Recommend me a metal compatible, affordable card for MP 5.1 Mojave ?

[tsialex]

I would definitely argue this is not case specific as TONS of people use more than one monitor with their Mac Pros.

NVIDIA GPUs don't have this same high AMD power usage with dual monitors, it's almost the same with two as with one.

It's interesting that AMD didn't implemented a low power 2D mode with multiple monitors yet. Btw, all AMD GPUs have this same problem.

 

[JeffPerrin]

Yes, it is unfortunate. Likewise, I hope some of the vendors like Sapphire and MSI start paying more attention to their growing base of mac customers, courtesy of all the mac-compatible eGPU boxes springing up! I don't know if it's possible, but it'd be nice to see some portage of GPU utility software to mac OS. Had Sapphire had such a utility available for mac to allow me to easily adjust power usage and fan behavior, I might have considered keeping their 580 around...

 

[bsbeamer]

Again, noise is subjective. And no, I'm not sitting on the floor with a stethoscope up to my Mac Pro. Just relating my real-world experience with the these stock GPUs.

Not getting into a pissing match here, but if 5-7 dB measured difference is your definition between "NOISY" and "NOT NOISY" you should not be using a Mac Pro for whatever your needs really are. Anything with server-grade processors should almost automatically be off the list. I've heard OEM original stock configuration trashcan MP6,1's louder than this MP5,1 with RX580 inside.

Will try to measure levels the next time I swap GTX 1080 FE or GTX 680 Mac Edition back in.

 

[h9826790]

TONS of people use more than one monitor with their Mac Pros. For those users, I think I am contributing valuable information. The 560 is handling these same monitors cool and casual!

I agree that your info is good for multi monitor setup users.

That "case specific" doesn't mean "multi monitor setup", but "multi monitor setup at your studio" (that temperature, that setting around, etc).

e.g. I live in warm Asia, and if I connect multi monitors to my PULSE RX580. Its fan will continue spin at low RPM, therefore, I can never hear the "spin up and down" noise.

 

[JeffPerrin]

Okay folks, To clarify:

@ bsbeamer "Noisy" is indeed a subjective term, decibel meter-be-damned. I have a quiet studio on a quiet street, and I can clearly hear the fans when they ramp up and down. (For the first week, I subconsciously though they were a truck approaching or leaving the stoplight on a nearby road.) No they are not "loud" by any means, but clearly audible over the MP case fans when they are winding up to speed. Maybe you didn't read where I said once the fans are up to speed, they are not audible? Anyway, is "spin-up" noise enough to bother some people? Apparently not. But for others it may be an issue. Regardless, the extra price, power consumption, card size and whatnot are also possible negatives some people may wish to factor into their decision. I did!

@ h9826790 Ambient temps may be the difference in our use cases. I am in cold northeast USA. My room temp is 20-22c and the Mac Pro PCIE bay ambient temp reports at 26c. You live in a warmer climate (lucky you!), so your card temps may be staying above the fan trigger threshold. Again, lucky you!

 

[broadbean]

I'm not adverse to searching and had done so. However it's a minefield when you're so out of the loop on this stuff.

It's certainly confusing, and once a thread gets going, you don't know where it's going to take you.

I've actually read up on a number of threads, and in the end I sort of wished I stumbled onto this one before I ordered?

I wasn't aware of the issue or potential issue with the MSI RX 560, but in the end, I just wanted my Mac Pro with a Metal supported card for Mojave or macOS 2019, to run mainly server apps.

I picked the MSI RX 560 because I found one that was relatively cheap, and it didn't require extra power. Of course it's only after I ordered it I found out it may run a bit more hot, more noisy, potentially having issues with HDCP etc!

Anyway, for what I needed, it's probably still the better choice, and I couldn't easily source the Sapphire RX 580 around here.

 

[JeffPerrin]

Well, Apple Store is now directly selling the 560 (in an eGPU). So I imagine OS support will follow the 560 for some time yet.

https://9to5mac.com/2019/04/05/radeon-rx-560/

Over a month in, and so far so good with my MSI RX 560. Running cool and silent in my 5,1.

 

[bplein]

I bought a GT630 from http://www.macvidcards.com/store/c16/MacOS_10.14_Mojave_Compatible.html and was able to upgrade to Mojave and pick up the NVMe firmware updates. I actually use my MacPro5,1 with Ubuntu, but this card was an OK upgrade from the stock GT120.

The cards come flashed with their flash for boot support.

 

[Tomas R]

This is pretty easily worked around:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-for-pcie-slot-2.2134562/page-2#post-26413743

Currently have Mojave 10.14.3 18D109 with Sapphire Pulse RX 580 8GB and using all available PCIe & SATA.

