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parisinvest

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 24, 2017
263
19
Paris
hi i've just received my r9 390x with 8go de vram, and I plug into my mac pro, with one 6pin and one 8 pin from 2x 6pin mini on the motherboard, only on the second 16x slot position from bottom, cause this card has an iron protection too thick to enter the bottom pci_e slot, it can boot up into windows, but can't boot up to mac os, I've tried too with one 6pin and two sata cable link to 8pin to give it more power, but nothing changed, need little help please. many thanks.

btw, anyone who knows how to take off the iron procection please? thanks
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,586
Hong Kong
hi i've just received my r9 390x with 8go de vram, and I plug into my mac pro, with one 6pin and one 8 pin from 2x 6pin mini on the motherboard, only on the second 16x slot position from bottom, cause this card has an iron protection too thick to enter the bottom pci_e slot, it can boot up into windows, but can't boot up to mac os, I've tried too with one 6pin and two sata cable link to 8pin to give it more power, but nothing changed, need little help please. many thanks.

btw, anyone who knows how to take off the iron procection please? thanks

Which OS you are running?

Anyway, XFX cards are well known often has compatibility issue in macOS due to highly customised PCB.
 

MIKX

macrumors 68000
Dec 16, 2004
1,815
691
Japan
But if you can re-flash the origin rom . . . in Windows . . .

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/

You might have a chance.

XFX are not good with Macs but my XFX HD 5770 works perfectly after EFI flashing.

Also . .. .please NEVER, NEVER, connect power cables to ANYTHING AFTER the Mac has booted.

That will break something, it is almost guaranteed to happen.
 
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parisinvest

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 24, 2017
263
19
Paris
But if you can re-flash the origin rom . . . in Windows . . .

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/

You might have a chance.

XFX are not good with Macs but my XFX HD 5770 works perfectly after EFI flashing.

Also . .. .please NEVER, NEVER, connect power cables to ANYTHING AFTER the Mac has booted.

That will break something, it is almost guaranteed to happen.

i'm confuse with the techpowerup efi roms, are they originals or are they mod, how do i know it is for pc or for mac please?
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,586
Hong Kong
i'm confuse with the techpowerup efi roms, are they originals or are they mod, how do i know it is for pc or for mac please?

There should be no Mac EFI ROM up there except the Apple licensed Mac Edition cards (e.g. HD7950 or GTX680).

All other EFI ROM should be just the normal PC UEFI ROM.
 

parisinvest

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 24, 2017
263
19
Paris
There should be no Mac EFI ROM up there except the Apple licensed Mac Edition cards (e.g. HD7950 or GTX680).

All other EFI ROM should be just the normal PC UEFI ROM.

yes i can understand, but why other brand r9 390x can enter the desktop, like msi, gigabite, amd etc, even without boot screen, i've see on youtube, is it only because the xfx?
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,586
Hong Kong
yes i can understand, but why other brand r9 390x can enter the desktop, like msi, gigabite, amd etc, even without boot screen, i've see on youtube, is it only because the xfx?

As I said, lots of XFX cards are highly customised. So, the macOS driver may not able to work with them correctly. Those drivers mostly likely based on reference card, or even some "Apple card", but not tailer made for the XFX PCB design.
 
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ActionableMango

macrumors G3
Sep 21, 2010
9,612
6,909
yes i can understand, but why other brand r9 390x can enter the desktop, like msi, gigabite, amd etc, even without boot screen, i've see on youtube, is it only because the xfx?

For HD7000/R9 series cards, XFX has a custom BIOS that crashes during MacOS bootup.

It's not the PCB layout, as some people have fixed this crash by flashing in another vendor's BIOS, but that's risky and asking for other kinds of trouble.

Your best bet is to return it and buy a non-XFX card.
 
Last edited:
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parisinvest

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 24, 2017
263
19
Paris
For HD7000/R9 series cards, XFX has a custom BIOS that crashes during MacOS bootup.

It's not the PCB layout, as some people have fixed this crash by flashing in another vendor's BIOS, but that's risky and asking for other kinds of trouble.

Your best bet is to return it and buy a non-XFX card.

i've already done that, you are right better to change another card than sticky by the trouble of compatibility. i wonder which card with 8gb vram has rom mod for mac version, and is there any website to check out? thank you for your advice.
 

ActionableMango

macrumors G3
Sep 21, 2010
9,612
6,909
i've already done that, you are right better to change another card than sticky by the trouble of compatibility. i wonder which card with 8gb vram has rom mod for mac version, and is there any website to check out? thank you for your advice.

Sorry I don't know how to flash AMD cards. But roughly speaking the rule of thumb for AMD cards is to generate your own ROM and flash that. Using someone else's ROM is asking for trouble, even if the model number is the same. If you buy a card with dual ROM, you preserve one as a failsafe so you can't brick it with a bad flash.
 

devon807

macrumors 6502
Dec 31, 2014
372
95
Virginia
Im going to restate what most people are saying and also from personal experience. XFX cards are notorious for not working in Mac OS X
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,586
Hong Kong
i wonder which card with 8gb vram has rom mod for mac version...

No such AMD card exist.

No such OOTB card exist.

If you want Mac EFI, and you want 8GB VRAM. IMO, the only option is to buy a GTX 1070 or GTX 1080 from MVC (unless you know how to "write" the EFI by yourself).
 
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parisinvest

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 24, 2017
263
19
Paris
No such AMD card exist.

No such OOTB card exist.

If you want Mac EFI, and you want 8GB VRAM. IMO, the only option is to buy a GTX 1070 or GTX 1080 from MVC (unless you know how to "write" the EFI by yourself).

thank you for your advice, i've return the card, but if i buy 1070 from mvc, so i can have its rom, can i flash it into another card?
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,586
Hong Kong
thank you for your advice, i've return the card, but if i buy 1070 from mvc, so i can have its rom, can i flash it into another card?

AFAIK NO, at least not as easy as you believe. The card should be hardware modded to provide extra ROM capacity for Mac EFI storage.
 
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