MP 1,1-5,1 GPU Compatibility List for cMP

[polanskiman]

How does one tell the difference between these two versions? I have a couple of RX 580 Sapphire Pulse cards I bought at retail a few years back, and I'd like to produce some evidence of the version of these cards before I list them for sale.

Several ways.
1. These 2048SP models from Sapphire were made for the Chinese market so if you got them from China it is highly probable they are 2048SP
2. The sticker on the GPU should say if it's a 2048SP model

3. GPU-Z should also say it is a 2048SP version in the name if BIOS was not modified. If it was modified, look at the Shaders line. It should say 2048SP. Also look the Pixel Fillrate. A 2048SP has a Pixell Fillrate usually no more than 41.x GPixel/s. 2304SP have Pixel Fillrate of 42.x and up to 43.x. At least that's what I have seen.

4. The 2048SP I returned also didn't have dual bios, so no switch. The 2304SP I just received has dual bios with a small switch at the back of the card. I am not sure if this is standard on all Sapphire Pulse RX 580 2304SP though.
5. Looking at the ASIC can also give you a hint but this is not 100% accurate. The 2048SP sometimes have an RX 570 ASIC but can also have an RX 580 ASIC where some shaders have been disabled.
6. There are small differences like one of the screws on the top aluminium plate but I think with the above you should be able to distinguish them already.

If you need the original bios, just ask Sapphire through their support. They will send it to you. They will ask for SN of the card, memory manufacturer (Samsung, Hynix etc). I prefer to open the card and take pictures of the RAM and ASIC etched number and send them that rather than rely on what GPU-Z says. They will also ask for a dump of the bios.

 

[tsialex]

4. The 2048SP I returned also didn't have dual bios, so no switch. The 2304SP I just received has dual bios with a small switch at the back of the card. I am not sure if this is standard on all Sapphire Pulse RX 580 2304SP though.

Usually all the older Sapphire Pulse RX 580 models does not have the ROM switch, two of mine doesn't.

AFAIK, the last model made, the Sapphire Pulse RX 580 cost reduced (without the DVI connector) also does not have the ROM switch.

 

[BeatCrazy]

Usually all the older Sapphire Pulse RX 580 models does not have the ROM switch, two of mine doesn't.

AFAIK, the last model made, the Sapphire Pulse RX 580 cost reduced (without the DVI connector) also does not have the ROM switch.

I am considering buying a RX580 8GB for my cMP 5,1 running OCLP. Hoping to get to Sonoma from Monterey.

I've read the first post, but still cannot tell if a non-Sapphire RX580 will work without a FW flash? I'm considering a locally-sourced XFX RX580 with the attached designation. Will this work for my purposes?

 

[tsialex]

I am considering buying a RX580 8GB for my cMP 5,1 running OCLP. Hoping to get to Sonoma from Monterey.

I've read the first post, but still cannot tell if a non-Sapphire RX580 will work without a FW flash? I'm considering a locally-sourced XFX RX580 with the attached designation. Will this work for my purposes?
View attachment 2313614

All RX-580 with 2304 StreamProcessors work, even from XFX where anything earlier wasn't compatible with a Mac Pro.

If the card is a Chinese market one with 2048SPs, then macOS drivers do not have support for it. I'd ask the seller and confirm if the card is a 2304SPs.

Mining crypto cards and anything with firmware mods will require a re-flash with the factory firmware, be aware of second hand cards, most are from crypto miners.

 

[murf1972]

How can we know that the card is a 2304SPs?

 

[tsialex]

How can we know that the card is a 2304SPs?

SPs = Stream Processors = Shaders

 

[m4v3r1ck]

1st time request for information about the SAPPHIRE PULSE RADEON RX580 to be installed in my cMP 5.1 macOS 13.6.3 OCLP 0.6.8. Is this a good card for the near future?

Can someone decifer the code on the sticker?

 

[h9826790]

1st time request for information about the SAPPHIRE PULSE RADEON RX580 to be installed in my cMP 5.1 macOS 13.6.3 OCLP 0.6.8. Is this a good card for the near future?

Can someone decifer the code on the sticker?


View attachment 2338872

SKU 11265-09 should be the genuine RX580 (rather than the unsupported RX580 2048SP). This card should work in High Sierra all the way to Monterey without any issue.

With OCLP, this card should work up to Sonoma in cMP.

 

[m4v3r1ck]

SKU 11265-09 should be the genuine RX580 (rather than the unsupported RX580 2048SP). This card should work in High Sierra all the way to Monterey without any issue.

With OCLP, this card should work up to Sonoma in cMP.

