MP 1,1-5,1 MacPro5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (10.13/10.14 BootROM upgrades instructions thread)

[da2ce7]

I have installed v.144 firmware, however my Samsung SSD 970 Pro is only detected as an external drive. (Thus not available as a boot drive).

I have tried resetting the NVRAM 3 times. (I hold, hear the chime twice, but don’t ever hear the chime a 3rd or 4th time, it just boots normally after cleaning once. So I shutdown and do the cleaning thrice, each step independent.)

I’m using a generic 4x PCI adaptor.

Anything I could be missing/suggestions?

 

[tsialex]

I have installed v.144 firmware, however my Samsung SSD 970 Pro is only detected as an external drive. (Thus not available as a boot drive).

I have tried resetting the NVRAM 3 times. (I hold, hear the chime twice, but don’t ever hear the chime a 3rd or 4th time, it just boots normally after cleaning once. So I shutdown and do the cleaning thrice, each step independent.)

I’m using a generic 4x PCI adaptor.

Anything I could be missing/suggestions?

All PCIe drives (SATA, SAS, AHCI, M.2, U.2, RAID arrays) are external to the Mac Pro firmware, only drives connected to the 6 native SATA ports of the Mac Pro southbridge are internal.

All PCIe drives are bootable, your problem is elsewhere. Fully erase your M.2 drive and do a clean install.

 

[da2ce7]

All PCIe drives (SATA, SAS, AHCI, M.2, U.2, RAID arrays) are external to the Mac Pro firmware, only drives connected to the 6 native SATA ports of the Mac Pro southbridge are internal.

All PCIe drives are bootable, your problem is elsewhere. Fully erase your M.2 drive and do a clean install.

Thank you for your your reply,

When I load the MacOS installer from my USB, I seem to be unable select the M.2 drive as the installation destination.

I assumed this was because the drive is recognized as external.

Is there a way to install MacOS here?

 

[tsialex]

Thank you for your your reply,

When I load the MacOS installer from my USB, I seem to be unable select the M.2 drive as the installation destination.

I assumed this was because the drive is recognized as external.

Is there a way to install MacOS here?

You are doing something wrong.

For any Mac Pro firmware after 140.0.0.0.0, a PCIe M.2 Blade is the same as a SATA/Firewire/USB one. No difference.

Again, partition and format it correctly.

 

[g126]

If you never used Windows, you are safe. The corruption is caused by Windows, not macOS.

Hello there! So I've just found out about this possible corruption caused by Windows EFI installs... I did my first EFI install last year and since then reinstalled it twice... My Mac is an early 2009 flashed to 5,1 with BootROM 144.0 (but this was done recently and AFTER the last Windows EFI reinstall).

I'm guessing now that I should be worried... Even though everything is working smoothly... How do I check for corruption? Is there a thread you can point me too? I've seen ROMTool being mentioned but I wasn't able to download it (as the link takes me to an archive and the ZIP file requires a password).. Also seen Binwalk mentioned, but I'm guessing this is for after you've extracted the ROM info using some tool...

i'll also PM you.. thanks!

 

[StellarVixen]

All Polaris cards work OOB, right? There are no extra steps to make them work. I see you wrote 3 Radeon cards in bold, like they are the only ones that work OOB. I think every Radeon 400 and 500 work with no extra steps needed.

 

[tsialex]

All Polaris cards work OOB, right? There are no extra steps to make them work. I see you wrote 3 Radeon cards in bold, like they are the only ones that work OOB. I think every Radeon 400 and 500 work with no extra steps needed.

No, several Polaris cards don't work at all and you can only install a card that has the deviceID in the drivers.

