Hmmm. Seems like mine didn't update then: Thunderbolt Bus 0 and 1 have Firmware Version 55.2; whereas Bus 2 and 3 have 49.4.
The 10.15.4 Combo Update still silenced those messages though. Weird.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
MP 7,1 W5700X Release
- Thread starter darkmatter343
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Hmmm. Seems like mine didn't update then: Thunderbolt Bus 0 and 1 have Firmware Version 55.2; whereas Bus 2 and 3 have 49.4.
The 10.15.4 Combo Update still silenced those messages though. Weird.
Bus 0/1 is the GPU. 2/3 is the I/O card and the top I/O ports.
It is interesting the firmware update is only applied to the GPU.
Yep, works fine. I wonder if I can use 9 XDR displays with my current video card arrangement (3 on Vega II and 6 on W5700X)
Actually, I just tried plugging two into both the ports on top and both ports on the I/O card. In both cases, only one monitor works.
Also just tried plugging two monitors into one Thunderbolt bus on the Vega II. Only one shows up. So, it seems I can connect 8 XDR displays with this current setup: 2 directly to Vega II, 4 directly to W5700X, 1 connected to a top port, and one connected to an I/O port.
Makes me wonder if the DisplayPort routing would work correctly in that case. Is the system designed properly to let one MPX module route to the I/O card, while another routes to the top I/O?
9 could be possible - 2 to the Vega, 4 to the W5700X, 2 to the top (assuming the top is connected to the W5700X), and 1 to the I/O card (assuming it is connected to the Vega II).Yep, works fine. I wonder if I can use 9 XDR displays with my current video card arrangement (3 on Vega II and 6 on W5700X)
That would only happen if both the top and I/O card were being connected to the Vega II. Did you check what GPU they are being connected to? What MPX slot is the Vega II in? What MPX slot is the W5700X in? Maybe they need to be swapped so that the W5700X takes priority (so that displays connected to the top or I/O card are connected to the W5700X first).
Yes, because Vega II does not have DSC so it uses two DisplayPort connections per XDR. The W5700X has DSC so only requires one DisplayPort connection per XDR.
9 should be possible - see first answer above.
The problem with this test is that you have the Vega II and the W5700X installed at the same time so we need more information.
Without the Vega II installed, repeat the test with one XDR on the top and one XDR on the I/O card - this should succeed showing that the DisplayPort outputs are not routed as a pair. We already know that two DisplayPorts to the same controller is possible because that's how a Vega II gets 6K from an XDR connected to the top or I/O card - but to be sure, you can do that test with the W5700X to show that DSC allows two XDR displays to be connected to the same controller (the top or I/O card or the two controllers of the W5700X).
What I mean is, if you're loading things down to the point where the I/O card bus' DisplayPort lines *must* be driven by one GPU, and the top I/O by the *other* GPU, does that actually work? Or maybe you have a screenshot of System Profile showing that happening already even when you aren't connecting a dozen monitors?
In practice, unless you are pushing the very limits of both cards, it would be possible to drive both internal TB3 buses on the Mac Pro with a single GPU.
The Vega II and W5700X only provide two DisplayPort outputs to the MPX slot (the 580X and Vega II duo provide 4). So each internal TB3 bus can get one DisplayPort each (test this with only the W5700X installed and connecting one XDR to the top and one XDR to the I/O card) or one of the internal TB3 busses can get two DisplayPorts (test this with only the W5700X installed and connecting two XDRs to the top and then two XDRs to the I/O card).
With two MPX modules installed, the internal TB3 busses might be giving priority to one of the MPX modules (in other words, when no displays are connected, when you connect a display to any of the four ports of the top or I/O card, it always goes to the higher priority MPX module first. This can be tested by connecting only one XDR display to each of the four ports to see which GPU it connects to. If they all connect to the same GPU, then there's a priority.
Yep, works fine. I wonder if I can use 9 XDR displays with my current video card arrangement (3 on Vega II and 6 on W5700X)
View attachment 911238
Actually, I just tried plugging two into both the ports on top and both ports on the I/O card. In both cases, only one monitor works.
Also just tried plugging two monitors into one Thunderbolt bus on the Vega II. Only one shows up. So, it seems I can connect 8 XDR displays with this current setup: 2 directly to Vega II, 4 directly to W5700X, 1 connected to a top port, and one connected to an I/O port.
Do you know if you can run 2 on the vega and 1 on the top port? I want a third XDR, but not sure if I need to grab another card to support it
Yeah, it works great. See here:https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/psa-pro-vega-ii-single-can-power-3x-xdr-displays.2225758/
The W5700X graphics performance degradation I noticed in macOS 10.15.4. (...and addressed with macOS 10.15.5. Beta) is present in Windows 10 Prof as well (with latest Radeon Bootcamp drivers 19.40).
The graphics performance drops occasionally very noticeable, e.g. during gaming you can't continue practically because of unacceptable low frame rates. Short re-check in such cases with GeekBench5 shows a Vulkan score drop from about 56.000 before to 16.000 after such drop. Windows re-boot helps, but only until next time...
Did someone experienced the same - and found a solution already?
Looks like the graphics performance problem isn't a macOS driver problem only.... the Bootcamp drivers for the W5700X will need re-work as well.
