Mac Pro 5.1 and F1 2016 Mac

[Mattww]

Not sure if best posted in this section but is anyone running the Mac version of this game on their 4.1 or 5.1 and if so with what GPU?

It is the first game I can't run on my 7950 equipped machine despite the card itself having metal support elsewhere (Starcraft 2) and I'm looking at a GPU to run it and new Mac releases for the next year or so until the new upgradable Mac Pro arrives on the scene.

 

[owbp]

There's no way that 7950 can't run a game. Any game for that matter.
Stupid question, but are you running Sierra? Maybe the trouble lies in older OS X?
GTX680 is listed on Steam, so I cannot see why would 7950 be any worse on OS X. Check info.plist of the game to see if there are any restrictions you can edit yourself.

 

[Mattww]

There's no way that 7950 can't run a game. Any game for that matter.
Stupid question, but are you running Sierra? Maybe the trouble lies in older OS X?
GTX680 is listed on Steam, so I cannot see why would 7950 be any worse on OS X. Check info.plist of the game to see if there are any restrictions you can edit yourself.

I'm on Sierra 10.12.4. Unfortunately with the Mac version the 7950 isn't supported. The windows version is different as it uses direct x so even much older AMD cards work with that.

The 7950 is one of several cards the game detects at launch and won't continue with. There must be something missing in the Mac drivers I guess (looking at the xml files the D700 is supported which surprised me as I thought that to be similar. Even recent OpenGL based Mac ports like Mad Max say my 7950 Mac edition is unsupported but with that game you can click to continue - with the metal based F1 however you can't.

 

[Morpheo]

The App Store page says indeed that the 7xxx are not supported. That sucks, I wanted to get that one myself!

 

[owbp]

Just saw it, what a joke...

This really goes over my head since HD79xx cards are very capable OpenCL cards that have Metal support.

To the OP question. If you're planning on upgrading just for the year or so, GTX680 seems to be supported and you can swap your HD7950 for it, no money lost. If you're ok with the PC card, then i really don't know what to suggest since only mobile GPUs are mentioned - who knows what will work.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/391040/

Edit: C'mon, AMD R9 280M is supported...

 

[Mattww]

I don't really understand it either but figured there must be a technical reason I don't know about.

I would swap for a GTX 680 and recoup most of the cost by selling the 7950 IF I can be sure it works (and it's not just the mobility version in the iMac that does) and likely that card will be supported with new releases going forward for a year or so...

I know however the Mac version of dying light I have only supports AMD cards so guess I can't win...

You got me thinking though maybe the model ID itself is blocked based on that Apple Metal supported models page.

 

[owbp]

No, the "real" GTX680 is listed, so i don't seee why it wouldn't work.

Then again, what would you do with Dying Light... nVidia is supported on Win and Linux!!! but not on Mac
The only two options that come to my mind are
- going Bootcamp route and play all the games you want with HD7950 (if you have Steam versions and not MAS ones)
- buying something newer than 7950 and pray for it to work with F1 2016. R9 380 works in cMP IIRC (or something from RX series...)?

I would first try to edit plist in game. Or, maybe, try to edit EFI in 7950 to show as R9 280, but i really don't know what R9 280M is and what Device ID does it carry...

 

[h9826790]

If want a replacement card for relatively short period of time (until mMP release), I think RX460 is a good option. Performance similar to 7950, OOTB, low power consumption, low cost, new card, just no boot screen.

 

[lowendlinux]

View attachment 695648 The App Store page says indeed that the 7xxx are not supported. That sucks, I wanted to get that one myself!

Jeez what cards are supported?

 

[Morpheo]

Jeez what cards are supported?

haha that's what I thought too when I saw the list!

...well, I bought the iOS version instead, much cheaper and fun too!

 

[Mattww]

I'd try the iOS version myself but I couldn't use my steering wheel with that and really want that for racing.

If anyone with a Mac Pro does try the game please do let me know what GPU you have that works on these machines.

I don't mind a used GTX680 if I can get a good deal or with the new divers now out I'd go with a GTX1060 as it is more modern should that work. RX460 sounds like an option but may be a downgrade and I don't want the hastle of disabling SIP or modifying kexts really on my day to day machine as it needs to be reliable so that seems to rule out RX470 and 480.

My only possible concern with the newer cards is troubleshooting without any card available with a boot screen which is why I got the Mac Edition with the 7950.

 

[h9826790]

Yes, RX460 is actually a downgrade. However, should be strong enough to play games. I suggest this option because this is the only 100% OOTB card I know (current generation), and it's cheap. 1060 is a good option (soon), however, dealing with the Nvidia web driver is not fun. IMO, not much better than disable SIP and kext mod. That's why I didn't suggest Maxwell / Pascal GPU. However, if you don't mind to deal with that, I do agree that go for the Nvidia make more sense, especially for gaming.

 

[owbp]

If anyone with a Mac Pro does try the game please do let me know what GPU you have that works on these machines.

Sorry for the wait, but i don't plan on playing this game so i had to find it on some other "store" rather than MAS or Steam (it would be stupid to spend 50 bucks just for testing)

The game works with my MSI R9 280X Gaming 3G


Not one warning on compatibility or anything like that.

This is a good news for you, since you can buy R9 280X for cheap, still be able to play Dying Light and after flashing (quite easily done in Windows) there will be no downsides compared to Mac HD7950.

Thing that bugs me now is why is R9 280X supported and HD7950 isn't and does game looks for name of the card or Device ID. In other words, will it run on HD7970 since they share Device ID and HD7xxx are not supported...
If I grab some spare time, i'll reflash R9 to read HD7970 and test again. In the meantime, if there is anyone with HD7970 willing to try this out it would be great. Also, what would happened if you flash HD7950 with R9 280 (non X) rom, or just use the stock PC one (for those with flashed R9 280s) - will it run the game?

