Really impressed that you reply to everbody's problems/comments. I have a Mid 2012 macpro and have bought a K5000 card to reach the magical metal lands of Mojave and beyond. I have read extensively about flashing the bios which came with various dire warnings, however this way of upgrading a card looks foolproof. Regards
Ha, I look at these earlier vids and feel like they still have too much extra. I keep cutting down, as a viewer I like it when it's straight and to the point for how tos. No reason to do anything extra.
Awesome and welcome to the club, all it takes is a modest metal gpu, a so-so SSD and you’re good to go. Open core legacy project makes it easier than ever to run Monterey and soon Ventura.
Because of your videos, I bought a MacPro 5.1 2012 2x2.4 Ghz, 24 Gb Ram, 240 Gb SSD, 640 Gb HDD, 500 Gb HDD (it doesn't work anymore,), ATI HD 5770 graphics card, High Siera for 2000 DDK (approx. $283).😀I have installed an Asus Hyper M.2 X16 V2 4xNvme PCI card, with one 512 Gb M2. 500 Gb HDD Replaced with a Replaced with a 1Tb HDD, had lying around. I have two nr. 3 sled, no nr. 4. :(
Drinking Cascade right now...pondering how unbelievably grateful I am for all of your videos and the Definitive Guide. Seriously, is there a way I can send you some De Garde / Cascade from Ptown? Thanks, Greg. You flippin' rock. -Alec
Seriously, I appreciate the offer but my girlfriend is a member of De Garde. As far as Cascade? According to untappd it’s the only brewery that I received the badge “the local” for frequenting the Barrel house so frequently. Hell, I’ll be there picking up $11 bottles because it’s their anniversary this week. I’d say the Bourbonic Plague 2013 was the my favorite beer of al time. I never get sick of it. Prior to the pandemic I lived in Portland full time, now it’s part time.
@@dmug Oh Wow! Awesome, "the local"! Yeah, my brother, Stuart, is seriously in to Bourbonic. I believe I had the 2013. I'm sure it was ridiculous. We are good friends with the crew at the old Raccoon Lodge in Raleigh Hills. Oh crap! It's anniversary! I always miss it! I'm a huge Elderberry guy myself. Maybe I'll head over there later today. Anyway, Greg. Thanks so much again for everything. If I ever see you in person, I'll give you a big high five, brother. Cheers!
Mine doesn't say that it needs to update the firmware....eh what? Its on the MP51.0089.B00, (HS Ver 10.13.6) but when I run the Mojave installer it just says "To set up the installation, click continue", after that is agreeing to the terms of license, after that is "Mojave will be installed on the disk "Macintosh SSD" and the next option to click says "install" or "back". Is the window you show with the firmware update warning after that or will it just start installing Mojave, because I don't want that! If it helps, my file for the installer is actually a "incompatible" icon for some reason even though it opens ok. The Mojave Patcher even states that my system is a "Natively Supported Machine". --Update SORTED-- I didn't realise I needed to remove the open core USB and reboot. 🤦♂️
Hi: I flashed my 4.1>5.1 Mac Pro, installed a nvme ssd, Mojave, RX570, ran fine. I turned it on after a while and no chime, no boot, only the fans running normally. Diag leds doesn’t show anything wrong. USB ports are unresponsive, so I can’t use a keyboard to try anything. The Mac was without its battery for some time. I put a fresh one and it didn’t help. Any ideas? Thanks!
I followed you video exactly. Was able to upgrade the firmware. However now I can’t boot windows from any ssd’s on PCIe. Have you encountered this before? Thanks.
When I got the firmware screen it wouldn’t allow me to click on the arrow. I’m going round in circles as the only way I can open the Mac is in crtl R mode and all I ever get is the utilities. I can’t get any further.
@@dmug I got the high sierra screen saying I need to upgrade the firmware, I’ve done that, it’s making all the right noises, but I’ve got a blank screen. It’s driving me bonkers, as I know the Mac is still alive.
@@jacquilayton2557 Did you initiate the process to upgrade the firmware? What was the lead up? Also I'd recommend if you're on Reddit also putting this on r/MacPro or if on FaceBook trying the MacProUpgrade group as you'll get faster responses and from more people too.
@@dmug thank you for taking the time to reply I do appreciate it. The firmware update does exactly as you show on this video, but after the screen doesn’t reboot. I’m on Mac Rumours, and I’m going to try using an SDD card to see if I can reboot high sierra, which is where I was before it all went wrong. Thank you again. Take care. Jacqui
Hello Greg, first of all thank you for such a valuable information! Recenty I bought Mac Pro 5,1 I got some upgrades on it and now I want to install Monterey on my NVMe drive but I see I have firmware to upgrade first. As you mentioned there few metal capable gpus that also support bootscreen but they are overpriced. Is there a way to install Monterey without bootscreen?
Great Video. I want to upgrade my Firmware for NVMe support, but here is my problem: I have a 5.1 Mac Pro running High Sierra 10.13.5 and I have an Nvidia Titan X GPU. The problem is I cannot upgrade my OS due to the Nvidia GPU, but to use the Mojave installer for the Firmware upgrade it says I must first install 10.13.6. Any ideas how to get around this?
Unfortunately, you're in for a world of annoyances, you'd need to install OS x on another drive, install the metal compatible GPU, get to 10.13.6 and then run the installer then go back to the Titan X. I'd say buy an AMD GPU but in this market.... yeah and forever stuck at 10.13.
