RX 580 variants with 2010 Mac pro

[dan gavel]

I need a bigger better GPU for my 2010 mac pro 3.33 running Sierra and having already tried a GTX 970 with the software I need it for , I know nvidia cards will not work , so it has to be AMD.

Unfortunately the Sapphire Pulse 8gb RX580s are rare as hens teeth here in Australia. They can go as high as $600 and I ain't paying that sort of loot for one. Unfortunately I want one to use with Trainz simulator, which isn't optimized for Metal and due to the ability of players to make their own assets, is notoriously hard on GPU's . I want 8gb Vram as I was using a GTX 680 4gb briefly until it died and saw very little improvement over the 2gb model I'm using.

I was wondering if anyone has tried the ASUS Radeon RX 580 8gb ROG Strix TOP Edition or the Gigabyte Radeon RX 580 Gaming 8GB in their Mac pros ?

I've spent about an hour looking through these posts , plus hours on the net as well and could not find anyone who has one installed and working.

Of course i know they may have boot up issues, but given the 8gb Radeon mini gaming card is included in one of the latest e gpu enclosures , i was hoping its big brother might also be a good choice to go for .
I'm prepared to update to High Sierra if i have to in order to get this to work even though my copy of CS5 Photoshop will probably give me grief .

 

[mattspace]

Unfortunately the Sapphire Pulse 8gb RX580s are rare as hens teeth here in Australia.

The Pulse 580 8GB isn't being carried by the Australian distributor, that's why you can't find it. BUT a New Zealand company, PB Tech, is one of the 3! distributors there, and they have an Australian arm to their company. So, what you do, is phone the Australian company, tell them you want to buy a product from their NZ side, they'll transfer your call so you're not paying international call rates, and the NZ sales staff will set up your order and invoice in equivalent Australian dollars, with Australian GST. You pay by direct deposit to the Australian side of the business, so there's no international currency transfer fees, and when the transaction clears, the New Zealanders mail it out to you.

That's what I did. WAY cheaper than buying a Nitro 580, and much better warranty situation than buying a Pulse from Newegg or Amazon.

 

[bookemdano]

No idea on any specific models, but in general, try to find one with the exact same port layout as the Sapphire Pulse 580 (which is 1xDVI, 2xDP, 2xHDMI)

 

[devon807]

The MSI GamingX 8GB RX 580 has that same layout. I have it in my 4,1 and it works great.

 

[tomscott1988]

Any will work, I have a powercolour 580 red devil golden sample and it works perfectly even the OC function.

Just a ball ache its a 2.5 slot card so ive lost a PCI slot. Got it super cheap at £238 so thought it was worth a gamble and it was fine. This was back in feb when 580s were in the £550-580 region.

The HS firmware update bricked my mac pro tho... took me months to sort. It was at 75% for 2 days until i shut it down, corrupted the firmware couldn't get it to do anything. Ended up having to use a spare dell workstation until I had time to fix it which wasnt ideal either.

Now ive got it back up and running the card has completely rejuvenated the machine before lightroom was almost unusable and now smooth as butter. Its a combo of HS updated drives, metal and CC optimization.

Upgrading to HS will make any 580 work properly, in sierra the addition of the card was of no benefit. In HS it works like a charm and will be identified correctly also.

 

[rpmurray]

The HS firmware update bricked my mac pro tho... took me months to sort. It was at 75% for 2 days until i shut it down, corrupted the firmware couldn't get it to do anything.

How did you finally get it back up and running?

 

[orph]

hay can you give a link to the software you want to run?
is this it?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/315660/Trainz_A_New_Era/

one option is to play it in windows if it is a game, will give massive gains and a GTX 970 is by no ways a slow card, or if you have software that uses older versions of osx have two installations of osx one for the game one for work.

 

[goMac]

Some 580s are overclocked and will pull too much power from a Mac Pro. (I suspect these 580s are pulling power unevenly like the Vega GPUs, and not necessarily pulling a total load that the Mac Pro can't handle.) Some of the XFX 580 is a good example of this. But they usually have a power saver physical switch you can flip that will put these cards back inside the Mac Pro power envelope.

This isn't just the specification envelope. You will see the Mac Pro shut down with some 580s.

I haven't tried the Sapphire. If people aren't seeing these issues with the Sapphire, I'd think about sticking with their card.

 

[RamMac]

Here is one option

 

[h9826790]

Some 580s are overclocked and will pull too much power from a Mac Pro. (I suspect these 580s are pulling power unevenly like the Vega GPUs, and not necessarily pulling a total load that the Mac Pro can't handle.) Some of the XFX 580 is a good example of this. But they usually have a power saver physical switch you can flip that will put these cards back inside the Mac Pro power envelope.