The graphics performance drops occasionally very noticeable, e.g. during gaming you can't continue practically because of unacceptable low frame rates. Short re-check in such cases with GeekBench5 shows a Vulkan score drop from about 56.000 before to 16.000 after such drop. Windows re-boot helps, but only until next time...
Did someone experienced the same - and found a solution already?
Looks like the graphics performance problem isn't a macOS driver problem only.... the Bootcamp drivers for the W5700X will need re-work as well.
I've been noticing that my computer now awakes from sleep MUCH better and faster using the W5700X compared to my Vega II mono. I'm currently only plugged in to the W5700X and my 3 XDRs awake instantly without fail. The Vega II sometimes took up to 45 seconds to awake, and often the screens would flicker.
A great improvement for me thus far!
A great improvement for me thus far!
Today I had a strange thing, System woke up, but display wouldn’t come on at all. Only came on when I plugged the display into the card, was plugged in to the top system card initially. Also noticing some strange flickering somethings. Especially when a pdf is open (in preview) not sure if it’s the content as it was only on one page which flickered every time I scrolled to it.
Have you by any chance tried to install the standard Pro Windows drivers from AMD? If the driver package recognizes the "X" version of the W5700, it might be a solution.The W5700X graphics performance degradation I noticed in macOS 10.15.4. (...and addressed with macOS 10.15.5. Beta) is present in Windows 10 Prof as well (with latest Radeon Bootcamp drivers 19.40).
The graphics performance drops occasionally very noticeable, e.g. during gaming you can't continue practically because of unacceptable low frame rates. Short re-check in such cases with GeekBench5 shows a Vulkan score drop from about 56.000 before to 16.000 after such drop. Windows re-boot helps, but only until next time...
Did someone experienced the same - and found a solution already?
Looks like the graphics performance problem isn't a macOS driver problem only.... the Bootcamp drivers for the W5700X will need re-work as well.
Haven’t tried yet. So far I read that generally only the adapted drivers from bootcampdrivers.com works with Apple branded AMD cards (but these aren’t beyond 19.40 yet). But would be interesting to know if someone tried the standard AMD Pro drivers...
I don't have a 7,1, so it might of course be different on those, particularly with MPX module graphics, but on my 1,1, 4,1 & now 5,1 I've never used the Apple-supplied version of Radeon drivers. This included the (Apple OEM) 5770 I originally had in the 4,1. Certainly worth a try.
EDIT: AMD's support info for both the Radeon Pro & Adrenaline drivers states 'This driver is not intended for use on Radeon™ products running in Apple Boot Camp platforms. Users of these platforms should contact their system manufacturer for driver support.' Which might mean 'it doesn't work', might mean 'not all the special features work', and might just be 'we haven't tested them, that's all'.
EDIT: AMD's support info for both the Radeon Pro & Adrenaline drivers states 'This driver is not intended for use on Radeon™ products running in Apple Boot Camp platforms. Users of these platforms should contact their system manufacturer for driver support.' Which might mean 'it doesn't work', might mean 'not all the special features work', and might just be 'we haven't tested them, that's all'.
Last edited:
Received my W5700X today. Zero issues, updated the driver once, restarted, voila! Rendering much faster in premiere and no up/down performance problems. Woohoo!
I got mine today as well. Everything is working fine (afaict) but I do have that thunderbolt firmware update popup. Not a big deal though I guess I'll wait for 10.15.5. I'm using a XDR and Cintiq Pro and they both worked perfectly. I love this machine!
It's a fantastic upgrade over the 580, worth the money for sure. Also kind of off topic but the box they send it in is ridiculously high quality. It's covered in some nice feeling thick plastic stuff. Not like the Mac Pro/XDR box at all. Kinda weird but at any rate, the packaging is amazing for something you'll deal with once lol.
It's a fantastic upgrade over the 580, worth the money for sure. Also kind of off topic but the box they send it in is ridiculously high quality. It's covered in some nice feeling thick plastic stuff. Not like the Mac Pro/XDR box at all. Kinda weird but at any rate, the packaging is amazing for something you'll deal with once lol.
Attachments
Hi,
I just got the Radeon Pro W5700X MPX for Mac pro 7.1, Catalina 10.15.4
There are big stability issues in the performance under Metal and Open CL.
At times I'm well below the performance of a Radeon 580X and generally not at the 580X level? see screenshots.
it's a disaster.
Of course, at Apple, nobody is able to give me an answer to solve this problem?
I'll have to return the card, because it's unusable for professional use...
It's a shame to sell a product for more than 1.200,00€ whose drivers are not even updated...
Apple has really fallen down...
If you've got any solutions, I'll take it...
Thank you in advance for your advice
I just got the Radeon Pro W5700X MPX for Mac pro 7.1, Catalina 10.15.4
There are big stability issues in the performance under Metal and Open CL.
At times I'm well below the performance of a Radeon 580X and generally not at the 580X level? see screenshots.
it's a disaster.
Of course, at Apple, nobody is able to give me an answer to solve this problem?
I'll have to return the card, because it's unusable for professional use...
It's a shame to sell a product for more than 1.200,00€ whose drivers are not even updated...
Apple has really fallen down...
If you've got any solutions, I'll take it...
Thank you in advance for your advice
Attachments
This.
And I’ll add that with 10.15.5 Beta 3, I still haven’t seen the issue show up again since updating. So it’s getting close to a week without issues.
I’m still scratching my head why they didn’t wait until 10.15.5 to sell the card. :|