@@dmug I managed to do it! There was a Nvidia Web Driver for 10.13.6 (it's the last one), but at least now I have the new Firmware and can run NVMe. Thanks so much :)
@@dmug Hey. would it also be possible to just update my Mac Pro (4.1 upgraded to 5.1 with already running on High Sierra 10.13) to High Sierra 10.13.6 and then run the mojave installer? I have a metal compatible gpu!
great video. Curious question, I just upgraded my 4,1 to 5,1 and upgraded all my hardware (processor, memory and rx 580 gpu), then updated to Big Sur via Micropatcher Automator. After all is done i noticed my firmware is still MP51.0089.B00, can i use this video to update the firmware while on Big Sur?
Yes because you are not updating the firmware after booting into your drive running Big Sur, you are updating the firmware after booting into the drive you create running High Sierra. You create a separate drive that will run high Sierra, boot into it, then run the normal Mojave installer. I was confused too don't worry. It's amazing we even got this far with these old Mac Pro computers. Apple really gave us their middle finger when they prevented older Mac Pro computers from updating to newer operating systems, causing us to "hack" our way into current times so that our initial very expensive purchase didn't go to complete waste. Apple you suck ass and you are going to hell because you took a bite out of the apple just as Adam and eve did, shown by your own apple logo.
I upgraded my Mac Pro mid 2012, everything was functioning well but after update of mac OS Mojave version 10.14.6....... I am not able to open /log in "App Store" and " ICloud". It says "Cannot Connect App Store "
Hi. I been binge watching your guides, trully a great, extensive and in dept look. great delivery on the explanations. Thank you for your work and effort man. I have a particular question, it will be trully great if you can help me on this one, please. I have a Mac Pro 5,1 mid 2010 running on sierra, the video card that I have installed is a DNY Nvidia Quadro P1000. There are web drivers for this card that go up to High Sierra, the card is Metal compatible. I`m going to install High Sierra and I am wondering if I do this firmware upgrade will it keep working with the web drivers from Nvidia? Also, can I go to a newer OS beyond High Sierra using this card? Thank you again, loving your videos and your article, is EXTENSIVE, very very extensive. Have a great day.
I have a MacPro that had a firmware upgrade to 5.1 but does not have 140.0.0.0.0 firmware installed. I am running MacOS BigSur on it that I installed with OpenCore Legacy Patcher. Can I upgrade to this latest firmware version with BiGSur installed or does it specifically have to be under Mojave?
Hi. Thanks for your help. I own a Early 2009 Mac Pro 4,1. 2x2.26 GHz. I updated the CPU's to 2x 3.06GHz Xeon and updated the firmware to MP51.007F.B03. Now it shows in System Report MacPro5,1 and run High Sierra perfectly. It was success. But when I try to update to Mojave It says that my video card is not compatible. Now I have the Radeon HD 5870. What is exactly the video card I need to run Mojave with my gear?
replied to this same comment on another vid, see the answer there or here blog.greggant.com/posts/2018/05/07/definitive-mac-pro-upgrade-guide.html#gpuupgrades
Wish I hadn’t done the upgrade… I’ve lost pre-boot screen support even for previous OS’s (Snow Leopard Server, which I like to boot from time to time just to get back my money’s worth ;). Internet doesn’t seem to indicate that I can go back to the previous firmware.
Firmware shouldn’t be related to the boot screen, only certain GPUs are supported snow leopard . I don’t have a 5,1 anymore but I know I booted snow leopard with 2600 xt post firmware flash. Boot screens are a function of the GPU. You may need to do an NVRAM reset ..
Can't flash a 3,1 as its entirely different innards. The 4,1 -> 5,1 flash exists as the chipsets are the same, it's just adding in the microcode for the extended CPU family using the same socket / supporting chipset.
Man, when I made that video I had just purchased a back up Vega 56 for $225 a few weeks before as I sent in my Radeon VII to be replaced. Pandemic and the absurdity of Bittycoins has made GPUs so out-of-whack, that those two GPUs alone would get half way to owning a 2019 Mac Pro.... And there's more on that front in a bit.
Hi Greg. I appreciate your guide but it hasn't solved my in ability to get my MacPro5,1 firmware upgraded. Looking for some direct help if possible and willing to pay. Have catalina installed and when I get to installing High Sierra, I get the Firmware update required message. When I choose restart, system just hangs and locks up. Haven't been able to get any further than this. Thanks for your help.
Have you tried first clearing the NVRAM? I don’t think I’d have much more advice to offer than my foolproof method of updating the firmware, I’d also yank any unnecessary hardware, like PCIe cards other than a metal compatible GPU
Can you do a video on Raid 0 workflow? I installed a Sonnet PCIE card have to Samsung NVME SSD's on it and it is working but I can't seem to work on it.
So if I do this firmware flash then update using open core will my boot ROM firmware version stay updated for NVMe support? And if I have more than one 5,1 Mac is the firmware update on the drive with the OS or the motherboard itself?
Is there a discord? And how do I update using what I got. I have a 7870 (which boot into the installer but the "shutdown" button at the firmware screen never shut down the PC) or 5700XT which just didn't work.. I need someone to talk to about it.
I was able to get the 144.4.4.4.4 Firmware update and its running Mojave on my 5,1......but its still wont recognise my NVMe m.2 drive....not sure why..anyone have any ideas?
Could be the NVMe or the m.2 host, I’d search first the m.2 host on macrumors then the ssd model on macrumors. Check to see in system report if the pcie card is recognized as well.
