MP 7,1 Adding an AMD 6900XT... keep the 580x?

[ChrisMakesNMods]

I bought a Sonnet 6900XT for my Mac Pro 7,1. I want to dual boot into Windows for some casual gaming. Not expecting this to be a high-end FPS. I am well aware there are better builds for gaming. I just don't have the real estate for multiple rigs in the office.

My primary use for the Mac Pro is scoring/orchestration and some light content creation. It is has been well configured for these tasks so far.

Now that I have the 6900XT, is there any reason to keep the 580x in the system other than the convenience of the USB pass-through?

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

I bought a Sonnet 6900XT for my Mac Pro 7,1. I want to dual boot into Windows for some casual gaming. Not expecting this to be a high-end FPS. I am well aware there are better builds for gaming. I just don't have the real estate for multiple rigs in the office.

My primary use for the Mac Pro is scoring/orchestration and some light content creation. It is has been well configured for these tasks so far.

Now that I have the 6900XT, is there any reason to keep the 580x in the system other than the convenience of the USB pass-through?

I got rid of my 580 when I got my 6900, however, I kept a w9100 in there to drive extra screens. If the 6900 drives all the screens you need, I’d get rid of the 580 as it likely will just mess with things.\

 

[ChrisMakesNMods]

I got rid of my 580 when I got my 6900, however, I kept a w9100 in there to drive extra screens. If the 6900 drives all the screens you need, I’d get rid of the 580 as it likely will just mess with things.\

Thanks. I will probably go solo with the 6900. Agree the 580 will probably cause trouble at some point.

Just curious, what scenes do you keep the 9100 around for?

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Thanks. I will probably go solo with the 6900. Agree the 580 will probably cause trouble at some point.

Just curious, what scenes do you keep the 9100 around for?

I have the 6900xt for my 85" 8k screen, and kept my 9100 around for 3 more 30" cinema displays. The 9100 has 6 mini display ports, which makes them easier to connect. I probably could get them all to run just on the 6900, however, I would need different adapters for each since the 6900XT from sonnet is a reference card. I just didnt want to go through the road of 3 different dongles to get all of them to work with those old screens.

 

[ChrisMakesNMods]

I have the 6900xt for my 85" 8k screen, and kept my 9100 around for 3 more 30" cinema displays. The 9100 has 6 mini display ports, which makes them easier to connect. I probably could get them all to run just on the 6900, however, I would need different adapters for each since the 6900XT from sonnet is a reference card. I just didnt want to go through the road of 3 different dongles to get all of them to work with those old screens.

Totally makes sense. I hate having to keep track of all the different adapters. I did like having one T3 cable out to my CalDigit hub which connected to my monitors and external USB devices. New setup without the video passthrough requires a separate cable to carry video from the GPU out to the monitors. One more cable for the standup desk to get caught on!

Thanks again for sharing.

 

[flowrider]

The 580x Caused me problems when I updated to an RX6800XT. Threw it in the trash👎🏼

Lou

 

[d0sed0se]

FWIW, my 7,1 came with a Vega II MPX, and I added a Gigabyte RX-6800XT. Running both threw all kinds of errors and kernel panics in both Windows and macOS, I couldn't figure it out, and then one day I decided to remove the MPX module; lo and behold -- all of my issues disappeared!

I would chuck the 580 MPX if I were you...

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Totally makes sense. I hate having to keep track of all the different adapters. I did like having one T3 cable out to my CalDigit hub which connected to my monitors and external USB devices. New setup without the video passthrough requires a separate cable to carry video from the GPU out to the monitors. One more cable for the standup desk to get caught on!

Thanks again for sharing.

The dream of just one wire! Yea, that would be fantastic. Maybe with Thunderbolt 5?

 

[ChrisMakesNMods]

FWIW, my 7,1 came with a Vega II MPX, and I added a Gigabyte RX-6800XT. Running both threw all kinds of errors and kernel panics in both Windows and macOS, I couldn't figure it out, and then one day I decided to remove the MPX module; lo and behold -- all of my issues disappeared!

I would chuck the 580 MPX if I were you...

Consensus is to chuck the 580. Seems like there are no benefits to keeping it and plenty of possible downsides.

I pulled the 580 and left my 6900 in slot 3. Seemed to be working well until I moved on to the next step of installing Windows with BootCamp. Ugh. I am now having the problem of different PCIe devices disappearing periodically after boot including my Accelsior drive! I see there is a long tread on PCIe drives randomly disappearing. Guess I will go join that one. I have my suspicions that BootCamp is the problem.

 

[Regulus67]

I would keep the 580X in storage, in case you need it for some reason in the future. And not throw it away, even if it has almost no value. Who knows. One day when the Mac Pro has become obsolete, it could still serve as a server, in the home network.

Like the others said, I would not leave it installed in the system.

 

[avkills]

I’ve got the 580 still in mine with the W6800X duo and haven’t had any issues. Wonder if the slot order matters. W6800 is in very bottom slot on mine.

I’ll agree you should keep it but unless there is a specific reason to have it installed probably best to leave it out. (I originally didn’t keep mine installed)

 

[flowrider]

^^^^My RX6800XT is also in slot 1.

Lou

 

[ChrisMakesNMods]

I have been playing around with leaving the MPX 580x in. I know… it is against good advice. I have it in slot #1 and the RX 6900 XT in slot #3. I have not had any issues yet.

The one benefit I have found is that if I use the 580 to drive displays, the 6900 is left alone to perform background rendering tasks. Seems kind of optimal unless, of course, it causes issues down the road.

I’ll update this tread if… and when… I run into issues.

 

[profdraper]

I bought a Sonnet 6900XT for my Mac Pro 7,1. I want to dual boot into Windows for some casual gaming. Not expecting this to be a high-end FPS. I am well aware there are better builds for gaming. I just don't have the real estate for multiple rigs in the office.

My primary use for the Mac Pro is scoring/orchestration and some light content creation. It is has been well configured for these tasks so far.

Now that I have the 6900XT, is there any reason to keep the 580x in the system other than the convenience of the USB pass-through?

No. And if using dual GPUs at some point, is best to keep them identical models for various good sanity reasons.

 

[throAU]

I would keep the 580X in storage, in case you need it for some reason in the future. And not throw it away, even if it has almost no value. Who knows. One day when the Mac Pro has become obsolete, it could still serve as a server, in the home network.

Like the others said, I would not leave it installed in the system.

Yeah I'd do that also.

The 6900XT is a high end card with large power draw under load and there's every chance it may fail at some point down the track. Having a spare GPU is always useful and you won't get much money for the 580 if you were to try sell it.

 

[avkills]

Yeah I'd do that also.

The 6900XT is a high end card with large power draw under load and there's every chance it may fail at some point down the track. Having a spare GPU is always useful and you won't get much money for the 580 if you were to try sell it.

What do you mean? I'll give him $10 for it. 🤣😉