Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Susurs

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jun 18, 2010
1,609
11,017
Hi!
Could anyone explain whether RX560 or any Polaris Radeon in a Mac Pro 4,1, or 5,1 with High Sierra installed could benefit to hardware accelerated HEVC decoding (As westmere CPU’s do not support it)?
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,587
Hong Kong
Hi!
Could anyone explain whether RX560 or any Polaris Radeon in a Mac Pro 4,1, or 5,1 with High Sierra installed could benefit to hardware accelerated HEVC decoding (As westmere CPU’s do not support it)?

No by default (typical Apple style). The Hackintosh group seems figured out how to activate it, but I haven't seen a real Mac Pro user report success yet.
 

bsbeamer

macrumors 601
Sep 19, 2012
4,313
2,713
No positive reports from eGPU users at the moment either. Hopeful when "official" eGPU support is announced this may change, but nothing confirmed either way yet.
 

Susurs

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jun 18, 2010
1,609
11,017
@ h9826790

If I remember correctly, you said on some other thread in this forum that MP with W CPU is quite strong?

Could you, please, let me know up to which hevc test file/bitrate your mac can play without stuttering.

http://jell.yfish.us/

I found that VLC 4.0.0 nightly build seemed to do well when I tested HEVC in a local store on some display m3 machines (well, the CPU supported HEVC, but anyway)...
 
Jul 4, 2015
4,487
2,551
Paris
Hi!
Could anyone explain whether RX560 or any Polaris Radeon in a Mac Pro 4,1, or 5,1 with High Sierra installed could benefit to hardware accelerated HEVC decoding (As westmere CPU’s do not support it)?


Depends on the video file. REC 709 color profile plays well, but REC 2020 color profile is still very jerky.
 

itdk92

macrumors 6502a
Nov 14, 2016
504
180
Copenhagen, Denmark
I am up for testing this if you’d like.

We have all kind of cards and Mac Pro configurations.
[doublepost=1518481804][/doublepost]How can I do that?
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,587
Hong Kong
@ h9826790

If I remember correctly, you said on some other thread in this forum that MP with W CPU is quite strong?

Could you, please, let me know up to which hevc test file/bitrate your mac can play without stuttering.

http://jell.yfish.us/

I found that VLC 4.0.0 nightly build seemed to do well when I tested HEVC in a local store on some display m3 machines (well, the CPU supported HEVC, but anyway)...

jellyfish-250-mbps-4k-uhd-h264.mkv, H264 is definitely not an issue. Easy to play the highest bitrate sample. 280-420% CPU uasge.
jellyfish-250-mbps-4k-uhd-h264.jpg

jellyfish-110-mbps-hd-hevc.mkv, 8bit HEVC is also not at issue. Easy to play the highest bitrate sample. 180-280% CPU usage.
jellyfish-110-mbps-hd-hevc.jpg

However, for 10bit HEVC, it can only smoothly play up to jellyfish-120-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.mkv. The initial 13s is quite demanding, and use very close to 1100% CPU (overall 600-1100%).
jellyfish-120-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.jpg

Anything at or above jellyfish-140-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.mkv, only the 2nd half may able to play smoothly. The 1st 13s is shuttering because running out of CPU power.
 

Susurs

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jun 18, 2010
1,609
11,017
Thank’s a lot!

Which Xeon W was it?

That was IINA as far as I understand it.
Have you tried VLC Nightlies (4.0.0)?
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,587
Hong Kong
Thank’s a lot!

Which Xeon W was it?

That was IINA as far as I understand it.
Have you tried VLC Nightlies (4.0.0)?

That's the W3690.

Oh yeah, forget to mention that's all done by IINA (as you can see in the stat info). Just try VLC Nighty build 4.0, basically provide the same result.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Susurs

itdk92

macrumors 6502a
Nov 14, 2016
504
180
Copenhagen, Denmark
jellyfish-250-mbps-4k-uhd-h264.mkv, H264 is definitely not an issue. Easy to play the highest bitrate sample. 280-420% CPU uasge.
View attachment 751060
jellyfish-110-mbps-hd-hevc.mkv, 8bit HEVC is also not at issue. Easy to play the highest bitrate sample. 180-280% CPU usage.
View attachment 751061
However, for 10bit HEVC, it can only smoothly play up to jellyfish-120-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.mkv. The initial 13s is quite demanding, and use very close to 1100% CPU (overall 600-1100%).
View attachment 751062
Anything at or above jellyfish-140-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.mkv, only the 2nd half may able to play smoothly. The 1st 13s is shuttering because running out of CPU power.

On a 12 Core 3.46GHz + RX 580 everything is smooth, also jellyfish-140-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.mkv, although I see the rx580 kick more with the HEVC 10bit.

Might be the difference in CPU though.

On jellyfish-140-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.mkv, CPU hovers at 800% and goes down as the clip progresses

Tried on VLC 3.0
 
  • Like
Reactions: Susurs

Susurs

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jun 18, 2010
1,609
11,017
On a 12 Core 3.46GHz + RX 580 everything is smooth, also jellyfish-140-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.mkv, although I see the rx580 kick more with the HEVC 10bit.

Might be the difference in CPU though.

On jellyfish-140-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.mkv, CPU hovers at 800% and goes down as the clip progresses

Tried on VLC 3.0

Thank you! Could you, please, tell me whether there are any Apple logo issues with the RX 580. It works OOB as I understand. Are there any other issues with this card? Which brand is it? Does HDMI work?
 

Susurs

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jun 18, 2010
1,609
11,017
Anyone has an additional info with experience on Polaris GPUs?
 

mrkapqa

macrumors 6502
Jan 7, 2012
497
88
Italy, Bolzano/Bozen
have ripped 4k 10bit bluray film to .mkv with makemkv, and playback with svp4 via mpv (HW:videotoolbox-copy)(frame rate interpolation from 25 fps to 50/60fps), and with rx vega 56 on macpro5,1 running monterey there is a chopy playback with lots of dropped frames. dont know if OC setup is faulty, because on same computer (12core) with windows 11 there is much better playback (but still dropped frames quite alot).
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.