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MP 1,1-5,1 MP 5,1 - High Sierra to Catalina with Sapphire 5700 XT

kittonian

kittonian

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 4, 2008
178
53
Austin, TX
Hi all. I realize this is a lengthy post but I wanted to provide all the info possible, and appreciate all the assistance.

I have an upgraded MP5,1 with dual core x5690 procs, 64GB of 1333mhz RAM, multiple SATA drives and a PCIe SSD (not NVME) as the boot drive. The Pixlas mod has been done and the boot ROM has already been updated to 144.0.0.0. Right now I have a flashed NVidia GTX 780 (6gb) but I just purchased a Sapphire Radeon 5700 XT to replace it because I am currently stuck on 10.13.6.

Some of the software I need requires the latest version of Catalina and as this is a work desktop there is a lot of software and settings that take quite a bit of time to install from scratch. In fact, just about a month ago I had to erase the boot drive and get everything back and running. Took a few days until it was all perfect again. I would rather not go through that again if possible.

I do not run a dual boot system or need the boot picker, but I definitely want to see the boot screen, as well as be able to do software updates and get all the GPU power possible out of this new card. I have an LG Ultrawide display that connects via DP to the GPU.

After extensive reading and watching videos I see mixed information on the best way to do the upgrade. Some people say to use DOSDude’s patcher, install Catalina, then swap the video cards, then install OpenCore. Others say you have to have another hard drive, install Catalina from a supported machine and then clone it via Carbon Copy Cloner (would rather not). Others have advised to install OpenCore on High Sierra and modify the config.plist to a MP 7,1 so that the app store will allow me to upgrade to Catalina directly and bypass DOSDude altogether.

It's all very confusing and I don't want to screw this up.

So, here are my questions:

  1. What is the best way and proper order to install Catalina for the most stability and best results?
  2. Since the Radeon Boost is now part of the latest 10.15.5 update, I know I have to disable that but I’ve also read that to get the best performance I need to set the plist back to not being a VM. How does this work? Is it true? Do I need to make enable VM and reboot each time there is a software update?
  3. Any additional information that can be provided to make this as smooth and easy as possible would be greatly appreciated.
 
I have a nearly identical setup, and am also interested in the question above.

Incidentally, I am currently with the 4,1 upgrade path. 5690, NVME, 580x. Unbelievable how these changes render it a vastly different machine.
 
If you have a Macbook or any newer mac to hand that can natively upgrade to Catalina, I'd personally recommend the Carbon Copy Cloner method. Your boot rom has already been updated, so if you have a fresh install of Catalina that you can simply clone onto your 5,1's boot drive from somewhere else. You should be able to just drop the 5700XT and the cloned Catalina drive into your 5,1 and turn it on.

I tried the GPU-swapping method when I first upgraded to Mojave, and couldn't get things working. So then I tried simply cloning my Mojave installation from my Macbook Pro and transferred it across, and everything booted up perfectly.
 
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kittonian said:
So, here are my questions:

  1. What is the best way and proper order to install Catalina for the most stability and best results?
  2. Since the Radeon Boost is now part of the latest 10.15.5 update, I know I have to disable that but I’ve also read that to get the best performance I need to set the plist back to not being a VM. How does this work? Is it true? Do I need to make enable VM and reboot each time there is a software update?
  3. Any additional information that can be provided to make this as smooth and easy as possible would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

The best way would be hiring someone who knows his trade to do this for you.

I would rather do all of the software upgrades on a new SSD, and boot back to the original SSD if I messed up something during the process.
 
forums.macrumors.com

Obsolete, Use OpenCore instead | What you need to do to make Catalina work with MacPro5,1

Obsolete, please use OpenCore to have native installs of Catalina with MP5,1. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/opencore-on-the-mac-pro.2207814/
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com

BTW:
kittonian said:
Right now I have a flashed NVidia GTX 780 (6gb) but I just purchased a Sapphire Radeon 5700 XT to replace it because I am currently stuck on 10.13.6.
Click to expand...

The GTX 780 is a KEPLER Nvidia card and is natively supported on Mojave and Catalina.
So whatever the reason may be to be stuck at HighSierra, the GPU is not.
 
Last edited:
Thank you for all the responses thus far:

1. I am well versed in tech and do not need to "hire someone"
2. Thank you. I understand about disabling SIP and the general procedures.
3. While the NVidia card will allow me to upgrade to Catalina via OpenCore or DOSDude, you do not get hardware acceleration so that is not a workable solution.
4. I specifically stated that I have no interest in cloning a boot drive if not absolutely necessary.

That being said, it seems I can install OpenCore on High Sierra and get it all working to the point that the app store will offer me the ability to upgrade to Catalina directly. Once the upgrade has been completed, it seems all I would need to do is swap the video cards and be good.

Did I miss anything in that equation?
 
UPDATE: It couldn't have gone any smoother. I disabled SIP, used the latest Martin Lo 0.6 OpenCore installer, modified the config.plist to allow the Catalina installer to work, installed OpenCore, installed Catalina, enabled SIP, and removed the NVidia web driver and CUDA.

The only minor thing I noticed was that I had to re-pair my bluetooth mouse after both disabling and enabling SIP. Everything else worked flawlessly.

Tomorrow, the new Radeon 5700 XT arrives and since everything is already in place, I should just be able to shut down, swap the cards, and boot back up. Very exciting!
 
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kittonian said:
UPDATE: It couldn't have gone any smoother. I disabled SIP, used the latest Martin Lo 0.6 OpenCore installer, modified the config.plist to allow the Catalina installer to work, installed OpenCore, installed Catalina, enabled SIP, and removed the NVidia web driver and CUDA.

The only minor thing I noticed was that I had to re-pair my bluetooth mouse after both disabling and enabling SIP. Everything else worked flawlessly.

Tomorrow, the new Radeon 5700 XT arrives and since everything is already in place, I should just be able to shut down, swap the cards, and boot back up. Very exciting!
Click to expand...
And the trail ends here?

What happened next?
 
Ha! Everything is working perfectly. Hardware acceleration in place and the system is nice and smooth. Now I'm waiting for Octane X to be released so I can test it out. The plan is to throw the 5700 XT into the other Mac Pro we use and purchase a 6900 XT once the drivers are rock solid in Big Sur and upgrade my machine with OC 0.64 as the initial reports are that the 5,1 Mac Pro is even faster running Big Sur.
 
I am using Opencore 0.6.4 and have an RX 5700 XT Anniversary Edition with my 12 core 5,1 2010.
I also purchased the Pixlas Mod but have not used it as the machine has never crashed because of the GPU even under heavy load.
I only had an issue with the last OS update. Caused a bit of an upset with the EFI and my backup.
So I wiped the backup after I managed to upgrade then bingo. Everything back in action.
 
kittonian said:
Ha! Everything is working perfectly. Hardware acceleration in place and the system is nice and smooth. Now I'm waiting for Octane X to be released so I can test it out. The plan is to throw the 5700 XT into the other Mac Pro we use and purchase a 6900 XT once the drivers are rock solid in Big Sur and upgrade my machine with OC 0.64 as the initial reports are that the 5,1 Mac Pro is even faster running Big Sur.
Click to expand...

Out of interest, have you been able to upgrade that MP 5,1 with the 6900xt ?
 
Sarcasmonaut said:
Out of interest, have you been able to upgrade that MP 5,1 with the 6900xt ?
Click to expand...
No. Honestly haven't tried, but from the reports I've read, the 6900XT has issues in the 5,1 models. The 5700XT works really well and is a stable performer with Octane X and Cinema 4D, as well as ArchiCAD.
 
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