MP 1,1-5,1 Simple Question About Using PC GPU in CMP 5,1

[danallen]

If a pc GPU that fits into one of the 16x pci slots has metal support, but has never been flashed for macOS, will that card work in a CMP 5,1 with Catalina, with the caveat that the Apple boot screen will not appear?

I suspect my GPU died (Gigabyte R9 280x) I do not have an easy way to boot this machine. So, what I want to do is buy a gpu like the one I had. I was not getting the apple boot screen with the card that appears dead. I know that means it was missing a flash for the Mac. The thing I don't know is whether that is all there is to it. I found pc version of the card I was running. I think I was running a pc version, based on there being no boot screens.

I would appreciate it a lot if you could let me know if I am understanding correctly. Thank you.

 

[h9826790]

"never been flashed for macOS"

This is the wrong concept. There is no card can be flashed for "macOS".

We can flash a card to make it has Mac EFI UGA to show boot screen on a cMP. But this has nothing related to macOS.

a pc GPU that fits into one of the 16x pci slots has metal support

This also has no absolute relationship with "a card can work in Catalina".

e.g. The native Apple HD5770 can run Catalina (can "run", but not "install")

Or, GTX1080Ti has Metal support, but this card won't work in Catalina at all.

If you question is "Can a R9 280X work in Catalina?", then the answer is YES (regardless if it's flashed or not. In fact, if the source isn't that reliable, buying a non flashed card is better. There are lots of badly flashed card on the net. And as long as the card has the original ROM on it, you can flash the card by yourself easily)

 

[KeesMacPro]

A list of possible GPUs for Mojave/Catalina:

GPU Compatibility List for cMP

Content: 1. Summary 2. Information on common GPUs that can be used in cMP 3. GPU power consumption 4. Color compatibility 5. Flashing nuances 6. What to choose? 7. Useful links. 1. Summary 1.1. There are 50+ GPU types that are compatible with cMP (classic MacPro = Mac Pro 1.1-5.1/...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[macguru9999]

Just buy a flashed card on ebay , maybe a radeon rx480, 460 etc

NEW Apple Mac Pro AMD Radeon RX 460 2GB PCI-E Video Card RX 580 RX480 RX580 | eBay

 NEW Apple Mac Pro AMD Radeon MSI RX460 2GB PCI-E Video Card RX 580 480. - Apple Mac Pro 4,1 (2009) or Mac Pro 5,1 (2010-2012). - supports Apple boot screen (gray screen with Apple logo on startup) on all ports (also on 4K displays).

www.ebay.com.au

 

[danallen]

This is the wrong concept. There is no card can be flashed for "macOS".

We can flash a card to make it has Mac EFI UGA to show boot screen on a cMP. But this has nothing

Thank you for the correction.

This also has no absolute relationship with "a card can work in Catalina".

e.g. The native Apple HD5770 can run Catalina (can "run", but not "install")

That I did not know. Unfortunately, I threw my Radeon 5770 away. I got another one,, which said on it that it had the Mac Pro flashing done to it, but I never could get my computer to boot with the replacement Radeon card. I wonder if the problem is one of those improper flash jobs you mentioned . I thought the problem was because it wasn't supposed to be bootable with Mojave or Catalina and I didn't have a bootable partition in an earlier version of Mac OS. Thank you for letting me know that this computer is bootable with non-metal graphics cards cuz I didn't know that. That is important information

There are lots of badly flashed card on the net. And as long as the card has the original ROM on it, you can flash the card by yourself easily

I looked into flashing the card I've been running but I found that I couldn't do it because I didn't have the Windows installation that was required for for that procedure least so far as I could find it so if there's another way to flash it that would be good to know becoming severely cleared up when I understand about the requirements and it's going to help me a lot appreciate it.

I have a follow-up question. In reading up on the symptoms that I'm looking at it sounds like graphics cards don't generally just die suddenly. When they appear have died suddenly l, there usually other problems, such as a worn out power supply or a voltage spike that likely would damage other components.

I am not setup for troubleshooting this problem. I don't have components to swap out

Obviously I'd like to avoid buying a replacement card if it turns out that the card I have is okay and that the problem is with another components of my system. So my question is do you agree that it's rare or probably not the case that this card just died and that there's probably something different that's wrong with my computer?

I'm going through some other troubleshooting now and so far I haven't found any LEDs lighting up or any symptoms of anything else is wrong. I don't know how to test the power supply without starting it up but since the computer won't boot I'm in a tight spot

 

[danallen]

Just buy a flashed card on ebay , maybe a radeon rx480, 460 etc

NEW Apple Mac Pro AMD Radeon RX 460 2GB PCI-E Video Card RX 580 RX480 RX580 | eBay

 NEW Apple Mac Pro AMD Radeon MSI RX460 2GB PCI-E Video Card RX 580 480. - Apple Mac Pro 4,1 (2009) or Mac Pro 5,1 (2010-2012). - supports Apple boot screen (gray screen with Apple logo on startup) on all ports (also on 4K displays).

www.ebay.com.au

Can you estimate the likelihood a replacement fix my problem? I'm becoming kind of because of the material I read that said failure of the card suddenly in isolation is rare in that it usually indicates other problems but I don't know if those are reliable Reports. I have a Radeon 5770 that isn't working however I couldn't boot with that card before this problem arose so maybe there's maybe that Radeon was never any good. The Radeon I have is the stock model however it's not the card that came with his computer I I lost it or threw away the one that came to this computer when I upgraded to the card I have now I didn't realize I needed so I got to replace it but I think the replacement is bad so I just sent hate mail to the guy I bought it from

In addition my understanding. A car that's already flashed stands a likely chance of not working with my computer because the flashing is very sensitive to the exact configuration of the computer it's going to go into so just a card that's flash for a Mac Pro 5.1 is not all that likely to work unless it's been flashed through my computer specifically is my understanding but I don't know if that's wrong

 

[danallen]

This post is about a new symptom and pricing for a replacement card.

