Radeon Compatibility Guide - ATI/AMD Graphics Cards

[Fl0r!an]

In any case I checked the PCI report in System Profiler and it states the was an error retrieving the information. But the card works so I'll just leave it alone for now and keep my eyes open for another one on eBay.

That's usual behavior with unflashed GPUs. It's easy to DIY-flash that card btw.

I'm not sure about your other issue, sounds more like a coincidence to me, but who knows...

 

[TurbineSeaplane]

Is DisplayPort a problem with a 7970 and Clover?

I'm surprised give the compatibility matrix that I'm getting black screen on Clover menu (have to just hit enter and then Sierra loads) with the 7970

Perhaps a BIOS setting wrong?
Any ideas from anyone w/ knowledge on this?

Not a huge deal as I'm not dual booting this machine anymore- just irritating

(beyond that it is super refreshing to have a totally OOB natively supported card)

 

[TurbineSeaplane]

Another question: When doing the Dual GPU testing with FCPX - What benchmarks should I use and/or how should I verify that both GPUs are being utilized and how effectively?

Thank you!

 

[MihaiBarbu]

Salut Fl0r!an. Scrie-mi si mie un mesaj, te rog! Aparent, eu nu pot.

So If I buy the Radeon RX 480 NITRO+ 8 gigs, I'll have to wait until I get full support for it? What do we have to wait for?

Until then I just have to inject Intel HD530 in multibeast. But when the radeon becomes available I need to get the web drivers or inject ATI?

 

[Fl0r!an]

@TurbineSeaplane: Sounds like a bad BIOS setting. Maybe your card doesn't support UEFI (they usually come with DualBIOS, try toggling the BIOS switch) and you've disabled CSM? I guess your BIOS splash screen is missing as well?

FCPX benchmarks are usually done with BruceX. I'd make a benchmark with just one GPU installed and see if anything changes when installing a 2nd one.

@MihaiBarbu: We're waiting for two things:

1. Apple has to add full Polaris 10 support, so we don't have to fake the device ID and get full performance. I guess this will happen when they start preparing iMacs with P10 graphics.
2. We have to figure out the "boot to black screen" issue. This is a bug on our side, so I don't expect Apple to fix that one for us. Until then, you'll have to boot with iGPU=Primary

To be clear, you can use a RX 480 as of today, but the two mentioned issues can be quite disturbing.

 

[tallrob]

That's usual behavior with unflashed GPUs. It's easy to DIY-flash that card btw.

I'm not sure about your other issue, sounds more like a coincidence to me, but who knows...

Thanks! All seems fine and dandy with the connections now. I guess it was just a coincidence but I'm not going to mess with it anymore. I think I'll give the flashing a try once I have a reliable backup card. They pop up every so often under 50 bucks.

The 1,1 lives to fight another day.

 

[TurbineSeaplane]

@TurbineSeaplane: Sounds like a bad BIOS setting. Maybe your card doesn't support UEFI (they usually come with DualBIOS, try toggling the BIOS switch) and you've disabled CSM? I guess your BIOS splash screen is missing as well?

Ahh... Gotcha. You are correct. I have a Sapphire 7970 ghz Vapor-X and there are forum posts around the web about some people getting a UEFI BIOS flash update from Sapphire.

I do have CSM disable, but I do get a BIOS splash screen (where you can enter the BIOS and see the Asus ROG logo) - Are you hinting to try some different settings at the MoBo BIOS end?

(thank you for your help!)

 

[Fl0r!an]

That's strange, Clover should usually work if you have the BIOS screen. Not sure what's wrong there, maybe you're forcing an incompatible resolution in config.plist (if this is even possible)? Never had that issue.

 

[TurbineSeaplane]

Yeah - Very odd - Oh well - It boots fine and rather quickly - I just can't see Clover as it does it.

I heard back from Sapphire support already. No official UEFI BIOS for the 79xx cards from them, so it is what it is.

Other than that small (non) issue, I truly love this native OOB experience from the 7970!
Very impressed and pleased. Gathering my Bruce benchmarks w/ 1 GPU as the other got delayed and doesn't come until tomorrow, at which time I'll test that config and report.

Cheers

Edit: 2nd GPU arrived and tested - see next post

 

[TurbineSeaplane]

Ok - Some great news!
I've got dual 7970's in my machine and they both work and they are NOT identical (at all actually)

I'm on:

• macOS Sierra 10.12.1
• LG 31MU97 31" 4K Display
• Asus Maximus VII Hero
• 4790k (not overclocked though)
• 32GB DDR3 1600 RAM
• 1TB Crucial MX200 SSD
• Slot 1: Sapphire 7970 Ghz Edition 3GB Vapor X Dual Fan
• Slot 2: Diamond 7970 (non Ghz Edition) 3GB Blower Fan

FCP BruceX Test (export 5k project - normal test basically)
Apple ProRes 422 chosen

7970 Sapphire GPU only

Test 1: 00:32
Test 2: 00:32
Test 3: 00:31

7970 Diamond GPU only

Test 1: 00:35
Test 2: 00:33
Test 3: 00:33

7970 Dual GPU - Sapphire in Slot 1, Diamond in slot 2

Test 1: 00:20
Test 2: 00:19
Test 3: 00:19



Some thoughts:
1. Both cards run very very quiet when doing everything, including this testing.
2. It's confirmed that you can mix/match 7970 models, apparently quite dramatically, with no apparent issues. Both of these cards are different clock speeds and have different outputs, etc
3. As can be seen, there is definitely a benefit to having 2 cards vs 1. It's not "twice as fast" but close.
4. I was going to reverse which card is primary and test that also, but I've got a clearance issue with another PCI card if I do that as the Sapphire Vapor X is huge (really a 2.5 slot card)
5. I've attached a photo if anyone is curious.
6. Unfortunately I never did (didn't know about) the BruceX test when I still had the 980ti.
7. Given that I got both GPU's for less than $180 total, it seems like super value/performance if the main focus is FCPX type stuff. This setup seems ideal for me as I've now moved all my gaming to a dedicated Win10 Mini-ITX HTPC and this machine will be a full time macOS machine.
8. Both GPU's very smoothly and easily do the LG's full 4096x2160 @ 60hz. I personally use HiDPI 2560x1350. Unlike with my 980ti, I don't need any 3rd party Apps to enable HiDPI modes/settings. It all just works as it should in System Preferences/Display PrefPane - Again - SUPER nice.