MP 7,1 Radeon 6900 compatibility

[macguru9999]

So... I have a 7,1. If I decide to get a radeon 6900/6800 series GPU for it , while they are still available, is there a preferred model ? Powercolor Amd Radeon Red Devil Rx 6900 Xt,
Sapphire Nitro+ AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT SE 16GB GDDR6 Graphics Card
https://www.google.com/shopping/pro...hUKEwjD9ejBrsCCAxV2avUHHYZOCR8QqisIHA#reviews
etc ? as I have a vega II duo already, would I even notice any improvement ??

 

[flowrider]

Fit is the key here - Most don't fit. I have a Gigabite RX6800XT, not the Aorus model, it's too long, but this one:

Radeon™ RX 6800 XT GAMING OC 16G Key Features | Graphics Card - GIGABYTE Global

Discover AORUS premium graphics cards, ft. WINDFORCE cooling, RGB lighting, PCB protection, and VR friendly features for the best gaming and VR experience!

www.gigabyte.com

Lou

 

[Korican100]

wow very timely thread. I was just about to ask the same.

i just bought this one off ebay for $500 open box. does it fit?
AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT 16GB GDDR6 Graphics Card
278mmx107mmx50mm

I believe it does, I saw someone put it in on youtube. wondering if anyone has headsup with the same model?

 

[SecuritySteve]

wow very timely thread. I was just about to ask the same.

i just bought this one off ebay for $500 open box. does it fit?
AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT 16GB GDDR6 Graphics Card
278mmx107mmx50mm

I believe it does, I saw someone put it in on youtube. wondering if anyone has headsup with the same model?

I have that in my machine. It fits.

 

[H. Flower]

Dumb question: is it like the old days where there was a "mac" version and "Pc" version of cards, or does that not matter. Any AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT 16GB GDDR6 Graphics Card will work in the Mac Pro 2019?

 

[Korican100]

I have that in my machine. It fits.

awesome. what performance increases have you seen? I currently have the pro vega ii.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

If you are getting a 6800 the best one to get is a model that came in dells because it's a 2 slot card, while all others are over 2 slot in space.

For the 6900 I have the Sonnet version, which is just the reference card design. What I like about it is it seems to work well as a default card. Sleep etc seem to work properly with it. So I'd focus on getting one of the reference card versions, port wise. I'm guess the AMD reference card from AMD itself should also work well like that.

 

[flowrider]

^^^^Yes, Reference RC6X00 cards fit. I should have mentioned that in my post above.

 

[SecuritySteve]

awesome. what performance increases have you seen? I currently have the pro vega ii.

I upgraded from a 5700 XT, which was dying after years of use in an eGPU with my iMac Pro predating my Mac Pro. The performance jump was pretty staggering in games, which is primarily what I use my GPU for. Note that I game on macOS, not Windows, so I'm speaking directly to the performance jump in applications that use Metal / Vulkan with Metal translation. I wish I had some direct comparisons to give you, but I had upgraded a while ago. The 6900 XT is also likely the last graphics card supported on macOS generationally, so it's the best you can get for the machine.

Some issues I've noticed with the card are that occasionally Windowserver, the process responsible for macOS' GUI, will hang on the 6900 XT. If this happens you'll need to either use a terminal command to kill the Windowserver process, which will log you out, or hard reboot with the power button. My two side monitors are plugged into the RX 580 that came with the Mac Pro as a base option, and they do not have that problem - which is why I am aware of the terminal solution. But this problem is very rare and intermittent.

 

[SecuritySteve]

Dumb question: is it like the old days where there was a "mac" version and "Pc" version of cards, or does that not matter. Any AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT 16GB GDDR6 Graphics Card will work in the Mac Pro 2019?

It doesn't matter anymore for the 2019 Mac Pro. Any card that will physically fit will work.

 

[Korican100]

I upgraded from a 5700 XT, which was dying after years of use in an eGPU with my iMac Pro predating my Mac Pro. The performance jump was pretty staggering in games, which is primarily what I use my GPU for. Note that I game on macOS, not Windows, so I'm speaking directly to the performance jump in applications that use Metal / Vulkan with Metal translation. I wish I had some direct comparisons to give you, but I had upgraded a while ago. The 6900 XT is also likely the last graphics card supported on macOS generationally, so it's the best you can get for the machine.

Some issues I've noticed with the card are that occasionally Windowserver, the process responsible for macOS' GUI, will hang on the 6900 XT. If this happens you'll need to either use a terminal command to kill the Windowserver process, which will log you out, or hard reboot with the power button. My two side monitors are plugged into the RX 580 that came with the Mac Pro as a base option, and they do not have that problem - which is why I am aware of the terminal solution. But this problem is very rare and intermittent.

have you ever thought of running dual 6900xt? im having trouble finding out if this is worth it or not for editing in FCPX/mac or gaming via bootcamp windows

 

[SecuritySteve]

have you ever thought of running dual 6900xt? im having trouble finding out if this is worth it or not for editing in FCPX/mac or gaming via bootcamp windows

Since Crossfire / SLI is not supported on the Mac Pro, running two doesn't really help gaming. However, I can't speak to FCPX or other editing software which benefits from multiple GPUs.

 

[flowrider]

It doesn't matter anymore for the 2019 Mac Pro. Any card that will physically fit will work.

Any Card with Mac Drivers that fits will work and show a boot screen.

Lou

 

[H. Flower]

It doesn't matter anymore for the 2019 Mac Pro. Any card that will physically fit will work.

Thx

 

[H. Flower]

Any Card with Mac Drivers that fits will work and show a boot screen.

Lou

Thx

 

[h9826790]

Since Crossfire / SLI is not supported on the Mac Pro, running two doesn't really help gaming. However, I can't speak to FCPX or other editing software which benefits from multiple GPUs.

FCP can utilise multi GPU by default.

Crossfire is supported in Windows gaming, just not in macOS.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

FCP can utilise multi GPU by default.

Crossfire is supported in Windows gaming, just not in macOS.

I’m pretty sure there was some apple crosslink adapter for hooking 2 6800 duos together. Not sure what practical effect it had, but it must have done something.

 

[h9826790]

I’m pretty sure there was some apple crosslink adapter for hooking 2 6800 duos together. Not sure what practical effect it had, but it must have done something.

AFAIK, that's a private high speed channel between GPU. No extra function.

e.g. I am not sure the exact number, but if PCIe 3.0 x16 have 16GB/s throughput, then the Infinity Fabric Link bridge may allow up to something like 80GB/s.

Which minimise the datalink bottleneck between GPU when they are working as a GPU pool. However, it has no extra functions. e.g. That bridge won't enable crossfire. And it is not a requirement to have that bridge to enable crossfire.

But when crossfire is enabled, then the datalink between the GPU has higher throughput then just using the PCIe connection.