Slot 1: RX580
Slot 2: PX1 NVMe with EVO 970
Slot 3: Apricorn Velocity Duo X2
Slot 4: USB3
4x SATA sleds: SATA SSDs
SATA optical bay #1: DVD
SATA optical bay #2: SATA SSD (no mount)

Setup with PX1 is nearly identical to those images posted when was using Apricorn Velocity Solo X2 as boot, but the thermal pad stack placement has shifted slightly. PX1 has screws on bottom in a few locations, but otherwise is extremely smooth. No issues using it at all. No GPU fan interference or knocking.

Also as an FYI, the RX 580 GPU is dead silent the majority of the time. Fans run at machine startup and that's usually about it. Adobe CC 2018 (AE/Premiere Pro/Media Encoder) rarely "kick" the fans on when normally engaging GPU acceleration. Typically only kick on during heavy renders. (Unfortunately, less options with Metal acceleration vs. CUDA, but that's another topic.)

Overall, the machine itself is extremely quiet without spinning HDDs present. Often more silent than MBP11,3.

Hi, please could you write me if your GPU RX580 support Hardware encoding (or Software encoding only) in Adobe Premiere 2020 or Adobe Media Encoder 2020 (H.264 preset) under Mojave 10.14.6? And do you use Apricorn Velocity Duo X2 as boot drive?
Many thanks.

 

[bsbeamer]

Hi, please could you write me if your GPU RX580 support Hardware encoding (or Software encoding only) in Adobe Premiere 2020 or Adobe Media Encoder 2020 (H.264 preset) under Mojave 10.14.6? And do you use Apricorn Velocity Duo X2 as boot drive?
Many thanks.

This MP5,1 machine has largely been retired from Adobe service for about a year. Can't go through updating and re-activating just to test this for you, sorry.

Never had used Apricorn Duo X2 as boot, but did have one or both of the Solo X2 and Duo X2 flashed by Apricorn sometime in 2012/2013.

Always ran into issues with Adobe Hardware Encoding with MP5,1 even with some of the hacks to enable.

FYI, hardware encoding works 100% normally as expected with AME 2020 and Premiere Pro 2020 on MBP16,1; MBP16,1 with eGPU; iMac19,1; iMac19,1 with eGPU.

 

[Tomas R]

This MP5,1 machine has largely been retired from Adobe service for about a year. Can't go through updating and re-activating just to test this for you, sorry.

Never had used Apricorn Duo X2 as boot, but did have one or both of the Solo X2 and Duo X2 flashed by Apricorn sometime in 2012/2013.

Always ran into issues with Adobe Hardware Encoding with MP5,1 even with some of the hacks to enable.

FYI, hardware encoding works 100% normally as expected with AME 2020 and Premiere Pro 2020 on MBP16,1; MBP16,1 with eGPU; iMac19,1; iMac19,1 with eGPU.

Thank you for your reply. I am looking for GPU which support H.264 hardware encoding during export in Adobe Premiere or Adobe Media Encoder 2020 (Mojave). My MBP 2015 which supports hardware encoding (H264) beats my MP 5,1 (dual Xeon X5960, 64GB Ram, Sapphire RX470, M.2) which exports the same video using H.264 software encoding.

 

[bsbeamer]

Thank you for your reply. I am looking for GPU which support H.264 hardware encoding during export in Adobe Premiere or Adobe Media Encoder 2020 (Mojave). My MBP 2015 which supports hardware encoding (H264) beats my MP 5,1 (dual Xeon X5960, 64GB Ram, Sapphire RX470, M.2) which exports the same video using H.264 software encoding.

You're best served with an i5/i7/i9 CPU with GPU or wait for M1/Mx at this point.

iMac27" i9 with Vega48 was nearly 250% faster with same settings using hardware encode vs software encode on MP5,1 during some tests, but it's not totally apples to apples comparison. You sometimes still need 2-pass compressions. Those are software only, which relies solely on CPU. iMac27" faster, but not by nearly as much.

 

[freeseme]

You said: I need to use my NVMe to boot from which requires Mojave F/W update which requires a sodding new GFX card!
So why not remove your High Sierra drive(s), take an old unused hard drive and load High Sierra on it, upgrade online (not by usb stick) to Mojave so as to obtain the firmware update, and then remove the Mohave drive and return everything back to the original High Sierra system? No need to buy a new graphics card it worked for me.

 

[Diggi]

560 is working perfectly fine on the 5,1 today. No guarantees a future Mojave or later update won't affect the 580 in some way either, as I doubt Apple will be doing much testing with 5,1 compatibility moving forward...

