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AMD Radeon Pro W5700 (Natively supported and used in Mac Pro) Discussion

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Hey guys,

I am planning to use AMD Radeon Pro W5700 GPU in i9-10900K and Z490 build. This is the exact GPU in Mac Pro (although there is 'X' at the end in the Mac Pro one but it is same one as far as I know) and therefore, it should be natively supported. However, Radeon Pro W5700 GPU is best for: CAD Design and Modeling, Visualization, Virtual Reality and Multitasking but I want to use this build for 4k video production and editing and rendering. Do you think it will be better for video production and editing rendering than Radeon VII? There is also Radeon Pro Vega II and Radeon Pro Vega II Duo available but the cost of them is way too much and will be overkill for this build. AMD Radeon Pro W5700 costs around 800 USD and AMD Radeon VII (this GPU is more gaming focused and $300 cheaper). Do anyone has any thoughts and feedbacks that will be helpful? I am researching and planning from now on so that when every parts will be available; I can buy straight away and start building my dream video production hackintosh :D
 
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I'd also like to hear thoughts about the Radeon Pro VII, which is similar to the Radeon Pro Vega II in Mac Pros.
 
I'd also like to hear thoughts about the Radeon Pro VII, which is similar to the Radeon Pro Vega II in Mac Pros.
Yep, Radeon VII is the best choice in hackintosh at the moment
 
Do you think it will be better for video production and editing rendering than Radeon VII ?


@anannyo,

For compute based workflow the Radeon VII is still king of the hill on MacOS.

W5700 Peak Single Precision (FP32) Performance = 8.89 TFLOPs
Radeon VII Peak Single Precision Compute Performance (FP32) = 13.8 TFLOPs

The W5700 is basically a workstation optimised version of the Navi 5700 architecture and whilst MacOS Catalina does support the 5700 Navi based cards there are numerous reports of instability and random reboots which have been attributed partially to some teething issues with the architecture on AMD's side but mostly due to Apples buggy Navi drivers which still seems to be the case with MacOS 10.15.6 as far as I know.

Apple will fix these issues as it is effecting genuine Mac's that either ship with a Navi based dGPU or Mac's that use a Navi dGPU in an eGPU TB3 enclosure .... but I suspect that will not happen until MacOS 11.0.X is fully released.

You should also be aware that Video Editing software such as FCPX, Premier .. etc will only use the dGPU for tile based rendering work such as transitions, titles and effects.

MacOS is optimised to use IQS (Intel Quick Sync) for basic H264 and H265 encoding when using a non-pro iMac SMBIOS such as iMac19,X, and the dGPU when using the iMacPro1,1 SMBIOS however all other codecs including all ProRes formats will be transcoded on the CPU no matter which SMBIOS you use.

All Video editing software on MacOS will work this way so do not assume that a more powerful dGPU will speed up codec transcoding, it's a common misconception and has been discussed many times on these forums.

However is you are going to be doing a lot of effects work then a more powerful dGPU will indeed lower render times.

The only exception to this is if a codec specific hardware acceleration card is installed such as the RED Rocket card or Apples own Afterburner card (New MacPro only).

Cheers
Jay
 
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@anannyo,

For compute based workflow the Radeon VII is still king of the hill on MacOS.

W5700 Peak Single Precision (FP32) Performance = 8.89 TFLOPs
Radeon VII Peak Single Precision Compute Performance (FP32) = 13.8 TFLOPs

The W5700 is basically a workstation optimised version of the Navi 5700 architecture and whilst MacOS Catalina does support the 5700 Navi based cards there are numerous reports of instability and random reboots which have been attributed partially to some teething issues with the architecture on AMD's side but mostly due to Apples buggy Navi drivers which still seems to be the case with MacOS 10.15.6 as far as I know.

Apple will fix these issues as it is effecting genuine Mac's that either ship with a Navi based dGPU or Mac's that use a Navi dGPU in an eGPU TB3 enclosure .... but I suspect that will not happen until MacOS 11.0.X is fully released.

You should also be aware that Video Editing software such as FCPX, Premier .. etc will only use the dGPU for tile based rendering work such as transitions, titles and effects.

MacOS is optimised to use IQS (Intel Quick Sync) for basic H264 and H265 encoding when using a non-pro iMac SMBIOS such as iMac19,X, and the dGPU when using the iMacPro1,1 SMBIOS however all other codecs including all ProRes formats will be transcoded on the CPU no matter which SMBIOS you use.

All Video editing software on MacOS will work this way so do not assume that a more powerful dGPU will speed up codec transcoding, it's a common misconception and has been discussed many times on these forums.

However is you are going to be doing a lot of effects work then a more powerful dGPU will indeed lower render times.

Cheers
Jay
Thank you for the breakdown, really appreciate it. However, I am gonna hold my breath till the Big Navi and iMac are out. The Big Navi is supposed to be better. So it is great scenario while I have my fall back choice as Radeon VII and can see how Big Navi actually is in terms of performance!!
 
I am gonna hold my breath till the Big Navi and iMac are out. The Big Navi is supposed to be better. So it is great scenario while I have my fall back choice as Radeon VII and can see how Big Navi actually is in terms of performance!!


@anannyo,

Just be aware of the codec transcoding limitations that I wrote about above, a more powerful dGPU will not necessarily speed up your workflow unless you do a lot of effects work, no point spending a boot load of cash on a powerful dGPU if your workflow will not utilise it.

Cheers
Jay
 
@anannyo,

Just be aware of the codec transcoding limitations that I wrote about above, a more powerful dGPU will not necessarily speed up your workflow unless you do a lot of effects work, no point spending a boot load of cash on a powerful dGPU if your workflow will not utilise it.

Cheers
Jay

Yeah I will do moderate amount of effects work as well. Plus it is good to get the latest & best one in terms of performance and compatibility as I will use this system around 5 years. Thanks for your suggestions and I will definitely buy after being sure :)
 
Yep, Radeon VII is the best choice in hackintosh at the moment
I was talking about the Radeon Pro VII, not the Radeon VII. Maybe the answer is still the same, however...
 
Hey guys,

I am planning to use AMD Radeon Pro W5700 GPU in i9-10900K and Z490 build. This is the exact GPU in Mac Pro (although there is 'X' at the end in the Mac Pro one but it is same one as far as I know) and therefore, it should be natively supported. However, Radeon Pro W5700 GPU is best for: CAD Design and Modeling, Visualization, Virtual Reality and Multitasking but I want to use this build for 4k video production and editing and rendering. Do you think it will be better for video production and editing rendering than Radeon VII? There is also Radeon Pro Vega II and Radeon Pro Vega II Duo available but the cost of them is way too much and will be overkill for this build. AMD Radeon Pro W5700 costs around 800 USD and AMD Radeon VII (this GPU is more gaming focused and $300 cheaper). Do anyone has any thoughts and feedbacks that will be helpful? I am researching and planning from now on so that when every parts will be available; I can buy straight away and start building my dream video production hackintosh :D
what apps do you use mostly? what is your pipeline (input formats, output formats?)
 
Apple will fix these issues as it is effecting genuine Mac's that either ship with a Navi based dGPU or Mac's that use a Navi dGPU in an eGPU TB3 enclosure .... but I suspect that will not happen until MacOS 11.0.X is fully released.
isnt Navi in macbooks pro?
 
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