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MP 7,1 MPX + 6900XT

SDAVE

SDAVE

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 16, 2007
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Hey all, finally got a MP7,1 at a great price, so I have a 580X in there and added a 6900XT. Installed Win10 on a PCIe NVME and it's been kind of hard to get this thing working. I was getting some blue screens and then i reinstalled again and it seems to be working.

Running the bootcamp setup for some reason didn't install all the C621 chipset drivers so I had to manually find it and install it. So all is well.

However there's one PCI Device left in Other Devices
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_73A4&SUBSYS_04081002&REV_00

And I can't seem to install AMD Adrenaline drivers. It gives a 173 erorr. I have disabled 580X in Device manager and the 6900XT drivers from Windows update, but I would like to install the latest.

I have tried uninstalling the AMD Pro drivers and using DDU to clear it out, but I still always get the 173 error.

Any help appreciated
 
SDAVE said:
I have a question, if I take out the 580X MPX module and just leave the 6900XT PCie card (non MPX) will I lose Thunderbolt 3 video output?
Click to expand...
Yes. The 580X MPX module is the source of the four 4-lane DisplayPort signals that are sent to the two Thunderbolt controllers (top and I/O card) of the MacPro7,1.
https://www.apple.com/mac-pro/pdf/Mac_Pro_White_Paper_Aug_2021.pdf (this has been recently updated to include info about the 6000 series MPX GPUs)

Would be nice if someone made an MPX adapter with the 4 DisplayPort connections exposed (and two 4-lane PCIe connections, and 4 USB 2.0 connections if the Thunderbolt controllers on the MPX GPUs that have Thunderbolt don't do USB 2.0).
 
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SDAVE said:
I have a question, if I take out the 580X MPX module and just leave the 6900XT PCie card (non MPX) will I lose Thunderbolt 3 video output?
Click to expand...
Sorry I missed your post. As noted by joevt you'll lose the ability to connect a Thunderbolt display.

joevt said:
Would be nice if someone made an MPX adapter with the 4 DisplayPort connections exposed (and two 4-lane PCIe connections, and 4 USB 2.0 connections if the Thunderbolt controllers on the MPX GPUs that have Thunderbolt don't do USB 2.0).
Click to expand...
I wondered if you could insert a second I/O card into the system, but you can't. I could really use an extra 3.5mm jack, two TB3 ports and two USB3.0 ports! https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-i-o-card.2219744/
 
Last edited:
SDAVE said:
Hey all, finally got a MP7,1 at a great price, so I have a 580X in there and added a 6900XT. Installed Win10 on a PCIe NVME and it's been kind of hard to get this thing working. I was getting some blue screens and then i reinstalled again and it seems to be working.

Running the bootcamp setup for some reason didn't install all the C621 chipset drivers so I had to manually find it and install it. So all is well.

However there's one PCI Device left in Other Devices
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_73A4&SUBSYS_04081002&REV_00

And I can't seem to install AMD Adrenaline drivers. It gives a 173 erorr. I have disabled 580X in Device manager and the 6900XT drivers from Windows update, but I would like to install the latest.

I have tried uninstalling the AMD Pro drivers and using DDU to clear it out, but I still always get the 173 error.

Any help appreciated
Click to expand...
I got mine working by downloading the latest drivers, unzipping them and then in device manager select the unknown GPU which should be the 6900 XT. Choose update driver or install driver and then point it to the directory you unzipped the drivers from.

I have the Vega II Duo with 6900 XT and they all work in bootcamp now.
 
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joevt said:
Yes. The 580X MPX module is the source of the four 4-lane DisplayPort signals that are sent to the two Thunderbolt controllers (top and I/O card) of the MacPro7,1.
https://www.apple.com/mac-pro/pdf/Mac_Pro_White_Paper_Aug_2021.pdf (this has been recently updated to include info about the 6000 series MPX GPUs)

Would be nice if someone made an MPX adapter with the 4 DisplayPort connections exposed (and two 4-lane PCIe connections, and 4 USB 2.0 connections if the Thunderbolt controllers on the MPX GPUs that have Thunderbolt don't do USB 2.0).
Click to expand...
DFP1989 said:
Sorry I missed your post. As noted by joevt you'll lose the ability to connect a Thunderbolt display.


I wondered if you could insert a second I/O card into the system, but you can't. I could really use an extra 3.5mm jack, two TB3 ports and two USB3.0 ports! https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-i-o-card.2219744/
Click to expand...

Thanks for this very helpful. Makes sense Apple is routing TB3 Video through their MPX module. I guess down the line if I want to get a Apple TB3 display I have to upgrade the GPU to an MPX module one?

joelypolly said:
I got mine working by downloading the latest drivers, unzipping them and then in device manager select the unknown GPU which should be the 6900 XT. Choose update driver or install driver and then point it to the directory you unzipped the drivers from.

I have the Vega II Duo with 6900 XT and they all work in bootcamp now.
Click to expand...
Were you able to install the consumer Adrenaline software? I keep getting the error.

