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

judino28

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 29, 2008
72
16
I've read through many threads over the years, but don't think I've ever encountered a straight answer to this, or if it was there, I totally missed it.

Let's say I upgraded to the Apple recommended Sapphire Radeon RX 580 Pulse. I know I would lose the bootscreen that I currently have with my flashed 7950.

However, would the different startup options still exist if I booted with the option key, even though they are not displayed? Could I blindly choose to boot into Windows 10 or my recovery partition, by using the arrow keys and return to select my preferred startup disk? Or is is that, without a supported bootscreen GPU, those options simply don't exist at all and cannot be chosen blindly?

If I know the necessary keystrokes, it seems that living without a bootscreen wouldn't be that much of an inconvenience except for perhaps the times I would misjudge and boot into the wrong place.
 
The option key start won't exist. However, CMD-R will give you your recovery partition, and you can select your windows disk by using the Startup Disk Applet in settings provided it's not an EFI install. El Capitan & Mavericks won't work with the RX580 as they have no built-in driver support for that GPU. You will need High Sierra or Mojave, and you need to leave the older macOS's behind.

I think Sierra MIGHT have drivers for the RX580 but I'm not sure on that one, so I didn't recommend it. Someone else will jump in and clear that up.
 
I can live without a bootscreen. I use a GTX 980 without problems in HS and I have ordered the Pulse Sapphire RX 580 for my second Mac Pro 5,1.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.