RX 580 won't boot macOS on MP 3.1

[Saaihead]

I run 10.13.6 on a 3.1 Mac Pro. Before I had a GTX 1060 in here, but by accident I installed the update to 17G3025 so that card stopped working. Due to the absence of new Nvidia drivers I decided to sell this card and purchase a RX 580. Also because I wanted to upgrade to 10.14 Mojave later on.

The exact device I purchased: Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 4GD5 (11265-09)

But now, when I start up my computer, the screen stays black. (I knew no bootscreen would appear) And where usually the login screen appears, I get a white screen for a few seconds. After that it gets dark again for a few seconds, and white again and this goes on forever. Luckily I have a Bootcamp partition so I could check if it worked in Windows. That worked like a charm, so no issues at all. But I can't find a way on how to get it working in High Sierra.

What I tried till now:

- I had a 6-pins pcie connector plugged into the 8-pins on the videocard, so I added a 6-pins to 8-pins adapter so the other two pins had power too. Still, no difference. I know a proper 2x 6-pins to 1x 8-pins adapter should be better, but since it works in Windows (also when gaming) I don't think the power is an issue.
- I checked the product ID (0x67DF1002) in windows and checked if it was listed in the kext (AMD9500Controller.kext), and it was.
- Filevault is OFF.
- The original BIOS is loaded, also checked this with the seller.
- I checked all ports: DVI, 2x DP, 2x HDMI - they all result in the same slow blinking screen. (however, when using DVI the white screen is a bit green)
- Enabled screen sharing, and tried to see if I would be able to connect to it via vnc. I got a login prompt once, but couldn't connect.
- Added an old 8800 GT, together with the RX 580 and tried to boot. I got the bootscreen, and the progress bar but that never finishes and I got into a boot loop in this configuration.

I'm not sure what to do next. Does anybody has an idea? Any help will be really appreciated.

 

[fhturner]

Can't run an RX 580 in a MP3,1...AMD driver for it needs SSE4.2, which the Xeons in the MP3,1 do not have.

 

[Saaihead]

Thanks for your reply! I hope you're kidding me right? Haha, well f*ck me. So if there is no other way to get this working, which cards are supported? Or could a processor upgrade do?

 

[fhturner]

I wish I were, but unfortunately I'm not. It's an architecture thing. The Harpertown CPUs that MP3,1 uses do not have SSE4.2 extensions, no matter if you upgrade to faster ones or not. So the AMD drivers won't work.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/hardware-acceleration-not-supported.2144300

 

[MarkC426]

I didn’t think you could run Mojave on a 3.1 also.

 

[Saaihead]

That's just too bad. So for now I'm stuck in Windows, at least I'm able to play games. And I'll be on the lookout for a 4.1 or 5.1 for christmas.

And it is possible to run Mojave on a 3.1, but you need a patcher. I actually had it on there for a couple of days to see how it would perform without graphics acceleration. I had to put in a new Wi-Fi / BT card, but besides the crappy graphics it worked fine.

 

[flowrider]

^^^^You could put your GTX 1060 back in and update to the latest web driver for build (17G3025). Available here:

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/139585/en-us

Although, some folks have had issues with the GTX 1060. AFAIK, no issues with the GTX 1070 or 1080. I am running a GTX 1080 in my 5,1 cMP.

Lou

 

[Saaihead]

Thanks for replying Lou. The thing is, I already sold my GTX 1060... haha.

 

[JoSch]

I had a Sapphire Rx480 in my 3.1. That worked nice with patched High Sierra.

 

[Saaihead]

Oh really? And what patch are you talking about?

 

[sojab0on]

I think he refers to the dosdude patcher.

I had an wx7100 without acceleration in high serra with native drivers.
Could not get the acceleration working.

 

[Project Alice]

I had a Sapphire Rx480 in my 3.1. That worked nice with patched High Sierra.

I'm not aware of any patches for a 3,1 that can make AMD cards work.

I think he refers to the dosdude patcher.

