How to update AMD graphics card driver on a MacPro?

[Robgo2]

I am having minor, but annoying, problems with the recently released ON1 Photo RAW 2020.5. Some of the image previews do not show up in the Browse mode. On its website, ON1 suggests that this is because the graphics card driver is out of date and requires updating.

I am using a MacPro (late 2013) running OS Mojave. The graphics card is an AMD D700. I downloaded what is supposedly the latest driver for my Mac from the AMD site. Unfortunately, I am completely at a loss as to how to install it. It seems to be a Windows design, and no installation instructions are provided.

I have written to AMD for technical support, but in the meantime, does anyone here have knowledge or experience installing these drivers?

 

[Dave Braun]

You can't install a Windows driver on a Mac and you can't update the driver on it's own. You need to update OSX, on a Mac drivers come as part of the OS.

 

[Robgo2]

You can't install a Windows driver on a Mac and you can't update the driver on it's own. You need to update OSX, on a Mac drivers come as part of the OS.

That would require me updating to Catalina, which I have studiously avoided, because of compatibility issues with some of my third part software.

BTW, on the AMD website, the driver that I downloaded is said to be for the MacPro (2013). Confusing, no?

 

[Dave Braun]

You can't install a Windows driver on a Mac and you can't update the driver on it's own. You need to update OSX, on a Mac drivers come as part of the OS.

That would require me updating to Catalina, which I have studiously avoided, because of compatibility issues with some of my third part software.

BTW, on the AMD website, the driver that I downloaded is said to be for the MacPro (2013). Confusing, no?

Yes it is confusing, maybe it was different on old Mac Pro. Has it got .exe extension ? If so it is windows, if not have you tried clicking on it to see if it runs, OSX will soon complain if it is Windows.

 

[Robgo2]

You can't install a Windows driver on a Mac and you can't update the driver on it's own. You need to update OSX, on a Mac drivers come as part of the OS.

That would require me updating to Catalina, which I have studiously avoided, because of compatibility issues with some of my third part software.

BTW, on the AMD website, the driver that I downloaded is said to be for the MacPro (2013). Confusing, no?

Yes it is confusing, maybe it was different on old Mac Pro. Has it got .exe extension ? If so it is windows, if not have you tried clicking on it to see if it runs, OSX will soon complain if it is Windows.

There are 5 separate files: .cat, .inf, .cat, .inf, .msi

Are you suggesting that I click on each one and hope for the best?

 

[Tom_N]

I am using a MacPro (late 2013) running OS Mojave. The graphics card is an AMD D700. I downloaded what is supposedly the latest driver for my Mac from the AMD site. Unfortunately, I am completely at a loss as to how to install it. It seems to be a Windows design, and no installation instructions are provided.

I don't see any drivers on the AMD site that are specifically for the AMD FirePro D700 and Mac OS X, on a 2013 Mac Pro. There is a Boot Camp Unified Driver R3 for Windows 10 … but that would not be applicable to Mojave, only to a Windows installation.

There's an article on the Apple site about checking and updating AMD drivers, but it, too, refers only to Boot Camp Windows installations.

 

[Tom_N]

There are 5 separate files: .cat, .inf, .cat, .inf, .msi

Are you suggesting that I click on each one and hope for the best?

I looked up these extensions. ".msi" and ".inf" are closely associated with the installation of Windows software. ".cat" is also associated with Windows, although many developers have used it for many different purposes on many different platforms.

What you're looking at is a Windows driver – from the sounds of it, one designed for the "2013 Mac Pro when booted into Windows 10". You can only use it to update Windows, not to update Mac OS X.

 

[ColourPhil]

The MP 2013 GPUs are exclusive to the MacPro, but are 'based on' certain other AMD cards, forget which ones.

You can now update the firmware without having to go to Catalina. I believe this came in on the latest Security Update for Mojave. I did it for mine (without switching the SSD back to the Apple one) a few months back, and is now on v.136. No idea whether it updated the D700 firmware or not.

There's some very knowledgeable folk on MacRumors Mac Pro forum.

Cheers,

Phil

--
https://www.colourphil.co.uk

 

[Tom_N]

The MP 2013 GPUs are exclusive to the MacPro, but are 'based on' certain other AMD cards, forget which ones.

The slots are exclusive to that Mac Pro model. They won't take regular PC or Mac PCIe video cards. The GPUs can be FirePro D300s, D500s, or D700s.

Apple – Mac Pro (2013) TechSpecs

EveryMac.com – Cylinder Mac Pro Q&A – Updated May 3, 2017

For what it's worth, see also this thread .

 

[bmoag]

Apple video drivers are baked into the OS, they are not separate packages written by the OEM like in Windows. Apple allowed nVidia to update drivers in that fashion only through High Sierra.

If you can uninstall the latest version of On1 and reinstall the last working version that is likely to be the best and probably only solution. If it works.

I do not know if your machine can boot into bootcamp/Windows--that might be a better solution as there are legacy Windows drivers that should work.

I use On1 daily but its no secret they have significant coding problems--just ask anyone who has tried to run On1 on a Surface laptop, the experience is similar with no or distorted preview images.

Apple long ago threw MacPro users of your vintage under the bus/out of the lifeboat so do not expect support from them. You are pre-cogging what the entire Apple computer customer base is about to experience within 3 years.

 

[Robgo2]

You, and others, are no doubt right about this. I will try installing the most recent Mojave security update (Jan 28, 2020) and see what happens. My expectation is that there will be no difference in ON1's performance.

 

[ColourPhil]

You, and others, are no doubt right about this. I will try installing the most recent Mojave security update (Jan 28, 2020) and see what happens. My expectation is that there will be no difference in ON1's performance.

I'm sure there's a more recent one than that; May 2020 maybe?

Phil

 

[Robgo2]

You, and others, are no doubt right about this. I will try installing the most recent Mojave security update (Jan 28, 2020) and see what happens. My expectation is that there will be no difference in ON1's performance.

I'm sure there's a more recent one than that; May 2020 maybe?

Phil

Well, the point is now moot, as I got the message that the Mojave security update could not be installed on my HD. Don’t understand why, but that particular option is pretty much dead

Probably the wisest thing for me to do is backtrack to v2020.1, which seemed to be less problematic. However, I am worried about what problems v2021 will bring.

 

[QuietOC]

You can't install a Windows driver on a Mac and you can't update the driver on it's own. You need to update OSX, on a Mac drivers come as part of the OS.

That would require me updating to Catalina, which I have studiously avoided, because of compatibility issues with some of my third part software.

I have High Sierra, Mojave, and Catalina installed at once on my iMac as multiboot volumes and plan to add the Big Sur beta whenever that is available. The new APFS file system makes that pretty easy as each volume can use the entire empty space on the drive. Properly coded apps only need to be installed once to work with all three versions. I did figure out today that sharing a user home folder between versions is not a good idea.

 

[Martin.au]

You can't install a Windows driver on a Mac and you can't update the driver on it's own. You need to update OSX, on a Mac drivers come as part of the OS.

That would require me updating to Catalina, which I have studiously avoided, because of compatibility issues with some of my third part software.

BTW, on the AMD website, the driver that I downloaded is said to be for the MacPro (2013). Confusing, no?

What's confusing? The MacPro (2013) can run Windows. They are Windows drivers to use on the MacPro (2013).

 

[Robgo2]

Well, I took the plunge and installed Catalina. So far, so good. I am not seeing lost previews and thumbnail images in the ON1 browser, as I did with Mojave. Perhaps OS 10.15.5 has an upgraded graphics card driver or something else that fixed the problem. I just hope that it lasts.