Mac Pro 4,1 -> 5,1 XFX RX 580 flashed to Sapphire Pulse 580 does not Shut Off Mac (without button)

[NickthePirate]

Hello Mac Rumors, I've been lurking these forums for a while ever since I have started building my Mac Pro almost a year ago. I have never needed to post a question that hasn't been asked before but I think it is time.

I use a 4k monitor when I play video games on my Windows 10 partition and my Sapphire R7 265 just was not cutting it.

So right after Christmas I was saw this (XFX Radeon RX 580 GTS XXX Edition 1386MHz OC+, 8GB GDDR5, VR Ready, Dual BIOS, 3xDP HDMI DVI, AMD Graphics Card (RX-580P8DFD6)) GPU on sale on Amazon for $180 and I pulled the trigger. When I plugged it into my Mac it initially had troubles displaying in Windows 10 but quickly went away and works fantastic while in Windows10.

However, I was not able to boot into macOS. I tried resetting the PRAM, I bought a new dual mini 6-pin to 8-pin cable, everything. After searching online I noticed other Mac Pro owners of this card either had it work or they returned it, and I also read a lot about XFX brand being incompatible with macOS.

Because of all this, I flashed the ROM in Atiwinflash with the Apple approved Sapphire Pulse version of the 580 ( https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/191403/sapphire-rx580-8192-170310 ), removed all the Windows drivers with DDU, then reset PRAM and bam! I got my Mac back! I even got the About page to correctly identify my GPU. But when one door closes, another one always opens...

When I went to restart my computer, the computer quits everything and the display goes black and then, that's it. The same when I go to shut the computer down, it never fully turns off. I am able to put it to sleep so I'm not too sure what the problem is. I can force it to turn off and when I turn it back on everything resumes as normal but I don't want to force kill this thing every time I turn it off or restart. Does anyone have any ideas?

Edit: I forgot to mention that it has no problems turning off or restarting in Windows, so its something with macOS.

Edit 2: The problem seems to have fixed itself, although it takes up to a minute to shut down or restart now.

 

[BlackScorpion]

when you flashed your card , are you seeing the boot screen?

 

[tsialex]

when you flashed your card , are you seeing the boot screen?

No AMD GPU released after R9-280X can be flashed to have boot screens.

Mac EFI from Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition works up to, and don't work after, R9-280X.

 

[BlackScorpion]

No AMD GPU released after R9-280X can be flashed to have boot screens.

Mac EFI from Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition works up to, and don't work after, R9-280X.

Thanks for replying

 

[NickthePirate]

when you flashed your card , are you seeing the boot screen?

Hello, sorry for the late reply I was away from my computer for the weekend. It appears towards the end of the boot screen, I get the grey screen and it also appears when doing a software update.

 

[BlackScorpion]

I get the same thing without flashing it.

 

[NickthePirate]

I get the same thing without flashing it.

I had read some people were able to get this. Out of the box, this card would boot Windows 10 no problem but would just give a black screen whenever trying to boot to Mac. It was only after flashing one of the BIOS to the Pulse is when it would boot to Mac. Right now though, my original problem in this post has returned, it will not fully turn off or restart while in macOS. I probably should have tried to return the card but unfortunately that window has just passed.

 

[jmaeser]

I had read some people were able to get this. Out of the box, this card would boot Windows 10 no problem but would just give a black screen whenever trying to boot to Mac. It was only after flashing one of the BIOS to the Pulse is when it would boot to Mac. Right now though, my original problem in this post has returned, it will not fully turn off or restart while in macOS. I probably should have tried to return the card but unfortunately that window has just passed.

Not sure if this is your case or not, but this happened to me a couple times with the factory Geforce 120. I ended up rebuilding my OS after trying PRAM reset, swapping hardware, etc and issue went away. Perhaps this is not the new graphics card causing this. I'd recommend doing a complete, fresh, reinstall of macOS and see if that helps.

 

[bsbeamer]

Not sure if this is your case or not, but this happened to me a couple times with the factory Geforce 120. I ended up rebuilding my OS after trying PRAM reset, swapping hardware, etc and issue went away. Perhaps this is not the new graphics card causing this. I'd recommend doing a complete, fresh, reinstall of macOS and see if that helps.

This thread was 11 months old...

FWIW, not a single XFX GPU is listed as "compatible" with Sonnet eGPU's for macOS. Every single one is listed as Windows only. Personally would avoid XFX with macOS.

https://www.sonnettech.com/support/downloads/manuals/Compatibility_Graphics_Cards.pdf

 

[jmaeser]

This thread was 11 months old...

FWIW, not a single XFX GPU is listed as "compatible" with Sonnet eGPU's for macOS. Every single one is listed as Windows only. Personally would avoid XFX with macOS.

https://www.sonnettech.com/support/downloads/manuals/Compatibility_Graphics_Cards.pdf

Why does 11 months matter? Someone else, such as myself, may stumble upon this issue and be looking for a solution. I had the exact same issue as NickthePirate and what I suggested fixed my issue. Nick may STILL be suffering through the issue even 11 months later.

Despite the XFX not being officially supported by Apple via the Sonnet eGPU, in my experience, they work fine in the Mac Pro once flashed. I have a XFX RX 580 XXX Edition OC+ in my 2009 Mac Pro and it works perfectly fine. No reboot issues, no power issues, no boot issues (except you cannot see the boot screen). I have a buddy that uses one on his 2018 MBP with a Razer Core X Chroma eGPU and it also works fine. There is certainly a need to flash this card to make it work, which was also the case for NickthePirate.

 

[norda72]

No AMD GPU released after R9-280X can be flashed to have boot screens.

Mac EFI from Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition works up to, and don't work after, R9-280X.

I have bought an Sapphire AMD Radeon RX570 from MacVidcards Europe and they claim that the card has been flashed so it can show boot screen when you have 4K-monitor. I ordered it on eBay. Am I fooled then? Maybe they have solved this issue now, this was written in 2019.

 

[h9826790]

I have bought an Sapphire AMD Radeon RX570 from MacVidcards Europe and they claim that the card has been flashed so it can show boot screen when you have 4K-monitor. I ordered it on eBay. Am I fooled then? Maybe they have solved this issue now, this was written in 2019.

That's for "self flash".

Some MVC flashed card can show 4K boot screen.

But nowadays, we more tends to use OpenCore, a free boot loader, which allow most modern GPU (e.g. RX570) to display boot screen for free.