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tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,009
13,238
Hi, is there a reasonable way to add AVX2 support to a Mac Pro 6,1?

There isn't even unreasonable ways.

AVX2.0 is part of the instruction set of Xeons one generation later - starting with Xeon E5 V3 - that is incompatible and can't be installed to the MacPro6,1. The only Mac Pro that have AVX2.0 support is the 2019 Mac Pro.

Is there some thunderbolt PCI express thing I can plugin with a card or something?

No.
 

honeycombz

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 6, 2013
583
154
That's unfortunate. Aside from that still seems like a perfectly viable machine but I guess it is a decade old.
 

honeycombz

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 6, 2013
583
154
How can I tell what newer machines have AVX2? My 2015 iMac 5k appears to and that is only a few years newer than my MP 6,1. Do the new Mac Minis M1 and 2 have AVX2?
 

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,009
13,238
How can I tell what newer machines have AVX2? My 2015 iMac 5k appears to and that is only a few years newer than my MP 6,1.

AVX2 were introduced with Intel Haswell processors, so, some Macs year model mid-2013 and then all late-2013, with the exception of the MacPro6,1, have AVX2 support. The first Mac Pro to have AVX2 support is the 2019 Mac Pro.

Intel Xeons are always behind the Core series.

Do the new Mac Minis M1 and 2 have AVX2?

Apple Silicon have different SIMD/vector instructions (NEON and etc) that are more or less equivalent of the most recent Intel AVX instructions.
 
Last edited:

lancemcv1

macrumors regular
Jan 12, 2010
150
56
All year model 2013 and newer Macs, with the exception of the MacPro6,1, already have AVX2.0.

Apple Silicon have different SIMD/vector instructions (NEON and etc) that are more or less equivalent of the most recent Intel AVX instructions.
Question, why is it that a 6,1 can run Sonoma With OCLP. why do the older GPUs work in Sonoma like the d300-700 but the new Navi 2 Rx 6800xt can’t work. I know it has to do with avx2 but I am just wondering why the older GPUs work and the newer ones don’t, do the new drivers for the Navi 2 have avx2 built into them in Ventura as a-posed to the drivers in Monterey? Just trying to understand this better. Thanks
 

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,009
13,238
Question, why is it that a 6,1 can run Sonoma With OCLP. why do the older GPUs work in Sonoma like the d300-700 but the new Navi 2 Rx 6800xt can’t work. I know it has to do with avx2 but I am just wondering why the older GPUs work and the newer ones don’t, do the new drivers for the Navi 2 have avx2 built into them in Ventura as a-posed to the drivers in Monterey? Just trying to understand this better. Thanks

All Ventura and Sonoma GPU drivers require AVX2.0, Apple added the requirement (compiler flag) of AVX2.0 when the drivers were compiled.

OCLP is injecting modified Monterey drivers into Ventura/Sonoma, this works relatively good for some GPUs and not for others. OCLP have limited manpower and not all GPUs, so, the most commonly used ones get better support. NAVI GPUs are currently unsupported.
 

haralds

macrumors 68030
Jan 3, 2014
2,888
1,203
Silicon Valley, CA
Although I have been back on Sonoma for the last couple of days on my 5,1, my Monterey boot is more reliable.
Sonoma is mostly stable with my flashed Sapphire RX-580 8GB. But there are occasional crashes especially if I let it sleep over night. I just shut it down when not in use.
 
Last edited:

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,009
13,238
Although I have been back on Sonoma for the last couple of days on my 5,1, my Monterey boot is more reliable.
Sonoma is mostly stable with my flashed Sapphire RX-580 7GB. But there are occasional crashes especially if I let it sleep over night. I just shut it down when not in use.

Interesting, but did you noticed that this thread is about late-2013 Mac Pro?
 
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haralds

macrumors 68030
Jan 3, 2014
2,888
1,203
Silicon Valley, CA
Interesting, but did you noticed that this thread is about late-2013 Mac Pro?
Yes. But AVX2 related issues should replicate, shouldn't they?

BTW, a while back, you warned about Logic Pro reliability under Vetura and Sonoma. I tried to do more serious work on the CMPro 5,1 under Sonoma (normally I use a Mac Studio M1 Ultra,) and Logic hung after a bout 2 hours. You were correct, sir!
I am back to using Monterey. The good news is I found the Project file format compatible between 10.7.n and 10.8.n, at least for the features I have used.
 
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impulse462

macrumors 68020
Jun 3, 2009
2,086
2,872
doubt the cpu physically has the required registers nor do they support the extension scheme
 

Richard74

macrumors newbie
Apr 22, 2024
2
0
Is it correct to assume then that even if a MP 6,1 (or cMP 5,1 for that matter) can be successfully patched to run Monterey through to Sonoma with OCLP, they still won’t be able to run software that requires AVX2 like the latest Adobe Premiere etc.?
 

Dayo

macrumors 68020
Dec 21, 2018
2,208
1,257
run software that requires AVX2 like the latest Adobe Premiere
Well, there is Intel's Sofware Development Emulator that you can try.
It basically fully emulates all missing CPU functionality on units it is run on.

Expected to be slow to use on old Macs where it has to emulate more things.
The reality is that no one appears to have looked into it seriously here yet.
The 2013 Trashcan might be one of the better candidates to try it on.
This option is basically the only path left to keep stuff working.
 
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