MP 1,1-5,1 Radeon Fury 4GB problem

[antonio.vazquez]

Hi all
First let present me.
My name is Antonio and I have MB Pro 5,1 (Mid 2010). The first time I saw one I felt in love. Two years ago I found a cheaper one and I decided to bought it. The configuration was as follows:

- MacOS High Sierra
- 4x8GB (totally 32GB)
- 2 SATA disks
- Original AMD GPU ( no Metal)

In this two years I have update the components up to now.

The last device I’ve bought the last one. This is Sapphire Nitro 4GB ( Fiji XT core) and then started the problems.

The problem I’m suffering is that MBp freeze after a while. I don’t know what event fires the freeze. During the freeze, mouse pointer stills moving but I cannot select any window nor application.

I need to reboot it using tower button.

I’ve read a lot of posts regarding the GPU, Mac Pro and so on without success.

I’m desperated because I cannot found a reason.

I’using dortania’s open core as boot loader.

Any help to solve the problem is welcome.

I have tested Big Sur and Monterey from scratch without success.

Thanks in advance
Antonio

 

[tsialex]

It's an unsupported GPU, Fiji/Fiji XT was never officially supported by Apple AMD GPU drivers and no Mac ever had one.

Also, your GPU is certainly requiring a lot more power than the the Mac Pro backplane can safely provide - it's a 275W TDP GPU with 2 x PCIe 8-pin, while the backplane can safely provide around 225W total (from the PCIe slot and the two AUX connectors).

 

[antonio.vazquez]

It's an unsupported GPU, Fiji/Fiji XT was never officially supported by Apple AMD GPU drivers and no Mac ever had one.

Also, your GPU is certainly requiring a lot more power than the the Mac Pro backplane can safely provide - it's a 275W TDP GPU with 2 x PCIe 8-pin, while the backplane can safely provide around 225W total (from the PCIe slot and the two AUX connectors).

Thanks a lot. So this card doesn’t work and I need to change it. Doesn’t it? Or is there any option to solve the problem? I have seen some posts that says this card is running on Mac Pro.

Regards

 

[tsialex]

Thanks a lot. So this card doesn’t work and I need to change it. Doesn’t it? Or is there any option to solve the problem? I have seen some posts that says this card is running on Mac Pro.

Regards

Depends on what is your definition of "work". For me, it's a very hard no.

After you do a Pixla's mod to your Mac Pro PSU to provide the required power draw for the card, the display works almost correctly after you add the PCIe ID to the AMD4100 kext, but VideoToolBox AMD hardware assistance/acceleration is incompatible with Fiji VCE/UVD and will crash if you try to use it (you have to disable it).

It's an absurdly power hungry card (instantaneous peak power draw for the Nitro model is 400W, after PowerPlay) from the first half of 2015, with very poor performance for today's standards.

 

[antonio.vazquez]

Depends on what is your definition of "work". For me, it's a very hard no.

After you do a Pixla's mod to your Mac Pro PSU to provide the required power draw for the card, the display works almost correctly after you add the PCIe ID to the AMD4100 kext, but VideoToolBox AMD hardware assistance/acceleration is incompatible with Fiji VCE/UVD and will crash if you try to use it (you have to disable it).

It's an absurdly power hungry card (instantaneous peak power draw for the Nitro model is 400W, after PowerPlay) from the first half of 2015, with very poor performance for today's standards.

Thank you again.
Then, what Metal GPU do you recommend me?

Regards

 

[tsialex]

Thank you again.
Then, what Metal GPU do you recommend me?

Regards

Anyone of these GPUs below will work perfectly and without Pixla's mod:

• RX 460/560,
• RX 580 (non Nitro or overclocked models),
• VEGA 56.

Don't buy a RX 480, or a Dell RX 580, it will damage the PCIe slot.

With Pixla's mod you have a lot more options.

 

[antonio.vazquez]

Anyone of these GPUs below will work perfectly and without Pixla's mod:

• RX 460/560,
• RX 580 (non Nitro or overclocked models),
• VEGA 56.

Don't buy a RX 480, or a Dell RX 580, it will damage the PCIe slot.

With Pixla's mod you have a lot more options.

Sorry, why not a Nitro?

 

[tsialex]

Sorry, why not a Nitro?

Highly overclocked models, besides being huge and blocking PCIe slot 2, all Nitros need Pixla's mod - even the RX 570.

Btw, forgot to add the RX 570 to the list, also works fine (for non Nitro or overclocked models).

 

[antonio.vazquez]

Highly overclocked models, besides being huge and blocking PCIe slot 2, all Nitros need Pixla's mod - even the RX 570.

Btw, forgot to add the RX 570 to the list, also works fine (for non Nitro or overclocked models).

What do you think about ASUS Rog Strix 460?

 

[tsialex]

What do you think about ASUS Rog Strix 460?

Was an excellent medium performance card back in the day, driver supports start with 10.12.6 and goes to Monterey, works perfectly with VideoToolBox AMD hardware assistance/acceleration for compression, decompression, color grading and pixel transfer.

ASUS ROG STRIX RX 460 GAMING Specs

AMD Baffin, 1200 MHz, 896 Cores, 56 TMUs, 16 ROPs, 4096 MB GDDR5, 1750 MHz, 128 bit

www.techpowerup.com

Maybe you can find a RX 570 4GB for around the same price.

 

[antonio.vazquez]

Was an excellent medium performance card back in the day, driver supports start with 10.12.6 and goes to Monterey, works perfectly with VideoToolBox AMD hardware assistance/acceleration for compression, decompression, color grading and pixel transfer.

ASUS ROG STRIX RX 460 GAMING Specs

AMD Baffin, 1200 MHz, 896 Cores, 56 TMUs, 16 ROPs, 4096 MB GDDR5, 1750 MHz, 128 bit

www.techpowerup.com

Maybe you can find a RX 570 4GB for around the same price.

