iMac Pro + Bootcamp

Some users have installed W10 successfully, but with some vagaries, for example Issue With Starting Windows 10 Under Bootcamp On A New IMac Pro .

The Windows drivers for AMD GPU are OEMed by Apple from AMD/Microsoft. Apple is primarily responsible for them.

At times, I have had better support if I create a Bug Report via https://bugreport.apple.com/web/ instead of talking to the first level of Apple Support or Senior Advisors. Such reports get routed to Engineering after appropriate review. Be aware that this method can take longer than 14 days, and in RalphJJ's case, may put him outside a return window.

Thank you for all of your responses. Apple Support again said they weren't responsible for the AMD bootcamp drivers and I had to refer them to an email from AMD to verify (1) they are; and (2) the Pro Vega GPU's aren't supported yet.

We reinstalled the bootcamp drivers but this didn't fix my FPS problem. I shared my screen with Apple Support and showed them some game footage of PUBG running between 4-20 FPS. The officer said:

1. he didn't know whether that was good or bad;
2. Engineering only directed them to reinstall the drivers; and
3. if I believe I have a problem, I need to record footage of the same game running on mac and bootcamp to send to engineering and verify the bootcamp graphics drivers aren't compatible.

I was also asked to provide them with AMD's email (which they read via screen share) to verify who is responsible for the GPU driver compatibility. I don't feel like Apple Support understands how the drivers work as they keep telling me it's not their problem. They also said they'll only investigate this issue further once I provide them with game footage, which I don't think is satisfactory given I had a FPS counter on-screen. Surely they could relay the information in the meantime while I obtain the footage.

When I referred them to Ralph JJ's post and said I was confident the driver's weren't supported yet they said "well maybe the iMac Pro isn't suited for games". The drivers should be optimised and compatible for the iMac Pro on its release as bootcamp is installed on it. Right now I feel like they won't release a new driver package because they haven't acknowledged the drivers aren't yet supported and it seems like few people are running bootcamp games on iMac Pro.

A further update - Apple contacted me and said it was AMD's responsibility to develop the driver and send to Apple. Apple refused to contact AMD on my behalf despite this issue affecting all iMac Pro users. I was asked to upload game footage of a game on Mac native vs windows bootcamp. I had far greater FPS on mac native - the games were at least playable. However installing the modified driver via bootcampdrivers.com substantially increased FPS to great levels. Unfortunately the modified driver is in Alpha state and caused windows to crash so this isn't a viable option right now.

I am following up with AMD, however some of Apple's responses on this issue included:

1. my case manager said he couldn’t view the footage I uploaded displaying my problem, only engineering could, yet he read AMD's email I uploaded as part of the video footage package (the person assigned to resolving my issue can’t view my issue?);
2. as long as bootcamp drivers show as “installed” it is irrelevant whether any of them work properly and not Apple’s problem beyond that, even if they had major issues rendering bootcamp useless;
3. Apple Support would not contact AMD to provide updated drivers as it is Apple Corporate’s responsibility to deal with such issues. However they couldn't refer this matter to Apple Corporate or any other department within Apple despite already referring it to engineering.

Apple's response on this issue shows a complete disregard for their customers. Although Apple doesn't take responsibility for driver development, ultimately bootcamp can't function properly if the drivers aren't compatible. So I believe it is Apple's responsibility to:

1. properly test their products before release; and
2. raise any driver issues with the developers when the drivers are part of the base bootcamp installation and are broken out of the box.

I will update if I receive any assistance from AMD, however if you are dissatisfied you may want to consider posting about your experience on Apple social media because Apple Support refuses to assist its users on this issue or refer it to any other department within Apple.

I have bootcamp installed on my iMac Pro (GPU Pro Vega 56) however I don't think the drivers are supported (see this page https://www.bootcampdrivers.com/compatibility). When playing some games on steam (PUBG, Rome: Total War II) I receive terrible FPS - about 5-15 FPS, which is far below what I believe this GPU is capable of. These games are unplayable and only older games run at a solid FPS for me at the moment. The AMD drivers website doesn't contain an option to download bootcamp drivers for the iMac Pro yet. Apple support informed me that AMD may release drivers in the future. I emailed AMD to confirm this but am yet to receive a response. I'm pretty disappointed that the iMac Pro was released without GPU driver support but I hope this helps.

Hypno_Penguin wrote:

I'm pretty disappointed that the iMac Pro was released without GPU driver support but I hope this helps.