Not all Polaris cards have support, some like Radeon 550 and several non-common models like some Chinese market versions with less CUs and different deviceIDs don't work at all. RX 480 models that were factory modded to use RX 580 firmware work with several limitations and can make a Mac Pro shutdown when in heavy usage. Some RX 460 and 560 have problems with HDMI, some have DVI pink screen…

 

[crjackson2134]

the link takes me to an archive and the ZIP file requires a password)

The Password is "rom"

Also seen Binwalk mentioned, but I'm guessing this is for after you've extracted the ROM info using some tool...

Correct

 

[StellarVixen]

No, several Polaris cards don't work at all and you can only install a card that has the deviceID in the drivers. Not all Polaris cards have support, some like Radeon 550 and several non-common models like some Chinese market versions with less CUs and different deviceIDs don't work at all. RX 480 models that were modded to use RX 580 firmware work with several limitations and can make a Mac Pro shutdown when in heavy usage. Some RX 460 and 560 have problems with HDMI, some have DVI pink screen…

OK, then is it safe to say that MOST Polaris cards from WELL KNOWN manufacturers will work?

I recently assembled Hackintosh, and my RX580 from Asus works OOB. I know this is Mac Pro thread, but situation should be similar.

I also see several 5.1 Pros listing for relatively cheap locally, so it's good to know what works if I decide to buy one.

 

[tsialex]

Hello there! So I've just found out about this possible corruption caused by Windows EFI installs... I did my first EFI install last year and since then reinstalled it twice... My Mac is an early 2009 flashed to 5,1 with BootROM 144.0 (but this was done recently and AFTER the last Windows EFI reinstall).

I'm guessing now that I should be worried... Even though everything is working smoothly... How do I check for corruption? Is there a thread you can point me too? I've seen ROMTool being mentioned but I wasn't able to download it (as the link takes me to an archive and the ZIP file requires a password).. Also seen Binwalk mentioned, but I'm guessing this is for after you've extracted the ROM info using some tool...

i'll also PM you.. thanks!

ROMTool pasword is "rom", you can check for SecureBoot certificates with binwalk. There are a lot of posts about this question and explanations on the BootROM thread, search is your friend.
[automerge]1570215409[/automerge]

OK, then is it safe to say that MOST Polaris cards from WELL KNOWN manufacturers will work?

Dell is one of the common offenders with factory modding RX 480 to RX 580 that shutdown Mac Pros.

Some RX 560 from Sapphire and MSI have the HDMI problem. Sapphire cards for the Chinese market have less CUs and have problems since the driver expects a different config. A lot of Polaris cards from XFX don't work at all.

That's why Apple certified those specific cards.

 

[g126]

ROMTool pasword is "rom", you can check for SecureBoot certificates with binwalk. There are a lot of posts about this question and explanations on the BootROM thread, search is your friend.
...

Obrigado!

I've been searching for the last 4 hours.. I see a lot of people complaining, a lot of questions, you seem to be helping out a lot of people too, so kudos to you on that... Just looking for a centralized place that explains the problem and a how to on how to figure out if you're affected... I'll get there eventually.

Tried to PM you but can't seem to find where and how to do that on this forum (I guess I'm still a newbie so no PM privileges).

 

[tsialex]

Obrigado!

I've been searching for the last 4 hours.. I see a lot of people complaining, a lot of questions, you seem to be helping out a lot of people too, so kudos to you on that... Just looking for a centralized place that explains the problem and a how to on how to figure out if you're affected... I'll get there eventually.

Tried to PM you but can't seem to find where and how to do that on this forum (I guess I'm still a newbie so no PM privileges).

I've sent you a PM with instructions. Get everything and I'll check your dump when I have free time.

 

[bb_mac]

Thanks for this - it actually jogged my memory, rather than having to follow the entire process - at least, it partially jogged my memory.

I'd managed to get High Sierra installed some time back, I really couldn't remember how. My BootRom whilst attempting Mojave (after finally biting the bullet and getting a radeon 580 (MSI AMD RX 580 ARMOR 8G) was 138. No amount of following the guide of holding down the power button worked, using the old Nvidia card that was in the Mac when I got it - still 138.