This isn't just the specification envelope. You will see the Mac Pro shut down with some 580s.

I haven't tried the Sapphire. If people aren't seeing these issues with the Sapphire, I'd think about sticking with their card.

The Sapphire is very safe on this matter.

1) PULSE is a single 8pin card. By using dual mini 6pin to power it, the 8pin's power draw always fall within the 150W limit.

2) The Nitro+ is a 6+8pin card, however, the 6pin is optional (manual officially state that). So, as long as only connect the 8pin (from dual mini 6pin), again, the power draw will always stay within the cMP's limit.

 

[goMac]

1) PULSE is a single 8pin card. By using dual mini 6pin to power it, the 8pin's power draw always fall within the 150W limit.

The XFX is also a single 8 pin. No idea how it's pulling too much power, but it will on the default setting.

 

[h9826790]

The XFX is also a single 8 pin. No idea how it's pulling too much power, but it will on the default setting.

Any link about this?

 

[dan gavel]

The Pulse 580 8GB isn't being carried by the Australian distributor, that's why you can't find it. BUT a New Zealand company, PB Tech, is one of the 3! distributors there, and they have an Australian arm to their company. So, what you do, is phone the Australian company, tell them you want to buy a product from their NZ side, they'll transfer your call so you're not paying international call rates, and the NZ sales staff will set up your order and invoice in equivalent Australian dollars, with Australian GST. You pay by direct deposit to the Australian side of the business, so there's no international currency transfer fees, and when the transaction clears, the New Zealanders mail it out to you.

That's what I did. WAY cheaper than buying a Nitro 580, and much better warranty situation than buying a Pulse from Newegg or Amazon.

i just had a look on the PB tech NZ site, 8gb Pulse is $499, still too pricey for me , especially since some of the other RX 580 8gb cards are now under $400. i nearly bought one from Mighty Ape last year, unfortunately they no longer stock them either.
[doublepost=1533255801][/doublepost]

hay can you give a link to the software you want to run?
is this it?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/315660/Trainz_A_New_Era/

one option is to play it in windows if it is a game, will give massive gains and a GTX 970 is by no ways a slow card, or if you have software that uses older versions of osx have two installations of osx one for the game one for work.

Yep, its Trainz a New Era or TANE. I have an ASUS Rog 750 that i can use to play the PC version, but I find windows so annoying that I rarely use it. Funnily enough even tho the mac version of the game doesn't receive much attention from the manufacturers and they haven't even begun to try to make it Metal compatible , i find I've had less trouble with the Mac version than the PC one.

I also make assets for the game so i need to use Photoshop regularly and as I don't have a PC version i'd have to be swopping around from one OS to another pretty constantly if i installed bootcamp. That is an option i am considering tho as I don't like working on laptops. May drop the GTX 970 into my 2008 eight core mac pro and give that a whirl and use the hex core for making routes .The game really only needs a lot of GPU power when being played and i only do that when i test out what I've created . It would be nice though to get the Mac version to play with the RX580 as that's a better solution in the long run and i could sell the ROG 750 to pay for the new card..

 

[mattspace]

i just had a look on the PB tech NZ site, 8gb Pulse is $499, still too pricey for me , especially since some of the other RX 580 8gb cards are now under $400. i nearly bought one from Mighty Ape last year, unfortunately they no longer stock them either.

*edit* That's NZ$499 - ~AU$450.

Mine was AU$488 inc shipping, and being registered for GST, I get ~$40 of that back. Comparing against the Nitro 580 it's still a good price, but you're definitely paying a premium to get the official card. Mighty Ape have the same problem everyone else in Australia has - the one and only Australian distributor (I've spoken to them) won't carry them, believing the Nitro is a "better" product for the 8GB range, and the Pulse covers the 4GB. Sapphire won't sell to you direct (I asked), for fear of undermining their distributor relationships, and the distributor won't special order one card.

You might be able to get Mighty Ape to do the AU/NZ transfer thing, given they have stores in both countries, but PBTech had it on special when I bought.

 

[dan gavel]

Here is one option:

thanks for this, i now remember I've seen this vid months ago when prices were sky high and I forgot that this was an option .
i can probably get the nitro version in oz and reduced in price too. time to order one of those dual 6pin to 8 pin connectors and wait for a cheap nitro to come along .
[doublepost=1533256751][/doublepost]this Nitro extreme edition is under $400, given the sapphire Nitro rx 580 runs smooth on that video link, can anyone see any issues arising with this one ? https://www.devicedeal.com.au/sapph...MIlsPA_dDP3AIViaqWCh1AswRZEAQYAiABEgIrsPD_BwE

 

[RamMac]

Hi there, I have the setup as in the youtube video I linked to you. I bought it second hand, have had it for few weeks, reason is to be able to update to Mojave. Seems to work ok. My main SSD drive has OS X 10.13.6, updated bootrom to 089. My second drive has latest PB of Mojave.

