R9 280X graphic glitches

[Eneco]

Hey folks,

I bought a refurbished Mac Pro 4.1 flashed to 5.1 with 2 x 6 core @ 3,46 GHz, 48 GB Ram and a flashed R9 280X. I installed High Sierra and everything seems fine except some graphic glitches (see screenshots):

- during the boot screen I get some artefacts
- one program has a dark menu bar
- another program has a white bar across its interface
- the screen sometimes “flashes” black for 1 frame

What I did so far:

- connect the monitor on a different port -> no change
- reset PRAM -> no change
- switch GPU back to original BIOS -> no change
- run UNIGINE benchmarks to check GPU -> no hardware failure
- replace the R9 280X (Powercolor) with a R9 280X (MSI) -> no change
- install Sierra -> some artefacts were gone, some still present
- install El Capitan -> all artefacts were gone

To me it seems like a software / driver problem. The GPU itself is fine. Somehow macOS doesn’t like the R9 280X series, as this problem occurs with 2 different models.

Has anyone else had some problems with a R9 280X? Is there anything I can do about it, as the AMD drivers are integrated into the OS?

 

[tsialex]

Hey folks,

I bought a refurbished Mac Pro 4.1 flashed to 5.1 with 2 x 6 core @ 3,46 GHz, 48 GB Ram and a flashed R9 280X. I installed High Sierra and everything seems fine except some graphic glitches (see screenshots):

- during the boot screen I get some artefacts

Graphic glitches on boot time and on shutdown are normal, I have them on HD7870 and had them on R9-280 that I flashed for a friend. I think that every flashed GCN card has them.

 

[Eneco]

Graphic glitches on boot time and on shutdown are normal, I have them on HD7870 and had them on R9-280 that I flashed for a friend. I think that every flashed GCN card has them.

But I'm also getting the glitches when I boot the GPU using the original PC-BIOS and not the flashed one.

 

[tsialex]

But I'm also getting the glitches when I boot the GPU using the original PC-BIOS and not the flashed one.

I don't remember glitches when the card was on a PC, maybe I could check later this week, but the boot/shutdown time are a know problem of the Mac EFI on GCN cards.
[doublepost=1533029212][/doublepost]
Take a look on the video of this post #37.

 

[Eneco]

I don't remember glitches when the card was on a PC, maybe I could check later this week, but the boot/shutdown time are a know problem of the Mac EFI on GCN cards.

Sorry, my bad. Of course I don't have any glitches during the boot up using the PC-BIOS of the GPU, as I can't see the boot screen. But the other artefacts are still present in that case. I wasn't talking about a real PC, so no need for checking

 

[tsialex]

Sorry, my bad. Of course I don't have any glitches during the boot up using the PC-BIOS of the GPU, as I can't see the boot screen. I wasn't talking about a real PC, so no need for checking. But the other artefacts are still present in that case.

I have three Metal supported Mac EFI cards, one flashed HD 7870, one eVGA GTX680 for Mac and one flashed 4GB eVGA GTX680 SC. I have little problems on all three:

eVGA GTX 680 for Mac and eVGA GTX 680 SC: sometime little rectangle black boxes appear on Finder file lists, this happens with both cards and with native or Nvidia web driver. No other screen glitches except on Finder file lists, that I've noticed.

HD 7870: artefacts on boot and shutdown, PCIe fan goes to high RPM on boot/restart for 1,5 minutes. No other screen glitches, that I've noticed.

 

[Eneco]

I have three Metal supported Mac EFI cards, one flashed HD 7870, one eVGA GTX680 for Mac and one flashed 4GB eVGA GTX680 SC. I have little problems on all three

I see, so some problems are kind of normal with flashed GPUs. Have you experienced any differences with different macOS versions? Because El Capitan removes all the glitches for me, whereas Sierra has some and High Sierra the most.

 

[tsialex]

I see, so some problems are kind of normal with flashed GPUs. Have you experienced any differences with different macOS versions? Because El Capitan removes all the glitches for me, whereas Sierra has some and High Sierra the most.

High Sierra drivers caused most problems. Maybe Apple is not testing our hardware as they should, since it's a fully supported hardware configuration - at least with eVGA GTX680 for Mac.

 

[Eneco]

Guess the only thing we can do is wait for Mojave to hopefully fix some of the things, as they keep their focus on performance with this update.

 

[crjackson2134]

I don't have any glitches with the MVC flashed HD 7970 & Mojave.

I had minor artifacts on shutdown with High Sierra. Other/Older versions of OS X weren't glitchy with this card either.

It's a driver issue for sure. I had the EXACT same glitches with a Genuine Apple HD 5870 card.

It really has nothing to do with being flashed AFAIK.

 

[verdejt]

I have a GTX680 and I'm running Mojave and have had no issues at all. I didn't have any issues in High Sierra or Sierra.

 

[MriX]

I don't have any glitches with the MVC flashed HD 7970 & Mojave.

I had minor artifacts on shutdown with High Sierra. Other/Older versions of OS X weren't glitchy with this card either.

It's a driver issue for sure. I had the EXACT same glitches with a Genuine Apple HD 5870 card.

It really has nothing to do with being flashed AFAIK.

Could you share the rom of the HD 7970 with me? I would be interested if MVC also uses the public available script to create the rom.

 

[crjackson2134]

Sorry, I can't do that. I'm sure you could contact him or netkas and get that question answered.

 

[Eneco]

I don't have any glitches with the MVC flashed HD 7970 & Mojave.

I had minor artifacts on shutdown with High Sierra. Other/Older versions of OS X weren't glitchy with this card either.

It's a driver issue for sure. I had the EXACT same glitches with a Genuine Apple HD 5870 card.

It really has nothing to do with being flashed AFAIK.

Nice to hear that Mojave solved the problem for you. So there is some hope that this driver issue may be fixed with future OS releases.

 

[MriX]

Sorry, I can't do that. I'm sure you could contact him or netkas and get that question answered.

I already tried contacting him, without success. Why can’t you send me a dump of the rom?

 

[BillyBobBongo]

I already tried contacting him, without success. Why can’t you send me a dump of the rom?

Er....have you tried looking in this thread? My money is that MVC uses the same script as the rest of us. MVC (AKA Rominator) appears multiple times in that thread. In the second post of that thread he clearly states he is 'sharing' the ROM.

 

[MriX]

Er....have you tried looking in this thread?

Yes, I have. He wrote in this thread that you should replace the zeros after the bios part with FF. But in my case this makes no difference. So I just wanted to know from him what’s the point doing that.
I have already flashed my R9 280X and this was a more technical interested question