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MP 1,1-5,1 What defines a “metal” graphics card?

You’d suggest those over SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition in the low $200 range?

Thank you. I’ve been reading those stickies and apologize if asking these questions is redundant. The information on this forum is voluminous. My knowledge is growing fast, albeit limited compared to most here. I want to be sure of my purchases before making them and also be mostly done with this project soon so the wife doesn’t lose her patience :D
 
CaliforniaDreamin said:
You’d suggest those over SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition in the low $200 range?

Thank you. I’ve been reading those stickies and apologize if asking these questions is redundant. The information on this forum is voluminous. My knowledge is growing fast, albeit limited compared to most here. I want to be sure of my purchases before making them and also be mostly done with this project soon so the wife doesn’t lose her patience :D
Click to expand...
Use the search, every day has a new report of HD 7950/7970 dying. Don't buy one, they die easily and use even more power than a GTX 680.
 
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CaliforniaDreamin said:
So this one for $249 is what it’s looking like:
www.macvidcards.com

Apple EFI AMD RX480 Reference Model Single 6 Pin for Mac Pro 4,1/5,1

The #1 place for Mac Pro graphics cards. GPU upgrades from AMD and Nvidia.
www.macvidcards.com
Click to expand...
No, this card and any reference RX-480 uses more power from the PCIe slot than MP5,1 can provide. I've linked the correct one before.

No one should use these cards with a MP5,1. MVC should know better and don't sell it at all.

Read here: High temps with RX 580
 
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CaliforniaDreamin said:
Knowing my situation and needs, do you have a better suggestion?
Click to expand...
I keep a Sapphire Dual-X HD 7970 3 gb which I EFI flashed as a spare GPU.

I personally would not use any NVIDIa cards in Mojave as there is no official NVIDIa support since Sierra / High Sierra

These are the AMD GPUs that can be EFI flashed and will then show the EFI bootscreen in Mojave.
They all have ' Metal Support '.

R9 270 X ( possibly but I suspect "yes" )
HD 7950 ( yes, nice card but HD 7970 is faster, better )
HD 7970 ( yes, very nice card )
R9 280 ( yes )
R9 280X ( yes, very nice card )

I have flashed all of these cards to show bootscreens - I started from scratch and learned slowly but steadily with a lot of help from members on the Netkas site shown below.

The above cards can be EFI flashed; the technique is freely available on the Netkas site.
It is not especially difficult to EFI flash an AMD PC GPU just tedious and I advise reading EVERY post in relevant threads

For HD 7xxxx cards http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,5619.0.html

My Sapphire Dual-X 3gb HD 7970 works perfectly with EFI bootscreens in Mojave 10.14.6 ( build 18G103 )

============================================================

NOTE : The GPUs listed above ALL have "dual BIOS : switches which simply means that they have TWO BIOSs.

HOW TO EFI flash

Before Mac Pro startup set the GPU to BIOS Switch Position #2.

Look in your High Sierra / Mojave System info for your GPU's "DEVICE I.D. write is down

Then start up Windows 7 ( preferrably ) then you "DUMP" ( download the ROM from the card- using GPUz then SAVE it and a copy somewhere.

Then you shutdown - remove your Win7 HDD - then start up in Mac OS and run the Netkas script which will add the EFI boot info to the ROM you just DUMPED.

Save THIS ROM with a name eg: 7970_EFI_rom

Shut down, re-insert your Win 7HDD - boot into Win 7.

Now download and start the latest version of AtiWInFlash.
Select your GPU from the list above and FLASH your new eg : 7970_EFI_ROM to your eg: HD 7970.

Done !

Bear in mind that if you decide to buy and EFI flash any of the HD 7xxx GPUs , , ,you have a lot of reading and note taking to do in the relevant Netkas forums first.

I am willing to help you should you decide to go ahead with flashing a HD 7xxx card.

I highly recommend buying either an MSI R9 280X or a Sapphire Dual-X 7970.
 
Get yourself a good deal on a standard, compatible RX 560 or an RX 580 model. Buy the correct power cable and call it a day. The use you're describing makes little to no sense with an MVC GPU, but if you have the money to burn - go ahead.

Get up and running with Mojave and AT LEAST keep a working booting copy of that on a spare SATA HDD or SSD for any potential issues in the future. (Carbon Copy Cloner works great for this.)

The MP4,1/MP5,1 are not "officially" supported for Catalina and random things will start to happen at some point in the future, similar to the audio bug for MP4,1 with 55XX series processors in Mojave. May not happen immediately with 10.15, but at some point and update or 10.16+ will show some random annoyances.

Also remember that Intel is no longer issuing microcode updates for ALL of the MP4,1 & MP5,1 processors. It's only a matter of time before something buggy impacts these machines or a conflict with the OS presents, or the OS requires functions these processors cannot handle.
 
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CaliforniaDreamin said:
So this one for $249 is what it’s looking like:
www.macvidcards.com

Apple EFI AMD RX480 Reference Model Single 6 Pin for Mac Pro 4,1/5,1

The #1 place for Mac Pro graphics cards. GPU upgrades from AMD and Nvidia.
www.macvidcards.com
Click to expand...
Maybe check out these cards, I use two GT640's with Mojave and no issues at all.
www.ebay.com

Mojave Nvidia Gt640 for sale | eBay

Get the best deals for Mojave Nvidia Gt640 at eBay.com. We have a great online selection at the lowest prices with Fast & Free shipping on many items!
www.ebay.com
 
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