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AMD Polaris GPUs Plug and Play in macOS 10.12.6 & 10.13

T

theitsage

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Aug 28, 2005
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Thanks to the mid 2017 Macs and Apple's support for eGPU in the upcoming macOS 10.13 High Sierra, AMD Polaris desktop graphics cards are plug and play in the Mac Pro tower. No boot screen is the only missing feature. I tested RX 460, RX 470, RX 480, and RX 580 in my 5,1. They all work.

In 10.13 Developer Beta, multiple displays and audio output through DisplayPort are functional. With 2 RX 480s, BruceX was averaging less than 12s. Here are some screen captures.

Screen Shot 2017-06-13 at 5.25.50 PM.png


Screen Shot 2017-06-10 at 3.35.22 PM.png Screen Shot 2017-06-10 at 3.37.06 PM.png

I used another boot drive to install 10.12.6 Beta 3 tonight. RX 480 is now plug and play. AMD9520Controller and AMDRadeonX42000 are the new kexts and have 67DF in them. :D

10-12-6-rx-480-plug-play.png

10-12-6-rx-480-extension.png
 
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I don't have a cMP to test in, but I put an RX 560 in my eGPU enclosure. It's recognized without any edits if I hot plug it, but it's not actually working for me (can't boot with it plugged in and the eGPU scripts don't work).

That's enough for me to believe it'll work in a cMP, though. Since I wasn't totally successful take it for what you will, but if you can get it from somewhere with a liberal return policy (and if you just need a placeholder until the ASICs catch up the GPU miners) then it seems like a native solution if you're willing to run a beta OS. I rolled back to my Time Machine backup of 10.12.5 and everything is running fine with the requisite edits.

The 560 has the full 16CUs where the 460 only has 14, so that's a half-way decent boost in shading power. The Sapphire model I bought has a single 6-pin connector, which is sure to be fine in any cMP as long as you have the cable.
 
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Why is that screenshot showing a x8 link? A 5,1 has only x16 and x4 slots, is the 460 only x8? A 470/480/570/580 is always x16.
 
OEMPT said:
Does dp work with multiple displays in daisy chain ?
Click to expand...

I don't have the appropriate monitors to test this functionality.

William_si said:
Why is that screenshot showing a x8 link? A 5,1 has only x16 and x4 slots, is the 460 only x8? A 470/480/570/580 is always x16.
Click to expand...

What @SoyCapitanSoyCapitan said. I was running 2 RX 480s and the GPU in Slot 1 was at 8x while the one in Slot 2 was at 16x.

DougTheImpaler said:
I don't have a cMP to test in, but I put an RX 560 in my eGPU enclosure. It's recognized without any edits if I hot plug it, but it's not actually working for me (can't boot with it plugged in and the eGPU scripts don't work).
Click to expand...

A GPU needs to be IOPCITunnelCompatible in order for macOS to make use of it as an external graphics card. Goalque's automate-eGPU script did that for previous version of Mac OS. In 10.13 Beta, only 67DF is IOPCITunnelCompatible.
 
I have a bunch of Polaris cards to sell off cheaply. They were accumulating for months to build a miner but I don't see the point. I'll stick them on eBay and see how many overchargers I can annoy ;)
 
@theitsage

Would you, by any chance, be able to test a WX5100 too? The combination of 8 GB at <75 W + single slot design might be worth spending the extra $.
 
O.N.Y.X said:
@theitsage

Would you, by any chance, be able to test a WX5100 too? The combination of 8 GB at <75 W + single slot design might be worth spending the extra $.
Click to expand...

This will not work OOB and will require kexts edits ... (*should* work by injecting pci id 67c7 to baffin personalities)
It's basically a even more castrated and overpriced RX 470, according to specs.
 
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pigsyn said:
This will not work OOB and will require kexts edits ... (*should* work by injecting pci id 67c7 to baffin personalities)
It's basically a even more castrated and overpriced RX 470, according to specs.
Click to expand...

Even under High Sierra? That sucks
Well I'm going to wait for Vega to drop then. There is a chance a lower tier Vega might be the best card to get price and performance wise. The built in Radeon just doesn't cut it anymore in Logic Pro, I really need a new GPU.
 
Just updated to 10.13 Beta 2. Everything is working fine. RX 480 Luxmark scores also seem to incrementally be getting better from Sierra betas low 14,100s-14,300s to now being at 14,477. Wow.
 
There is no 699F device ID in the kexts to allow Polaris 12 work in Mac OS.
 
theitsage said:
Thanks to the mid 2017 Macs and Apple's support for eGPU in the upcoming macOS 10.13 High Sierra, AMD Polaris desktop graphics cards are plug and play in the Mac Pro tower. No boot screen is the only missing feature. I tested RX 460, RX 470, RX 480, and RX 580 in my 5,1. They all work.

In 10.13 Developer Beta, multiple displays and audio output through DisplayPort are functional. With 2 RX 480s, BruceX was averaging less than 12s. Here are some screen captures.

View attachment 703904

View attachment 703905 View attachment 703906

I used another boot drive to install 10.12.6 Beta 3 tonight. RX 480 is now plug and play. AMD9520Controller and AMDRadeonX42000 are the new kexts and have 67DF in them. :D

View attachment 704105
View attachment 704106
Click to expand...


What about 5.0 GT/sec ?
 
If i have an Apple 5770 in slot 1 with a regular display, and an rx 460 in slot 2 with a 4k display, will i get the boot screen on the regular display?

Edit: that's on sierra
 
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