ATI R9 290x - Mac Pro 2009 4,1

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ATI R9 290x - Mac Pro 2009 4,1

Hey all. I just wanted to share my experience with video card upgrading. I have searched tireless on all forums to find solid answers and figure out what the **** I can put in my computer.

I ended up buying an ATI Sapphire R9 290x off eBay for like $225. The real reason is for playing games in bootcamp running Windows 8.1. Otherwise, I really didn't need to buy a new card running in Apple's OS X for work.

My biggest concerns were 1) will the video card even work and 2) do I need another power supply for it.

I don't care about EFI flashing, I really don't see a need for it. I have my old ATI 4870 if there were a reason I need to use that. The selection for non EFI cards are far better and far cheaper.

Back on point. Initially I had issues with the 290x, nothing working with my current setup. I also purchased a 6pin to 8pin PCIe cable for the card's power.

I use the system for Protools HD. Besides the video card I have an AVID Native HD PCIe card and a 4-port USB3.0 PCIe card. I also use each hard drive bay. Mac OS, Windows 8.1, an separate spare drive, and one for Time Machine backups.

After several attempts, I took out the PCIe cards and all the hard drives, except for the Windows drive, and it booted up.

To make a long story short, I had to install OS X 10.10 on my main OS X drive for the card to boot up with everything else connected. I did a clean install because of some conflicts between a generic USB3 kext and OS X 10.10.

So everything was cool. Running Protools in OS X 10.10, no problems. Running Battlefield 4 in Windows 8.1 seemed to be going fine at first, but I had a couple of shut downs after about 30-60 minutes of play. I added a separate power supply (650w) and that seemed to take care of the sudden shutdowns. Likely the Mac Pro power supply is just a hair short of power when it starts to stress out on more intense stuff. Also for those who don't know, to run the power supply separate, you have to do the power clip trick (google it). It might that if I wasn't running the other two cards and other hard drives, I might not need another power supply, so I would try without it first if that's the case for anyone upgrading.

***** because I have to keep the case open for now until I find a better solution to the power cable, but at the end of the day, running Battlefield 4 with Ultra settings, is worth the hassle this was.

Hopes this helps anyone else.

Posted on Dec 2, 2014 9:23 PM

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Answer 1

Macaniac

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Dec 7, 2014 9:55 AM in response to AdamB

Thank you for daring to bravely forge ahead into the unknown compatibility mire of graphics card land. I was hesitant to think beyond the different that Apple intended for the Mac Pro and try out the 290, but finding your post and another on Barefeats has assuaged my doubts. We will soon be replacing our non-approved 6870 1GB with the non-approved power hungry beast that is the 4GB 290.

If you're interested in testing your soldering skills, I found a site that generously provided details on how to solder a relay between one of the SATA power plugs in the drive bay to the green and black wires on the motherboard connection of the external power supply. This way the second power supply turns on and off with the Mac's power supply, so there is no need to switch it off and on manually.

Soon our aging 4.1 will get its much needed pacemaker and not have to wheeze through increasingly graphics hungry games like Star Citizen and Elite Dangerous.

Keep MacIn'

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Answer 2

AdamB Author

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Dec 7, 2014 10:31 AM in response to Macaniac

I did use an r9 290x, I have read that the regular 290 doesn't play as well.

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Answer 3

Macaniac

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Dec 7, 2014 10:57 AM in response to AdamB

Thanks for the tip. We may be exchanging our XFX R9 290 for the XFX 290X then. I'll post our results when its in.

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Answer 4

Macaniac

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Dec 10, 2014 9:10 PM in response to AdamB

What you read about the regular 290 not playing well is correct. It powered on fine, but the Mac (10.10.1) would not recognize it. The screen stayed black regardless of which port I tried. We will be trying out the X version next.

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Answer 5

Dec 11, 2014 8:34 AM in response to AdamB

I have to keep the case open for now until I find a better solution to the power cable,

Some Users have solved that problem by using a hole in a PCIe-card backplate to get the cables inside the Mac Pro.

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Answer 6

AdamB Author

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Dec 11, 2014 8:57 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I actually removed my DVD drive and put the power supply in there. The power cord to the new PSU is the only cable I need to get into the case and unfortunately, it's too large for the PCIe slots.

