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LUTZderFUCHS

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Jan 7, 2023
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I know it's early, but RDNA 3 gets announced Nov 3, with a December probable release date.

Last time the 6900 XT PC version worked fine in the 7.1 Mac Pro, so I am assuming the 7900 XT should as well since it's just basically a faster GPU. Any hints of drivers popping up early hidden in software yet?

Since the 7.1 Mac Pro is still going strong, with an Apple Silicon Mac Pro no where to be seen yet, I am assuming Apple will give us at least one more solid generation of GPU upgrades.

MPX modules I'd expected to come months later after the PC GPU card launches last like time. I wouldn't be surprised if they maybe just gave us a 7900 XT and kept the 6800x duo as is.

Any guesses as to what may happen?
Too bad that there is only speculation here and the topic is currently dormant.

I have now got a 9700 XTX to install and I must say the picture of the Pro XDR display remains black under Win 11 and under Ventura 13.1.
Before I had a 6900 from AMD in it and the change from the MPX module 5700X went smoothly. But this time I'm disappointed that it probably won't go further with the upgrade. Unfortunately I don't have a HDMI monitor ma to test this the from the startgeräisch its the Mac Pro 7.1 normal hoch zufahren.

Did one of you already get the 7900 to run or is that only possible when Apple provides the drivers boot camp or not?
 
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tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,090
13,291
Too bad that there is only speculation here and the topic is currently dormant.

I have now got a 9700 XTX to install and I must say the picture of the Pro XDR display remains black under Win 11 and under Ventura 13.1.
Before I had a 6900 from AMD in it and the change from the MPX module 5700X went smoothly. But this time I'm disappointed that it probably won't go further with the upgrade. Unfortunately I don't have a HDMI monitor ma to test this the from the startgeräisch its the Mac Pro 7.1 normal hoch zufahren.

Did one of you already get the 7900 to run or is that only possible when Apple provides the drivers boot camp or not?
There is no need at all for Apple add the NAVI 3x drivers to BootCamp, you can yourself install AMD provided drivers.

Btw, Windows Update will probably install it in half hour or so automatically and then the screen will work, if you are connected to the net.
 
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LUTZderFUCHS

Suspended
Jan 7, 2023
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I have now got a 9700 XTX to install and I must say the picture of the Pro XDR display remains black under Win 11 and under Ventura 13.1.
Before I had a 6900 from AMD in it and the change from the MPX module 5700X went smoothly. But this time I'm disappointed that it probably won't go further with the upgrade. Unfortunately I don't have a HDMI monitor ma to test this the from the startgeräisch its the Mac Pro 7 to boot normally.

Did one of you already get the 7900 to run or is that only possible when Apple provides the drivers boot camp or not?
 

startergo

macrumors 601
Sep 20, 2018
4,839
2,203
I have now got a 9700 XTX to install and I must say the picture of the Pro XDR display remains black under Win 11 and under Ventura 13.1.
Before I had a 6900 from AMD in it and the change from the MPX module 5700X went smoothly. But this time I'm disappointed that it probably won't go further with the upgrade. Unfortunately I don't have a HDMI monitor ma to test this the from the startgeräisch its the Mac Pro 7 to boot normally.

Did one of you already get the 7900 to run or is that only possible when Apple provides the drivers boot camp or not?
How many GPU's you have installed? If you have more than one connect a display to the working one and inspect the drivers in device manager.
 

Matty_TypeR

macrumors 6502a
Oct 1, 2016
638
548
UK
I have now got a 9700 XTX to install and I must say the picture of the Pro XDR display remains black under Win 11 and under Ventura 13.1.
Before I had a 6900 from AMD in it and the change from the MPX module 5700X went smoothly. But this time I'm disappointed that it probably won't go further with the upgrade. Unfortunately I don't have a HDMI monitor ma to test this the from the startgeräisch its the Mac Pro 7 to boot normally.

Did one of you already get the 7900 to run or is that only possible when Apple provides the drivers boot camp or not?
I dont understand why you would switch from a 6900 to 5700x and back, the 6900 is supported in ventura and windows, why even have the 5700x in the machine?

If you download the latest AMD drivers in windows they have support for the 6900 and 7900 gpu's, so when you swap out the 6900 to 7900 it will load from the latest drivers.

The only issue is if you have boot camp loaded with boot camp drivers which support both the 5700x and 6900 then they will be old drivers which dont have 7900 support.

