AMD Alternative to NVIDA GTX 980 Ti

[Terraform2]

Hey all!
So I have a bit of a GPU n00b question.
My Current System: macpro 5,1 / 2 x 3.33GHz 6-core / 64GB RAM / GTX 980 Ti 6GB
I use this machine mostly for editing (shorts and features) in HD and 4k. I commonly use After Effects, Premiere, Resolve and I still have a legacy project in FCP 7 that I need access to.

I recently updated to 10.12.6 due to some software requirements of some of my apps and as such I need to figure out a good route to switch OS's on my workstation so I can still access my FCP 7 projects. The GTX 980 Ti that I have installed is a great card however updating OS's and switching Boot Drives on start up (Option Key) are a pain in the ass or simply not possible...

I was thinking of switching to an AMD card for these reasons as I believe Mac recognized AMD drivers and I should be able to both of those things (is this true or am I mistaken?)

I don't want to sacrifice the GPU performance that I have been experiencing with my NVIDA card and was wondering if the AMD RX580 8GB would be a good replacement? All the info I can find out there are geared to game peak performance but I NEVER game on this system nor do I do any real 3d rendering etc... Really just film and photo editing. (with some After Effects)

So I guess my questions are these:

1. Am I correct in thinking the AMD RX580 8GB will display the Boot screen and allow me to update without the hassle that I currently experience with my GTX 980 Ti?
2. For Video Editing will I miss the performance edge of the NVIDA card?
3. Have any models of the RX580 worked better than others for the MacPro 5,1

Any other thoughts or concerns are welcome!

 

[MisterAndrew]

RX 580 doesn't show a boot screen, but you can switch to Windows easily using a script as shown in this post: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-to-boot-camp-without-a-boot-screen.2114788/

Sapphire Pulse RX 580 is the best GPU for cMP without Pixlas mod. With Pixlas mod you can go with a Pulse RX Vega 56. Last AMD card with a boot screen was HD 7950 Mac Edition. Apple may be brewing a solution for boot screen on the RX 580 as they are recommending that card for Mojave, but so far nothing has materialized.

 

[crjackson2134]

Hey all!
So I have a bit of a GPU n00b question.
My Current System: macpro 5,1 / 2 x 3.33GHz 6-core / 64GB RAM / GTX 980 Ti 6GB
I use this machine mostly for editing (shorts and features) in HD and 4k. I commonly use After Effects, Premiere, Resolve and I still have a legacy project in FCP 7 that I need access to.

I recently updated to 10.12.6 due to some software requirements of some of my apps and as such I need to figure out a good route to switch OS's on my workstation so I can still access my FCP 7 projects. The GTX 980 Ti that I have installed is a great card however updating OS's and switching Boot Drives on start up (Option Key) are a pain in the ass or simply not possible...

I was thinking of switching to an AMD card for these reasons as I believe Mac recognized AMD drivers and I should be able to both of those things (is this true or am I mistaken?)

I don't want to sacrifice the GPU performance that I have been experiencing with my NVIDA card and was wondering if the AMD RX580 8GB would be a good replacement? All the info I can find out there are geared to game peak performance but I NEVER game on this system nor do I do any real 3d rendering etc... Really just film and photo editing. (with some After Effects)

So I guess my questions are these:

1. Am I correct in thinking the AMD RX580 8GB will display the Boot screen and allow me to update without the hassle that I currently experience with my GTX 980 Ti?
2. For Video Editing will I miss the performance edge of the NVIDA card?
3. Have any models of the RX580 worked better than others for the MacPro 5,1

Any other thoughts or concerns are welcome!

I’m not the most knowledgeable person about this, but I can provide some information.

1. No. The AMD RX580 will not provide a boot screen. It will however allow macOS updates (not firmware updates) without the hassle of reinstalling card specific drivers.

2. You’ll likely be disappointed in video editing outside of FCPX with the RX580.

3. The Saphire Pulse RX580 is the recommended card, and most popular AMD for cMP upgrade at the moment.

If I were in your position, I would contact MVC about his flashing service. Read the link below.

http://www.macvidcards.com/store/p49/Nvidia_GTX_980_Ti_6_GB.html

 

[Terraform2]

Thanks for the quick reply @MisterAndrew

RX 580 doesn't show a boot screen, but you can switch to Windows easily using a script as shown in this post: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-to-boot-camp-without-a-boot-screen.2114788/

Does anything like this exist for switching between MacOS's (I would imagine not)

That Pixlas Mod looks serious!
I am assuming you performed that on your mac in order to be able to install the card you have currently?
I'm a bit unclear as to if that Mod uses all the power from your optical drives thus rending them useless. Also I am assuming you don't get the full boot screen with your card either? Lastly how do you feel your card compares in performance to say the NVIDIA 980 Ti?