The GPU market kinda sunk that. I was going to show off upgrading a 2012 single CPU to an Xeon 5670 + Vega 56 + 48 GB of RAM for under $350 as you could pick up Vega 56s for all of $200 for quite some time. (The secret was Aliexpress for the RAM and CPU and just watching a few deals on SATA SSDs).
First you'll need to update your Mac Pro 4,1 to the Mac Pro's 5,1's firmware. This will enable later features like extended CPU support, 1333 MHz bus speeds for 1333 MHz RAM. Then you can follow the steps in this video. See this guide: thehouseofmoth.com/turning-a-2009-41-mac-pro-into-a-2010-2012-51-mac-pro-2021-edition/
Very helpful, thanks! However, I am trying to upgrade Monterey to Ventura on my NVMe SSD. During the boot process, it stalls and I can't get to the log-in screen. I am using OCLP 6.7 and works great with Monterey. Is there a work around?
You can upgrade it if it’s a metal support nvidia gpu (Kepler based). Also depends on your previous firmware if you can use NVMe as general storage but not bootable.
Hello, I like your channel. ISSUE 1- I just bought an already flashed GTX 980 (NOT from macvidcards) It was just already flashed - ebay purchase. This card is for my 2009 mac 4,1 flashed to 5,1 and Im having a strange issue. The only way the 980 works is if I put my old GT 120 back (in first slot) turn on mac, turn off and then replace the GT120 with the GTX980. But if the computer goes to sleep, when I wake it up, I get stuck on black screen forever or if I turn off the computer and turn it back on with 980, I get same black screen issue. I don’t know what is actually happening when I put the old card back in turn off the computer and then put the new card in for 980 to work. How can I just bypass this mess? I cant be switching cards like this for the sake of the PCI connector - it wont last too long until it breaks or something. Plus, it sucks not to be able to put mac to sleep or shut off with 980. Of course none of this happens with 120. Im running high sierra. I was thinking of downgrading to el capitan. Thoughts? Im puzzled by this strange behavior - Nvidia driver is up to date according to the mac ISSUE 2- I also have the same GPU you’re holding in your hand in this video - the HD 5770 on another Mac 2010 5,1with snow leopard on it. (I have 2 mac pros) I need snow leopard for some audio legacy plug-ins I’ve had for a while so I cannot upgrade the operating system but whats happening is that the Mac will not go to sleep when I have the 5770 in it and also I can only extend to 1 monitor at a time via minidisplay port on the back. It wont do both at the same time. When I put the GT 120 from my other mac, i can put this mac to sleep no issues.
Issue #1: That's really specific, I have no idea.... I'd put that one to the community. I'd really recommend the MacProUpgrade group on Facebook or MacRumors. The ROM for the 980 (even if not from MacVidCards) would most likely be from MacVidCards as that's the only 900 series Mac firmware I'm aware of. Dave from MacVidCards would the guy to ask but based on my singular experience with him, he does not suffer fools lightly (me in this scenario) and someone who's using his ROM without his official flashing service is less likely to get a positive response. Issue #2: I'm holding a much worse GPU, the ATI Radeon 1900 XT.... that said, I'd try a PRAM reset for the sleep issue. The display extension might be limited to the GPU's graphics card drivers.
@@dmug thank you for your response. Im puzzled with the 980 issue. I will try that FB group and see what happens. I really like the 980 for video editing but sucks to have to do this nasty GPU swap every time to “reset” whatever is resetting there with the swap. As far as the ATI card, I tried the PRAM reset and nothing. I was thinking on just selling the HD5770 and getting a 2nd GT120 for the 2nd PCI slot (dual card - for the monitor purpose) and running 2 monitors (actually 3 not 2) that way (one on 1 GPU and two on the other GPU) i dont think editing audio requires much GPU as oppose to editing video so Im not worried about going down in the VRAM from 1GB on HD5770 to 500MB and change on GT120.
Noticeably but not mind boggling so especially if using an m2 AHCI drive and it won’t improve the boot times, actually slow it down as because of the init sequence. Raw transfer speeds matter less for a lot of standard operations than latency.
@@dmug Ok, Thanks ! Quick question ... I have 32 gigs of ram in my 2012'mac pro .. 4 sticks of 8 gigabytes .. If I take one stick out , It will use 3 channel memory ... I'm just working in Audio... So...I want the lowest latency in memory transfer possible .. Should I do it ? I need low latency for soft synths ... Thanks for any advice .. also...one more . 😜. Are there any thunderbolt cards that will work on my machine ? Thanks 👍
@@LukeSchneiderEWI latency in audio is mostly a function of the buffer. In your DAW if you have, for instance 512 samples set and the sample rate is 44.1 KHz, this means the absolute bare minimum latency is 11.6 ms if everything happened at the speed of light beyond the buffering. If you're going input to output (capturing and playing the audio you're capturing) the absolute minimum it'd be is 23.2 ms. Changing the buffer will reduce the latency, but it means that a CPU spike could potentially deplete the buffer and cause the audio to stutter or stop. Most audio applications will give you the input and output latencies: Some hardware will have more based on the limitations (Typically HDMI pasthrough is 2x slower than USB 3.0) and pairing among groups of audio interfaces will introduce more latency. Core Audio stupidly efficient at routing. USB3+ is faster than USB2.0 due to the way the data is handled and Thunderbolt is fractionally faster than USB3.x devices. Really though, a fast CPU is going to get the most mileage. A lowly M1 Mac Mini will have much much lower latency as you'll be able to push it to use even smaller buffers than a Mac Pro 5,1.