If Apple bundled Windows with the iMac Pro, this would be very different. The BC/Windows-on-Macs user segment is a fairly small esoteric niche.

I've ran into the same problem, the performance is nowhere near what my (now already sold) 3 year old iMac was capable of. I've sent them an email as well, so far I've only received an automatic ticket number. Quite disappointing indeed; if this does not get resolved quickly I might return the iMac Pro within my 14 day period as I do consider this a pretty big oversight or lack of judgement on Apple's side. They should have enough leverage over AMD to make sure this kind of stuff is all taken care of and properly tested before release. On an unrelated note: I have not been able to get the audio drivers to work on the iMac Pro under Windows as well.

Just an update - AMD said Apple is responsible for the bootcamp driver support. AMD and the bootcampdrivers website confirm that you can't download and install AMD drivers directly as Macs don't run windows natively. Essentially you need a bootcamp driver package for the Pro Vega GPU's. I relayed this to Apple Support, who are following this up with Apple Engineering (after initially telling me it was AMD's problem). Apple Support received an initial response from Engineering asking me to download and install the bootcamp "windows support" drivers package, which I'm doing. I'll let you know if this resolves the problem, but I doubt it as the information I have so far indicates that Apple hasn't released bootcamp drivers for the iMac Pro/ Pro Vega GPU's.

Sure – but seriously... it does seem like a no-brainer to demand that AMD – while making a *custom product only for the iMac Pro" – to also spend a few moments to actually make a driver for it that will work on Windows via bootcamp. I can't imagine it would take AMD devs much time and effort to do so.

Martinlindhe wrote:

I can't imagine it would take AMD devs much time and effort to do so.

The person who runs this site - https://www.bootcampdrivers.com/ - matd2100 - can provide better insight than my speculations on efforts required to develop/modify/update/maintain such drivers. I personally have a preference for nVidia GPUs.

I’ve received a response from AMD:

“Response and Service Request History:

Thank you for the email.

I am sorry but we do not have much information regarding Bootcamp support for Radeon Pro Vega 64 graphic card.

I request you to subscribe to the newsletter so that you can receive latest updates on the new product releases.

http://www.amd.com/en-us/who-we-are/subscriptions/announcements

Thank you for contacting AMD.”

Pretty useless. How have you guys communicated with AMD on this?

Hi RalphJJ, sorry to hear that. I went on the AMD website and entered my question via the contact tech support page. I received response from them from the following emails: tech.support@amd.com; tech.support2@amd.com.

I'm not very knowledgeable about how software/ drivers work (learning as I go) but it it seems like we need to address this with Apple, who will then work with AMD to develop the bootcamp driver. On this basis I'm not contacting AMD anymore as they'll just say it's Apple's issue.

LonerT - Thank you - I might list this as a bug. Agreed I also prefer Nvidea.

Hi Sunlicen, thank you for your post. I tried the driver and it works amazing - I was able to receive over 100FPS on PUBG at 1080P on high settings and approx 70FPS at 1440P on high settings. However I think this driver is a modified version of the RX Vega Driver for PC users. As AMD have not released a driver update for the Pro Vega GPU's to mod (possibly because they were custom made for the iMac Pro?) eventually windows crashed after a few restarts and I was forced to restore the old drivers. It was amazing while it lasted however I don't think this is a viable option at this stage. I received further feedback from Apple and AMD on this issue which I will post separately.

I have seen Apple take almost a year to get stable drivers. The challenge is that Apple does not use the stock firmware code for the cards. It modifies them for their specific requirements. The drivers from AMD may work on stock PC CPUs, but will not work on Apple variants. It is a tough place for a small niche group of users, but it has been this way since Bootcamp was conceived, circa 2005.

I would still recommend bypassing Apple Tech Support and creating a bug report which bypasses bureaucracy and gets to Engineering faster.

Hi Ralph, I filed bug report 36772217 however I know someone who filed bug 36868036. I also received an email from AMD confirming they are releasing an updated bootcamp driver to fix this issue however there is no ETA. Part of their email below:

"Apple requests drivers/features from AMD and we then develop them. If you have additional feedback, it should be provided directly to Apple which they share with us from their customers.

A new driver will be made available via Apple Bootcamp Assistant as soon as it is ready, there is no time frame for when the driver will be ready. Please check Apple Bootcamp Assistant periodically to ensure you are using the latest available driver."

Given AMD relies on feedback/instructions from Apple I'm still going to leave Apple feedback in the hope it will speed up the process.