NEW SYMPTOM
I zapped the pram by holding down cmd-option p-r all at the same when starting the computer, keeping them down through two plays of the startup chime. Now, the startup chime keeps repeating about every 2 minutes between when starting the computer. It is as if boot up is in a loop running through that chime. I don't know how that might influence an understanding of the problem.

PRICING - is this right?

Looking at pricing for R9 280x gpu, wow.

Ordered without Mac EFI UGA, which is preferable in order to avoid wrong configuration dialed to the flash, cuts the price by more $100+. Working card about $150-$170



$170 https://www.ebay.com/itm/203511337414?hash=item2f623891c6:g:RNoAAOSwJYVg3hyq#vi__app-cvip-panel

$59 whoops this one is for parts. Looks like a working r9 280x is going to be ~$150-&170
https://www.mercari.com/us/item/m30...clid=ADL-507cafa2-9499-4828-9889-b6435d7941aa

Many more at both these price point. Is there a signicant difference in the product offered to a account for one price being 2.8x the other?

 

[KeesMacPro]

A car that's already flashed stands a likely chance of not working with my computer because the flashing is very sensitive to the exact configuration of the computer it's going to go into so just a card that's flash for a Mac Pro 5.1 is not all that likely to work unless it's been flashed through my computer specifically is my understanding but I don't know if that's wrong

No, not exactly.

Short version:
Assuming a GPU is compatible with the OS installed (Catalina) :
If a card is flashed with a Mac EFI it will work in any Mac model (running Catalina).
If it's a PC version (and known to work with Catalina) , it is possible that (in case of a used item) the seller flashed the card with a different ROM for several reasons e.g. mining, overclocking etc.
In a lot of cases a modified (=flashed) PC ROM leads to issues/will not work in a Mac.


The link I posted explains a few more things about GPUs.
If you're interested in a card for Catalina: the requirements are the same as for Mojave.

 

[Macsonic]

Can you estimate the likelihood a replacement fix my problem? I'm becoming kind of because of the material I read that said failure of the card suddenly in isolation is rare in that it usually indicates other problems but I don't know if those are reliable Reports.

In the past I encountered occasional problems with GPUs. Have a Nvidia Quadro K5000 official Mac card, that suddenly gave a black screen. I took out the card, removed the 6 pin power cable. Reseated the card and reinstalled the power cable and everything was okay. Kind of weird. All was running smoothly after that. Sometimes it could be a faulty power cable. I encountered a defective 6-pin to 6-pin cable too. It's helpful to keep 2 or 3 GPUs for troubleshooting purposes to save time.

If you’re buying a flashed GPU in eBay, most sellers offer a return to fix the problem. Before buying, just verify with the seller on his return policy.

 

[macguru9999]

This post is about a new symptom and pricing for a replacement card.

NEW SYMPTOM
I zapped the pram by holding down cmd-option p-r all at the same when starting the computer, keeping them down through two plays of the startup chime. Now, the startup chime keeps repeating about every 2 minutes between when starting the computer. It is as if boot up is in a loop running through that chime. I don't know how that might influence an understanding of the problem.

PRICING - is this right?

Looking at pricing for R9 280x gpu, wow.

Ordered without Mac EFI UGA, which is preferable in order to avoid wrong configuration dialed to the flash, cuts the price by more $100+. Working card about $150-$170



$170 https://www.ebay.com/itm/203511337414?hash=item2f623891c6:g:RNoAAOSwJYVg3hyq#vi__app-cvip-panel

$59 whoops this one is for parts. Looks like a working r9 280x is going to be ~$150-&170
https://www.mercari.com/us/item/m30...clid=ADL-507cafa2-9499-4828-9889-b6435d7941aa

Many more at both these price point. Is there a signicant difference in the product offered to a account for one price being 2.8x the other?

no idea. maybe get someone to fix it.

 

[KeesMacPro]

NEW SYMPTOM
I zapped the pram by holding down cmd-option p-r all at the same when starting the computer, keeping them down through two plays of the startup chime. Now, the startup chime keeps repeating about every 2 minutes between when starting the computer. It is as if boot up is in a loop running through that chime. I don't know how that might influence an understanding of the problem.

Running an unsupported OS (Catalina) and suspecting that the GPU is broken, there are way too many possibilities to troubleshoot.
Maybe you could test first the "broken" GPU in another PC/Mac to find out it's broken or not.

If you're considering to troubleshoot yourself, I would install 1 drive with a supported OS (Mojave or earlier), remove all other drives and PCI cards, and install a compatible and known working GPU.

 

[MIKX]

For a start THERE IS NO PRAM resetting in cMPs . .

. . . . .. THERE IS however NVRAM resetting ( = Non Volatile Ram )

The way to RESET NVRAM is to hold DOWN the keys shown below. .

. . . 3 ~ 4 times CONSECUTIVELY without letting go of the keys until the LAST CHIME.

 

[danallen]

Thank you for the correction.

 

[danallen]

SIGNIFICANT UPDATE

The cMP is running Catalina with a Radeon 5770. Pretty much narrows problem to the R9 280x I had been running.

This happened after resetting the nvram with a four chime cycle (hold down cmd option p r starting immediately after hitting the power button to start the machine. The reset might be a red herring, I am not positive I had tried booting this installation with the Radeon 5770 previously.