I get that this is meant in jest but everyone has different levels of comfort and technical understanding and preferred mediums. I really tried to make it short but I've come to the conclusion the videos need to be "stand alone" so there's going to be information overlap and replication. Its pretty easy to get stuck on the wrong firmware or not understand what is required to update the firmware. I've tried to make this accessible for everyone.
@@dmug But installing mojave installs the latest firmware. Idk what other info you need. Done bam. Idk. Love the channel but maybe do an extended cut and a super short cut of things? Keep on keepin on! Just upgraded from a 5.1 hexcore to a 4.1 dual quad, upgraded to dual 5680s, and NVME boot, NVME scratch disk, and upgraded the wifi/BT all thanks to your guide. Thank you! :D
You'd be surprised. There's a reason why there's frequent threads on Mac Pro groups with the firmware update failing to initiate or getting stuck at 138.0.0.0 which doesn't support NVMe. I ended up making this vid because my article on Upgrading the firmware the foolproof way has several thousand views.
Did you just switch cards without booting down like what is your process man. You went blazing throught this area of the procedure. If you're gonna do tutorial at least say the process or show the full video don't insert b-roll briefly and think that is explanatory. Please
I had to rewatch my video to understand this as I made it 3 years ago. I see the confusion but also there’s a bit of Saganism“to bake a pie first you must create the universe”. For the sake of brevity I assumed that a viewer would understand that internal components (ram, cpu, PCIe cards) are not be removed while the system is booted for the sake of brevity. Any deep into the minefield of a Mac Pro I’d assume to know this but this also where the gaps show. Since RUclips is an attention economy, even in tutorials it rewards brevity as the most valuable metric is watch time and percentage watched. This why modern RUclips is pretty minimalist when it comes to intros and even outros. So I tried cut down superfluous steps and I recognize that finding the balance of too much vs too little info. This one I probably should have said “off goes Mr computer and swap the cards”
@dmug that's not the only step I meant, I meant also any other changes like slot position or other configuration change like the little switch on the back of the rx580 I've seen people discuss. I know about turning off the power but there are weird secret steps to some hacks that get very specific in order to succeed like how long the power button is held or how many boot NVRAM resets need to take place
@@ET2carbon I'm not really aware of any magic PCIe slot positions or NVRAM resets counts (once is a enough) or really secret voodoo steps. There's been a bit of mysticism (mostly dispelled now) that certain PCIe host cards for NVMe worked when any generic that matches the spec will work, or certain RX580s were better than others for "compatibility". The BIOS switch on certain AMD cards isn't a Mac Pro thing as that's the card and those same switches can be a pain on a PC too. About the biggest gotcha is paired RAM for dual CPU models and not mixing DIMM types and just the circumstances around power draw, that can trigger the auto shut off if using the power leads off of the motherboard for PCIe power. I rewatched a few other of my early videos and I can really feel my attitude of them as being additional content as opposed self-contained to the Definitive Mac Upgrade Guide.
Links are dead give us new links pleasr and my mac pro 4.1 is working with hifg speed fan i loaded mountain lion and its still going fast fan mode how to make it shut up
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
Thanks!
Didn’t realize this was a super thanks. New to this. Thanks!
Really impressed that you reply to everbody's problems/comments. I have a Mid 2012 macpro and have bought a K5000 card to reach the magical metal lands of Mojave and beyond. I have read extensively about flashing the bios which came with various dire warnings, however this way of upgrading a card looks foolproof. Regards
from Scotland, bogged down in Cop26 conference.
Just a warning if you’re thinking about Monterey, it removes nvidia drivers but there is a way shoe horn them in with OpenCore Legacy.
This is perfect. Just long enough to cover what's needed. If only everyone was this concise.
Ha, I look at these earlier vids and feel like they still have too much extra. I keep cutting down, as a viewer I like it when it's straight and to the point for how tos. No reason to do anything extra.
Thanks for the shout out brother!
I just bought a Mac Pro flashed to 5,1 and I'm thankful that all of this was done for me. I also paid $60 for this Mac.
Awesome and welcome to the club, all it takes is a modest metal gpu, a so-so SSD and you’re good to go. Open core legacy project makes it easier than ever to run Monterey and soon Ventura.
thanks for mention greg 🙋🏻♂️
No problem, you have the best opencore vids.
Very informative video! And that track is super hot!! Real Hip-Hop at it’s finest! 👍🏾👍🏾
Thanks, been trying to sneak in my production since I feel like I’ve saving up beats for the great beat famine.
Thanks for the guide. Great work.
Because of your videos, I bought a MacPro 5.1 2012 2x2.4 Ghz, 24 Gb Ram, 240 Gb SSD, 640 Gb HDD, 500 Gb HDD (it doesn't work anymore,), ATI HD 5770 graphics card, High Siera for 2000 DDK (approx. $283).😀I have installed an Asus Hyper M.2 X16 V2 4xNvme PCI card, with one 512 Gb M2. 500 Gb HDD Replaced with a Replaced with a 1Tb HDD, had lying around. I have two nr. 3 sled, no nr. 4. :(
Fantastic! Thanks man keep up the good work. Cheers from Holland
Drinking Cascade right now...pondering how unbelievably grateful I am for all of your videos and the Definitive Guide. Seriously, is there a way I can send you some De Garde / Cascade from Ptown? Thanks, Greg. You flippin' rock. -Alec
Seriously, I appreciate the offer but my girlfriend is a member of De Garde.