Finally, memory jogged - I hauled out my ancient ATi Radeon X1900 from storage, which is almost completely shot (fan bearings buggered), but does actually boot (just) - which enabled the BootRom upgrade.

Oddly enough, the Nvidia card which came with the mac I have (gifted from a previous workplace - they were turfing out 22 mac pro's of varying ages, I snagged 3 of them, gave one to a mate, using the best one and have another for spares.) - didn't work. I suspect they were all upgraded at some point?

The ATi card was from a 3.1 I sold ages back - I kept the card just in case. Goes to show, always useful to keep old hardware knocking about.

What a bizarre setup this all is by Apple - but hey, it worked. Now running Mojave and waiting for 16gb of memory to ship from China (only have 8gb right now).

I'm going to nurse this 5.1 for another few years yet, the 2 x 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeons in it handle everything I throw at them just fine - not bad for a computer 9 years old!

Catalina? Heck, I may see which way the wind is blowing in a year or two - not really into the instability of the options to get it working, having migrated some years back from a hackintosh (what a pain in the rear upgrades can be on a hackintosh - so much easier to just buy an old mac pro (at least, whilst the going is good) !)

I'll miss my GTX 970 - great card - but the 580 probably kicks it's arse, no idea - don't use this Mac for gaming.

All said and done, I've got 2 years use out of this 5.1 for a fraction of the price of a new mac and cling onto the ability to upgrade it for at least a few more years. Sadly, these days will soon be over.
My shiny new macBook from work is all well and good, but there's no way in hell I'd ever pay that much for a home Mac - I'd rather go back to Hackintosh.

Anyway, rambling on - thanks OP - a little patience and some reading and all good.

 

[DudeMeC]

Please fully read this first post, you will probably find that you have one or more problems described into the various notes below.​

Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU.

If you are trying to install Mojave on a Mac Pro 5,1 (2009 updated to 5,1 firmware, 2010 and 2012), you have first to upgrade your BootROM to version MP51.0089.B00 and to High Sierra 10.13.6, then you can install a Metal capable GPU and install Mojave.

You can read the Apple Support article here: Install macOS 10.14 Mojave on Mac Pro (Mid 2010) and Mac Pro (Mid 2012).

Remember: Apple Mojave recommend RX-560/580 cards do not have pre-boot configuration support (boot screens), so you need to install your original Mac EFI GPU to upgrade your BootROM to MP51.0089.B00 using the Mac App Store High Sierra 10.13.6 full installer. After that, Mojave installer can upgrade your firmware without the need of a Mac EFI GPU and requires that you only have Metal supported cards installed in your Mac Pro.​

​

The Apple third-party graphics cards list identifies specific cards that are compatible:​

• MSI Gaming Radeon RX 560 128-bit 4GB GDDR5
• SAPPHIRE Radeon PULSE RX 580 8GB GDDR5
• SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition
• NVIDIA Quadro K5000 for Mac
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition

The three cards listed in bold above have pre-boot configuration support/Mac EFI.​

​

The list also identifies cards that might be compatible, none of which have pre-boot configuration support/Mac EFI:​

• AMD Radeon RX 560
• AMD Radeon RX 570
• AMD Radeon RX 580
• AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100
• AMD Radeon RX Vega 56
• AMD Radeon RX Vega 64
• AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100
• AMD Radeon Frontier Edition

- Hacked installs note:

If you did a hacked install, like dosdude one, you will probably need to do a clean install to upgrade your firmware.​

Only the full Mac App Store installers work for upgrading the firmware, macOS installers patched with dosdude tool can't upgrade the firmware. Apple firmware upgrade tool needs a clean and standard EFI partition to do so, so you probably need to do a clean install before trying to upgrade the firmware if you used a hacked install.​

- RAID & SATA III PCIe cards note:

You can't upgrade your firmware if you are booting from a RAID array or using a SATA III card. Remove all RAID drives and boot from a SATA drive connected into a native SATA port. Btw, Mojave don't boot from SoftwareRAID arrays or any hardware array that present to the OS as multiple disks.​

​

Sometimes people can't upgrade from PCIe AHCI and NVMe blades too, so use the same advice if you have any problems while upgrading the firmware.​

- Upgrade your firmware from High Sierra installed in an APFS drive:

A lot of people report that can't upgrade the BootROM from High Sierra installed with HFS+, so use a new/empty drive to install High Sierra from an APFS partition. Btw, Mojave requires APFS.​

- Homemade Fusion drives note:

Mojave has to be installed with APFS and the way Fusion drives are made changed. Use a SATA disk installed on the south bridge ports to do all firmware upgrades and the Mojave install. After you already upgrade your Mac Pro firmware to 144.0.0.0.0 and Mojave is installed, you can recreate the Fusion drive.​

- Upgrade firmware from USB note:

You can’t upgrade Mac Pro firmware from createinstallmedia USB-key. Do it from macOS. It only works if you have the exact original config and if your Mac Pro is 2010/2012. Don’t waste your time trying, the USB installer asks for you to shutdown and then never power off your Mac Pro.​

- Kepler NVIDIA GPUs (GT 640/740, GTX 670/680/780, Quadro K5000) note:

If you have a supported NVIDIA Kepler GPU like GTX 680 Mac Edition card, GTX 680 flashed with the Mac Edition firmware, GT 640/740, GTX 670/770/780 or a Quadro K5000 you can't do a USB clean install with it at the moment. The USB installer don't detect that the GPU is a Metal supported card and don't continue the install, it's a bug with Nvidia Kepler GPUs.​

To do a clean install, do from macOS with two drives - just select your empty one when doing the install.​

- Bluetooth keyboards/mice note:

A lot of people have problems installing macOS with Apple and third party bluetooth keyboards/mice. It's best to use wired ones.​

- Stuttering audio with Dual Processors MP4,1 upgraded to MP5,1 firmware when running Mojave note:

Be aware that on Dual Processors MP4,1>5,1 machines that still have the original Gainestown processors (Xeon 55xx-series), after installing Mojave you will have stuttering audio problems that only can be solved upgrading the Xeon processors to Westmere (Xeon 56xx-series), read about on this thread Strange Audio Issue on MP 4,1>5,1 Mojave 10.14.4.​

​

This is a problem exclusive of Dual Processor MP4,1 and single CPU MP4,1 don't have this problem at all.​

- Mojave black screens with AMD Polaris GPUs (RX 4xx/5xx) note:

Some people are getting black screens with Mojave when using RX 4xx/5xx GPUs, if you are having it, do a clean install or debug your kexts, seems a problem with incompatible Air Display kexts. Read here.​

- 144.0.0.0.0 and previous macOS releases note:

Yes, BootROM 144.0.0.0.0 can boot even 10.6.8, no problem, but you are limited to GPU driver support since you can't boot a macOS versions that don't have drivers for your GPU. For example, with AMD RX 4xx/5xx GPUs, you are limited to 10.12.6/10.13/10.14.​

Btw, you can upgrade your firmware to 144.0.0.0.0 without installing Mojave, just close the installer after the firmware upgrade is done.​

- 144.0.0.0.0 and High Sierra with HFS+ drives note:

If you want to upgrade to BootROM 144.0.0.0.0 and don't want to upgrade to Mojave, just close the Mojave installer when the installer opens again post firmware upgrade completion. Mojave changes your main drive to APFS, but if you end the install process after the firmware upgrade, nothing will be changed.​

- 144.0.0.0.0, High Sierra and Mojave METAL unsupported NVIDIA GPUs:

If you want to upgrade to BootROM 144.0.0.0.0 to use High Sierra and a Maxwell or Pascal NVIDIA GPU, if your GPU is working correctly with High Sierra NVIDIA WEB drivers, you can use the Mojave installer to upgrade the BootROM.​

