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Mac Pro 2009 (4.1)

Apolloza said:
Will I be able to put in say a PC RX 480 and then be able to install a fresh OS that supports the graphics card?
Click to expand...
Yes, the card is automatically initialised as soon as macOS (Sierra or later for a RX 480) has booted to the login screen.

That means you’ll need a GPU which has boot screens to install macOS though. So it’s a bit of a shame the seller has yanked the original GPU.
 
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Amethyst1 said:
Yes, the card is automatically initialised as soon as macOS (Sierra or later for a RX 480) has booted to the login screen.
Click to expand...

I found a number of warnings by a member who claims that the RX 480 will damage a Mac Pro's PCIe slots. I'm confused as I've not really seen anyone else mention this.

Amethyst1 said:
That means you’ll need a GPU which has boot screens to install macOS though. So it’s a bit of a shame the seller has yanked the original GPU.
Click to expand...

They probably didn't even get that much for it separately anyway...
 
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Amethyst1 said:
Yes, the card is automatically initialised as soon as macOS (Sierra or later for a RX 480) has booted to the login screen.

That means you’ll need a GPU which has boot screens to install macOS though. So it’s a bit of a shame the seller has yanked the original GPU.
Click to expand...
now with the uefi gop hack any uefi gop card will function as a "mac edition" :D
 
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Amethyst1 said:
Yes, the card is automatically initialised as soon as macOS (Sierra or later for a RX 480) has booted to the login screen.

That means you’ll need a GPU which has boot screens to install macOS though. So it’s a bit of a shame the seller has yanked the original GPU.
Click to expand...
I’m not sure what OS the unit is running. So that my worry, how to get a supported OS on the unit or onto a drive that I can then insert into the Mac pro.
 
Apolloza said:
I did some googling, looks pretty complex to flash a card?
Click to expand...
you just need to dump your mac pro firmware rom, patch the rom with their patch, boot the mac pro in programmer/debug mode (by holding power until it makes a weird sound & the power led flashes) and then flash that modified rom back to it. takes maybe 5 minutes to do
 
originaldotexe said:
you just need to dump your mac pro firmware rom, patch the rom with their patch, boot the mac pro in programmer/debug mode (by holding power until it makes a weird sound & the power led flashes) and then flash that modified rom back to it. takes maybe 5 minutes to do
Click to expand...
99% of modern cards like rx 480/580 are already uefi gop compatible so you should not need to make your own uefi gop vbios.
 
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TheShortTimer said:
I found a number of warnings by a member who claims that the RX 480 will damage a Mac Pro's PCIe slots. I'm confused as I've not really seen anyone else mention this.



They probably didn't even get that much for it separately anyway...
Click to expand...
I was thinking the RX 580 initially, but read the power draw was significantly higher, but if it’s a better fit (literally and figuratively) than the 480 I’ll find the cash for a second hand 580 instead.
 
Apolloza said:
I was thinking the RX 580 initially, but read the power draw was significantly higher, but if it’s a better fit (literally and figuratively) than the 480 I’ll find the cash for a second hand 580 instead.
Click to expand...
A RX 460 or 560 is much more frugal (and cheaper). It doesn’t need any extra power on top of what the PCIe slot provides.
 
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Update. Collected the machine today. Couple of bad scrapes. Totally gutted (no HDD and graphics). Initially got a blinking power button when I turned it on. Swooped out the memory and eventually got the bong!

I got a RX560 for cheap.

I have a USB boot stick for an older (failed) hackintosh. So it boots the stick. So I know the graphics card also works i. The machine. But no surprise I can’t start the Mac OS installer.

Any Advice would be appreciated. I have a space SSD already installed. But how do I get Mac OS on it now?
 
Apolloza said:
But how do I get Mac OS on it now?
Click to expand...
Normally, you'd boot from a USB installer (there's no Internet Recovery on a 4,1 AFAIK) but having an unflashed GPU in there would require you to do it blindly. Do you have another Mac you could use to install macOS on the machine? Another way (if you have another hard drive or SSD) might be to install Windows and VMware on the Mac Pro, set up a VM for macOS that directly accesses the other SSD, and install macOS on the SSD using the VM.
 
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Apolloza said:
Update. Collected the machine today. Couple of bad scrapes. Totally gutted (no HDD and graphics). Initially got a blinking power button when I turned it on. Swooped out the memory and eventually got the bong!

I got a RX560 for cheap.

I have a USB boot stick for an older (failed) hackintosh. So it boots the stick. So I know the graphics card also works i. The machine. But no surprise I can’t start the Mac OS installer.

Any Advice would be appreciated. I have a space SSD already installed. But how do I get Mac OS on it now?
Click to expand...

You can install Mac OS on another machine, and then transfer it to your MP.
 
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