MP 7,1 Multi GPU with 580X?

[thexash]

Did anyone try to put a regular (non MPX) graphics card with the 580X MPX. And if you do that can you use that GPU for 3d rendering (games, etc...) in macOS while keeping your display plugged in the TB3 port?

Right now I have the Mac Pro plugged with a single cable to my Caldigit hub and its nice in that I can take that cable to my Macbook Pro when needed... But if add another GPU in the box I'm concerned that I'll have to directly plug the display to it to be able to use the better GPU...

 

[flowrider]

2019 Mac Pro - GPU options

real world speed test results for performance minded Macintosh users

barefeats.com

Lou

 

[thexash]

Thanks, doesnt look great unfortunately.

Sleep is a fairly big deal for me, selecting the GPU isnt that much of an issue since I'm mostly interested in using the extra GPU for my own software which supports GPU selection.

From that article:
"Second, they don't sleep well. The Radeon VII's fans go crazy when you put the 2019 Mac Pro to sleep. The Radeon RX 5700 XT will sleep, but the Mac Pro crashes when it wake up."
&
"Third, though Blender and DaVinci Resolve let you choose the active GPU(s), games don't. However, when I connected a Dell 5K display to the DisplayPorts of the VII or RX 5700 XT -- and made it the primary display, the games would use those GPUs."

 

[thexash]

I remembered I had 580 laying around... so I put it in my Mac Pro and I can confirm that if you dont have a display cable plugged into it you can use it only for compute, it wont work at all for regular 3d rendering.

However you can hot plug/unplug without any issue - as in you can remove the display cable to your MPX module and move it to the other GPU and it takes over seamlessly it seems.

That's a GPU I bought second hand for 150USD 18 months or so ago (Asus Dual RX580 8GB), and its about 5% faster than the one I got with the Mac Pro ^^ But then again the 5500M in my macbook pro 16" is also faster faster than the MacPro's 580X... Apple is really pushing it with that base GPU - at least its whisper quiet, you can clearly hear the other Asus 580 when its in use.

As far as I can tell it sleeps fine.

 

[Casey P]

I have a 580x and two Radeon VII's in my case. I wish there was a way to fix the sleep issue, but otherwise the GPU's are fairly silent. I don't play games, though. FCPX uses all three cards, but many programs just use whichever monitor is plugged in that is displaying the program.

The 8GB RAM on the 580X gets overwhelmed by anything more than one monitor and basic graphics. I think you would end up needing to directly connect your monitors to the better graphics cards.

 

[bsbeamer]

I remembered I had 580 laying around... so I put it in my Mac Pro and I can confirm that if you dont have a display cable plugged into it you can use it only for compute, it wont work at all for regular 3d rendering.

Do you have any headless adapters?

 

[thexash]

Do you have any headless adapters?

I dont unfortunately. I have other displays but no space to put them on my desk atm... I use a single 38" with the Mac Pro