Thanks. I now have my eyes on a 11265-05. Should be fine then as it is <225W.
Cheers

 

[poundman]

Question, on my 4,1 updated to 5,1 can I have 2 GPUs installed, 1 GT 120 to see the boot menu, and a RX580 for Metal support and OS Mojave and above? Thanks

 

[poundman]

Another question, does ATI HD 6670 work in macpro, with Metal support?

 

[tsialex]

Question, on my 4,1 updated to 5,1 can I have 2 GPUs installed, 1 GT 120 to see the boot menu, and a RX580 for Metal support and OS Mojave and above? Thanks

No, High Sierra is the last macOS that supports dissimilar GPUs together, if you try with Mojave and newer you'll start to have inexplicable bugs/issues/crashes. For pre-boot configuration, look at EnableGop thread.

Another question, does ATI HD 6670 work in macpro, with Metal support?

Not a METAL supported GPU.

 

[Tex Tiles]

Anyone know if a GV-R938G1 AMD Radeon R9 4gig will work in a macpro 3,1? I couldn't find this exact gpu in the list but someone nearby is selling one cheap and I was wondering if it will work in one of my 3,1s? (I have 2) I think it is metal compatible (?)

And if it does work on recent systems (with OCLP) will it also work with older systems like snow leopard and el capitan?

 

[tsialex]

Anyone know if a GV-R938G1 AMD Radeon R9 4gig will work in a macpro 3,1? I couldn't find this exact gpu in the list but someone nearby is selling one cheap and I was wondering if it will work in one of my 3,1s? (I have 2) I think it is metal compatible (?)

And if it does work on recent systems (with OCLP) will it also work with older systems like snow leopard and el capitan?

Apple never sold a Mac with this GPU, only the mobile version (M380/M390/M395) was used with Retina iMacs and this guarantee absolutely nothing compatibility wise with the desktop versions for a series of reasons, like framebuffers and etc.

So, the R9-380 is a extremely poorly supported AMD GPU and most of the cards have issues like the screen being pinkish, stripes, wrong colors, but some people reported success over the years.

macOS driver support starts with El Capitan, can't run anything earlier. For running High Sierra and later with a MacPro3,1 you'll need Syncretic MouSSE, since the drivers require SSE4.2 that the MacPro3,1 Xeons doesn't support. No idea if OCLP supports it, ask them.

I personally tested three different cards over the years and only one worked acceptably. I would not buy one today for a Mac, but if is cheap enough I'd get one for a PC build.

 

[Tex Tiles]

Apple never sold a Mac with this GPU, only the mobile version (M380/M390/M395) was used with Retina iMacs and this guarantee absolutely nothing compatibility wise with the desktop versions for a series of reasons, like framebuffers and etc.

So, the R9-380 is a extremely poorly supported AMD GPU and most of the cards have issues like the screen being pinkish, stripes, wrong colors, but some people reported success over the years.

macOS driver support starts with El Capitan, can't run anything earlier. For running High Sierra and later with a MacPro3,1 you'll need Syncretic MouSSE, since the drivers require SSE4.2 that the MacPro3,1 Xeons doesn't support. No idea if OCLP supports it, ask them.

I personally tested three different cards over the years and only one worked acceptably. I would not buy one today for a Mac, but if is cheap enough I'd get one for a PC build.

Thanks so much for the response tsialex, you are a gentleman and a scholar. From the sounds of it I should pass on this one then.

Is there one that is inexpensive and would work out of the box (used maybe?) that would work for snow leopard, and forward to el capitan and oclp monterey etc?

It seems like a very deep rabbit hole indeed and kind of overwhelming.

 

[tsialex]

Thanks so much for the response tsialex, you are a gentleman and a scholar. From the sounds of it I should pass on this one then.

Is there one that is inexpensive and would work out of the box (used maybe?) that would work for snow leopard, and forward to el capitan and oclp monterey etc?

It seems like a very deep rabbit hole indeed and kind of overwhelming.

There is no such GPU. Most people would make one Mac Pro adequate hardware wise to run Snow Leopard and another one upgraded to run Monterey. There is no way to run Snow Leopard and Monterey while having top performance with both, you will have to make some sort of compromise.

One compromise that a lot of people accept is using the oldest GPU that still works with Monterey, ATI/AMD HD 7950/7970/R9-280 that have macOS supports starting with Mountain Lion, but can "work" with Snow Leopard and Lion un-accelerated (only if the GPU is MacEFI flashed).

I'd get one flashed, or flash it yourself, so, Snow Leopard display works un-accelerated/no drivers via the Mac EFI, see if it's acceptable to you, works good enough for a lot of people.

 

[Tex Tiles]

There is no such GPU. Most people would make one Mac Pro adequate hardware wise to run Snow Leopard and another one upgraded to run Monterey. There is no way to run Snow Leopard and Monterey while having top performance with both, you will have to make some sort of compromise.

