOS 10.13.6 setup.

I think I really need to flash it soon because I've messed up and am now in a chicken and egg situation....
I wanted to try the new GPU with OSX 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) which I have on a separate SSD inside the cMP. So I first selected the startup disk while in 10.13.6 (High Sierra), but I forgot that of course the HD-7950 isn't recognized within Snow Leopard, so now the computer boots into 10.6.8 every time I turn it on but the screen is black.
I've already tried booting with the ALT key pressed down, which should present me with the boot menu where I can select the startup drive, but of course I can't see anything because the screen is black due to not having been Mac-flashed yet.
First I don't know how long it is until the boot-menu comes up, but I keep holding down ALT for quite a while, then press the left arrow key followed by RETURN as I think that's where my 10.13.6 boot drive is in the menu, but obviously not.
Short of putting the HD-5870 card back in (so I can see the boot-menu) and change the startup drive, is there any other way to solve this problem, now that I'm basically "blind"?

Turn off the MP and remove all disks except the disk with High Sierra.
Turn it back on and do a PRAM reset.
DONE.

 

[macstatic]

Turn off the MP and remove all disks except the disk with High Sierra.
Turn it back on and do a PRAM reset.
DONE.

Wow! It worked
Thank you 👍
Now I'll just select the startup disk again (System preferences), power down the computer, re-insert the drive I just removed and start up again.
I suppose learning and attempting to Mac-flash the GPU is pretty high up on my list now.

 

[macstatic]

A couple of things along with photos I'd like to share with anyone else looking into getting a Sapphire Vapor X HD-7950 (3GB) GPU card....

First, the card has two power connectors: one 6 pin and one 8 pin. My cMP 5,1 has two 6-pin connectors on its motherboard, next to the PCIe fan, so you need to get the right cables as shown here:

h9826790 mentioned in post #951 that this card has a dual ROM design. I believe I read somewhere that there's a switch for this. I assume it's the white bit of plastic found here:

I haven't had any sccuess in downloading a manual for this card (if anyone knows where it can be found, please do tell), so how does that dual ROM thing work, and which switch settings do what?

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I haven't had any sccuess in downloading a manual for this card (if anyone knows where it can be found, please do tell), so how does that dual ROM thing work, and which switch settings do what?

And yes, the white plastic thing you saw is the only switchable one on the card. It does nothing except tell the PC to load the vBIOS from which chip. Out of the box, both chips contain the same firmware, until a user mess them up.
Can be used as a fail-safe mechanism, or dual vBIOS for dual purposes like switching between OSes, graphic working modes or PCs. Modern cards nowadays use software instead of hardware solutions.

For manual, not the exact one, but similar.

https://manualzz.com/doc/28467263/sapphire-vapor-x-r9-280x-3gb-gddr5-oc

Review

Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Vapor-X Review

 

[macstatic]

Thanks for the links to the user-manual and review.
Actually that white plastic thingy wasn't the switch like I first thought. I gathered it was a piece of polystyrene from the packaging, but now I think it might even be a thermal pad.
In this posting I was told where the switch was, which I found and tried out. It's a push-button which lights up in blue when you press it in and otherwise doesn't light up.
It doesn't make any difference (as far as I can tell) if I have it in one or the other position.

Another thing: once I've flashed my Vapor X 7950 I want to create a new OS startup drive for upgrading my cMP 5,1 firmware (I understand this is needed, and actually part of the MacOS 10.14 Mojave upgrade), then install MacOS 10.14. I have several unused hard drives I can use for this, installing them in a Mac Pro drive sled.
But do I first have to do a clean install of MacOS 10.13 (High Sierra), then upgrade to 10.14, or does 10.13 have to be upgraded from a clean install of an earlier MacOS version?

I'm using MacOS 10.13.6 High Sierra now, and obviously my new "Metal" 7950 GPU is recognized with it, but if I'm not mistaken not all older OSes will be able to use it at all, so I believe in those instances I have to install my old HD-5870 back in for that. I just want to plan ahead to avoid unnecessary switching of GPU cards.
How far back (MacOS/OSX version) can I go back to using the 7950 GPU?