As far as Cascade? According to untappd it’s the only brewery that I received the badge “the local” for frequenting the Barrel house so frequently. Hell, I’ll be there picking up $11 bottles because it’s their anniversary this week. I’d say the Bourbonic Plague 2013 was the my favorite beer of al time. I never get sick of it.
Prior to the pandemic I lived in Portland full time, now it’s part time.
@@dmug Oh Wow! Awesome, "the local"! Yeah, my brother, Stuart, is seriously in to Bourbonic. I believe I had the 2013. I'm sure it was ridiculous. We are good friends with the crew at the old Raccoon Lodge in Raleigh Hills. Oh crap! It's anniversary! I always miss it!
I'm a huge Elderberry guy myself. Maybe I'll head over there later today.
Anyway, Greg. Thanks so much again for everything. If I ever see you in person, I'll give you a big high five, brother. Cheers!
Merci beaucoup Masta, big up pour la Zic
Mine doesn't say that it needs to update the firmware....eh what? Its on the MP51.0089.B00, (HS Ver 10.13.6) but when I run the Mojave installer it just says "To set up the installation, click continue", after that is agreeing to the terms of license, after that is "Mojave will be installed on the disk "Macintosh SSD" and the next option to click says "install" or "back". Is the window you show with the firmware update warning after that or will it just start installing Mojave, because I don't want that! If it helps, my file for the installer is actually a "incompatible" icon for some reason even though it opens ok. The Mojave Patcher even states that my system is a "Natively Supported Machine".
--Update SORTED--
I didn't realise I needed to remove the open core USB and reboot. 🤦♂️
The "Definitive Mac Pro Upgrade Guide" link is down :(
Thanks for the heads up, terrible Denver hotel internet screwed an update last night. It's back up.
Hi: I flashed my 4.1>5.1 Mac Pro, installed a nvme ssd, Mojave, RX570, ran fine. I turned it on after a while and no chime, no boot, only the fans running normally. Diag leds doesn’t show anything wrong. USB ports are unresponsive, so I can’t use a keyboard to try anything. The Mac was without its battery for some time. I put a fresh one and it didn’t help. Any ideas? Thanks!
I followed you video exactly. Was able to upgrade the firmware. However now I can’t boot windows from any ssd’s on PCIe. Have you encountered this before? Thanks.
Can't say I have, only performed this all of two times. You may need to clear the NVRAM Ram.
When I got the firmware screen it wouldn’t allow me to click on the arrow. I’m going round in circles as the only way I can open the Mac is in crtl R mode and all I ever get is the utilities. I can’t get any further.
Is it giving you an error like no Metal GPU found?
@@dmug I got the high sierra screen saying I need to upgrade the firmware, I’ve done that, it’s making all the right noises, but I’ve got a blank screen. It’s driving me bonkers, as I know the Mac is still alive.
@@jacquilayton2557 Did you initiate the process to upgrade the firmware? What was the lead up?
Also I'd recommend if you're on Reddit also putting this on r/MacPro or if on FaceBook trying the MacProUpgrade group as you'll get faster responses and from more people too.
@@dmug thank you for taking the time to reply I do appreciate it. The firmware update does exactly as you show on this video, but after the screen doesn’t reboot. I’m on Mac Rumours, and I’m going to try using an SDD card to see if I can reboot high sierra, which is where I was before it all went wrong. Thank you again. Take care. Jacqui
Hello Greg, first of all thank you for such a valuable information! Recenty I bought Mac Pro 5,1 I got some upgrades on it and now I want to install Monterey on my NVMe drive but I see I have firmware to upgrade first. As you mentioned there few metal capable gpus that also support bootscreen but they are overpriced. Is there a way to install Monterey without bootscreen?
All you need is a metal compatible gpu and to install Monterey you’ll need to use open core which will give you a boot screen again.
@@dmug Cool, thanks!
Thanks a bunch! I will need to update my big gray box before the IT police take it away. This is really useful.
A metal compatible videocard OR a AMD card, right?
Metal compatible as like the 700 series nvidia or modern AMD (400/500 series and above)
Thank you! ;D
Great Video. I want to upgrade my Firmware for NVMe support, but here is my problem: I have a 5.1 Mac Pro running High Sierra 10.13.5 and I have an Nvidia Titan X GPU. The problem is I cannot upgrade my OS due to the Nvidia GPU, but to use the Mojave installer for the Firmware upgrade it says I must first install 10.13.6. Any ideas how to get around this?
Unfortunately, you're in for a world of annoyances, you'd need to install OS x on another drive, install the metal compatible GPU, get to 10.13.6 and then run the installer then go back to the Titan X. I'd say buy an AMD GPU but in this market.... yeah and forever stuck at 10.13.
@@dmug I managed to do it! There was a Nvidia Web Driver for 10.13.6 (it's the last one), but at least now I have the new Firmware and can run NVMe. Thanks so much :)
@@dmug Hey. would it also be possible to just update my Mac Pro (4.1 upgraded to 5.1 with already running on High Sierra 10.13) to High Sierra 10.13.6 and then run the mojave installer? I have a metal compatible gpu!
great video. Curious question, I just upgraded my 4,1 to 5,1 and upgraded all my hardware (processor, memory and rx 580 gpu), then updated to Big Sur via Micropatcher Automator. After all is done i noticed my firmware is still MP51.0089.B00, can i use this video to update the firmware while on Big Sur?