One compromise that a lot of people accept is using the oldest GPU that still works with Monterey, ATI/AMD HD 7950/7970/R9-280 that have macOS supports starting with Mountain Lion, but can "work" with Snow Leopard and Lion unaccelerated (only if the GPU is MacEFI flashed).

I'd get one flashed, so, Snow Leopard display works un-accelerated/no drivers via the Mac EFI, see if it's acceptable to you, works good enough for a lot of people.

That sounds good, I only use snow leopard for protools so it is not graphics intensive at all.

But Snow Leopard needs to boot without any of the OCLP EFI disk that I use to run monterey running or else it doesn't load the drivers for the UAD DSP pcie cards in snow leopard.

My understanding of things is not too clear (I appreciate your patience), but I think the Mac EFI you are referring to is different than the OCLP efi disk. (?)

When I google Mac EFI it said that it is the boot program before the OS loads, so Mac EFI is what is already loading snow leopard etc when I option boot to choose system drives?

 

[tsialex]

That sounds good, I only use snow leopard for protools so it is not graphics intensive at all.

But Snow Leopard needs to boot without any of the OCLP EFI disk that I use to run monterey running or else it doesn't load the drivers for the UAD DSP pcie cards in snow leopard.

My understanding of things is not too clear, but I think the Mac EFI you are referring to is different than the OCLP efi disk. (?)

When I google Mac EFI it said that it is the boot program before the OS loads, so Mac EFI is what is already loading snow leopard etc when I option boot to choose drives?

MacEFI = the code necessary to add to the GPU firmware for a PC GPU to be compatible with a Mac and have pre-boot configuration support (flashing the GPU).

 

[Tex Tiles]

MacEFI = the code necessary to add to the GPU firmware for a PC GPU to be compatible with a Mac and have pre-boot configuration support (flashing the GPU).

Thanks for the explanation. I'll keep my eye out for one of your recomendation and look into flashing it (although I've never been successful in getting boot camp to work on any of my different macs...)

I do appreciate you steering me away from getting the wrong card. Probably saved me a whole lot of headaches

 

[pierrox]

What's the consensus in March 2024? I'm running a Vega 56 (Pixels mod) and I see that the 5700XT and the Radeon VII are finally out of the crazy price league.
Are they worth upgrading? I'm mainly editing (simple cutting, no fx) with my MacPro and might take on a project on Davinci Resolve.

 

[tsialex]

What's the consensus in March 2024? I'm running a Vega 56 (Pixels mod) and I see that the 5700XT and the Radeon VII are finally out of the crazy price league.
Are they worth upgrading? I'm mainly editing (simple cutting, no fx) with my MacPro and might take on a project on Davinci Resolve.

For video editing RX 6800 (Dell/Alienware 2-slots wide, non XT) is the best performance you can get with a MacPro5,1 that is only gonna run Monterey. If you gonna run Ventura/Sonoma, stay with your VEGA 56, no support for NAVI GPUs and MacPro5,1 with newer releases than Monterey.

If you need to boot Mojave to Big Sur, VII will be your best bet.

RX 5700XT is a weaker GPU and prone to defects.

 

[pierrox]

Thanks! I'll check the prices of the 6800 around here. I'm using OC so I'm not going above Monterey.

 

[arw]

It was probably a typo but just in case you need to run Big Sur, Navi RDNA2 (RX 6800) is supported since update 11.4

 

[ZXRyuu]

Hello! I'm new here, but I did want to post a reply to mention that, after much testing (on one card in particular [the MSi RTX 4060 Ti Gaming X 8GB]), I found that it can be used on the Classic Mac Pro, primarily when it comes to Windows; I haven't been able to test it on the macOS yet.

I was able to use dosdude1's ROMTool and DXEInject, as well as OpenCore's EnableGop.ffs file to get past the GPU Firmware block.

I used Mac OS X Mavericks to backup the stock firmware and Flash the GopFirmware back to the MX25L3205D chip on my motherboard.

Anyway, not sure if this GeForce RTX 40X0 solution was already known and the documentation hasn't been updated, but I thought I would send this message regardless, because it wasn't an option that was listed on several guides that I found online; they all stop at the 20X0 series. Most guides also mention that the GeForce RTX 30X0 series is in the "does not work" category. I used a Dual Mini 6 Pin Male to Single 8 Pin Male cable attached to both PCIe AUX ports to meet the 160 watts required by the card. No mods are being used in my Classic Mac Pro to attain this result.

Thanks,
Jeremy "ZXRyuu"

 

[h9826790]

Thanks! I'll check the prices of the 6800 around here. I'm using OC so I'm not going above Monterey.

And please make sure you read the relevant post about how to flash the card, a 6800 can't boot in cMP without flashing.