Radeon Compatibility Guide - ATI/AMD Graphics Cards

[WonkeyDonkey]

Yes. I have WhateverGreen installed, but I'm not even entirely sure I really need it. Other than that, it was completely plug-n-play.

Many thanks.

 

[macs_forever]

I was looking at those Air Cooler Vega 56 cards earlier. How is the fan noise on them ??

If your case has limited air flow through it and you don't want to heat up the inside of the case, go with the blower style. If you push it, it will get loud, but I'm not sure what really pushes a Vega. If you have 9+ fans in your case, get the 3 fan style. What I really like about the MSI blower is that it is fully closed off and all the heat shoots out the back of the case.

 

[Gigamaxx]

Man what happened with XFX cards, they're so ugly nowadays haha. They used to look cool.

I was checking them out, the Fatboy has the best cooling and highest clocks. Sapphire kept the old fan system and has lower clocks. Powercolor has the next highest clocks and decent cooling system.

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

If your case has limited air flow through it and you don't want to heat up the inside of the case, go with the blower style. If you push it, it will get loud, but I'm not sure what really pushes a Vega. If you have 9+ fans in your case, get the 3 fan style. What I really like about the MSI blower is that it is fully closed off and all the heat shoots out the back of the case.

I think that's the model I was looking at. My case is rather small though (Ncase) so I have little room for cooling on a grand scale. TBH I don't need anything like workstation class performance when it comes to graphics. I looked at the regular desktop cards, then the Vega cards and then the WX workstation cards. The Vega and WX cards all looked like they had screamer fans fitted.

 

[Gigamaxx]

Let us know how it works out. I always worry about XFX cards. So many of them in the past wouldn't work but now Apple has listed a few that are recommended for eGPUs.

Yes the custom bios killed the R9/7xxx series and their Polaris 12 and 21 RX 460-560 models but the 470-580 models and Vegas work well. My XFX RX 480 reference card pumps out 141,000 Geekbench computes on stock 1266Mhz settings.

 

[Maya2013]

Excellent overview.

I purchased a Sapphire AMD Radeon Pulse RX 570 4GB card to replace my old Nvidia GeForce GTX 960. It has 2xDP, 2xHDMI, 1xDVI. It works out of the box under Mojave with no graphics injections, Radeondeinit or kexts i.e.

<key>Graphics</key>
<dict>
<key>Inject</key>
<dict>
<key>ATI</key>
<false/>
<key>Intel</key>
<false/>
<key>NVidia</key>
<false/>
</dict>
<key>RadeonDeInit</key>
<false/>
</dict>

I've been getting several system freezes per day (with old and new card) and am currently using the Whatevergreen and Lilu kexts to see if it is more stable.

I'm still very confused over when to use ATI injection or not, Radeondeinit or not, Whatevergreen/Lilu or not when using Legacy Boot Mode (or not)!!!

 

[macs_forever]

Excellent overview.

I purchased a Sapphire AMD Radeon Pulse RX 570 4GB card to replace my old Nvidia GeForce GTX 960. It has 2xDP, 2xHDMI, 1xDVI

I'm currently using the following settings which work for the 2xDP but not the HDMI (black screen).

<key>Graphics</key>
<dict>
<key>FBName</key>
<string>Orinoco</string>
<key>Inject</key>
<dict>
<key>ATI</key>
<true/>
<key>Intel</key>
<true/>
<key>NVidia</key>
<false/>
</dict>
<key>RadeonDeInit</key>
<true/>
</dict>

Is Orinoco the right setting or should I be using something else?

I'm a snob I guess. Considering all the trouble we've had with HDMI, I refuse to buy a card with less than 3 display ports.

 

[macs_forever]

I think that's the model I was looking at. My case is rather small though (Ncase) so I have little room for cooling on a grand scale. TBH I don't need anything like workstation class performance when it comes to graphics. I looked at the regular desktop cards, then the Vega cards and then the WX workstation cards. The Vega and WX cards all looked like they had screamer fans fitted.

NCASE M1: get the blower style and under clock it to make it cooler and quiet. Use a low profile 120mm Noctua fan in the bottom of the case to blow air at the blower fan which will take some load off it and also lower the noise. Play with the positioning of the fan for the best cooling and noise reduction. If too close, the 120mm will create MORE turbulence and make things worse. The 120mm fan should give the blower fresh air and maybe a nudge, but there must be enough distance between the two that they are not coupled together. It also doesn't hurt to offset the fans a little. They do not need to be lined up with each other. Case fans tend to blow air out to the side in addition to blowing straight back.

One of the worries of a single fan GPU is what happens when the blower fan fails. With the 120mm fan blowing at it, it will tend to kickstart the blower fan if it doesn't want to start. The 120mm fan will also reduce the load on the blower fan and extend it's life. If the blower fan does fail completely, the 120mm fan will still push air into the heatsink. It will still likely crash, but it shouldn't cook the card. My 120mm fan is about 10mm away from the blower fan and only half the 120mm fan is in line with the blower fan.

 

[macs_forever]

I know there's been some talk of the RX 560 card here. I REALLY like the low profile RX 560 by MSI in tight cases. It does a very good job for single monitors. I had no problem driving my 38 inch LG (3840x1600) with the RX 560 and it only needs motherboard power. I have one in a PC-TU100 case. I added 2 Noctua 92MMx14MM fans to the bottom of the case and put taller feet on it. The 92mm fans were too close to the 60mm fans on the RX560 so I just removed the fans and shroud from the card. I think the 92mm fans give the heatsink more air and less noise than the card's original fans and shroud. I love that build. To bad I am giving it to my daughter.

 

[Fl0r!an]

The first post needs to be updated. The Sapphire RX 580 Pulse 8GB "reference card" is 1 DVI + 2 HDMI + 2DP, and uses the Orinoco frame buffer. @Fl0r!an will update Post #1 table(s) soon.

Done, thanks. I guess both are somehow correct (the layout I mentioned before was used in eary Polaris reference cards, I think), but mentioning the layout used/supported by Apple is better, I guess.

I've been a bit out of the loop, so: Can someone comment on Vega? Which framebuffer is usually used with which port layout, or no specific FB? Everything stable & fast?