miliuco Posted April 2, 2021 Share Posted April 2, 2021 (edited) I have tested a Radeon Pro WX 4100 graphics card on macOS Big Sur 11.2.3. These are its main characteristics: 4GB of 128-bit GDDR5 memory GPU architecture: Polaris PCIe x16 bus with 50W TBP 4x Mini-DisplayPort 1.4 card width: single slot card length: 168mm release date: july 2016. It is a small card with low power consumption so it does not need an additional power connector. It comes with 2 adapters, one low profile and one high profile, to be used in different types of boxes In Big Sur it has worked perfectly. I have tried it with and without WhateverGreen: with WEG: all 4 miniDP ports work without WEG: only the 2 miniDP ports closest to the motherboard work, the other 2 show the boot screen but, when reaching the desktop, they show a black screen. Except for this problem with 2 miniDP ports, the card seems to work just as well with and without WEG. The desktop in 4K monitor with 2560x1440 resolution has a fluid behavior and high quality images. Its performance is higher than that of Intel iGPUs in recent CPU families. For example, GeekBench 4 Metal has scores around 20.000. For comparison, my RX 580 8GB typically scores 48.000-50.000 points and the Intel 630 iGPU of my i9-9900K CPU scores 4.000 points. In short: It is a perfectly valid graphics card for Big Sur, with good performance except for demanding tasks. Due to its size, it is suitable for small boxes. It does not need extra power supply. The little fan is always on but is very quiet. Disadvantages: Like all graphics cards today, it is expensive and difficult to find. Edited April 2, 2021 by miliuco 5 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etorix Posted April 2, 2021 Share Posted April 2, 2021 The information is already in Dortania's buying guide, although the WX 7100 is misclassified: All Radeon Pro WX from 4100 onwards work out of the box. The low to mid-range, single slot, Polaris-based WX 4100 (PCIe x8 electrical), WX 5100, WX 7100 are supported from OS X Sierra; the high-end WX 8200 (Vega 56) and WX 9100 (Vega 64), from High Sierra. I've used all these except the WX 9100 with Mojave. Lexa-based WX 2100, WX 3100 and WX 3200 do NOT work. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miliuco Posted April 2, 2021 Author Share Posted April 2, 2021 @Allan @Hervé @MaLd0n @Shaneee ... one of you to please change my post from DSDT and SSDT > Graphics Cards > AMD/AT to Hardware Components and Drivers > Graphics Cards or wherever you see it more appropriate. I see that I was not attentive when I posted it and it is in a forum that is not correct. Thanks a lot!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Posted April 2, 2021 Share Posted April 2, 2021 2 hours ago, miliuco said: @Allan @Hervé @MaLd0n @Shaneee ... one of you to please change my post from DSDT and SSDT > Graphics Cards > AMD/AT to Hardware Components and Drivers > Graphics Cards or wherever you see it more appropriate. I see that I was not attentive when I posted it and it is in a forum that is not correct. Thanks a lot!!! Moved to Tutorials (The Genius Bar) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miliuco Posted April 2, 2021 Author Share Posted April 2, 2021 54 minutes ago, Allan said: Moved to Tutorials (The Genius Bar) Thank you!!! @Allan and @Cyberdevs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etorix Posted April 3, 2021 Share Posted April 3, 2021 16 hours ago, miliuco said: Talking about your hardware, how well does the C246 and C621 server boards work with macOS? Are you using them with Big Sur? With MacPro7,1 SMBIOS? Wow, what machines!!! Thanks. So, at risk of being off-topic here: The C246-WU4 and C246N-WU2 are actually "workstation" boards, not servers, and they work… just like ordinary Z370 desktops (iMac19,1 SMBIOS). They boot straight into OS X (tested Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur) with any OpenCore version I have tested. No SSDT-AWAC, no MAT (use WriteUnprotector, as in default config.plist), no custom slide needed. In some ways, these boards are possibly even easier to set up than Z390 (which is understandable as the C246 chipset is merely a conservative, enterprise-minded, version of Z370, or rather Q370, with ECC RAM support). The C621-SU8, despite its name, is actually designed for mixed use as server (it has a BMC) or workstation (… and an audio codec). It took me some months to have it boot. I use iMacPro1,1 SMBIOS because I still use 32-bit apps under Mojave—and I'm no fan of the iOS-inspired Big Sur look, to put it mildly. But the C621-SU8 can boot, install and update Big Sur: With its own SSDT-PMC it has native NVRAM! Frustratingly for me, it can boot an existing Mojave or Catalina installation but I have not yet managed to install or update Mojave or Catalina in place, the installer always gets stuck at or around "IOHDIX Controller: NOTE: administrator is creating non-ejectable disk image". I have to write up a full guide for it, but I'd like to get to the bottom of the remaining issues. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yapan4 Posted April 3, 2021 Share Posted April 3, 2021 Hi @miliuco. Do you have the ability to check the dual monitor configuration? What do you say about the problem (or not?) described in this topic https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/346539-gpuvmem-stuck-to-full-speed-when-2nd-display-connected/ Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miliuco Posted April 3, 2021 Author Share Posted April 3, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, yapan4 said: Hi @miliuco. Do you have the ability to check the dual monitor configuration? What do you say about the problem (or not?) described in this topic https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/346539-gpuvmem-stuck-to-full-speed-when-2nd-display-connected/ Thank you. Sorry, currently I haven't a second monitor to check this feature. But with my usual RX 580 card I have tried 2 monitors and 2 monitors + 1 TV and everything has worked well, without observing the problem that they comment on in the link that you have put. 4 hours ago, etorix said: Thanks. So, at risk of being off-topic here: The C246-WU4 and C246N-WU2 are actually "workstation" boards, not servers, and they work… just like ordinary Z370 desktops (iMac19,1 SMBIOS). They boot straight into OS X (tested Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur) with any OpenCore version I have tested. No SSDT-AWAC, no MAT (use WriteUnprotector, as in default config.plist), no custom slide needed. In some ways, these boards are possibly even easier to set up than Z390 (which is understandable as the C246 chipset is merely a conservative, enterprise-minded, version of Z370, or rather Q370, with ECC RAM support). The C621-SU8, despite its name, is actually designed for mixed use as server (it has a BMC) or workstation (… and an audio codec). It took me some months to have it boot. I use iMacPro1,1 SMBIOS because I still use 32-bit apps under Mojave—and I'm no fan of the iOS-inspired Big Sur look, to put it mildly. But the C621-SU8 can boot, install and update Big Sur: With its own SSDT-PMC it has native NVRAM! Frustratingly for me, it can boot an existing Mojave or Catalina installation but I have not yet managed to install or update Mojave or Catalina in place, the installer always gets stuck at or around "IOHDIX Controller: NOTE: administrator is creating non-ejectable disk image". I have to write up a full guide for it, but I'd like to get to the bottom of the remaining issues. Thanks for the info!!! Edited April 3, 2021 by miliuco 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellybz Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 (edited) I know this post is a little old, but I thought to be relevant . I just bought on EBAY a Refurbished WX4100 Refurbished for $220. I added the GPU on my RIG to help the Load of my RX580SE and BAM! Running 6 Monitors on Mojave, big Sur & Monterey. No extra Patch needed. . Edited December 10, 2021 by Ellybz 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafale77 Posted May 20, 2022 Share Posted May 20, 2022 (edited) For those who have this card but what I observed probably also applies to all Polaris Cards, I just wanted to report a couple of things from my testing on Monterey: The card indeed works out of the box and for me was a path to improved DRM support. 