Yes because you are not updating the firmware after booting into your drive running Big Sur, you are updating the firmware after booting into the drive you create running High Sierra. You create a separate drive that will run high Sierra, boot into it, then run the normal Mojave installer. I was confused too don't worry. It's amazing we even got this far with these old Mac Pro computers. Apple really gave us their middle finger when they prevented older Mac Pro computers from updating to newer operating systems, causing us to "hack" our way into current times so that our initial very expensive purchase didn't go to complete waste. Apple you suck ass and you are going to hell because you took a bite out of the apple just as Adam and eve did, shown by your own apple logo.
Is it true there are issues installing macOS Mojave from the Apple Store with a Kepler GPU?
I upgraded my Mac Pro mid 2012, everything was functioning well but after update of mac OS Mojave version 10.14.6....... I am not able to open /log in "App Store" and " ICloud". It says "Cannot Connect App Store "
Hi.
I been binge watching your guides, trully a great, extensive and in dept look. great delivery on the explanations. Thank you for your work and effort man.
I have a particular question, it will be trully great if you can help me on this one, please.
I have a Mac Pro 5,1 mid 2010 running on sierra, the video card that I have installed is a DNY Nvidia Quadro P1000.
There are web drivers for this card that go up to High Sierra, the card is Metal compatible.
I`m going to install High Sierra and I am wondering if I do this firmware upgrade will it keep working with the web drivers from Nvidia?
Also, can I go to a newer OS beyond High Sierra using this card?
Thank you again, loving your videos and your article, is EXTENSIVE, very very extensive.
Have a great day.
If I don’t need to boot from nvme, can I use High Sierra and not need to update the firmware?
I have a MacPro that had a firmware upgrade to 5.1 but does not have 140.0.0.0.0 firmware installed. I am running MacOS BigSur on it that I installed with OpenCore Legacy Patcher. Can I upgrade to this latest firmware version with BiGSur installed or does it specifically have to be under Mojave?
Hi. Thanks for your help. I own a Early 2009 Mac Pro 4,1. 2x2.26 GHz. I updated the CPU's to 2x 3.06GHz Xeon and updated the firmware to MP51.007F.B03. Now it shows in System Report MacPro5,1 and run High Sierra perfectly. It was success. But when I try to update to Mojave It says that my video card is not compatible. Now I have the Radeon HD 5870. What is exactly the video card I need to run Mojave with my gear?
replied to this same comment on another vid, see the answer there or here
blog.greggant.com/posts/2018/05/07/definitive-mac-pro-upgrade-guide.html#gpuupgrades
@@dmug thanks buddy. greetings from Costa Rica.
Wish I hadn’t done the upgrade… I’ve lost pre-boot screen support even for previous OS’s (Snow Leopard Server, which I like to boot from time to time just to get back my money’s worth ;).
Internet doesn’t seem to indicate that I can go back to the previous firmware.
Firmware shouldn’t be related to the boot screen, only certain GPUs are supported snow leopard . I don’t have a 5,1 anymore but I know I booted snow leopard with 2600 xt post firmware flash. Boot screens are a function of the GPU. You may need to do an NVRAM reset ..
Where can I get the firmware to flash a Mac Pro 3.1 to 5.1 ?
Can't flash a 3,1 as its entirely different innards. The 4,1 -> 5,1 flash exists as the chipsets are the same, it's just adding in the microcode for the extended CPU family using the same socket / supporting chipset.
Helpful video, but most of the "good value" recommended Metal GPUs are retailing for over £800 ($1000) - worth more than the Mac.
Man, when I made that video I had just purchased a back up Vega 56 for $225 a few weeks before as I sent in my Radeon VII to be replaced. Pandemic and the absurdity of Bittycoins has made GPUs so out-of-whack, that those two GPUs alone would get half way to owning a 2019 Mac Pro....
And there's more on that front in a bit.
Hi Greg. I appreciate your guide but it hasn't solved my in ability to get my MacPro5,1 firmware upgraded. Looking for some direct help if possible and willing to pay. Have catalina installed and when I get to installing High Sierra, I get the Firmware update required message. When I choose restart, system just hangs and locks up. Haven't been able to get any further than this. Thanks for your help.
Have you tried first clearing the NVRAM? I don’t think I’d have much more advice to offer than my foolproof method of updating the firmware, I’d also yank any unnecessary hardware, like PCIe cards other than a metal compatible GPU
Can you do a video on Raid 0 workflow? I installed a Sonnet PCIE card have to Samsung NVME SSD's on it and it is working but I can't seem to work on it.
I have now installed a Sapphire Nitro+ RX 590 8Gb. But this fails to flash my Boot rom.
I a USB boot drive with Mojave intaller and Opencore.
😐
I did it! Thank you
So if I do this firmware flash then update using open core will my boot ROM firmware version stay updated for NVMe support? And if I have more than one 5,1 Mac is the firmware update on the drive with the OS or the motherboard itself?
Is there a discord? And how do I update using what I got. I have a 7870 (which boot into the installer but the "shutdown" button at the firmware screen never shut down the PC) or 5700XT which just didn't work.. I need someone to talk to about it.
Does the doesdude version fix the display screen glitch when upgrading to mojave?
I’m not even sure what you’re referencing but likely not. OpenCore legacy patcher is the modern solution for running anything past 10.14 on 5,1x
I was able to get the 144.4.4.4.4 Firmware update and its running Mojave on my 5,1......but its still wont recognise my NVMe m.2 drive....not sure why..anyone have any ideas?
Could be the NVMe or the m.2 host, I’d search first the m.2 host on macrumors then the ssd model on macrumors. Check to see in system report if the pcie card is recognized as well.