​

Lot's of people have been using GTX 980/1080 with 10.13.6 and upgrading to current BootROMs without any problems.​

- 140.0.0.0.0 to 144.0.0.0.0 firmware upgrade note:

The fail-proof way to upgrade a MP5,1 firmware is to fully erase a SATA drive, install High Sierra 10.13.6 to it, download the current Mac App Store full installer (10.14.6), clear the NVRAM 3 times in sequence, after that you try to upgrade the firmware running the Mojave full installer.​

See this thread Updating my MacPro 5.1 from 140.0.0.0.0 to 144.0.0.0.0 does not work​

- PCIe drives as external drives:

This is off-topic but since people asks, I added it here.​

​

All types of PCIe drives (SATA, SAS, AHCI, NVMe, M.2, U.2, RAID arrays, etc) are external to the Mac Pro firmware, only drives connected to the six native SATA ports of the Mac Pro southbridge are internal to the BootROM.​

PCIe drives are bootable, exactly as the internal ones.​

If you have a earlier than MP51.0089.B00 BootROM version, these are the steps to upgrade your BootROM to have Mojave support:

1. Disconnect any 4K or DP1.2 display. You can't update to MP51.0089.B00 with a 4K/DP1.2 screen connected to your Mac EFI GPU. It's a old bug that Apple corrected with MP6,1 and "forgot" to correct with the MP5,1. MP5,1 efiflasher don't support 4K screens or DP1.2, you can reconnect after you update your BootROM. If you monitor has a option to downgrade to DP1.1, use it, if not, you will need another monitor.
2. Disable FileVault2 if enabled, since FV2 is not supported anymore with a Mac Pro 5,1 running Mojave.
3. Install a Mac EFI64 GPU. Any original Apple card from 2008 to 2012 (HD 2600XT, 8800GT, Quadro FX 5600, GT120, HD 4870/5770/5870) or 3rd party Mac EFI cards like Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition, eVGA GTX 680 Mac Edition, NVIDIA Quadro 4000/K5000 or self-flashed/MVC flashed cards. Please note that if your flashed GPU is not macOS installer compatible, like NVIDIA Maxwell and Pascal, you need to install one that is.
4. If you use a SATA III PCIe card, remove your drive from the card and install into the Mac Pro SATA II ports, a lot of people report trouble doing the firmware upgrade with SATA III PCIe cards.
5. If you ever downloaded any previous version of High Sierra, have it saved in any of Mac Pro external drives, you have to delete it/move to a offline disk and then restart your Mac. You need the current High Sierra 10.13.6 full installer from the Mac App Store, no previous version have the needed MP51.0089.B00 BootROM.
6. This is the Apple Support page where you can get the link for the 10.13.6 Mac App Store Installer (you need this even if you already are on 10.13.6). see the image below. Note, if you never used Mac App Store before, you need to validate your account first and download a free app before trying to get High Sierra View attachment 793503
7. Open the High Sierra 10.13.6 Mac App Store full installer, do the firmware upgrade as asked.
8. After the firmware upgrade, High Sierra installer will open again, you can close it.
9. Now check if your Mac Pro BootROM is MP51.0089.B00, if yes you can shutdown and install your Metal capable GPU (any AMD equal or newer than HD 7xxx, NVIDIA GTX 680 Mac Edition, Quadro K5000 and other NVIDIA Kepler cards). [If you have a NVIDIA card that need the web driver, Maxwell and Pascal ones, wait for NVIDIA release it for Mojave if ever…]
10. Download the full Mac App Store installer for Mojave. If you ever downloaded any previous version of Mojave, have it saved in any of Mac Pro external drives, you have to delete it/move to a offline disk and then restart your Mac. You need the current Mojave 10.14.5 or 10.14.6 full installer from the Mac App Store, no previous version have the needed 144.0.0.0.0 BootROM.
11. Open the installer, do the firmware upgrade as asked. (Note, if you never used Mac App Store before, you need to validate your account first and download a free app before trying to get Mojave).
12. After the reboot, open System Information and check if you have BootROM 144.0.0.0.0, if yes, you can do a createinstallmedia USB clean install (read NVIDIA GTX 680/780/Quadro K5000 note) or upgrade your previous High Sierra install.