I would remove the 5700x from machine, only leave the 6900 and boot into windows, then remove the boot camp AMD drivers with DDU and download and install the latest AMD drivers. after installing the latest AMD drivers if you install your 7900 it will work in windows with the new drivers.

I had this exact issue. bootcamp drivers are old and not upto date. also the way i switch from 6900xt in OSX to windows with a 4090 installed along with my 6900xt is to use a 8k DP switch. so from switch to monitor is one cable. to switch i have 2 cables, one from 4090 and one from 6900xt. which ever OS i am using i switch to that card via switch. you can even see boot loader with 4090 with option key, then select windows. same with 6900xt just select OSX its that simple.


If you have MBA 6900 and MBA 7900 you can power both with dual 8 pin sockets via the 4 X 8 pin sockets on logic board with belkin cables. also make sure you have 7900 in PCIe slot 4 and 6900 in PCie slot 1 where your 5700x used to be.
 
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LUTZderFUCHS

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Jan 7, 2023
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How many GPU's you have installed? If you have more than one connect a display to the working one and inspect the drivers in device manager.
Not a bad idea, but the 9700 is recognized under Windows as a basic display adapter.
And no drivers are found. The 6900 has the latest driver installed under WIN 11.
 

LUTZderFUCHS

Suspended
Jan 7, 2023
4
0
I dont understand why you would switch from a 6900 to 5700x and back, the 6900 is supported in ventura and windows, why even have the 5700x in the machine?

If you download the latest AMD drivers in windows they have support for the 6900 and 7900 gpu's, so when you swap out the 6900 to 7900 it will load from the latest drivers.

The only issue is if you have boot camp loaded with boot camp drivers which support both the 5700x and 6900 then they will be old drivers which dont have 7900 support.

I would remove the 5700x from machine, only leave the 6900 and boot into windows, then remove the boot camp AMD drivers with DDU and download and install the latest AMD drivers. after installing the latest AMD drivers if you install your 7900 it will work in windows with the new drivers.

I had this exact issue. bootcamp drivers are old and not upto date. also the way i switch from 6900xt in OSX to windows with a 4090 installed along with my 6900xt is to use a 8k DP switch. so from switch to monitor is one cable. to switch i have 2 cables, one from 4090 and one from 6900xt. which ever OS i am using i switch to that card via switch. you can even see boot loader with 4090 with option key, then select windows. same with 6900xt just select OSX its that simple.


If you have MBA 6900 and MBA 7900 you can power both with dual 8 pin sockets via the 4 X 8 pin sockets on logic board with belkin cables. also make sure you have 7900 in PCIe slot 4 and 6900 in PCie slot 1 where your 5700x used to be.
The model 5700x is long out and was replaced by a 6900 this has also worked without problems, probably because at this time point there was already an MXP module for the 6900 from AMD only 6000 euros were me then go over 1100 euros too hefty with all love to Apple ^ ^
Ok a Nvidia card is even harder to install can you tell me how I delete the Bootcamp drivers and install new, there is a link to a video.
 
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startergo

macrumors 601
Sep 20, 2018
4,839
2,203
Not a bad idea, but the 9700 is recognized under Windows as a basic display adapter.
you mean 7900, right?
1673188492734.png


 

Matty_TypeR

macrumors 6502a
Oct 1, 2016
638
548
UK
The model 5700x is long out and was replaced by a 6900 this has also worked without problems, probably because at this time point there was already an MXP module for the 6900 from AMD only 6000 euros were me then go over 1100 euros too hefty with all love to Apple ^ ^
Ok a Nvidia card is even harder to install can you tell me how I delete the Bootcamp drivers and install new, there is a link to a video.
Go to website guru 3d , download DDU and run it, read the instructions and follow. have the new AMD drivers downloaded already to install. after running DDU you can install the new AMD drivers. DDU will also remove all the 5700x drivers also.

I had to do the same thing when installing my 6900xt into windows 11 as bootcamp uses old drivers which will be useless for a new 7900xt or xtx. after installation do not use bootcamp update or it will install the older drivers again.
 

Grumply

macrumors 6502
Feb 24, 2017
285
193
Melbourne, Australia
Is there any kind of customer support email address or form we can use to spam Apple with requests for drivers for the 7900xtx?

All I can find is "user forums" that Apple apparently don't look at.
 