Also an additional question. Keeping the 580X in there and just using the 6900XT does anyone else notice some slowdowns? I am thinking if I take out the 580X I will regain some speed?
 
SDAVE said:
Thanks for this very helpful. Makes sense Apple is routing TB3 Video through their MPX module. I guess down the line if I want to get a Apple TB3 display I have to upgrade the GPU to an MPX module one?
Click to expand...
MPX is currently the only supported method to get Thunderbolt display support.

Using a Thunderbolt 3 or Thunderbolt 4 add-in card is not supported, requires some extra software that may not exist, and/or a firmware modification.

All the recent Thunderbolt 3 displays (LG UltraFine 4K, LG UltraFine 5K, Apple XDR) can work without Thunderbolt (in that case, LG UltraFine 5K works at 4K60 or 5K39 and Apple XDR requires GPU with DSC support for 6K60).
 
I was also wondering- I have two Vega II MPX modules- if it would make any sense to swap in a retail 6900 for one of the Vegas. But from reading in the other big thread here it sounds like the performance gains for video purposes would be rather minor?
 
SDAVE said:
Thanks for this very helpful. Makes sense Apple is routing TB3 Video through their MPX module. I guess down the line if I want to get a Apple TB3 display I have to upgrade the GPU to an MPX module one?


Were you able to install the consumer Adrenaline software? I keep getting the error.

Also an additional question. Keeping the 580X in there and just using the 6900XT does anyone else notice some slowdowns? I am thinking if I take out the 580X I will regain some speed?
Click to expand...
You probably want to run DDU first to remove all video card drivers

Yeah so the order of operations was bootcamp drivers installed from here https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/apple-boot-camp, restart and verify everything is working and you see the 580X Pro.

Then download https://www.amd.com/en/support/grap.../amd-radeon-6900-series/amd-radeon-rx-6900-xt and run the exe which will unzip the drivers on C:\amd\...

Go to device manager and you will see an unknown Microsoft video adapter and then select update drivers and select the folder you unzipped to and if should find the 6900xt drivers. Restart and you'll notice that the blue AMD gpu logo turns red to indicate you are using the consumer drivers but you see both GPUs in the system
 
Just an update, I removed the 580X and just left the 6900XT in there.

So far so good, the performance in macOS has gotten much better. Things are just more fluid now (I think the 580X was conflicting?)

Also in Windows as mentioned above I used DDU in safe mode to clean everything up, and installed Adrenaline drivers (non pro) and worked great!

I don't really need TB3 video right now I just run LG UL850 4k (dual) monitors via DisplayPort.

In the mean time I am trying to figure out if I can upgrade the 4x8 DIMMs that come on this model, if I had another 4x8GB off ebay (the OEM ones) for 64GB will I get 6 channels? I currently have 192GB (6x32GB) RDIMMS on order, but it may be overkill. I do like a minimum of 64GB though
 
SDAVE said:
In the mean time I am trying to figure out if I can upgrade the 4x8 DIMMs that come on this model, if I had another 4x8GB off ebay (the OEM ones) for 64GB will I get 6 channels? I currently have 192GB (6x32GB) RDIMMS on order, but it may be overkill. I do like a minimum of 64GB though
Click to expand...
You need 6 or 12 DIMMs for 6-channel. I believe 8 DIMMs will only give you four channel.

Install and replace memory in your Mac Pro (2019) – Apple Support (AU)

Find out how to remove and install memory in your Mac Pro.
support.apple.com support.apple.com

This is why I bought 6x 16GB DIMMs and put the stock Apple 4x 8GB in a drawer.
 
SDAVE said:
Just an update, I removed the 580X and just left the 6900XT in there.
Click to expand...
Well, I did too with my RX6800XT. I made a CPU change, my 580X was in slot three. I removed it to get better access to the CPU cooler. When I put it back in and buttoned everything up, the 580X did show as being installed. I opened her up again and reinstalled the 580X. And now display, all black. I messed with the external connections, and nothing. I opened her up again and saw that one of the power cables was kinked and rubbing against the 580X. So, I pulled the 580X and and still no power to the monitor. Opened her up again and replaced the offending cable, and voila👍 I threw the 580X in the trash:eek:

Lou
 
DFP1989 said:
You need 6 or 12 DIMMs for 6-channel. I believe 8 DIMMs will only give you four channel.

Install and replace memory in your Mac Pro (2019) – Apple Support (AU)

Find out how to remove and install memory in your Mac Pro.
support.apple.com support.apple.com

This is why I bought 6x 16GB DIMMs and put the stock Apple 4x 8GB in a drawer.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, so I got 6x32GB from OWC as they were on "sale" for $1229 or so. Everything feels so much faster after removing the stock 4x8GB stock RAM.

flowrider said:
Well, I did too with my RX6800XT. I made a CPU change, my 580X was in slot three. I removed it to get better access to the CPU cooler. When I put it back in and buttoned everything up, the 580X did show as being installed. I opened her up again and reinstalled the 580X. And now display, all black. I messed with the external connections, and nothing. I opened her up again and saw that one of the power cables was kinked and rubbing against the 580X. So, I pulled the 580X and and still no power to the monitor. Opened her up again and replaced the offending cable, and voila👍 I threw the 580X in the trash:eek:

Lou
Click to expand...