For me I had to use terminal to get it to recognize it. These were steps needed to BOOT from NVME, not steps needed to get mac to recognize the drive
Can you make a full tutorial to upgrade a $200 eBay Mac 4,1 into a modern workstation? It will be a hit and you can do it!
The GPU market kinda sunk that. I was going to show off upgrading a 2012 single CPU to an Xeon 5670 + Vega 56 + 48 GB of RAM for under $350 as you could pick up Vega 56s for all of $200 for quite some time. (The secret was Aliexpress for the RAM and CPU and just watching a few deals on SATA SSDs).
I have MAC Pro 4.1 with Catalina. Can I update the firmware to install nvme on this system or I need to install
Mojave? My Rom: MP41.0081.B07
First you'll need to update your Mac Pro 4,1 to the Mac Pro's 5,1's firmware. This will enable later features like extended CPU support, 1333 MHz bus speeds for 1333 MHz RAM. Then you can follow the steps in this video.
See this guide:
thehouseofmoth.com/turning-a-2009-41-mac-pro-into-a-2010-2012-51-mac-pro-2021-edition/
Very helpful, thanks! However, I am trying to upgrade Monterey to Ventura on my NVMe SSD. During the boot process, it stalls and I can't get to the log-in screen. I am using OCLP 6.7 and works great with Monterey. Is there a work around?
Hmm, I'd actually go to one of the OpenCore groups with this one. I don't have have a 5,1 anymore and the 3,1 I have, doesn't have an NVMe drive.
How can I use an NVME drive as the boot drive using Monterey on an apple 5.1
I have a modded gtx 970 with the bootscreen I bought it from a graphic designer I was working with a few years back. Will it work?
When I plug the metal GPU it will not boot. It chimes, but never something come up on the screen! Any ideas? Trying to do it for 2 days now
Having the same problem, did you manage to fix this issue?
updating the firmware, I can continue to use osx Lion that I have in other HD ? ?
Firmware won’t affect backwards compatibility
I have an NVIDIA GPU so can't upgrade the firmware. Can I still use NVMe storage somehow? Perhaps it will work with Linux?
You can upgrade it if it’s a metal support nvidia gpu (Kepler based). Also depends on your previous firmware if you can use NVMe as general storage but not bootable.
Hello, I like your channel.
ISSUE 1- I just bought an already flashed GTX 980 (NOT from macvidcards) It was just already flashed - ebay purchase. This card is for my 2009 mac 4,1 flashed to 5,1 and Im having a strange issue. The only way the 980 works is if I put my old GT 120 back (in first slot) turn on mac, turn off and then replace the GT120 with the GTX980. But if the computer goes to sleep, when I wake it up, I get stuck on black screen forever or if I turn off the computer and turn it back on with 980, I get same black screen issue. I don’t know what is actually happening when I put the old card back in turn off the computer and then put the new card in for 980 to work. How can I just bypass this mess? I cant be switching cards like this for the sake of the PCI connector - it wont last too long until it breaks or something. Plus, it sucks not to be able to put mac to sleep or shut off with 980. Of course none of this happens with 120. Im running high sierra. I was thinking of downgrading to el capitan. Thoughts? Im puzzled by this strange behavior - Nvidia driver is up to date according to the mac
ISSUE 2- I also have the same GPU you’re holding in your hand in this video - the HD 5770 on another Mac 2010 5,1with snow leopard on it. (I have 2 mac pros) I need snow leopard for some audio legacy plug-ins I’ve had for a while so I cannot upgrade the operating system but whats happening is that the Mac will not go to sleep when I have the 5770 in it and also I can only extend to 1 monitor at a time via minidisplay port on the back. It wont do both at the same time. When I put the GT 120 from my other mac, i can put this mac to sleep no issues.
Issue #1: That's really specific, I have no idea.... I'd put that one to the community. I'd really recommend the MacProUpgrade group on Facebook or MacRumors.
The ROM for the 980 (even if not from MacVidCards) would most likely be from MacVidCards as that's the only 900 series Mac firmware I'm aware of. Dave from MacVidCards would the guy to ask but based on my singular experience with him, he does not suffer fools lightly (me in this scenario) and someone who's using his ROM without his official flashing service is less likely to get a positive response.
Issue #2: I'm holding a much worse GPU, the ATI Radeon 1900 XT.... that said, I'd try a PRAM reset for the sleep issue. The display extension might be limited to the GPU's graphics card drivers.
@@dmug thank you for your response. Im puzzled with the 980 issue. I will try that FB group and see what happens.
I really like the 980 for video editing but sucks to have to do this nasty GPU swap every time to “reset” whatever is resetting there with the swap.
As far as the ATI card, I tried the PRAM reset and nothing. I was thinking on just selling the HD5770 and getting a 2nd GT120 for the 2nd PCI slot (dual card - for the monitor purpose) and running 2 monitors (actually 3 not 2) that way (one on 1 GPU and two on the other GPU) i dont think editing audio requires much GPU as oppose to editing video so Im not worried about going down in the VRAM from 1GB on HD5770 to 500MB and change on GT120.
I have upgraded many 4,1 to 5,1 , but this time it won’t flash. I am attempting to install Monterey on a 4,1 dual cpu w/ OCLP will it work ?
Question... How much faster will an nvme ssd drive be over an AHCI ? Thanks 👍
Noticeably but not mind boggling so especially if using an m2 AHCI drive and it won’t improve the boot times, actually slow it down as because of the init sequence. Raw transfer speeds matter less for a lot of standard operations than latency.