I have now got an issue with my Photos app. When I try to open HEIF images in Photos, image becomes completely white and when I close it, even the thumb gets white. This happens on 10.13.6 with RX 580 Nitro+ card. I do not want to try open the same photos library on Mojave as it updates the whole image library. Has anybody else faced with this issue.

 

[orph]

i have mixed feelings about a GTX970 -> RX580 it's seems like a small upgrade just for one game unless you relay are vram limited
https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/768221-upgrading-gtx-970-to-a-rx-580/
graph in first post shows rx580 only about 15% faster

also it looks like new GPU's will be out soon so may be worth holding on for a bit to see what the new ones are or hope the old ones go on sale.

 

[mikas]

I have now got an issue with my Photos app. When I try to open HEIF images in Photos, image becomes completely white and when I close it, even the thumb gets white. This happens on 10.13.6 with RX 580 Nitro+ card.

Unfortunately you are not alone. Most iPhone pics, and others too, behave erratically in Apple Photos, but they are ok in external editors. I've got Sapphire Pulse RX580 8GB (MacOS 10.13.6, FW 0089.B00).

 

[RamMac]

Unfortunately you are not alone. Most iPhone pics, and others too, behave erratically in Apple Photos, but they are ok in external editors. I've got Sapphire Pulse RX580 8GB (MacOS 10.13.6, FW 0089.B00).

Thanks letting me know I am not alone. Should we make a bug report to Apple. Though RX 580 might not be officially supported by OS X High Sierra...

 

[alphaod]

If you don't mind the VRAM, there is a Sapphire RX 580 Pulse with only 4GB of VRAM that's a lot cheaper than the 8GB version.

Granted I ended up exchanging for a GTX 1060 6GB for the same price...

 

[iGobbleoff]

I too have the MSI version in my 5,1

 

[goMac]

Any link about this?

Just my testing. Running benchmarks (not Furmark, just Metal tests) caused my Mac Pro to shut off. Stepping back to the lower power mode made the card stable.

XFX could be doing something questionable like drawing more power than an 8 pin in theory could do.

I would have liked to get the Sapphire, but options in these parts are limited, and stupid me didn't want to wait on an Amazon order. But it still seems like a decent choice once you go back to low power mode. I think "low power mode" is actually the same clock as the Pulse anyway. Pretty sure XFX tried to overclock higher than the Pulse.

 

[dan gavel]

i have mixed feelings about a GTX970 -> RX580 it's seems like a small upgrade just for one game unless you relay are vram limited
https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/768221-upgrading-gtx-970-to-a-rx-580/
graph in first post shows rx580 only about 15% faster

also it looks like new GPU's will be out soon so may be worth holding on for a bit to see what the new ones are or hope the old ones go on sale.

i think prices are due to fall a lot as used bit mining GPUS flood the market, and the GTX 680 i have installed is ok for now, i'll probably see just how prices go in august.

i'd use the GTX 970 if i could, its just been sitting in a box for the past two years, unfortunately as it uses the nvidia drivers not the native mac ones , when I open the TANE simulator program it freezes up , the GTX 970 worked beautifully for me in every way , apart from the one program that i wanted to use it for:-(
also, it booted up in 11 seconds when i used an SSD as my OS drive, it was a sweet card, just no good for my purposes.

if i do go for a new card its gotta be 8gb, and as long as I can get one at sub $400 prices i can live with it not being super fast, there is no metal support as yet in TANE and open gl has been sorely neglected by apple, so I need that vram and it will future proof it to some extent .

 

[RamMac]

Unfortunately you are not alone. Most iPhone pics, and others too, behave erratically in Apple Photos, but they are ok in external editors. I've got Sapphire Pulse RX580 8GB (MacOS 10.13.6, FW 0089.B00).

Should one be brave and update to Mojave and see how photos app function with iPhone heif and hevc images with RX 580 card installed in cMP?

 

[AliGT83]

Unfortunately you are not alone. Most iPhone pics, and others too, behave erratically in Apple Photos, but they are ok in external editors. I've got Sapphire Pulse RX580 8GB (MacOS 10.13.6, FW 0089.B00).

I don't have this issue luckily. All my iPhone photos synced to my Mac via iCloud photo library look and display as they should.
[doublepost=1533403698][/doublepost]

Should one be brave and update to Mojave and see how photos app function with iPhone heif and hevc images with RX 580 card installed in cMP?

it works fine for me, no issues at all.