Grumply

macrumors 6502
Feb 24, 2017
285
193
Melbourne, Australia
yes but maybe the 7.1 is like the last G5
think about it

Of course it is. But even the G5s were nothing like as expensive as the 7,1s are. 2-rounds of driver updates is not an unreasonable request for three-year old (and still current) computers that cost as much as a car.

We're not asking for hardware development, or anything painfully expensive. Just a set of drivers.

The added computing power of the 7900xtx provides a BIG step up in speed for certain processing tasks.

5 years worth of driver updates for GPUs is a very reasonable request for machines this expensive. And if we don't get at least this 2nd round of updates (Vega to 6000-series, now 6000 to 7000 series). Then I'm done with Apple. I'll buy an RTX 4090 and turn the damned box into a Windows machine.
 

Mac3Duser

macrumors regular
Aug 26, 2021
183
139
given the price of the mac pro, this would be normal, but did apple allow windows 11 to run without bypass? maybe even one day a windows update will cancel the bypass.
I have the impression that Apple (which already knew in 2019 that it was going to switch to Apple silicon) designed this case for an update to the mac pro 8.1, as the G5 case was taken over for the mac pro 1.1.
 
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Apple Knowledge Navigator

macrumors 68040
Mar 28, 2010
3,549
11,960
I think Apple will continue its partnership with AMD.

7,1 was an important release for Apple because, for the first time in virtually forever, they were offering graphics that were at least on par with the competitions highest-end. If Apple were to not allow future AMD cards to be supported, then all I can say is that they must have a lot of confidence in Apple Silicon thus and their ability to at least match current performance levels. If they could not do this, it would be an embarrassing admission and a major step backwards.

Further, continuing to offer MPX modules would benefit both the AS and Intel install base, which is more profit for Apple.
 

Grumply

macrumors 6502
Feb 24, 2017
285
193
Melbourne, Australia
At the moment, the current 8,1 rumours are suggesting there will be discrete GPU expansion available for the Apple Silicon Mac Pro - which hopefully means we will in fact see GPU driver updates for OSX, which will help keep the 7,1 current (both now, and into the immediate future). 🤞

Windows-based benchmarks comparing video export times in Davinci Resolve between the 6900XT and the 7900XTX are suggesting up to a 60% improvement in export speeds: (https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...-review/#Video_Editing_DaVinci_Resolve_Studio)

That kind of performance jump could well compensate for the speed gains the M1 Max/Ultra see from their dedicated hardware encoders/decoders.

Keep your fingers and toes crossed ladies and gents!
 
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KingofGotham1

macrumors regular
Sep 12, 2012
106
151
At the moment, the current 8,1 rumours are suggesting there will be discrete GPU expansion available for the Apple Silicon Mac Pro - which hopefully means we will in fact see GPU driver updates for OSX, which will help keep the 7,1 current (both now, and into the immediate future). 🤞

Windows-based benchmarks comparing video export times in Davinci Resolve between the 6900XT and the 7900XTX are suggesting up to a 60% improvement in export speeds: (https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...-review/#Video_Editing_DaVinci_Resolve_Studio)

That kind of performance jump could well compensate for the speed gains the M1 Max/Ultra see from their dedicated hardware encoders/decoders.

Keep your fingers and toes crossed ladies and gents!
Really? I am glad to hear that, but I haven't heard any rumors about the 8,1 supporting discrete GPU. Id love to see it though!!
 

deconstruct60

macrumors G5
Mar 10, 2009
12,353
3,928
Really? I am glad to hear that, but I haven't heard any rumors about the 8,1 supporting discrete GPU. Id love to see it though!!

Two 'rumors'.

Reports from Amethyst's thread here. For example a couple of weeks ago.


And Gurman's shift from "half sized" Mac Pro to "same case design" Mac Pro.



The rumors are really more about 'form' than 'function'. No one is reporting that they work with macOS. Only that you can slot them into the case and power them up (where it doesn't work). That doesn't necessarily get macOS drivers for them at the same level as before.

There is also inferencing on multiple rumors where the M2 (quad die) "Extreme" was canceled so 'therefore Apple will 'have to' use something bigger". Again the 'have to' is a leap not particularly directly supported by the rumors. There was lots of "have to" include DIMM RAM slots also and that isn't panning out.

