MP 7,1 Mac Pro with a Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti

[pretzelFTW]

I have a new Mac Pro (2019) with the stock AMD Radeon Pro 580X. I also put in a Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti for some Windows gaming under Bootcamp.

That generally works pretty well. When booted into macOS, it mostly ignores the unsupported NVidia card. The only problem is that the card causes panics when sleeping or shutting down.

I'm looking for a way to avoid that.

Obviously I could pull out the Nvidia card when I'm not playing Windows games, but that's a pain. Ideally, I could do something in software that makes the card invisible to macOS.

The Hackintosh folks have a solution using the Clover bootloader, but that seems like overkill. I don't need any of the other things enabled by Clover and I'd hesitate to run a real Mac that way.

I've also read many posts and articles on using the GRUB bootloader to disable the discrete GPU of a MacBook. That's close to what I want but I don't know anything about PCI configuration so I wouldn't know what registers to tweak to make that happen.

Has anyone tried this on a MacPro7,1? Or even a cMP?

 

[TrevorR90]

Oh wow thanks for that info! Good to know that configuration will work!
Regarding the panic, that’s interesting. I will definitely try to see what I can dig up. I got a shipping confirmation email today. Looks like I’m getting the Mac on Thursday instead of next Wednesday!

 

[TrevorR90]

I've had the mac pro with the 2080 ti installed for about 3 days so far and have restarted, shut-down, put to sleep more than 20+ times. Never had a panic result. Could this be dependent on 2080 ti brand? I have a reference one.

 

[MacFlaX]

@TrevorR90 sounds promising. Did you installed the 2080 ti in parallel to your Radeon MPX for dual boot, or as a single GPU for Windows only? if dual-boot - are the 2080 fans running under macOS?
What brand is your reference card?

 

[TrevorR90]

Nvidias own brand. I just got my EVGA ftw3 2080 ti today and did a few tests and its the same thing, I don't get any panics on shutdown or at sleep. The Mac largely ignores it and on the PCIe configurator just shows it as unknown.

I have the Nvidia card in slot #5 which is parallel to the 580x.

 

[pretzelFTW]

Thanks for updating.

That's interesting that you're not seeing panics. My card is the ASUS ROG Strix variant. However I've also tried Nvidia's (the Founder's Edition) and was still experiencing the panics with that card as well.

I am using Slot #3 for the card as per Apple's advice (GPUs are best in slot 1 or 3 since those slots connect directly to the CPU and provide the best performance). I may try slot #5 just to see if it panics or not.

 

[Romanesco]

Any concern on hardware degradation in the long term?

 

[mtasquared]

I am interested in those who are getting it to work...congrats!! Can i just ask, how do you power it??

 

[MacFlaX]

The Mac largely ignores it and on the PCIe configurator just shows it as unknown.
I have the Nvidia card in slot #5 which is parallel to the 580x.

@TrevorR90 what about fan noise of the EVGA 2080 ti when inactive under macOS?

 

[TrevorR90]

Any concern on hardware degradation in the long term?

Id imagine degradation is the same as any pc component

I am interested in those who are getting it to work...congrats!! Can i just ask, how do you power it??

With the pcie connectors from Apples store

@TrevorR90 what about fan noise of the EVGA 2080 ti when inactive under macOS?

Its silent, when looking in the case, only 1 of the 3 fans for the FTW3 are spinning and I don't even hear it. Got the FTW3 because I wanted a silent case even under load so getting rid of my Founders Edition 2080 ti.
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Thanks for updating.

That's interesting that you're not seeing panics. My card is the ASUS ROG Strix variant. However I've also tried Nvidia's (the Founder's Edition) and was still experiencing the panics with that card as well.

I am using Slot #3 for the card as per Apple's advice (GPUs are best in slot 1 or 3 since those slots connect directly to the CPU and provide the best performance). I may try slot #5 just to see if it panics or not.

I'm wondering if configuration matters? I have the 12 core CPU.

 

[MacFlaX]

@TrevorR90 Great to hear that the card is silent under macOS, thx!
How is Windows dealing with Radeon and Nvidia cards in parallel? Do you have both active and both drivers installed or only the Nvidia driver?
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@TrevorR90 Could you please check if this is the card you are using

EVGA - EU - Products - EVGA CLC 240mm All-In-One RGB LED CPU Liquid Cooler, 2x FX12 120mm PWM Fans, Intel, AMD, 5 YR Warranty, 400-HY-CL24-V1 - 400-HY-CL24-V1

EVGA North America's #1 NVIDIA partner.

de.evga.com

(there are several FTW3 cards available)

 

[TrevorR90]

Oh, you're talking about in macOS. I'm talking about bootcamp. I was running bootcamp when the temperatures for too high and I couldn't control the fan. I know that it works in macOS. Software isn't available in bootcamp yet and I run windows quite often. Everyday in fact.