I’m not the most knowledgeable person about this, but I can provide some information.
2. You’ll likely be disappointed in video editing outside of FCPX with the RX580.

So you think that the AMD will be noticeably less powerful than the NVIDIA huh? I thought of sending it in to MacVidCards to have it flashed but it is pretty expensive ($160 for a card I already paid a lot for) and I have heard that they are really quite slow in both turnaround and in communication... Too bad they corner the market on such things.

 

[MisterAndrew]

Thanks for the quick reply @MisterAndrew

Does anything like this exist for switching between MacOS's (I would imagine not)

That Pixlas Mod looks serious!
I am assuming you performed that on your mac in order to be able to install the card you have currently?
I'm a bit unclear as to if that Mod uses all the power from your optical drives thus rending them useless. Also I am assuming you don't get the full boot screen with your card either? Lastly how do you feel your card compares in performance to say the NVIDIA 980 Ti?

Sure. Startup Disk in System Preferences.

Yes, I've done the Pixlas mod. It pulls power directly from the power supply. It doesn't pull power from the optical drives. There aren't any AMD cards newer than the HD 7950 / R9 280 (or flashed HD 7970 / R9 280X) that has boot screens (there hasn't been a newer Mac Edition released and they are not currently flashable because no one has invested the time and energy into figuring it out).

I've never had a GTX 980 Ti, but according to this general benchmark the Vega 56 is faster: http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-980-Ti-vs-AMD-RX-Vega-56/3439vs3938

It's nice that the new AMD cards have drivers built-in to macOS so they just work and they support the highest Metal feature set in Mojave. Nvidia cards do not support the highest feature set. However, Apple has not yet released the new feature set tables so we don't know what the differences are.

 

[crjackson2134]

So you think that the AMD will be noticeably less powerful than the NVIDIA huh? I thought of sending it in to MacVidCards to have it flashed but it is pretty expensive ($160 for a card I already paid a lot for) and I have heard that they are really quite slow in both turnaround and in communication... Too bad they corner the market on such things.

When it comes to video editing/rendering yes. If you are bound to FCPX, you can leverage OpenCL and Metal. In that application, AMD card would accel.

The other Pro Video apps will utilize the powerful CUDA engine which only NVIDIA cards use.

If you look at my signature, you will see that I have an MVC flashed HD7970. It meets all the basic requirements of boot screens and such (that's why I keep it), and it's fast at general tasks on Mojave. It does FCPX just fine but it's not a serious pro card for a video jockey.

If Video were my life-blood, I'd probably be running an Nvidia card OR using FCPX exclusively. It all depends on what you are trying to do.

AMD makes sense for me, but I'm not a video-pro, I only dabble a bit. CUDA rules the professional video world at the moment IMHO, but hey... It's your call, only you know what you need/want.

Regarding MVC, I've had many transactions and they were all timely, good experiences... YMMV

 

[MisterAndrew]

It’s pretty easy to flash your own HD 7950 or 7970 if you want to keep one handy for boot screens.

See this thread on how to make one: http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,5619.0.html

If you’re using Boot Camp it’s better to go with a GTX 680 (since flashed HD 7950 doesn’t work well with Windows). It’s even easier to flash since you don’t need to make a rom. There’s a DIY and the Mac rom on the forum here.

No reason to pay someone to do that for you.

 

[crjackson2134]

If you’re using Boot Camp it’s better to go with a GTX 680 (since flashed HD 7950 doesn’t work well with Windows). It’s even easier to flash since you don’t need to make a rom. There’s a DIY and the Mac rom on the forum here.

No reason to pay someone to do that for you.

Not sure what the difference would be between the 7950 & 7970, but mine is flawless in Windows 10.

 

[Terraform2]

It’s pretty easy to flash your own HD 7950 or 7970 if you want to keep one handy for boot screens.

See this thread on how to make one: http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,5619.0.html

If you’re using Boot Camp it’s better to go with a GTX 680 (since flashed HD 7950 doesn’t work well with Windows). It’s even easier to flash since you don’t need to make a rom. There’s a DIY and the Mac rom on the forum here.

No reason to pay someone to do that for you.

Great Advice! Tthank you!

Not sure what the difference would be between the 7950 & 7970, but mine is flawless in Windows 10.

Also great to know

 

[MisterAndrew]

Not sure what the difference would be between the 7950 & 7970, but mine is flawless in Windows 10.

Booting Windows in EFI mode? That doesn't work even according to Sapphire.

"It has Dual Firmware support via a simple Firmware (Dual BIOS) switch. In one position the Sapphire HD 7950 MAC Edition supports Mac OS X/Windows under non-UEFI compliant mode and in the other it supports Windows with UEFI hybrid firmware enabled."

http://www.sapphiretech.com/page.asp?IDno=5083&lang=eng

 

[crjackson2134]

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