@@dmug Ok, Thanks ! Quick question ... I have 32 gigs of ram in my 2012'mac pro .. 4 sticks of 8 gigabytes .. If I take one stick out , It will use 3 channel memory ... I'm just working in Audio... So...I want the lowest latency in memory transfer possible .. Should I do it ? I need low latency for soft synths ... Thanks for any advice .. also...one more . 😜. Are there any thunderbolt cards that will work on my machine ? Thanks 👍
@@LukeSchneiderEWI latency in audio is mostly a function of the buffer. In your DAW if you have, for instance 512 samples set and the sample rate is 44.1 KHz, this means the absolute bare minimum latency is 11.6 ms if everything happened at the speed of light beyond the buffering.
If you're going input to output (capturing and playing the audio you're capturing) the absolute minimum it'd be is 23.2 ms.
Changing the buffer will reduce the latency, but it means that a CPU spike could potentially deplete the buffer and cause the audio to stutter or stop.
Most audio applications will give you the input and output latencies: Some hardware will have more based on the limitations (Typically HDMI pasthrough is 2x slower than USB 3.0) and pairing among groups of audio interfaces will introduce more latency. Core Audio stupidly efficient at routing. USB3+ is faster than USB2.0 due to the way the data is handled and Thunderbolt is fractionally faster than USB3.x devices.
Really though, a fast CPU is going to get the most mileage. A lowly M1 Mac Mini will have much much lower latency as you'll be able to push it to use even smaller buffers than a Mac Pro 5,1.
@@dmug OK, great ! Thanks for the explanation ! 👍👍
Running open core on mid 2010 fails to reboot prohibitory symbol
I'd guess you haven't set the boot partition to the OpenCore partition.
@@dmug how do I do that ?
I can boot into it from EFI partition but not from the reboot when I do a restart
Luckily the mac pro i found already had the latest firmware. Metal GPUs are not easy/cheap to come by
I have ordered a 2xmini 6 bin to 8 pin cable. I have Msi GTX 1060 6Gb graphics card, that I want to install and, I get the cable.
GeForce 1060 is sadly limited to 10.13.x due to Apple nixing Nvidia drivers. I had one, a msi one and it was mostly silent. Great GPU.
You should do the same video in like 10 seconds where it just says "install mojave" :)
I get that this is meant in jest but everyone has different levels of comfort and technical understanding and preferred mediums.
I really tried to make it short but I've come to the conclusion the videos need to be "stand alone" so there's going to be information overlap and replication. Its pretty easy to get stuck on the wrong firmware or not understand what is required to update the firmware. I've tried to make this accessible for everyone.
@@dmug But installing mojave installs the latest firmware. Idk what other info you need. Done bam. Idk. Love the channel but maybe do an extended cut and a super short cut of things? Keep on keepin on! Just upgraded from a 5.1 hexcore to a 4.1 dual quad, upgraded to dual 5680s, and NVME boot, NVME scratch disk, and upgraded the wifi/BT all thanks to your guide. Thank you! :D
You'd be surprised. There's a reason why there's frequent threads on Mac Pro groups with the firmware update failing to initiate or getting stuck at 138.0.0.0 which doesn't support NVMe. I ended up making this vid because my article on Upgrading the firmware the foolproof way has several thousand views.
Should have watched this video sooner.
Hey, long as it helped you.
@@dmug Sure did, don't skip steps. RTFM.
Did you just switch cards without booting down like what is your process man. You went blazing throught this area of the procedure. If you're gonna do tutorial at least say the process or show the full video don't insert b-roll briefly and think that is explanatory. Please
I had to rewatch my video to understand this as I made it 3 years ago. I see the confusion but also there’s a bit of Saganism“to bake a pie first you must create the universe”. For the sake of brevity I assumed that a viewer would understand that internal components (ram, cpu, PCIe cards) are not be removed while the system is booted for the sake of brevity. Any deep into the minefield of a Mac Pro I’d assume to know this but this also where the gaps show.
Since RUclips is an attention economy, even in tutorials it rewards brevity as the most valuable metric is watch time and percentage watched. This why modern RUclips is pretty minimalist when it comes to intros and even outros. So I tried cut down superfluous steps and I recognize that finding the balance of too much vs too little info. This one I probably should have said “off goes Mr computer and swap the cards”
@dmug that's not the only step I meant, I meant also any other changes like slot position or other configuration change like the little switch on the back of the rx580 I've seen people discuss. I know about turning off the power but there are weird secret steps to some hacks that get very specific in order to succeed like how long the power button is held or how many boot NVRAM resets need to take place
@@ET2carbon I'm not really aware of any magic PCIe slot positions or NVRAM resets counts (once is a enough) or really secret voodoo steps. There's been a bit of mysticism (mostly dispelled now) that certain PCIe host cards for NVMe worked when any generic that matches the spec will work, or certain RX580s were better than others for "compatibility". The BIOS switch on certain AMD cards isn't a Mac Pro thing as that's the card and those same switches can be a pain on a PC too.
About the biggest gotcha is paired RAM for dual CPU models and not mixing DIMM types and just the circumstances around power draw, that can trigger the auto shut off if using the power leads off of the motherboard for PCIe power.
I rewatched a few other of my early videos and I can really feel my attitude of them as being additional content as opposed self-contained to the Definitive Mac Upgrade Guide.
Links are dead give us new links pleasr and my mac pro 4.1 is working with hifg speed fan i loaded mountain lion and its still going fast fan mode how to make it shut up