1. Out of the box the temperature and power consumption appeared to be on the high side: about 45-50C at idle, and reporting 25-35W on SMC, 2. There is what I believe to be a MacOS/AMD driver issue causing a drop in GB5 metal scores from ~21K to ~13K under certain situations. Temperature This all got me interested in Radeonboost.kext and after quite a bit of testing, I have injected the following device properties from Radeonboost into my config.plist and compared to the polarisboost section to the default entries of the relevant AMD9500Controller.kext and AMDRadeonX4000.kext: The CFG,CFG_PTPL2_TBL entry is an addition and alone appears to increase the GB5 metal scores by 2-3K. (I now see ~25K or 15K, more details below) All the other entries (except unfairgva which is for WEG and is the topic of another thread I started) appear to be identical to the default settings in the S,L,E files but for some reason I don't quite understand, adding them causes the power profile of the card to change dramatically, dropping temperatures by >10C (SMC now reports 30-35C at idle and my box is noticeably cooler) and power by 10W at idle. GB5 Metal I initially found people that it was SMBIOS related: iMacPro1,1 and MacPro7,1 causes this drop in performance. This applies also on other AMD GPUs. I am also observing this problem on all other SMBIOS when I use the unfairgva=4 property which patches the board-id to an iMacPro1,1 board to move DRM decoding to the AMD card. Finally discovered that this problem can also be reproduced on my iMac20,2 SMBIOS after we force the video decoding to the AMD GPU through a command line and have used the dGPU decoding at least once. The only recovery path I found in this situation is to sleep and wake or to reboot. Edited May 20, 2022 by rafale77 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miliuco Posted June 27, 2022 Author Share Posted June 27, 2022 @rafale77 Thanks for the info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advocate_HF Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 I have this card. Is it possible to control the fan speed or increase the fan curve before the fan kicks in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miliuco Posted August 16, 2022 Author Share Posted August 16, 2022 @Advocate_HF I think it’s not possible on macOS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advocate_HF Posted October 5, 2022 Share Posted October 5, 2022 (edited) On 8/16/2022 at 11:49 AM, miliuco said: @Advocate_HF I think it’s not possible on macOS. I thought that it might be possible to mod the BIOS so that the fan starts at a higher temp. I suspect also that there is not way to show the gpu temp and fan speed etc in MacOS? I love this little card, thinking of getting another but hate the whizzing sound of the fan even at 900RPM. Edited October 5, 2022 by Advocate_HF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slice Posted October 6, 2022 Share Posted October 6, 2022 18 hours ago, Advocate_HF said: I thought that it might be possible to mod the BIOS so that the fan starts at a higher temp. I suspect also that there is not way to show the gpu temp and fan speed etc in MacOS? I love this little card, thinking of getting another but hate the whizzing sound of the fan even at 900RPM. Use https://github.com/CloverHackyColor/HWMonitorSMC2 to see gpu temp, fan speed and gpu frequencies. It works with Polaris. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris1111 Posted March 2, 2023 Share Posted March 2, 2023 Thanks for the advise @miliuco Receve today from Ebay canada ontario a brand new AMD Radeon Pro WX 4100 4 GB (HP OEM) Only 150$ CAN Working perfect on my HP Prodesk 600 G1 low profile pc, I replace my AMD 560 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miliuco Posted March 3, 2023 Author Share Posted March 3, 2023 @chris1111 Good price! Ideal card for low profile machines. Small, quiet, and powerful enough for macOS. As an extra, the adapter connectors are included. On my PC, the Metal score in GeekBench 5 (not tested with GeekBench 6) was around 20000. Considering that the Intel 630 Coffee Lake scores around 4000, that's an excellent number. Enjoy it! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris1111 Posted March 3, 2023 Share Posted March 3, 2023 1 hour ago, miliuco said: @chris1111 Good price! Ideal card for low profile machines. Small, quiet, and powerful enough for macOS. As an extra, the adapter connectors are included. On my PC, the Metal score in GeekBench 5 (not tested with GeekBench 6) was around 20000. Considering that the Intel 630 Coffee Lake scores around 4000, that's an excellent number. Enjoy it! Thanks There was no displayport adapter in the box, it came from my other card RX560 , I have several and the card came with a FULL HEIGHT BRACKET here the link https://www.ebay.com/itm/175579736856?var=474925339081 Now my RX 560 is on my Dell Optiplex 790 😃 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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