And what about ASUS Rog Strix RX 570 8GB? Is this suitable? Is this possible to flash EFI Rom?

Regards

 

[tsialex]

And what about ASUS Rog Strix RX 570 8GB? Is this suitable?

If it's this one, works fine:

ASUS ROG STRIX RX 570 GAMING OC 8 GB Specs

AMD Polaris 20, 1300 MHz, 2048 Cores, 128 TMUs, 32 ROPs, 8192 MB GDDR5, 1750 MHz, 256 bit

www.techpowerup.com

Is this possible to flash EFI Rom?

Not by yourself. Last self-flashable GPU was Radeon R9-280X, from 2013. You have to pay someone, like MVC Europe, to do it or use OpenCore to provide pre-boot configuration support.

 

[antonio.vazquez]

If it's this one, works fine:

ASUS ROG STRIX RX 570 GAMING OC 8 GB Specs

AMD Polaris 20, 1300 MHz, 2048 Cores, 128 TMUs, 32 ROPs, 8192 MB GDDR5, 1750 MHz, 256 bit

www.techpowerup.com

Not by yourself. Last self-flashable GPU was Radeon R9-280X, from 2013. You have to pay someone, like MVC Europe, to do it or use OpenCore to provide pre-boot configuration support.

I have found this one with a good price

XFX USA

www.xfxforce.com

Should it be suitable for me?

Only requires 1 eight pin connector…

Regards

 

[tsialex]

I have found this one with a good price

XFX USA

www.xfxforce.com

Should it be suitable for me?

Only requires 1 eight pin connector…

Regards

XFX cards are frequently incompatible with Macs, this is not new, avoid.

 

[antonio.vazquez]

XFX cards are frequently incompatible with Macs, this is not new, avoid.

Hi, finally I,ve bought an ASUs Rog Strix RX570 8GB. I’ll keep you updated.

Regards

 

[avro707]

Hi, finally I,ve bought an ASUs Rog Strix RX570 8GB. I’ll keep you updated.

Regards

Hope it goes well.

By the way, the XFX RX580 GTS in the 8gb version works properly in Mac Pro 5,1 - I have used it along with a Sapphire RX580 8GB with no issues or differences noticed aside from the XFX having 3 display ports (much more useful). It also needs the same power cable as the Sapphire. For all these cards make sure they are not set to "mining" mode. It is a tiny switch that is very hard to see.

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-SpV888J/0/c1424f60/X5/i-SpV888J-X5.jpg

(it is this card: https://www.xfxforce.com/gpus/xfx-amd-radeon-tm-rx-580-gts-xxx-edition-8gb)

That's the second hand machine I use to run Zwift. It got upgraded to single X5690, 32GB 1333mhz ram, XFX RX580 8gb and 2TB Samsung SSD, Monterey 12.2.

If people cannot find the Sapphire card, the XFX one mentioned (and shown) will work. I'm not sure if the 4GB is very different.

 

[antonio.vazquez]

Hope it goes well.

By the way, the XFX RX580 GTS in the 8gb version works properly in Mac Pro 5,1 - I have used it along with a Sapphire RX580 8GB with no issues or differences noticed aside from the XFX having 3 display ports (much more useful). It also needs the same power cable as the Sapphire. For all these cards make sure they are not set to "mining" mode. It is a tiny switch that is very hard to see.

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-SpV888J/0/c1424f60/X5/i-SpV888J-X5.jpg

(it is this card: https://www.xfxforce.com/gpus/xfx-amd-radeon-tm-rx-580-gts-xxx-edition-8gb)

That's the second hand machine I use to run Zwift. It got upgraded to single X5690, 32GB 1333mhz ram, XFX RX580 8gb and 2TB Samsung SSD, Monterey 12.2.

If people cannot find the Sapphire card, the XFX one mentioned (and shown) will work. I'm not sure if the 4GB is very different.

I'll keep you updated. RX570 is cheaper that XFX I have reached an aggreement for that card.

I think that the difference between RX570 and RX580 should be short.

This card should substitute my GT630. I have tried to install Monterey and it's too slow.

Many thanks for your response.

 

[antonio.vazquez]

Hi,
I have connected Rog Strix Card, but the display remains dark, altough the card is recognized.

Does anybody know I need to connect the card with a conversor from dual 6 pin to 8 pin?

I'll attach a screenshot where the card appears as recognized. Regards

 

[tsialex]

Hi,
I have connected Rog Strix Card, but the display remains dark, altough the card is recognized.

Does anybody know I need to connect the card with a conversor from dual 6 pin to 8 pin?

Yes, you need a dual mini-PCIe 6-pin to PCIe 8-pin.

I'll attach a screenshot where the card appears as recognized. Regards View attachment 2031166

Mojave and newer don't support mixing supported and unsupported GPUs, keep just the RX 570. Also remove any patches that you installed to get the GT120 running, or better yet, don't waste time and do a clean install.

 

[antonio.vazquez]

Yes, you need a dual mini-PCIe 6-pin to PCIe 8-pin.



Mojave and newer don't support mixing supported and unsupported GPUs, keep just the RX 570. Also remove any patches that you installed to get the GT120 running, or better yet, don't waste time and do a clean install.

I imagined that it probably need to acquire the cable.

Regarding the card mixing. I'll follow your comment.

Many Thanks

 

[tsialex]

I imagined that it probably need to acquire the cable.

Regarding the card mixing. I'll follow your comment.

Many Thanks

After you get the correct power cable, do fully supported clean install of Mojave, or High Sierra, to test the card. Patches to get unsupported cards running have the adverse effect of making METAL ones to not work anymore.