MP 1,1-5,1 Mac pro 5.1 with AMD 6950xt

[Matty_TypeR]

I have successfully flashed a 6950XT with Syncretic patch to boot in my 5.1 using the original bios, not a 6900xt bios. but i am booting using linux Mint with the Mac pro 5.1 which run's sweet as a nut and is a very fast OS.

I flashed it via my EGPu razor core chroma with no issues in win 11 which was booted from my Mac mini.

The card looks real neat in the 5.1

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[prefuse07]

Let's see them benchmarks!

👏 👏 👏

 

[ironmanny1]

I have successfully flashed a 6950XT with Syncretic patch to boot in my 5.1 using the original bios, not a 6900xt bios. but i am booting using linux Mint with the Mac pro 5.1 which run's sweet as a nut and is a very fast OS.

I flashed it via my EGPu razor core chroma with no issues in win 11 which was booted from my Mac mini.

The card looks real neat in the 5.1

​

I also flashed my 6950XT but used a patch 6900xt bios, Are you able to get hardware acceleration in macOS?
Scratch that, you are using linux mint

 

[Matty_TypeR]

Let's see them benchmarks!

👏 👏 👏

will get some bench marks up soon, one thing i have noticed is using the same StarTech PEX8M2E2 i now get read and write speeds over 3000 as on OSX 2500 also my Fav game for blast up stress relief quake RTX run's so sweet. even loaded tombraider to see how it run's and full max everything, smooth as silk. will get some geek bench scores up later. I am really liking linux mint, the best thing no patching or mucking about with it.

 

[prefuse07]

will get some bench marks up soon, one thing i have noticed is using the same StarTech PEX8M2E2 i now get read and write speeds over 3000 as on OSX 2500 also my Fav game for blast up stress relief quake RTX run's so sweet. even loaded tombraider to see how it run's and full max everything, smooth as silk. will get some geek bench scores up later. I am really liking linux mint, the best thing no patching or mucking about with it.

Have you tried the remastered quake 2 yet? I hear it's beautiful

 

[Matty_TypeR]

Have you tried the remastered quake 2 yet? I hear it's beautiful

Yes, it does look so good, all the secret levels also.

 

[bonshomme]

Just did the same to my 6950 XT, the card indeed looks damn good in my 5,1 and I have no doubt that it'll be the same in the 7,1 once I get my hands on one in the future.

In the future I'll try editing the frequencies using MPT and flash the new PowerPlay table with RBE so that I can have the original 6950 XT frequencies and power limits.

 

[startergo]

Just did the same to my 6950 XT, the card indeed looks damn good in my 5,1 and I have no doubt that it'll be the same in the 7,1 once I get my hands on one in the future.

In the future I'll try editing the frequencies using MPT and flash the new PowerPlay table with RBE so that I can have the original 6950 XT frequencies and power limits.

I don’t think that is possible for the newer cards. Read the disclosure for the RBE. You can include the PPT in the OC config file or in an SSDT.

 

[Matty_TypeR]

Just did the same to my 6950 XT, the card indeed looks damn good in my 5,1 and I have no doubt that it'll be the same in the 7,1 once I get my hands on one in the future.

In the future I'll try editing the frequencies using MPT and flash the new PowerPlay table with RBE so that I can have the original 6950 XT frequencies and power limits.

My 6950xt does not run in Mac OSX in my 5.1. it runs linux Mint and Syncretic's patch enables it to be seen in the Mac pro 5.1 and work normally but only in linux mint. In mac OSX the 6950xt device ID is not seen in OSX and will not function with hardware acceleration.

You can flash it with a 6900xt bios but that only reduces the clock speeds to 6900xt speeds and also memory speeds. plus you have to be careful you get the right bios to flash as the 6950xt can use Samsung or Hynix memory which have different timings. Until apple updates the device ID's which i dont think they will, your most likely safer to use a 6900xt with Syncretic's patch and enjoy full functionality with out worries in Mac OSX with open core loaded and Monterey as the most stable OSX with OC. Also you wont have to worry which bios to flash on a 6950xt.

Iam really enjoying Linux mint, everything works as it should, even made it look like OSX and is supported until 2027 and beyond. New OSX ventura and sonama is more buggy as it has to support Intel and M chips so staying well clear of them.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Ventura is apple's vista. It's just crap, but all the tech press are boot licking lackeys and don't have the guts to call it like it is.

I haven't tried Sonoma, but honestly, the 'upgrades' are embarrassing. Stickers is the best they could do? It's a sad joke. Basically, for the first time ever, I realize I absolutely don't care about macOS for any of the last 3 versions. I think BigSur was the last OS where I kind of enjoyed upgrading. Now, every update makes me cringe more than look forward to it.

I may be joining you in moving to linux. The next update of the Mac Pro will tell me which direction I'll head to.

 

[bonshomme]

I don’t think that is possible for the newer cards. Read the disclosure for the RBE. You can include the PPT in the OC config file or in an SSDT.

Damn that sucks, thanks for the info.

My 6950xt does not run in Mac OSX in my 5.1. it runs linux Mint and Syncretic's patch enables it to be seen in the Mac pro 5.1 and work normally but only in linux mint. In mac OSX the 6950xt device ID is not seen in OSX and will not function with hardware acceleration.

You can flash it with a 6900xt bios but that only reduces the clock speeds to 6900xt speeds and also memory speeds. plus you have to be careful you get the right bios to flash as the 6950xt can use Samsung or Hynix memory which have different timings. Until apple updates the device ID's which i dont think they will, your most likely safer to use a 6900xt with Syncretic's patch and enjoy full functionality with out worries in Mac OSX with open core loaded and Monterey as the most stable OSX with OC. Also you wont have to worry which bios to flash on a 6950xt.

Iam really enjoying Linux mint, everything works as it should, even made it look like OSX and is supported until 2027 and beyond. New OSX ventura and sonama is more buggy as it has to support Intel and M chips so staying well clear of them.

My bad, I misread the initial post. I actually used the method to flash the RX 6900 XT VBIOS, and didn't try running Syncretic's patch on the RX 6950 XT BIOS. Glad it worked for you in the end !

And yes, I did manage to flash my 6900 XT's BIOS to my 6950 XT (reference model). I guess injecting the PowerPlay table via OC is the best way to make it work in macOS with its original speeds, along with manually overclocking the card on Windows.