AMD FirePro D500 graphics card (Mac Pro Late 2013) doesn’t meet Oculus Rift’s specifications

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Level 1

8 points

AMD FirePro D500 graphics card (Mac Pro Late 2013) doesn’t meet Oculus Rift’s specifications

Finally the Oculus Rift is available for pre-order. The people from Oculus provided a Rift compatibility tool for Windows to find out if your PC is compatible. I ran this tool in Bootcamp, on Windows 10 and it appears the pro-level AMD FirePro D500 in my expensive Mac Pro (late 2013) don’t meet the Rift’s recommended specification.

I’m going to order a Rift anyway because I think VR is to most exciting technology since... yeah well... the internet. I just sincerely hope I’m not going to have to buy a separate computer on top of my almost €4000 costing Mac Pro to enjoy the technology to the fullest.

Windows 10, Eyefinity, Virtual Reality, FirePro

Posted on Jan 9, 2016 3:46 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 9, 2016 7:47 AM in response to Sankaboom

Oculus Rift disappointed Mac owners everywhere when they announced they were not going to support Macs on day 1, if ever.

There is no FirePro D500 available by itself in Windows, (only installed in a Mac Pro running Windows) so they appear to have ignored that as an Option. It is certainly powerful enough, and its Drivers should be similar to comparable AMD cards, so it should not be a lot of work to support it.

I suggest you contact them and suggest they "get with the Program" and include all the excellent Mac Pro late 2013 graphics card as an "out-of-the-box" option. They are being extremely shortsighted to ignore them, as the Mac Pro has good market penetration in Academic environments.

AMD may also be interested to hear that their high-end Mac Pro cards are not being considered as valid options for Oculus Rift. Perhaps they can apply some pressure as well.

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Answer 2

Sankaboom Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 9, 2016 12:58 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I think it's Apple who should apply pressure if it has anything to do with Oculus. But I don't think it is, I think Oculus just doen't support OSX which is understandable since the only OSX running computer supposedly able to run VR is the Mac Pro. Personally I don't mind booting up Windows in Bootcamp for my entertainment.

For Bootcamp the drivers need to come from Apple (or AMD). The current FirePro drivers for Bootcamp are outdated and incomplete. Issues that have been solved on Windows drivers are still there in the Bootcamp drivers and the current Win10 drivers and the latest Win8 drivers can't even run Eyefinity. It seems to me Apple isn't providing the software needed to unleash the full potential of the high-end hardware.

Or the people at MacRumours are right with stating the high-end FirePro cards aren't that high-end at all and the best thing for me to do is to start saving up for a new computer (again).

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Answer 3

Jan 11, 2016 1:45 AM in response to Sankaboom

I agree with Grant the FirePro D500 is more powerful than a R9 290 and you even have two of them in a new Mac Pro. As this model card is a special Apple only version Oculus have clearly overlooked its suitability.

It does not help you greatly but if you have a classic Mac Pro (the older one) it is possible to fit a GTX 970, GTX 980 or GTX 980Ti all of which would seem to qualify for use with Oculus.

What is also annoying is that in the early stages of Oculus testing native Mac support was available.

“Our development for OS X and Linux has been paused in order to focus on delivering a high quality consumer-level VR experience at launch across hardware, software, and content on Windows. We want to get back to development for OS X and Linux but we don’t have a timeline,” said Atman Binstock, Oculus chief architect and Rift technical director."

Note: The iMac uses a mobile version of the R9 M380 or R9 M390 or R9 M395, I suspect they being mobile versions also will not qualify. As such no current new Mac would qualify. There may be a new model of Mac Pro this summer which might, otherwise the only one I can see that would be suitable is as mentioned an old Mac Pro with an upgraded video card.

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Answer 4

BLCKSTRM

Level 1

0 points

Jan 28, 2016 10:56 AM in response to Sankaboom

These are "recommended" specs, right? Am I missing something where it simply won't function at all without the correct hardware?

The dual D500s (and frankly even the dual D300s) should have enough horsepower to run the Rift. So why the sense that all is lost? It may not be on their "list," but I don't think that means it's not powerful enough to run the Rift.

Am I missing something here?

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Answer 5

Sankaboom Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 30, 2016 8:56 AM in response to BLCKSTRM

All is not lost. If my post gave that impression it is probably because I first spend hours finding a way to use Eyefinity, knowing it is possible with the hardware in my Mac Pro but just not included in the drivers supplied by Apple (or AMD). A couple of days later I find out my expensive hardware is below the recommended specs for the Rift. I might have been a bit frustrated and disappointed when posting.

I’ve learned a lot since then:

One FirePro 500 card is a bit below recommended specs. “One” because at first the Rift will not be able to use both graphic cards. Having to use the Rift at lower settings then when using a Windows computer that costs less then half of the Mac Pro is a bit disappointing but would be acceptable if the right drivers are available. From Apple? Not very likely (see my previous post).

However it is possible to patch complete and more recent AMD drivers thanks to pages like this. http://www.remkoweijnen.nl/blog/2015/09/21/update-amd-display-driver-under-bootc amp/. I am now running patched drivers on my Mac Pro’s Bootcamp that have Eyefinity and LiquidVR. It is not very easy to do and a bit sad that people have to resolve to hacks like this to unlock the full potential of their +€4000 costing machine but if I can do a patch like this it surely is a "walk in the park" for developers at Apple. So why the crappy Bootcamp drivers?

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Answer 6

xl0ap

Level 1

4 points

Apr 27, 2016 6:30 AM in response to Sankaboom

Thanks a lot Sankaboom. As my rift will be shipped next week i'm wondering if your mac pro is now powerful enough to handle it? Especially the support of both D500's?

And is there a possibility to run an external GTX 970/80 connected to the Mac Pro using Thunderbolt 2 or HDMI 1.4?

Thank you.

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Answer 7

lllaass

Level 10

210,411 points

Apr 27, 2016 7:07 AM in response to xl0ap

One can purchase Thunderbolt expansion chassis to use PCLe cards like graphics cards. I think you can uses such a chassis to use a PCLe graphics card for calculations but I am not aware of app/drivers that can use the PCLe's graphics card video output.

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Answer 8

jason268

Level 1

4 points

Jan 12, 2017 9:24 AM in response to Sankaboom

Has anyone had success with dual D700s?

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