[Success] AMD RX6000 Series working in macOS

[pastrychef]

As I say, it's all speculation. But Apple is the richest company in the world; if they want to do something, they can. And they've always loved locking consumers into buying only Apple products and upgrades.

IMO, it makes no sense for any company, rich or poor, to support products they don't sell.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

IMO, it makes no sense for any company, rich or poor, to support products they don't sell.

I agree. Apple may make the Mac Pro 2019 expandable but how can they be expected to provide drivers for every graphics-card that will fit, if they don't offer the hardware themselves as an option? Normally the add-on manufacturer will supply drivers. Happened with NVidia for years and happens all the time in the Windows world.

 

[TheBloke]

I posted a question on that OTOY forum to ask the developer for more info on why he thought it was in 11.3 beta 3. It's currently awaiting moderator approval as it was my first post. Hopefully it'll appear soon. If he really does have insider info, he probably can't say any more due to NDAs. Ot it could be he was just completely mistaken, thinking he heard it was already there when it's not.. but let's hope not.

And I have a reply!

So.. I think good news? He says it's straight from Apple. That sounds great - seemingly the only official (albeit indirect) word we've had from Apple on the matter, and it says support is coming. But.. it's wrong about the details.

That could mean it was planned for 11.3 but then got delayed? Or that the Apple contact just made a minor mistake, thinking it was 11.3 when in fact it's coming in 11.4 b1 or some other imminent release?

Or were they just completely mistaken, in which case it might mean nothing!?

Who knows. But I think on balance it's probably good news

 

[Bustycat]

And I have a reply!

View attachment 512307

So.. I think good news? He says it's straight from Apple. That sounds great - seemingly the only official (albeit indirect) word we've had from Apple on the matter, and it says support is coming. But.. it's wrong about the details.

That could mean it was planned for 11.3 but then got delayed? Or that the Apple contact just made a minor mistake, thinking it was 11.3 when in fact it's coming in 11.4 b1 or some other imminent release?

Or were they just completely mistaken, in which case it might mean nothing!?

Who knows. But I think on balance it's probably good news

Any possibility of including RX 6700 XT? So people here may have chances to grab it before miners take all away.

 

[pastrychef]

He says it's straight from Apple.

If true, this may be a first. I can't remember another time Apple commented on unreleased products or support for such or as yet unreleased drivers.

 

[P1LGRIM]

It's all a bit reminiscent of the Webdrivergate fiasco.

 

[drmyk]

IMO, it makes no sense for any company, rich or poor, to support products they don't sell.

they're not supporting other company products, they're supporting their own product to be compatible with standards that allow it to interact with other company products.
that's like saying they you don't know that apple sells computers that use software from other companies.

 

[TheBloke]

Any possibility of including RX 6700 XT? So people here may have chances to grab it before miners take all away.

Maybe? I don't know of course, but to me it seems a pretty reasonable bet that if/when support comes, it will be for all 6000-series GPUs - or at least all those currently available. In the first 11.x releases there were framebuffer definitions for Big Navi, and from memory I believe they were for Navi21 (6800/6900), Navi22 (6700) and Navi23 (6600/6500 I guess?). I seem to recall that the Navi22 and Navi23 definitions didn't actually contain any properties, but they were at least listed, which is some implication that support was intended or at least anticipated.

Of course then those framebuffer definitions were pulled out in 11.3 beta 1, and we don't really know what that means. We hope it's because it's being refactored, but we don't know.

If true, this may be a first. I can't remember another time Apple commented on unreleased products or support for such or as yet unreleased drivers.

Yeah, I have no idea. But it's wasn't a public comment and I would assume they say much more to developers in private than they ever admit to publicly. Maybe that Octane X dev even broke an NDA in quoting it publicly.

It's all a bit confusing given the statement apparently seemed categorical to that dev, but was also wrong.

Personally I am feeling somewhat more optimistic about 11.4 beta 1 than I was before his posts. But of course we've been here before.

 

[thedocbwarren]

If true, this may be a first. I can't remember another time Apple commented on unreleased products or support for such or as yet unreleased drivers.

Yeah I'd say that total hearsay. I remember a media provider saying there were going to be Nvidia drivers post High Sierra for 20 series. Same situation, "heard direct from Apple it's coming." Yeah right

 

[thedocbwarren]

Just a recommendation, from my own personal feeling. People really should wait for the support before purchase. So many people rush out to buy due to "demand" only to wait a year or never. New GPUs are neat, but if you want to use these outside the normal market (as in Hackintosh) it will come with risk and caveats.