No M2/Mx Extreme leaves Apple short on 'max TFLOPS inside the box' , but it isn't like the M2 dual die (Ultra) couldn't turn in decent display driving results. The M2 Pro and Max benchmarks are not bad. To make up for the TFLOPs gap it could present as just as compute accelerator card. Or Apple is pointing Virtual Machines with Linux/Windows at the discrete GPUs. (e.g., could run some Linux Ai/ML training stack at it inside the box). It doesn't 'have to be' the same as before.

Minimally, it is probably not a boot screen GPU (it is a 2nd class GPU). [ no UEFI boot support so large break from old Intel Mac GPUs cards. ]
 

deconstruct60

macrumors G5
Mar 10, 2009
12,353
3,928
I think Apple will continue its partnership with AMD.

7,1 was an important release for Apple because, for the first time in virtually forever, they were offering graphics that were at least on par with the competitions highest-end.

Did they. The base GPU card the MP 2019 shipped with was a 580X. "on par" with the latest Nvidia offerings in late 2019? Similar the Pro Vega II was about 6 months before the Nvida A100 and the RX 8000 was shipping ( along with 2080Ti).

They had the top of AMD's class. But AMD class was not exactly timely.




If Apple were to not allow future AMD cards to be supported, then all I can say is that they must have a lot of confidence in Apple Silicon thus and their ability to at least match current performance levels.

Apple isn't trying to 'at least match' on every feature. The Mini's are still short or what an Intel Mini can do with max RAM capacity. All Apple has to do is sell GPUs with enough performance range to sell enough systems to make a profit. According to Apple the most highly bought configuration choices for Mac Pro major components was 16 core CPU and W5700 GPU.

Apple doesn't have to cover every fringe user. They just need to cover a large enough user base to be viable.
If Apple could do W6800 performance for $1-2K less money, then they probably would have a decent number of buyers.


The other issue is the presumption is that Apple is calling all the shots here. AMD may not be interested. They are not the "will they go almost bankrupt again' vendor they were in 2017=2019 era. Apple has dumped AMD discrete GPU from every other Mac system base configuration. ( number of GPUs they are buying has probably dropped at least one , if not two, orders of magnitude). Mac Pro and perhaps whatever eGPU can wrangle out of rest of mac line up with far more completitive iGPUs amounts to what? AMD has other projects where the main system vendor is not trying to put them out of business.


If they could not do this, it would be an embarrassing admission and a major step backwards.

Apple never gave themselves that objective. They mentioned wanting to have the fastest iGPU out of everyone. But building a 7900XTX or 4090 'killer', that has never aligned with any of the primary objectives Apple has laid out in any of the M1 or M2 SoC package introductions at all.


Further, continuing to offer MPX modules would benefit both the AS and Intel install base, which is more profit for Apple.

The Apple Silocon system needs a MPX module like another 'hole in the head'. The system thunderbolt ports will extremely likely be powered by the iGPU. If the base iGPU is the "M2 Ultra" class GPU, they are 'underpowered' how?

Most of the MPX complexity is about provisioning Thunderbolt both to the system's 4 ports and to the card's edge ports. The card edge ports are not really needed if just take an off-the-shelf reference card (to lower cost for system qualification to a minimum amount).


As for 'growing the Intel Mac Pro installed base'. Really? Most likely the Intel Mac Pro will be kept around for a while only because some folks are going to scoff at the new Mac Pro limits on modularity (e.g., RAM ) and very conservative software stacks that aren't going to transition over to M-series well. That isn't going to be a 'high growth' user base. If they are 'stuck' with 'buy the old one' option, then that is probably it.

Apple will probably not drop macOS upgrades for the Intel Mac Pro for several years ( 4+) , but lots of 'new' hardware features? Probably not.
 
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prefuse07

Suspended
Jan 27, 2020
895
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San Francisco, CA
Looking at history -- the W6800 came out on June 8th, 2021, and then 2 months later, on August 3rd, 2021, apple released the W6800X MPX module.

So this puts us right on schedule for WWDC -- W7000 is announced on April 13th, 2023 -- 2 months later, ~Mid June (when WWDC takes place), apple announces the W7900XTX MPX Module and maybe even a W7800X Duo!

Meanwhile, macOS 13.4 is released containing updated AMD drivers for RDNA3, and everyone is mad happy.

I love it -- also laughing hard at @deconstruct60's post above
 
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