I had an wx7100 without acceleration in high serra with native drivers.
Could not get the acceleration working.

The dosdude patch installs the unsupported OS, but does nothing for the SSE4.2 problem with the AMD drivers.

 

[tsialex]

I'm not aware of any patches for a 3,1 that can make AMD cards work.

The dosdude patch installs the unsupported OS, but does nothing for the SSE4.2 problem with the AMD drivers.

High Sierra Patcher installs Sierra AMD drivers and RX-580 kinda works with High Sierra. This don't work anymore with Mojave.

 

[JoSch]

I'm not aware of any patches for a 3,1 that can make AMD cards work.

High Sierra Patcher installs Sierra AMD drivers and RX-580 kinda works with High Sierra. This don't work anymore with Mojave.

Exactly. I was solely referring to High Sierra.

 

[carter71]

Would an MSI RADEON 4 GB RX 560 work under High Sierra? or would that also be subject to the same architecture restrictions?

 

[tsialex]

Would an MSI RADEON 4 GB RX 560 work under High Sierra? or would that also be subject to the same architecture restrictions?

No.

Any AMD GPU released after R9-280x needs SSE4.2 that MP3,1 Xeons don’t have.

 

[cube]

No.

Any AMD GPU released after R9-280x needs SSE4.2 that MP3,1 Xeons don’t have.

Meanwhile we have a Phenom II PC with RX460.

 

[tsialex]

Meanwhile we have a Phenom II PC with RX460.

I’m failing to understand what your statement have to do with the early-2008 Mac Pro support of AMD GPUs and the Apple AMD driver requirements.

 

[cube]

I’m failing to understand what your statement have to do with the early-2008 Mac Pro support of AMD GPUs?

That Apple should be able to do it if they cared?

 

[tsialex]

That Apple should be able to do it if they cared?

Do you really think that Apple needs to use outdated instructions sets with a macOS released 2 years after the end of software support for early-2008 Mac Pros?

Look the other side, if you own a iMac 2019, you still wants drivers for your GPU using 2006 era instruction sets and compilers?

Xeon Woodcrest is a Penryn generation C2D CPU. Nothing should be compiled nowadays to support it.

 

[cube]

Do you really think that Apple needs to use outdated instructions sets with a macOS released 2 years after the end of support of early-2008 Mac Pros?

Look the other side, if you own a iMac 2019, you still wants drivers for your GPU using 2006 era instruction sets and compilers?

Xeon Woodcrest is a Penryn generation C2D CPU. Nothing should be compiled nowadays to support it.

We have a 2008 MBP. Of course we would like to be able to run the latest OS.

I have not bought a new Mac since 2011 since Apple stopped making any laptop that fits.

 

[tsialex]

We have a 2008 MBP. Of course we would like to be able to run the latest OS.

I have not bought a new Mac since 2011 since Apple stopped making any laptop that fits.

Why this anything to do with early-2008 Mac Pro? If you bought a Mac you clearly know the 7-year software support window. Now, it’s 2019 with totally different hardware, with totally different use cases. macOS is not Windows and Apple have totally different business decisions.

 

[cube]

Why this anything to do with early-2008 Mac Pro? If you bought a Mac you clearly know the 7-year software support window. Now, it’s 2019 with totally different hardware, with totally different use cases. macOS is not Windows and Apple have totally different business decisions.

No, I did not know about any software software support window or that Apple would be so bad at releasing new hardware.

 

[tsialex]

No, I did not know about any software software support window or that Apple would be so bad at releasing new hardware.

It's have been Apple software support polices since at least the Intel era…

 

[cube]

It's have been Apple software support polices since at least the Intel era…

The Cube was my first Mac. And I did not know anything about an Intel support window until our 2008 MBP got obsoleted.

I did now that Apple was not great at coming up with new hardware since I waited until 2009 to replace it with a 15" 2008 MBP because ExpressCard was removed and I bought the 2011 MBP in 2012 when the 17" got discontinued.