@TrevorR90 Great to hear that the card is silent under macOS, thx!
How is Windows dealing with Radeon and Nvidia cards in parallel? Do you have both active and both drivers installed or only the Nvidia driver?
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@TrevorR90 Could you please check if this is the card you are using

EVGA - EU - Products - EVGA CLC 240mm All-In-One RGB LED CPU Liquid Cooler, 2x FX12 120mm PWM Fans, Intel, AMD, 5 YR Warranty, 400-HY-CL24-V1 - 400-HY-CL24-V1

EVGA North America's #1 NVIDIA partner.

de.evga.com

(there are several FTW3 cards available)

None whatsoever. I only use windows for occasional gaming but they play nicely with each other. I have the bootcamp drivers installed and installed the Nvidia card/drivers. So far, everything has been plug and play with no issues. Which is surprising to me.

This is the ftw3 card that I have https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=11G-P4-2487-KR

 

[thomast0001]

Thanks for updating.

That's interesting that you're not seeing panics. My card is the ASUS ROG Strix variant. However I've also tried Nvidia's (the Founder's Edition) and was still experiencing the panics with that card as well.

I am using Slot #3 for the card as per Apple's advice (GPUs are best in slot 1 or 3 since those slots connect directly to the CPU and provide the best performance). I may try slot #5 just to see if it panics or not.

Hmmm. Differing reports for more or less the same hardware. Next logical question is what other (non-Apple) hardware have you installed? same goes for software. Anything from Adobe for example?

[edit] And what about peripherals?

 

[monkee13]

Hello, this is my first post. I am also trying to get my ASUS RTX 2080 running in Slot 3, but same like pretzelFTW I get CPU panics at sleep. Didn't tried to run Slot 5 because I am wondering if Slot 5 is really not connected to CPU directly.

@pretzelFTW if you tried Slot 5 please give us a short feedback.

Too bad, I want to get rid of my gaming pc.

 

[pretzelFTW]

@monkee I did try slot #5 and I'm still getting panics

I have the Nvidia card in slot #5 which is parallel to the 580x.

@TrevorR90 Do you mean adjacent to the 580X? (All slots are parallel to it). If you're adjacent to the 580X, then that's slot #3.

Hmmm. Differing reports for more or less the same hardware. Next logical question is what other (non-Apple) hardware have you installed? same goes for software. Anything from Adobe for example?

[edit] And what about peripherals?

@thomast0001 The only other 3rd party hardware I'm using is the GIGABYTE GC-Titan Ridge – but I've tried pulling that out and the 2080 Ti still causes panics.

Lots of 3rd party software (including Adobe). I used Migration Assistant when I set up this Mac, so it did bring a lot of cruft over from previous computers. I may try a fresh install on a new volume to see if anything's different.

 

[monkee13]

Thx for your feedback @pretzelFTW
Too bad that Slot 5 is also causing panics. I assume ASUS ROG Strix aren't made for our Macs.
My Mac is almost clean install and no panics without the 2080.

@All: which PCIe power ports are you using? My 2080 card needs 8 pin and 6 pin power supply. So I used Port 1 (8pin-6+2pin) and Port 2 (8pin-6+2pin using only 6 pin). Maybe using port 5 instead of port 2 with 6pin-6pin cable is doing the trick?
And are you using the TB or HDMI with your 580x?

 

[Stairway]

This thread really has me thinking about my setup: I was planning on just replacing the 580X with a Radeon VII, but now I'm thinking about keeping the 580X, and adding the Titan RTX from my PC.

I figure that I'll connect each card to a different input on my monitor --- HDMI for the 580X and DisplayPort for the Titan. Then I can just change monitor inputs depending on whether I'm booted into in macOS or Windows (I have them on separate SSDs).

 

[pretzelFTW]

@All: which PCIe power ports are you using? My 2080 card needs 8 pin and 6 pin power supply. So I used Port 1 (8pin-6+2pin) and Port 2 (8pin-6+2pin using only 6 pin). Maybe using port 5 instead of port 2 with 6pin-6pin cable is doing the trick?
And are you using the TB or HDMI with your 580x?

My card is using all pins of the "3 - 4" AUX connector
I'm using TB but I've also tried DP 1.4 over USB-C plugged into the VirtualLink port of the card. Both work fine.
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I figure that I'll connect each card to a different input on my monitor --- HDMI for the 580X and DisplayPort for the Titan. Then I can just change monitor inputs depending on whether I'm booted into in macOS or Windows (I have them on separate SSDs).

