![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rileyuk.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/macpro5-1-1024x706.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe HD was clean and ready for a fresh installation of Mac OS. I downloaded a version of High Sierra and created a bootable USB stick using this tutorial. Apple Bootable Installer – Apple Support<\/a>. The process of installing High Sierra and completing the updates to get the latest patches was very smooth and I experienced no issues. The day-to-day operation using High Sierra was very, very good and much faster than my current Mac Pro laptop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After using the computer for a while I thought it would be good to investigate opportunities to upgrade to ‘Mojave’. Unfortunately Apple have removed support for Mac Pro 5,1 in the latest operating system ‘Catalina’; there are a couple of potential reasons but I don’t believe they have published an official reason why. It could be a potential security issue with the Intel chips that Intel can’t (won’t?) fix. . . but that is just a plain guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Apple have published an article about which graphics cards are compatible with the MacPro. This Apple Support Article<\/a> gives details. This main page suggest that only two cards are compatible:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I could not find these two cards available for sale in the UK as the cards are getting quite old now. However, there is an older (unsupported) Apple Support Article<\/a> that gives a wider range of potentials as listed below: <\/p>\n\n\n\n These were also not available in the UK. . . however, the unsupported article suggested that the ‘AMD Radeon RX 580’ family of graphics cards could potentially work despite not officially being supported. On this basis I decided to try a MSI card; the Radeon RX580 ‘Armor’. At the time of writing this was available from Amazon for around \u00a3180.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I found a YouTube video<\/a> which included instructions on how to upgrade\/ replace the graphics card in the machine. It is a good thing that I did because I didn’t realise that I would need a new power cable – you will need a dual mini 6pin to 8pin<\/a> cable to install and power the card. The power requirements for the new MSI graphics card are much more significant when compared with the original. A photo of the cable I used is shown below. I found the installation of the card was smooth and just as the YouTube link above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WARNING: Using the ‘unsupported’ family of cards means that the Apple Boot screen (image below) won’t be shown – ever! When you boot the machine with the new card it will do the ‘apple bing’ sound and then you will get a black screen for the duration of the boot sequence; I get a brief flash of this screen just before the log-in screen appears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once the new graphics card was installed I got my first ‘uh-oh’ moment. On first boot everything seemed to be working okay but I then got the apple white screen of death. I used an image for an iMac but it was effectively the same thing. At this point I thought I was going to have to return the card having made a massive mistake. However, after about 5 minutes of searching the internet I decided to do the obvious and try a hard restart. This WORKED, I was a bit taken aback. . . but don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With High Sierra installed and the new MSI card the graphics were mis-behaving quite obviously. The mouse was stuttering, tabs in Safari had ‘black’ bars appearing randomly and there was significant ‘lag’ when using the machine. I decided to persevere and used the Mac App Store to start the Mojave installation<\/p>\n\n\n\n WARNING: There is no way back from this point! Once you have a metal enabled card installed and Mojave running it would need a full restore from a working backup file to get your Mac back to High Sierra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The installation package first brings up a ‘firmware’ update prior to starting the main installation. The download happened okay and the screen below launched correctly. However, on first try the ‘shut-down’ button button brought up the admin password screen but then didn’t restart the machine as expected. A restart fixed this issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The firmware update was smooth (after the initial need to restart the machine); the CD tray ejects to demonstrate that the firmware is updating and that behaviour is completely normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After restart the Mojave installation was smooth without any unexpected issues or errors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is always slightly frightening not to see the Apple logo in the boot screen, however, the Mojave installation is amazingly smooth and efficient. I am very pleased with the end result so far and these are my first impressions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don’t regret updating at this moment in time and I hope that I don’t have any issues. I will add to this post if I have further thoughts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rileyuk.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/MSI-armour-1024x983.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rileyuk.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Cable-1024x984.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rileyuk.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/bootscreen-1024x698.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rileyuk.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/imac-white-screen-apple-1024x426.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nFirst Impressions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Mojave Installation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rileyuk.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/mojave-firmware-1024x796.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nMojave First Impressions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n