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Will RX-570 drop in and work in a 4,1 flashed to a 5,1?

Naimfan

Naimfan

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Original poster
Jan 15, 2003
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All -

Searched some, but did not see a direct answer (if anyone has one).

I have a 4,1 8 core that I've flashed to 5,1. Running 10.12.6. I'd like to upgrade to this: Radeon Red Dragon RX-570 4GB GDDR5 Video Card but would like to know if I can simply install it and have it be recognized.

Thanks in advance!

PS - I get an error when trying to install the new nVidia driver - it keeps saying installation failed. Will search, but if anyone knows offhand what might be happening I'd be grateful!
 
Naimfan said:
All -

Searched some, but did not see a direct answer (if anyone has one).

I have a 4,1 8 core that I've flashed to 5,1. Running 10.12.6. I'd like to upgrade to this: Radeon Red Dragon RX-570 4GB GDDR5 Video Card but would like to know if I can simply install it and have it be recognized.

Thanks in advance!

PS - I get an error when trying to install the new nVidia driver - it keeps saying installation failed. Will search, but if anyone knows offhand what might be happening I'd be grateful!
Click to expand...

If you really want something work OOTB, you better pay bit more to get a RX580. That's 100% sure will be supported in next few years due to that's inside the Apple developer eGPU kit. Even thought the RX570 working now, it's support may suddenly disappear after any OS update.

Do you get a correct version of the Nvidia web driver?
 
h9826790 said:
If you really want something work OOTB, you better pay bit more to get a RX580. That's 100% sure will be supported in next few years due to that's inside the Apple developer eGPU kit. Even thought the RX570 working now, it's support may suddenly disappear after any OS update.

Do you get a correct version of the Nvidia web driver?
Click to expand...

Thanks - will do re 580.

According to the nVidia website, I did download the correct driver for 10.12.6.

However: Another bit of weirdness - though I have flashed the 4,1 with 5,1 firmware, and I am running Sierra (10.12.6), System profiler still shows MP 4,1. I did not think a 4,1 would run 10.12.6.
 
Naimfan said:
Thanks - will do re 580.

According to the nVidia website, I did download the correct driver for 10.12.6.

However: Another bit of weirdness - though I have flashed the 4,1 with 5,1 firmware, and I am running Sierra (10.12.6), System profiler still shows MP 4,1. I did not think a 4,1 would run 10.12.6.
Click to expand...

Any screen capture for that?
 
Here it is:
mp 4,1.jpg
 
Thanks for kicking off this discussion on which card - it's an upgrade I'm planning to do. A couple of things:

I don't think your system "flashing" worked. I've flashed my 2009 4,1. The About this Mac screen still shows it as a 2009 model, but System Report-Hardware Overview shows 5,1.

There may be more going on that you've posted, but upgrading an nVidia driver is not part of an AMD RX GPU update, as they are different companies.
 
h9826790 said:
Your Mac Pro still 4,1, not 5,1 yet.

1) Did you perform the 5,1 firmware flash by yourself?
2) Did you install Sierra by yourself?

And for your info, 4,1 can install Sierra, just need a little bit of work around.
Click to expand...

Yep, all done by me.

One caveat - I already had the hard drive with 10.12.6 installed from a previous MP.

I'll try it with a different drive and OS.
 
Naimfan said:
Yep, all done by me.

One caveat - I already had the hard drive with 10.12.6 installed from a previous MP.

I'll try it with a different drive and OS.
Click to expand...

You need to disable SIP for firmware flashing. In fact, I recommend you install Mavericks / Yosemite (any OSX that doesn't have SIP) for 5,1 firmware flashing.

If last time you use this HDD, try another one. I never had this issue, but quite a few users here mentioned they can't perform the firmware hack, and eventually all they need is just another HDD.
 
When I used Mountain Lion (10.8.5) freshly installed on a drive in a 4,1 Mac Pro I didn't have to do anything other than copy the firmware flasher to the machine, make sure it was connected to the Internet, and open an image of the firmware on its desktop.
 
Oh - and the RX 580 was indeed a "plug and play" graphics card.
 
Was finally able to update the firmware. It simply did not like the Seagate drive I was using. Switched to the WD Black, disabled SIP, and it updated. Enabled SIP, and it is up and running.
 
