Does Sierra support 10 bit output in a Mid 2010 Mac Pro 5.1 system?

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Level 1

8 points

Does Sierra support 10 bit output in a Mid 2010 Mac Pro 5.1 system?

Hi,

I would like to know if macOS Sierra 10.12.5 does support (or not) 10 bit per channel output in a Mid 2010 Mac Pro 5.1 system.

Please note that:

I own a Mid 2010 Mac Pro 5.1 consisting of:
* 2 x 3,33 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon CPU
* 48 GB Ram, triple channel 1333mhz ECC;
* nVidia Quadro 4000 Mac Edition;
* 1 x 480GB SSD PCIe HyperX Predator (OS and app);
* 2 x SSD Sata in Raid 0 on a Sonnet SSD Tempo Pro Plus card (working data, mainly raw, psd and tiff files);
* an Inateck USB 3.0 PCIe card;
* several Caviar Black HD for archives and backup purpose;

I own a 10-bit per channel monitor (BenQ SW2700PT);

nVidia Quadro 4000 is capable of 10-bit support via Display Port;

Monitor and card are connected via a brand new Display Port 1.2 cable;

I installed latest nVidia drivers and latest CUDA drivers;

I’ve got a copy of Photoshop CC 2017 correctly configured to support 10-bit output mode.

Nevertheless, I’m still running in standard 8-bit mode (System profiler and 10-bit test images in Photoshop prove it).

Sadly, I fear that macOS Sierra does not support 10 bit output in older Mac Pro but only in newer hardware such as 5K iMacs…

Is that true?

Have you got any match about it?.

Thank you.

Davide

Mac Pro, macOS Sierra (10.12.5)

Posted on Jun 28, 2017 9:51 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

John Lockwood

Level 6

13,685 points

Jun 30, 2017 1:59 AM in response to fulminatopi

No it does not. 😠😮😟😢

The video card in a classic Mac Pro 2010 can be capable of doing 10bit, the cable and monitor can be also capable but Apple have chosen to cripple this feature.

As proof if you boot the same Mac using the same video card, cable and monitor in to Windows 10 via Boot Camp it is possible to use 10bit mode.

Note: Not all video cards can do 10bit, for example the Nvidia GTX-680 cannot and I believe most Nvidia cards cannot however I also believe that the Quadra 4000 might be able to. Basically Nvidia treat some cards as 'gaming' cards and do not support 10bit on those, and they treat other cards as 'pro' cards and do enable it on those, so the gaming cards also do not support 10bit even in Windows.

I have tried this using a GTX-680 and an AMD Radeon HD 7950. The AMD cards do allow 10bit mode at least in Windows. Grrrr!!!

This clearly is a software limitation in OS X it is not a hardware issue.

I have previously reported this to Apple via the Sierra beta program as an 'enhancement request' and basically they said no. At the time the classic Mac Pro range was obviously discontinued and Apple had never supplied a video card for the classic Mac Pro capable of 10bit mode. However circumstances are now changing. Apple have admitted they made a mistake with the Mac Pro 2013 and said they will be launching a new modular Mac Pro in 2018 although when it will ship is not yet known. This is almost universally expected to once again support using PCIe video cards. Since such cards will be current models as of the date this new Mac Pro launches they will almost certainly be able to do 10bit color. Such video cards would also logically still work in a classic Mac Pro under the same operating system i.e. High Sierra which the 2010 Mac Pro can run.

Therefore Apple need to enable 10bit color on these new video cards and if they do it on this new Mac Pro there is no reason why they should not allow this on a classic Mac Pro using the same video card and version of OS X.

You might want to sign up for the public beta of High Sierra and file your own enhancement request. See Apple Beta Software Program

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Answer 2

fulminatopi Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 30, 2017 2:06 AM in response to John Lockwood

Dear John,

thank you very much. That's what I thought, too.

"Therefore Apple need to enable 10bit color on these new video cards and if they do it on this new Mac Pro there is no reason why they should not allow this on a classic Mac Pro using the same video card and version of OS X."

I really hope the same!

Thanks for your advices too, I greatly appreciated them.

Davide

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Answer 3

Jun 30, 2017 1:59 AM in response to fulminatopi

PS. To test your hardware you could install a trial copy of Windows 10 via Boot Camp. I am sure you will find it does then do 10bit proving like I said this is all Apple's fault.

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