Again, 580 comes with it's own caveats. Definitely not the ideal pick for a music studio or light editing suite due to the issues I mentioned above.

Which GPU for a music studio? That’s what I need… Any recommendations?

 

[macguru9999]

You can do the firmware update from the initial launch of the mojave installer, using any old graphics card, when it reboots with the new firmware, it needs a compatible card. With the nvidia gtx 680 which is flashable, you may still get an error message in which case use the dosdude mojave installer, no patches required. a gtx 680 works up to and inc big sur and you can flash it yourself. A radeon 480/580 you have to buy flashed and it will work with every OS so far not sure about acceleration in high sierra but you can certainly boot it, i even did that with a 480 and mountain lion...

 

[snipper]

[…] I'm not a gamer and I don't need a powerful card. My MP is used for music production as such GFX is unimportant apart from the fact that I need to use my NVMe to boot from which requires Mojave F/W update which requires a sodding new GFX card! […]

Rob.

I knew the standard reaction that would come: RX 580 8GB GDDR5 etc. A slew of powerful, yet expensive, $ 200 / 300+ cards.

My 2¢: You are right that you don't need a powerful card for this. I've been using a relatively cheap GeForce GT730. The Gigabyte GV-N730SL-2GL to be exact.

• It works with Mojave
• You can probably find one used or even new for $ 80 or less
• It's sufficient for a 4K monitor up to 30 fps
• Best of all: It's dead silent because it has no fans! I dare you to find a 'powerfull' / 'gaming' video card that is dead silent. If you combine it with SSD's instead of HDD's, you'll have a very quiet Mac Pro.

I recommend checking https://github.com/khronokernel/Mojave-GPU-Buyers-Guide before buying anthing. As you can see there, technically even a GT 720 or 710 will do. Even a GT 710 with just 1 GB will be enough for a UHD / 4K monitor resolution. I chose a Gigabyte GT 730 because it had been proven to work with Mac / Mojave and for € 20 more it has 2 GB where the lower models often had less.

Check the specs carefully before you buy anything. For example not every card has the same types of connector(s).

 

[tsialex]

I knew the standard reaction that would come: RX 580 8GB GDDR5 etc. A slew of powerful, yet expensive, $ 200 / 300+ cards.

My 2¢: You are right that you don't need a powerful card for this. I've been using a relatively cheap GeForce GT730. The Gigabyte GV-N730SL-2GL to be exact.

• It works with Mojave
• You can probably find one used or even new for $ 80 or less
• It's sufficient for a 4K monitor up to 30 fps
• Best of all: It's dead silent because it has no fans! I dare you to find a 'powerfull' / 'gaming' video card that is dead silent. If you combine it with SSD's instead of HDD's, you'll have a very quiet Mac Pro.

I recommend checking https://github.com/khronokernel/Mojave-GPU-Buyers-Guide before buying anthing. As you can see there, technically even a GT 720 or 710 will do. Even a GT 710 with just 1 GB will be enough for a UHD / 4K monitor resolution. I chose a Gigabyte GT 730 because it had been proven to work with Mac / Mojave and for € 20 more it has 2 GB where the lower models often had less.

Check the specs carefully before you buy anything. For example not every card has the same types of connector(s).

You are forgetting that any Kepler GPUs, like the GT 730, can't do a clean install of Mojave from a createinstallmedia USB installer - this is a major issue to the absolute majority of people.

 

[snipper]

You are forgetting that any Kepler GPUs, like the GT 730, can't do a clean install of Mojave from a createinstallmedia USB installer - this is a major issue to the absolute majority of people.

Since I have a 3,1 I can't even officially run Mojave. I used the dosdude patcher. I don't remember the details. I guess I must have taken the 'in-place upgrade' route (step 5 of http://dosdude1.com/mojave/ ). Rob could do the same and first install 10.13, then patch it, right?

 

[macguru9999]

You are forgetting that any Kepler GPUs, like the GT 730, can't do a clean install of Mojave from a createinstallmedia USB installer - this is a major issue to the absolute majority of people.

You can use the dosdude mojave installer and simply not apply any patches

 

[tsialex]

You can use the dosdude mojave installer and simply not apply any patches

Sure, use a hacked install with a fully supported Mac…

 

[macguru9999]

Sure, use a hacked install with a fully supported Mac…

Yes, it works really well, the install is the same, the patches are not applied in the case of a 5,1

 

[macguru9999]

Yes, it works really well, the install is the same, the patches are not applied in the case of a 5,1

I had to do this to install when i had a gtx680 installed, i am not sure if thats still the case however