One thing I've observed is that I can't have a display plugged into the Nvidia card when booting into macOS. I'll get stuck at the boot screen. So whenever I switch from Bootcamp back to macOS, I have to switch the cable over to the other card. A bit of a pain, but I boot into Windows once or twice a week so not a big deal for me.

 

[Krevnik]

Lots of 3rd party software (including Adobe). I used Migration Assistant when I set up this Mac, so it did bring a lot of cruft over from previous computers. I may try a fresh install on a new volume to see if anything's different.

I normally migrate manually. Tried to use Migration Assistant when I got the Mini and it made a mess of things. Enough that I had to create a new account on the machine to escape the bugs induced by the migration.

Might be worth just trying a new account on the machine, assuming you don't have stuff installing kexts. Faster if you just want to see if it helps with the sleep issues.

One thing I've observed is that I can't have a display plugged into the Nvidia card when booting into macOS. I'll get stuck at the boot screen. So whenever I switch from Bootcamp back to macOS, I have to switch the cable over to the other card. A bit of a pain, but I boot into Windows once or twice a week so not a big deal for me.

This is somewhat worrying since it does suggest a driver issue of some kind, as if it is trying to setup a display driver for the card but can't. Attempting to boot up in verbose mode to see the spew might be interesting here.

Not sure it'll help you in the short term, but it might help someone looking to create some sort of workaround to fully disable the card under macOS?

 

[Stairway]

One thing I've observed is that I can't have a display plugged into the Nvidia card when booting into macOS. I'll get stuck at the boot screen. So whenever I switch from Bootcamp back to macOS, I have to switch the cable over to the other card. A bit of a pain, but I boot into Windows once or twice a week so not a big deal for me.

Oh, that's good to know --- thanks for sharing that.

 

[MacFlaX]

Short feedback, unfortunately not the same positive experience like @TrevorR90 so far.

I installed an EVGA 2080 FTW3 Super https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=08G-P4-3283-KR (practically the non-ti version of Trevor’s card) in slot 3 in addition to the 580MPX in slot 1. Unfortunately with kernel panic when going into sleep in macOS. Otherwise silent and “ignored“ in macOS.
Under Windows the card works like intended, but sometimes with sync problems with LG 5k (Gen2) connected via USB-C in 4k (desktop looks like interlaced).

Summary so far: no sleep is a no go for me. If I don’t find a solution for it, the card will have to go back, unfortunately.

 

[pretzelFTW]

Summary so far: no sleep is a no go for me. If I don’t find a solution for it, the card will have to go back, unfortunately.

I disabled auto sleep and I shut down manually now. I've considered returning/selling the card but I want 4K 60fps at ultra, so most likely I'll put up with this until AMD ships a gaming card that can comfortably handle that.

 

[gabrielefx]

I've installed two RTX2080Tis. Unfortunately these gpus inside a standard pc case run cooler, about 10° Celsius less. The Mac Pro 7.1 cooling system is not designed for axial or blower fans. Also on Bootcamp the 3 Mac fans on the front aren't accessible, we can't tweak the speed. I have to use Msi Afterburner to adjust the RTX fans speed but it's not enough, there isn't enough air to push into the blowers.

 

[OkiRun]

I've installed two RTX2080Tis. Unfortunately these gpus inside a standard pc case run cooler, about 10° Celsius less. The Mac Pro 7.1 cooling system is not designed for axial or blower fans. Also on Bootcamp the 3 Mac fans on the front arent't accessible, we can't tweak the speed. I have to use Msi Afterburner to adjust the RTX fans speed but it's not enough, there isn't enough air to push into the blowers.

Can I ask why you need so much GPU power?

 

[gabrielefx]

Can I ask why you need so much GPU power?

I needed an hybrid dual boot workstation, MacOS and Windows on the same machine. Sometime I use Mac apps (Final Cut and Logic), very often 3d apps using CUDA on Windows.
There aren't alternatives, I could buy two different workstations and spend more.
On Bootcamp this machine is blazing fast. I use the Radeon Pro 580X to drive a 5Kx2K monitor (LG 34WK95U-W) and the two Nvidia gpus as slaves for rendering with Blender and Optix
AMD and Nvidia gpus can cohesist on Windows 10, unfortunately they can't on MacOS.
Lenovo, Dell, HP or assembled workstations probably run faster and cooler but they can't run an official supported MacOS, they haven't four thunderbolt 3 ports, many pci slots, a compact design with premium materials.