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Answer 7

Dec 11, 2014 9:28 AM in response to AdamB

The Plug-ends may be too large.

But if you cut it, threaded the cord (only, not the plug) through a PCIe plate, and re-spliced it, you could close up your Mac.

Alternatively, if you are using a double-slot graphics card, the case divider between those two slots is expendable. And since the graphics card is what you are powering, it makes sense to burden the graphics card PCIe backplate with the power cord. There may be a way to do that without having to cut and splice the power cord

Just being a divergent thinker -- it's your Mac and YOU need to be happy with it.

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Answer 8

AdamB Author

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Dec 11, 2014 3:26 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Good idea. I might go that route.

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Answer 9

Jan 10, 2015 8:52 AM in response to AdamB

Nice work Adamb! For those who don't need the extra GPU power and don't want the hassle of an external power supply, I have a flashed gigabyte R9 280x and it works off the mac pros internal power supply with no issues. i have all but one pcie card slot full and 4 hard drives and two optical drives. It also works under 10.8.5 10.9 and 10.10 You do have to buy a 8 pin to 6 pin on amazon AND A 6 to 6 as the card does not come with the correct power cables. It runs 3 monitors at once and one is a 30 inch apple display.

here is a video I made about it. You can run the card without flashing it as well.

http://youtu.be/oi-eppgfYwg

It's cool to know the R9 290x works in 10.10 the new GeForce GTX 980 is supposed to be a great new card as well and runs off the internal power also.

I am good for now but it's great to see we can still update our Mac pros to the latest GPUs.

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Answer 10

Macaniac

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Jan 10, 2015 4:57 PM in response to AdamB

Hey Adam,

Could you tell me what model Sapphire R9 290x you installed? We've had no luck with the XFX versions of the R9 and will now be looking into the Sapphire version of the R9 290x.

Thanks

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Answer 11

Jan 10, 2015 5:18 PM in response to Macaniac

Yes as you found out all should stay away from XFX. They tweak the rom so much that it won't boot under OSX. I had a XFX R9 280x and it would not boot under OSX but would under windows 7. Flashed it and it still had issues though it did boot under OSX after flashing the benchmarks were all way off. So I returned it and got the Gigabyte version. I know that does not answer your question but folks should stay away from XFX cards which is a shame because the build nice looking cards.

Have a look on netkas.org as there is a lot of info about the 290Xs I think there are still issues with running more than one monitor off the card but that could be after folks tried to flash it.

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Answer 12

Macaniac

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Jan 10, 2015 5:39 PM in response to Lance Mcvickar

Thanks for your feedback and your video. I'm also considering the Gigbyte R9 280x after finding your video on You Tube. Liked the, "It's alive!" part, I've shouted out that phrase many times after a successfull install.

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Answer 13

AdamB Author

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Jan 12, 2015 5:36 PM in response to Macaniac

Nice work on the video Lance. Good info. The only reason I didn't want the 280x is because I play games in bootcamp and really wanted the extra GPU power. I read the XFX wasn't Apple friendly and stayed away from those.

Macaniac, the card I installed is Sapphire Tri-X OC 100362-2SR Radeon R9 290x 4GB 512-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0. I bought it new off eBay for $250. Paid about $50 for the extra power supply at Best Buy. It's still going strong I haven't have any issues with it in OSX10.10.1 or in Windows 8.1. ***** you're having to go through all these issues.

I haven't run any video editing software so I can't speak for the performance on that. I only run Protools on OS X.

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Answer 14

AdamB Author

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Jan 12, 2015 6:16 PM in response to AdamB

Also, I use BootChamp, free piece of software that makes booting into Windows from OS X really simple and easy.

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Answer 15

Macaniac

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Jan 12, 2015 7:39 PM in response to AdamB

Thank you for providing a detailed description of your card. Now I need to decide on the Sapphire 290x, or Gigabyte 280x. I really appreciate both you and Lance providing this information.

I'll have to check out BootChamp. We've been going through the Start-up disk menu to select our Boot Camp drive and restarting from there, but it looks like Champ would save a few steps.

Long live our aging Mac Pros!

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