FYI - I've just put a RX 560 in my MacPro5,1, running macOS 10.13.2. Obviously no boot-splash, but it seems to run alright. I don't really know if this card's running particularly well for what it is, but it seems to run Starcraft II quite well.

I'm a bit concerned how it comes up in System Information though, here it is (minus serial numbers):
RX570-MacPro51-HighSierra-10-13-2.png


Prior to the RX 560, I tried an RX 550 and that GPU was listed at all in System Information, but it wouldn't drive displays. So basically for the 550 was entirely a non-starter. I won't want to have to resort to Hacintosh kexts just to get a newer GPU going on my otherwise fully supported MacPro5,1. I'd consider a 570/580, but they're not really realistically available to me.

I've only used this for a few rounds of SCII, but so far it's driving my 2K display (plus secondary display) just fine. The feels like decent upgrade from the 5770 I've used since, what feels like, the late 1960's.
 
docdawning said:
FYI - I've just put a RX 560 in my MacPro5,1, running macOS 10.13.2. Obviously no boot-splash, but it seems to run alright. I don't really know if this card's running particularly well for what it is, but it seems to run Starcraft II quite well.

I'm a bit concerned how it comes up in System Information though, here it is (minus serial numbers):
RX570-MacPro51-HighSierra-10-13-2.png


Prior to the RX 560, I tried an RX 550 and that GPU was listed at all in System Information, but it wouldn't drive displays. So basically for the 550 was entirely a non-starter. I won't want to have to resort to Hacintosh kexts just to get a newer GPU going on my otherwise fully supported MacPro5,1. I'd consider a 570/580, but they're not really realistically available to me.

I've only used this for a few rounds of SCII, but so far it's driving my 2K display (plus secondary display) just fine. The feels like decent upgrade from the 5770 I've used since, what feels like, the late 1960's.
Click to expand...


All indications suggest 10.13.4 will fix the GPU name. But just so you know, it’s entirely cosmetic.
 
I have just purchased a MSI Gaming X Radeon RX 570 for my Mac Pro 4,1 that was flashed to 5,1 and running Mojave 10.14.5, with that drive formatted as APFS. While it works fine, I have rEFInd (latest version) in stalled as my boot loader. When I start the machine, I do not get the boot loader. I have booted into Windows 7 and ran a utility called eGPU. eGPU shows that this card is usable with machines that use UEFI. My understanding that UEFI is a superset of EFI 1.0 (used by Apple).

I remember seeing somewhere that dosdude1 had a procedure to flash the Mac EFI firmware to this card, but it required MS-DOS in order to do so. I am unable to boot MS-DOS, FreeDOS, or any version of DOS on this machine, as I am then unable to use the keyboard (a MacAlly keyboard). Is there any way to do this from either Windows 7-64 bit desktop (I don’t trust the windows 7 command line to allow access to this card’s firmware, even if i’m Running the command line as administrator) or even from the shell in Linux Mint?
 
meistersinger said:
I have just purchased a MSI Gaming X Radeon RX 570 for my Mac Pro 4,1 that was flashed to 5,1 and running Mojave 10.14.5, with that drive formatted as APFS. While it works fine, I have rEFInd (latest version) in stalled as my boot loader. When I start the machine, I do not get the boot loader. I have booted into Windows 7 and ran a utility called eGPU. eGPU shows that this card is usable with machines that use UEFI. My understanding that UEFI is a superset of EFI 1.0 (used by Apple).

I remember seeing somewhere that dosdude1 had a procedure to flash the Mac EFI firmware to this card, but it required MS-DOS in order to do so. I am unable to boot MS-DOS, FreeDOS, or any version of DOS on this machine, as I am then unable to use the keyboard (a MacAlly keyboard). Is there any way to do this from either Windows 7-64 bit desktop (I don’t trust the windows 7 command line to allow access to this card’s firmware, even if i’m Running the command line as administrator) or even from the shell in Linux Mint?
Click to expand...

Your card only has UEFI GOP, no Mac EFI UGA support. rEFInd won’t display anything. But you can still use it in blind (via hot key). It still work in the dark.
 
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