 

[BillyBobBongo]

Weird that on the Mac platform the HD 7950 isn't supported. I have one installed on my 5.1 and I play F1 2016 on it, albeit through Windows. No performance issues at all.

Perhaps less drastic than getting a new graphics card would be to get a refund from the MAS, install Windows on a new partition/drive and buy F1 2016 through Steam.

 

[h9826790]

Interesting, the non flashed 280x also ident as 7xxx. I wonder if anything read other than 7xxx will actually work. BTW, AFAIK, both 280x and 7950 share the same driver in MacOS.

I have both R9 280 and HD7950, both PC and genuine Mac Edition card, all non EFI ROM, UEFI ROM, and Mac EFI ROM. However, I don't have this game, can't test it.

 

[owbp]

non flashed 280x also ident as 7xxx

Great idea, ill reboot into macOS with stock UEFI ROM to see if it works.
Hopefully it will be during the day, i have to finish few more things I'm working on at the moment.

 

[Fl0r!an]

Feral's GPU compatibility chart doesn't make any sense, as almost all recent Macs (except iGPU-only Macs and high-end iMac) are based on AMD 7000 series, just with fancy new names (e.g. FirePro D700, M370X, M280, M290, M380, M390, ...).

Should be easy to check using a Hackintosh by spoofing the device name. Would do it myself, but I don't own the game...

 

[Mattww]

Thank you so much guys!

There are pre-flashed to Mac R9 280X for sale online (don't think I have what is required to try myself) so looks like that would be my best bet. Hopefully selling the 7950 Mac will recover most of the cost as well.

It is the Steam version of the game I have but I've managed to put off buying and installing Windows for boot camp so far and my SSD is getting full so I hoped to avoid buying a bigger one now given an upgradable Mac should be coming.

If I'm understanding this right with the Mac ROM the R9 280X will give a boot screen and still be shown in about this Mac as a 280X as per the screenshot (owbp)
i.e it is not detected as HD7XXX which causes Feral's checker to fail?

The 280X is a rebadged 7970 if I recall as is the D700 which they also support.

This all makes their decision all the more bizzare - especially as before with recent titles you could click to play as unsupported.

I've got loads of Feral ports I love what the guys do for Mac gaming but don't understand their thinking here at all when those other cards as supported.

I'd have been happy to beta test as I'm sure other 7950 owners would.

 

[owbp]

Well it seems like it is looking at Device ID only, since it works with HD 7xxx identification.

If you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself go for it, but i think that difference between non flashed and flashed 7970/R9280X is too big (100 vs 250-300 bucks) for such an easy card to flash with publicly available EFI.

If I'm understanding this right with the Mac ROM the R9 280X will give a boot screen and still be shown in about this Mac as a 280X as per the screenshot (owbp)

Yes, it will use original Mac EFI from Sapphire HD7950 in conjunction with original BIOS of the card. If properly flashed, it will show R9 280X, but you can really name it anything you want if you know where to edit ROM.

 

[Mattww]

Interesting. Looks like an R9 280X it is, hopefully based on the success with F1 it will run some new titles for a while like the Mac version of Deus Ex and the rumoured port of the the latest Tomb Raider just enough to keep the old machine going until we know about the new upgradable machine.

I've done plenty of firmware updates and the EFI flash when I upgrade the CPU's on this 09 dual processer machine so guessed I'd be pretty comfortable flashing a PC card from a technical point of view but I don't know of a way to flash from MacOS and don't have access to a machine with Windows to do it in.

With a ready done card although it will be more at least it should be plug and play on my machine and Mac Edition 7950 cards still seem to fetch a good price so I might not be out of pocket much.

 

[h9826790]

Apart from buying a new card, you may contact Feral and ask them if they have any plan to remove this artificial limitation on the next update / patch. Obviously the card is good enough to play this game, they just stop you doing that for no reason. And 7950 is a real Apple official supported Mac Edition card. They should not artificially stop a game to run with this card.

 

[Mattww]

Already had a few emails with them. To be fair they always answers emails and have tried to help me as they have done on the rare occasion I needed to ask something about one of their ports in the past.

The general policy it seems however is original apple supplied OEM GPUs only - not aftermarket upgrades. There is whole list the game checks for at launch.

I do find it incredibly ironic that the "Mac Edition" card is the one with a problem where as plenty of flashed and indeed un-flashed PC cards from both AMD and Nvidia aren't on the list and it seems will work just fine.

As you say you would think the least they could do is test the official 7950 and GTX-680 with these machines, but I guess anything pre-Mac Pro cylinder is just unsupported based on age.

It does make me wonder if the same will happen in the future with the new upgradable Mac Pro, the whole point of upgradable GPUs is to keep being supported for several years, I don't like the idea of needing to replace the whole machine every couple of years just to play recent games.

 

[Fl0r!an]

Doesn't your "Mac Edition" 7950 also have a BIOS switch? Try booting your Mac with the BIOS switch in "PC" position and give it a go.

 

[H2SO4]

Weird that on the Mac platform the HD 7950 isn't supported. I have one installed on my 5.1 and I play F1 2016 on it, albeit through Windows. No performance issues at all.

Perhaps less drastic than getting a new graphics card would be to get a refund from the MAS, install Windows on a new partition/drive and buy F1 2016 through Steam.

But I thought it was exactly the same game? Be interested to find out why.

 

[AndreeOnline]

Not unexpected perhaps, but I have the game too and I'm running it with a RX 480.

My problem is finding a nice wheel that will work!! Can't for my life understand why the likes of Logitech can't keep a handful of products maintained with proper MacOS drivers. There are lots of games for Macs nowadays.