My intention with getting the 7950 GPU is because I can use some newer version of some software. I don't know if I should upgrade beyond MacOS 10.14, or if it's possible with my mid-2010 cMP 5,1 (from what I've read it appears to be possible, but with some hacking/workaround), but at the same time I still have a lot of software that I sometimes use (not so often now, but still have a use for -and can't be upgraded), so I want to use the new startup hard drive for testing all of this -to see what will work with 10.14 (or newer), what will work with Virtualbox etc., what I need to reboot into another older MacOS version with (and if that MacOS version can handle the new GPU) and so on. Lots of things to keep in mind, and I definitely don't want to experiment with my fully working MacOS 10.13.6 setup, possibly messing it all up.

 

[crusetech]

Managed to get 5 monitors hooked up on my CMP 5.1 under High Sierra with the following configuration:

PCI 16x Slot 1 - NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB Stock graphics card feeding the small little 10" HDMI monitor off to the side (I prefer a boot screen as I have multiple drive partitions with Mac OS's installed from High Sierra to Monterey).
PC?I 16x Slot 2 - NVIDIA NVS 510 (which tells me under Metal: Supported, feature set macOS GPUFamily1 v3) running 4 x LG Ultrawide Monitors.

I can't load into any OS higher than High Sierra with the NVS 510 card inserted into the computer. That's where I"m at right now.

I have a Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 580 on it's way which, supposedly is flashed to the MAC EFI and Metal compatible which I 'hope' will allow me to replace both existing GPU's, allow me to have a boot option menu and allow me to have all 5 monitors running successfully under Monterey. When I purchased the NVS 510 I had figured it would have allowed me to do this...

 

[tommy chen]

unlike the normal sapphire pulse RX580, you lose slot2 with the nitro+
because of the height of the card, it's not much, but it's enough

 

[crusetech]

unlike the normal sapphire pulse RX580, you lose slot2 with the nitro+
because of the height of the card, it's not much, but it's enough

Good to know Tommy. As I currently have the two older GPU's this shouldn't be an issue in my case. I"m not a gamer, or intensive graphics user. just need the ability to throw up a few HD Camera feeds.

 

[MarkC426]

Managed to get 5 monitors hooked up on my CMP 5.1 under High Sierra with the following configuration:

What is the mounting system you used....
Is it off the shelf or custom build, looks great.

 

[Macschrauber]

Managed to get 5 monitors hooked up on my CMP 5.1 under High Sierra with the following configuration:

PCI 16x Slot 1 - NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB Stock graphics card feeding the small little 10" HDMI monitor off to the side (I prefer a boot screen as I have multiple drive partitions with Mac OS's installed from High Sierra to Monterey).
PC?I 16x Slot 2 - NVIDIA NVS 510 (which tells me under Metal: Supported, feature set macOS GPUFamily1 v3) running 4 x LG Ultrawide Monitors.

I can't load into any OS higher than High Sierra with the NVS 510 card inserted into the computer. That's where I"m at right now.

I have a Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 580 on it's way which, supposedly is flashed to the MAC EFI and Metal compatible which I 'hope' will allow me to replace both existing GPU's, allow me to have a boot option menu and allow me to have all 5 monitors running successfully under Monterey. When I purchased the NVS 510 I had figured it would have allowed me to do this...

The problem is mixing the GT120 with the other GPU on Mac OS higher than High Sierra.

 

[crusetech]

What is the mounting system you used....
Is it off the shelf or custom build, looks great.

hey Mark, they are dual monitor stands from Vivo that stand on the desk itself. They are plenty sturdy with these LG monitors. I must admit, they are a challenge to initially setup but I love that they don't have to screw to the wall etc.

 

[crusetech]

The problem is mixing the GT120 with the other GPU on Mac OS higher than High Sierra.

I will try that today!

 

[crusetech]

tried numerous times to boot into Mojave with just the 510 installed and it just won't boot... sigh.