- Mac Pro 5,1 firmware releases, from the oldest to the newest:

​

Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.5 with MP51.007F.B03 First public released Mac Pro 5,1 firmware update​

10.13 DP5 with MP51.0083.B00 with initial APFS support​

10.13 DP6 with MP51.0084.B00 with APFS support​

10.13.4 with MP51.085.B00 (Mojave DP1/DP2/PB1/DP3/PB2 too)​

10.13.5 with MP51.087.B00 missing the Intel Xeon microcodes​

10.13.6 with MP51.089.B00 updating to the Spectre mitigated microcodes on the April 2 Microcode Update Guidance.​

10.14 DP7/PB6 with 138.0.0.0.0 with 5GT/s and new microcodes​

10.14.1 DP1 with 139.0.0.0.0​

10.14.1 DP3 with 140.0.0.0.0 with NVMe support​

10.14.4 DP2 with 141.0.0.0.0 minor updates​

10.14.4 DP4 with 142.0.0.0.0 W3xxx Xeon "bricker" & updated APFSJumpStart EFI module​

10.14.4 final with 141.0.0.0.0 minor updates​

10.14.5 DP1 with 142.0.0.0.0 again with W3xxx Xeon "bricker"​

10.14.5 DP2 back to 141.0.0.0.0​

10.14.5 DP4 with 144.0.0.0.0 lot's of corrections, booting improvements​

10.14.5 final with 144.0.0.0.0 lot's of corrections, booting improvements​

​

BootROM Version	Released with:	Type:	Note:
MP51.007F.B03	Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.5	General release	First public released Mac Pro 5,1 firmware update
MP51.0083.B00	10.13 DP5	Beta	Beta APFS support
MP51.0084.B00	10.13 DP6 and 10.13.0	General release	Initial APFS support
MP51.0085.B00	10.13.4 and Mojave DP1 to DP3	General release	APFS support
MP51.0087.B00	10.13.5	General release	Missing microcodes
MP51.0089.B00	10.13.6	General release	Spectre/Meltdown mitigated microcodes on the April 2 Microcode Update Guidance.
138.0.0.0.0	10.14 DP7 and 10.14.0	General release	5GT/s support for every PCIe 2.0 card
139.0.0.0.0	10.14.1 DP1	Beta	minor updates and corrections
140.0.0.0.0	10.14.1 DP3 and 10.14.1 to 10.14.4	General release	NVMe boot, minor updates and corrections
141.0.0.0.0	10.14.4 DP2	Beta	minor updates and corrections
142.0.0.0.0	10.14.4 DP4 and 10.14.5 DP1	Beta	Updated APFSJumpStart EFI module - W3xxx Xeon bricker
144.0.0.0.0	10.14.5 DP4 and 10.14.5	General release	lot's of corrections, booting improvements. This is the current BootROM release

If nothing above works for you, try this:

1. Download El Capitan (10.11.6) or Sierra (10.12.6) - don't use 10.13/10.14 to this, both require firmware updates to install. Download from the Mac App Store, don't use hacked installs, torrents, etc.
2. Use createinstallmedia to create a USB key installer.
3. Shutdown your Mac Pro and remove all PCIe cards except your Mac EFI GPU.
4. Clear your Mac Pro SMC and NVRAM - clear NVRAM 3 times sequentially.
5. Remove all disks except the one that you will do a clean install of 10.11.6/10.12.6.
6. Power on your Mac Pro and do a clean install of 10.11.6/10.12.6.
7. After 10.11.6/10.12.6 is installed, download 10.13.6 full Mac App Store installer and open it, the High Sierra installer will ask you to perform a firmware update, shutdown your Mac Pro and do it. Download from the Mac App Store, don't use hacked installs, torrents, etc.
8. After your Mac Pro restarts, close the installer and go to SystemInformation and check if your BootROM is MP51.0089.B00 now. If not, you did something wrong.
9. Use createinstallmedia to create a USB key installer of High Sierra, power off your Mac Pro.
10. Power on your Mac Pro, boot from the createinstallmedia USB-key and do a clean install of 10.13.6 - always do clean installs.
11. After 10.13.6 is installed, shutdown your Mac Pro and replace your original GPU with a Metal supported one.
12. Power on your Mac Pro and download 10.14.6 full Mac App Store installer. Download from the Mac App Store, don't use hacked installs, torrents, etc. Open it, the Mojave installer will ask you to perform a firmware update, shutdown your Mac Pro and do it.
13. After your Mac Pro restarts, check if your BootROM is 144.0.0.0.0, if it is, you can create a USB-key and do a clean install of Mojave now. If you have a NVIDIA GTX 680, then you have to do a clean install from your 10.13.6 disk into another disk, since USB installer has a bug that don't identify GT640/740, GTX 680/780/Quadro K5000 as a METAL supported GPU.

I just wanted to say thank you soooo much for this!!! It really helped me a lot and I finally got all the way up to Mojave from Sierra!!!!

 

[Farravi]

Tsialex - What would you say is the most suitable graphics card for my setup out of Apple's compatible list for Mojave and the cMP 5,1.

.I'm looking to run 2 x LG 34 Ultrawide with 3440 x 1440 " 60hz on a 5,1 12 Core with plenty of HD and since I'm downgrading from currently the GTX980Ti, it needs to be around similar performance if not better.

 

[h9826790]

Tsialex - What would you say is the most suitable graphics card for my setup out of Apple's compatible list for Mojave and the cMP 5,1.

.I'm looking to run 2 x LG 34 Ultrawide with 3440 x 1440 " 60hz on a 5,1 12 Core with plenty of HD and since I'm downgrading from currently the GTX980Ti, it needs to be around similar performance if not better.

Anything above Vega56 is an upgrade from 980Ti

So, for Mojave (I assume you will run the latest 10.14.6, but not any earlier build), the possible choices are

Vega56 (Weakest, about 7% faster than 980Ti on average, and can be 50% faster in compute)
Vega64
Vega FE
Radeon II (Strongest, about 40% faster than 980Ti on average, and can be 100% faster in compute)

And if you really go for the downgrade route, then Anything between HD7000 series and RX580 should work. If you prefer Nvidia, then Kepler cards are the only choice (but I really can't see any reason why should go for these cards).

 

[Birckcmi]

Is there a separate thread on Mac Pro GPUs? If so, then this post should shuffle off to that forum. My question is: I collected a number of possible Mojave-ready GPUs to finally get 10.14 running. I managed to
do that, but now I have 5 or 6 maybe Mojave-ready GPUs to sort out: 2X Nvidia GT630s, a Nvida Quadro 4000, an Nvidia GTX960 (flashed), and 2X Sapphire Radeon Pulse RX580. The Sapphires work exactly as advertised, but the others have some problems, either with both Mojave and High Sierra, or with Mojave alone. IS this the right place to describe the symptoms, or not?

 

[tsialex]

Is there a separate thread on Mac Pro GPUs? If so, then this post should shuffle off to that forum. My question is: I collected a number of possible Mojave-ready GPUs to finally get 10.14 running. I managed to
do that, but now I have 5 or 6 maybe Mojave-ready GPUs to sort out: 2X Nvidia GT630s, a Nvida Quadro 4000, an Nvidia GTX960 (flashed), and 2X Sapphire Radeon Pulse RX580. The Sapphires work exactly as advertised, but the others have some problems, either with both Mojave and High Sierra, or with Mojave alone. IS this the right place to describe the symptoms, or not?

