Mojave Boot Screens with Non-Metal Graphics

[NorCalLights]

Hi,
I'm thinking about grabbing an RX 580 to throw into my Mac Pro 4,1->5,1 so I can upgrade to Mojave. Newegg has a good deal on one, but it's not gonna give me boot screens.

Right now, I'm running High Sierra with a MVC-flashed NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (which gives me boot screens and Metal, but no driver support in Mojave), and I still have the old Radeon HD 4870 that came with the machine (boot screens, but no Metal).

I'm fine living without boot screens 99% of the time, but if I ever do get stuck and need them for something after I upgrade to Mojave, can I still swap back to one of my other two graphics cards? Should I create a High Sierra backup partition before I upgrade?

Thanks much.

 

[bsbeamer]

Should I create a High Sierra backup partition before I upgrade?

100% yes. Recommend everyone has a bootable clone of High Sierra to turn to for possible troubleshooting down the line.

 

[MarkC426]

Which make of RX580 are they selling.
Ideally you want a Sapphire Pulse.

 

[NorCalLights]

Which make of RX580 are they selling.
Ideally you want a Sapphire Pulse.

I was looking at this one: https://flash.newegg.com/Product/N82E16814930009?icid=WP_0_01212019 But only because of price. The Sapphire Pulse ends up being $50 more after rebates... which I guess is not that much, but what difference does it actually make? I haven't found anything to justify it yet.

 

[bsbeamer]

I haven't found anything to justify it yet.

Directly from APPLE:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208898

These specific third-party graphics cards are Metal-capable and compatible with macOS Mojave on Mac Pro (Mid 2010) and Mac Pro (Mid 2012):

• MSI Gaming Radeon RX 560 128-bit 4GB GDRR5
• SAPPHIRE Radeon PULSE RX 580 8GB GDDR5
• SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition
• NVIDIA Quadro K5000 for Mac
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition

 

[Yamahawk]

I have the stock Radeon HD5770 that I swapped back in after using the R9 280X to install Mojave, and it boots fine and goes to login screen, and will allow you to either CMD R to restore, or go into Mojave to check things. It seems to work fine, although any program that needs metal graphics will probably not work with the HD5770.
Charlie

 

[h9826790]

after I upgrade to Mojave, can I still swap back to one of my other two graphics cards?

Can, and both your card will able to boot to desktop, just no acceleration.

Should I create a High Sierra backup partition before I upgrade?

Up to you, but I will.

For this kind of big OS upgrade, I always keep the old OS backup (bootable clone) for at least one week.

My cMP works 24/7, and 3 family members will use it (with their own profile) almost everyday. Any significant issue should show up within a week. So, for me, a week is enough (but I usually leave that clone untouched for more than a month).

It's nothing about the data. My data has some other proper backup strategy. It's just a "fast revert" option for me. If don't like the new one. Or suddenly realise something doesn't work in the newOS. I can simply boot back to the old OS, finish the job, and then decide if I want to go back, or looking for fix in the new OS.

 

[monogee]

I have a Mac Pro 5,1 - Yesterday I was trying to upgrade to Mojave 10.4.3, but it says my graphics card doesn't support metal. Is it worth me picking up one of the compatible graphics cards listed above and if I do, will it become useless with further Mac OS Updates? Thanks

 

[h9826790]

I have a Mac Pro 5,1 - Yesterday I was trying to upgrade to Mojave 10.4.3, but it says my graphics card doesn't support metal. Is it worth me picking up one of the compatible graphics cards listed above and if I do, will it become useless with further Mac OS Updates? Thanks

Only you can decide if that's worth. For me, I really very like Mojave. It's worth for me to downgrade from 1080Ti to RX580 for the OS upgrade (of course, my 1080Ti won't be wasted. I put that into another computer to pair up with a 8700k to "assist" my cMP).

And no one knows will Apple further drop any GPU support on future upgrade (I mean upgrade to 10.15 onward, not small update within Mojave).

However, since Apple should provide 7 years support to iMac Pro (with Vega). And the MacBook Pro (with Polaris).

So, we can expect the RX 5xx and Vega will last for at least another 5 years.

 

[Jamesconnery]

I have the stock Radeon HD5770 that I swapped back in after using the R9 280X to install Mojave, and it boots fine and goes to login screen, and will allow you to either CMD R to restore, or go into Mojave to check things. It seems to work fine, although any program that needs metal graphics will probably not work with the HD5770.
Charlie

I installed Mojave using a GT640 and all went well after testing the new OS. Once I placed a GT120 in the tower Mojave got weird, the dock vanished and all the drive icons vanished as well. The entire UI to Mojave looked dark and pixelated. Restarted back into Mojave and re zapped the PRAM and everything went back to normal.