When I put in the new RAM, I had the 580X pulled out and only the 6900XT. I wasn't getting any video so had to put the 580X to get video via USB-C to my monitor. I then when I got the video after adding and checking new RAM is working, I shut it down and took out the 580X again and now everything works great.

Going to keep the 580X for "emergency purposes" ie black screen issues. It's definitely a piece of crap GPU ha
 
I've been getting these kinds of crashes lately when I am using programs such as Photoshop or something that uses the GPU. The system just freezes and reboots. I only have the retail 6900XT in the system.

  • Panic(CPU 0, time 36590197930901): NMIPI for unresponsive processor: TLB flush timeout, TLB state:0x0
  • Panic(CPU 1, time 150155266797675): NMIPI for spinlock acquisition timeout, spinlock: 0xffffff800a84a3e0, spinlock owner: 0xffffff86dd96ead0, current_thread: 0xffffff86dd96ead0, spinlock_owner_cpu: 0x1
  • Panic(CPU 0, time 155220569391735): NMIPI for unresponsive processor: TLB flush timeout, TLB state:0x0
  • Panic(CPU 0, time 594874435980126): NMIPI for unresponsive processor: TLB flush timeout, TLB state:0x0
  • Panic(CPU 0, time 40583157300761): NMIPI for unresponsive processor: TLB flush timeout, TLB state:0x0
  • panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff80133fe407): "AppleIntelFramebuffer::setPowerState(0xffffffa0407ab000 : 0xffffff7fb347b2bc, 1 -> 0) timed out after 45488 ms"@/AppleInternal/BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/xnu/xnu-7195.81.3/iokit/Kernel/IOServicePM.cpp:5382
  • Panic(CPU 0, time 181184512928233): NMIPI for unresponsive processor: TLB flush timeout, TLB state:0x0
  • Panic(CPU 0, time 184323962723093): NMIPI for unresponsive processor: TLB flush timeout, TLB state:0x0
  • panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff800b089d2a): Wake transition timed out after 180 seconds while calling power state change callbacks. Suspected bundle: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily. Thread 0x224cf.
  • Panic(CPU 6, time 49902942376021): NMIPI for spinlock acquisition timeout, spinlock: 0xffffff800bc4a3e0, spinlock owner: 0xffffff86c253cbf0, current_thread: 0xffffff86c253cbf0, spinlock_owner_cpu: 0x6
Any help appreciated

To be exact i get an error like this
https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/c2feyt
 
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I currently have a stock 6900 XT reference card and a 5700 XT MPX module running in my Mac Pro 7,1. I run an LG 38" ultrawide (38wn95-c) and an LG 5k ultrafine. I have noticed the LG 5K has started to randomly flicker, and it looks like there are new drivers available for BootCamp (blue AMD drivers). The problem is, I can't remember the steps I took to get it to work in the first place - I remember it being a complete pain though!
 
Also run a 5700 MPX module with a stock 6900XT. I removed the bootcamp drivers and only installed the amd drivers through device manager for the 6900XT. Bootcamp is only for gaming here so I just switch the thunderbolt/usb-c from the mpx module to the usb-c port of the 6900XT for my XDR display. Kinda of a Pita to switch cables everytime I boot into windows but it is what it is. I wish the usb-c port worked fully for macOS.. but no brightness and preset controls. Weirdly the screen reports 5k but system profiler reports 6k? Screen and text also look like 6k. See attached screenshots.
 

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Menno87 said:
Also run a 5700 MPX module with a stock 6900XT. I removed the bootcamp drivers and only installed the amd drivers through device manager for the 6900XT. Bootcamp is only for gaming here so I just switch the thunderbolt/usb-c from the mpx module to the usb-c port of the 6900XT for my XDR display. Kinda of a Pita to switch cables everytime I boot into windows but it is what it is. I wish the usb-c port worked fully for macOS.. but no brightness and preset controls. Weirdly the screen reports 5k but system profiler reports 6k? Screen and text also look like 6k. See attached screenshots.
Click to expand...
Same here, I only use Windows for gaming. do you run multiple display or only the single XDR display?
 
The XDR only, but I found out that the belkin cable with the usb gives me brightness controls on the 6900 xt (had that cable still in the drawer as a previous purchase to connect my pc to the xdr) ?. Only usb 2 on the hub though but that’s fine. So now I can remove the w5700 and use the xdr display. (Don’t need thunderbolt).
 
If I try to plugin my LG Ultrafine 5K into the USB-C port on my 6900 XT, nothing happens in Mac OS - black screen. I have to use the 5700 XT MPX module...
 
Menno87 said:
Yes I believe the ultra fine 5k is really thunderbolt only. The XDR can function on usb-c.
Click to expand...
Newer models of the Ultrafine 5k will work with USB-C, but only at 4k. So it depends on which version of the Ultrafine 5k this is. Anything 2019 or newer should do something on USB-C.
 
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