Nope, go to a thread about GPUs to further discuss this. BTW, it's not just METAL, but driver support since Mojave only support Kepler NVIDIA GPUs:

1. GTX 960 is a Maxwell GPU and won't work after 10.13.6, since it needs NVIDIA web drivers to work.
2. Quadro 4000 is Fermi GPU and won't work after 10.13.6, supports end with High Sierra since Apple native NVIDIA drivers for Mojave only work with Kepler GPUs.

 

[Birckcmi]

OK. Thank you for the details. I'll sort out the nomenclature (Fermi, Maxwell, etc.) and find the GPU thread elsewhere. And find out more about Kepler GPUs.

 

[thewebgal]

Thanks for all the tips - I did the Mjoave installinstall download, started the install and got the firmware upgrade to 144.0.0.0.0 just fine - thanks so much for all the details!
With luck I'll try the Catalina upgrade later this weekend.

 

[Plutonius]

Thanks for all the tips - I did the Mjoave installinstall download, started the install and got the firmware upgrade to 144.0.0.0.0 just fine - thanks so much for all the details!
With luck I'll try the Catalina upgrade later this weekend.

From what I have been reading here, it looks like Catalina is not recommended on cMPs right now.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...1.2183978/page-21?post=27837956#post-27837956

"No one should install Catalina now. Even for a test system on a secondary disk, it's a basket case. FCPx didn't even open with DP8, Xcode 11.2.b1 is crashing…

For me personally, Catalina is a way to keep MP5,1 getting "unofficial" updates after Mojave support ends and Xcode support after Apple stop it from running with 10.14. Most of the really interesting resources of 10.15 won't work with MP5,1 anyway, like Sidecar or HEIVC support everywhere."

 

[bsbeamer]

Straight up would hold on Catalina for a bit. There’s some big issues with OS, even for approved machines. The Apple Mail bug hit a few early adopters pretty hard.

Personally would wait til .3 or .4 to even consider for daily OS. I’ve tentatively suggested late January or February 2020 for some client offices with multiple approved machines when they asked about upgrading.

Some software isn’t even “approved” for Catalina yet. Most plugins are, however. The irony on that one...

 

[greg97]

Thanks to this thread, I've been running Mojave very nicely for the past month or so. Yesterday I got a message saying that there was a Mojave update, do you wish to restart...I did the restart, it downloaded what seemed to be quite a large update as it took over 2 minutes to do so, went through all the usual motions, rebooted, and when it came back up, my software update was stating that the same Mojave update was available, do I wish to restart?? I tried it again, but no luck...has anyone else encountered this issue? Anything else I can try? Thanks!

 

[tsialex]

Thanks to this thread, I've been running Mojave very nicely for the past month or so. Yesterday I got a message saying that there was a Mojave update, do you wish to restart...I did the restart, it downloaded what seemed to be quite a large update as it took over 2 minutes to do so, went through all the usual motions, rebooted, and when it came back up, my software update was stating that the same Mojave update was available, do I wish to restart?? I tried it again, but no luck...has anyone else encountered this issue? Anything else I can try? Thanks!

You should go to the Mojave forum and ask about your problem there, this is out of the scope of the thread, firmware upgrades needed for running Mojave.

 

[Hdalio]

" 144.0.0.0.0, High Sierra and Mojave METAL unsupported NVIDIA GPUs:

If you want to upgrade to BootROM 144.0.0.0.0 to use High Sierra and a Maxwell or Pascal NVIDIA GPU, if your GPU is working correctly with High Sierra NVIDIA WEB drivers, you can use the Mojave installer to upgrade the BootROM.

Lot's of people have been using GTX 980/1080 with 10.13.6 and upgrading to current BootROMs without any problems."




I want to try this, but I don't know how to do the procedure!
Anybody helpme?
Thanks