Worth paying $200 to upgrade to 10.5?

[triplets]

I only bought video cards that were flashed for the Mac. And I did on three 5,1 MPs. All Mojave.

[KC]

Yes, if this doesn’t work out, I’ll be going that route.

[KC]

Of course - you can guess - today I needed the boot screen. I did a SuperDuper backup of my system drive (creating a Sandbox) to prepare to go to Mojave. Something didn't go right and while it booted into the system, I couldn't log in. So I had to restart holding option to get the startup screen and choose the other system drive. I am guessing doing this without the boot screen would still get me to the startup manager? I don't know.

 

But I am starting to re-think my decision.

 

EDIT: It was a quick fix thanks to the amazing support of the SuperDuper dev. All is well now, but still. Funny how I haven't needed the boot screen for ages until I embark on this path. I can always leave in both video cards - I don't have any other PCI cards installed. So that is another solution.

[Dewdman42]

So... you can still have worked around the lack of GPU boot screen.

 

You use Recovery mode (hold down Command-R while booting). Wait long enough and it will eventually bring up the following screen, and yes...without GPU boot screen...

 

 

That would have allowed you to solve your problem in this case...no fancy flashed card needed.

 

However, the Startup Manager, which you wish you could have used, which is normally accessed by booting while holding the OPTION key, supposedly does not work with unflashed card. That is a bit more convenient and faster then having to boot in Recovery mode and then setting the startup volume. But in a pinch, recovery mode works.

 

Where I think a flashed card would be more urgent, would be if you intend to switch back and forth between OSX and Windows a lot. When you're in OSX, its easy to go to Preferences and select startup volume to reboot to windows. However under windows there is no easy way to tell it to restart back to OSX... so that's where the OPTION key startup manager would be considerably more convenient than having to boot to recovery mode and then choose OSX volume and reboot again.

Edited August 24, 2020 by Dewdman42

[KC]

Hey dewdman, that is awesome! Thanks so much for the detailed response. I don’t mind a bit of extra “work” as long as I can get it to work. Cheers!

[Dewdman42]

All that being said, I've been reading up about MacvidCards and it looks like my RX580 can be sent in and flashed by them for $125+shipping, and at some point I might have that done, just so I never have to worry about it. I personally have not needed the boot screen at all so far...it has been fine. But for $125, eh, I might have that done someday. At least I know its possible, I think that's a new development, not that long ago people were saying this card couldn't be flashed, but I guess they figured it out.

 

Anyway, knock on wood, so far I haven't needed the boot screen and really can't justify $125 even to have it flashed. But i can see why some might have it done just so that they don't have to think about it. However, bear in mind that using a 3rd party flashed card also brings with it, its own risks....

[KC]

Yeah, from what I’ve read, it involves physically increasing the rom size or something to accommodate the efi flashing or ??. I don’t really know. But it seems like more than a software thing.

[Dewdman42]

no, its just flashing, they aren't changing the hardware. If you know something more about what you just said, I'd like to hear more about that. Its possible that the flash uses up some memory in the card that normally is used for other purposes...and that would be very important to know if so. If there is any possibility that this flash would somehow reduce or impair the functionality of the card in some way by using up some of the memory in the card somehow, that would be very important to take into consideration. Please let us know what you may know about that, I would definitely like to understand that issue.

[KC]

I’ll see if I can find the post that said they had to do something physical to the card. But I did run across this, indicating that there is no penalty for the flashing. https://barefeats.com/efi-radeon-rx-580-vs-other-amd-gpus.html

[Dewdman42]

I actually just got a response from MacVidCards on this, they do install a new larger EEPROM to replace the one that is on the card from factory. The larger EEPROM contains the new Apple EFI code. Otherwise everything is the same.

 

My take is that this is a pretty nice solution if you really need the boot screen.. seems like it must work fine, however, I still think the boot screen is kind of optional, not really worth an extra $125+shipping in my view unless you plan to use bootcamp a lot... and...you do introduce the risk that you have modified the card with a new firmware...which will not be supported by Apple or AMD... it works for as long as it works...and probably will work fine...but there is always a small risk with something like that.

[KC]

UPDATE #1

 

I received my RX480 2 days early (very exciting) and proceeded to take apart the MP and install the card. Old card came out fine, new card went in just as well. But, it requires a 8 pin cable and not the 6 pin cable that I ordered. I was sure I read somewhere that the RX480 had a 6 pin power slot. It makes sense that it has a 8 pin requirement, as the 480 and 580 are basically the same card. So, I had to order a new cable (dual mini 6 pin to 8 pin) cable which came today. Installed without issue.

 

MP back in the studio, everything plugged in, hit the power button and went for coffee as it takes a bit to boot up, and I figured why stair at a black screen. Come back and to my surprise, everything is ready to go! Check Sys prefs, yup, using the 480. So I am off to the races and installing Mojave on a Sandboxed system. It required a Firmware update, which went without a hitch and is currently installing.

 

So far - everything is working as well as it should. This 480 seems to be working as expected. No problems in the first few minutes. No problems booting (other than no boot screen). But, it seems to boot so much faster that I barely notice the lack of the boot screen. Very promising so far, and saved me a not of money.

 

I expect everything to go well, and will update when Mojave and LPX 10.5 are installed. Thanks @dewdman and everyone for the encouragment. I think this is going to be a great upgrade for surprising little investment.

 

Update 1.1

Mojave installed without a hitch. Overall, the system seems a bit peppier. Certainly boots faster. Logic 10.5.1 installed without issue as well and all seems to be going swimmingly. I don't foresee any issues creeping in, but I will report if I do.

 

Overall, couldn't be happier with this update.

[Dewdman42]

Glad to hear it!

 

When I upgraded, I went from Sierra to Mojave...never used High Sierra, but I did before/after benchmark tests...sierra without RX580 and then Mojave using RX580 (ie, Metal) and the geekbench scores were literally 15-20% higher. So yea I am glad to hear you sense its peppier, but just wanted to add that scientific measurement also shows that to be the case.