The AMD Radeon VII doesn't work on the Mac at launch, but will soon
AMD's Radeon VII graphics card may offer considerable performance, but at launch it isn't able to be used on either a PCI-E Mac or in a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure, as a driver that allows the card to work in macOS is still under development.
AMD's press launch of the Radeon VII in January
Announced in January, the Radeon VII is latest major release in AMD's roster of graphics cards, boasting a 25-percent performance improvement compared to earlier Vega cards. The card is a prime candidate for use in future "Pro" Mac models, but it first has to work with macOS.
According to a query to external GPU enthusiast site eGPU.io, there currently isn't a driver in macOS that will enable the graphics card to function, but one is apparently under development and intended for use in macOS 10.14.4. Another post notes the PCI ID is listed in the latest macOS 10.14.4 beta build, indicating that future support for the hardware is highly likely, but without a driver, it won't work.
A driver for the card would mean more than allowing owners of GPU enclosures being able to buy the card and use it with their Macs and MacBooks, as it could also be an indication that the card will be offered to Mac users when buying a new Mac.
As Apple seemingly is not interested in making macOS support Nvidia cards, this limits the range of graphics cards that could be used in a future modular Mac Pro considerably, with AMD's offering being the most likely card to be used in such a high-powered machine.
Produced using a 7-nanometer process, the Radeon VII has 16 gigabytes of memory with up to 1 terabyte per second of memory bandwidth. Processing takes place on 60 compute units clocked at up to 1.8 gigahertz, resulting in playing games like "Devil May Cry 5" at a 4K resolution with framerates over 100 frames per second.
AMD shipped the Radeon VII on Feb. 7 as promised, priced at $699.
AMD's press launch of the Radeon VII in January
Announced in January, the Radeon VII is latest major release in AMD's roster of graphics cards, boasting a 25-percent performance improvement compared to earlier Vega cards. The card is a prime candidate for use in future "Pro" Mac models, but it first has to work with macOS.
According to a query to external GPU enthusiast site eGPU.io, there currently isn't a driver in macOS that will enable the graphics card to function, but one is apparently under development and intended for use in macOS 10.14.4. Another post notes the PCI ID is listed in the latest macOS 10.14.4 beta build, indicating that future support for the hardware is highly likely, but without a driver, it won't work.
A driver for the card would mean more than allowing owners of GPU enclosures being able to buy the card and use it with their Macs and MacBooks, as it could also be an indication that the card will be offered to Mac users when buying a new Mac.
As Apple seemingly is not interested in making macOS support Nvidia cards, this limits the range of graphics cards that could be used in a future modular Mac Pro considerably, with AMD's offering being the most likely card to be used in such a high-powered machine.
Produced using a 7-nanometer process, the Radeon VII has 16 gigabytes of memory with up to 1 terabyte per second of memory bandwidth. Processing takes place on 60 compute units clocked at up to 1.8 gigahertz, resulting in playing games like "Devil May Cry 5" at a 4K resolution with framerates over 100 frames per second.
AMD shipped the Radeon VII on Feb. 7 as promised, priced at $699.
Comments
And, the 2013 is the Coke can looking one. Are you talking about the 5,1? If so, it should work fine, but powering it from the pair of motherboard power connectors might be an issue. We'll see.
I suspect that given the emphasis that AMD has put on memory bandwidth, there'll be a bigger squeeze on it than in previous models, but how much I don't have a good handle on yet.
Still don't know who to really believe with the lack of NVIDIA web drivers for Mojave (Apple or NVIDIA). Both are to blame to an extent and we are all "suffering" from the results. There's rumors of a class-action lawsuit in regards to this, but doubt it'll get much traction. Everyone basically says wait until MP7,1 before really evaluating. High Sierra still works (and still is being updated) and the 387.10.10.15.15.108 (which added VOLTA) does not break with each High Sierra update like all other driver versions do. Mojave does not offer a ton for MP5,1 & MP6,1 that High Sierra does not already cover.
I wonder, since Apple co-writes the driver over macOS, if they will be able to uncap the FP64 rate, as AMD further unlocked it to 1/4th rate on Windows after feedback. This was purely a vBIOS limit, otherwise the chip can use the full rate FP64 M150 does.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/13923/the-amd-radeon-vii-review/15
One of the biggest reasons to make it modular is to give users graphics options...
Serious question. It happens SOOOO often it can't possibly be coincidence.
By the way, your supposed "condemnation" of those who perceive issues differently than you, and you itemizing the things they'll surely say, manages to spread more negativity in a single post than most entire threads. I mention this not to attack you -- you should obviously feel free to do whatever you think best -- but because I can't imagine that's really your intent. Maybe knowing how others perceive your "defence" of Apple will inform your future posts.
It does boot and you can use macOS, but you'll see that it's sluggish. It's only identified as a Radeon Vega 16GB.
EDIT: A lot of posters here got into Apple at the right time and are more motivated by keeping the profits up and the stock price climbing. It's been a tough quarter for them. Probably will be a tough year or maybe two.
It should also negate customers’ (admittedly understandable) obsession with supporting large Nvidia PCIe cards.