1060 not recognized on 5,1 [Solved]

[Supersoberguy]

Hey.

I've searched the forum beforehand for the problems related to the 10xx series of Nvidia cards and First Generation Mac Pro and all of the advices don't work for me. Of course, I may have slipped some of the threads, but still, most of the problem solving issues end up in two-three actions with: drivers, power management and clean installing the OS.

So here are my specs:

• Early 2009 Mac Pro 5,1 flashed from 4,1.
• 16 GB RAM.
• Kingston 240 GB SSD as bootdrive.
• El Capitan 10.11.6 (15G1611).
  
• 1060 6GB Nvidia GPU (8-pin power connector) and 1060 3GB (6-pin connector).
• Driver guide from MacVidCards.
• 8-pin connector coming from 2x6 mini connectors and the original 6-pin connectors from ATI.
• Stock GPU is ATI Radeon HD 4870 512 MB.

I've done the steps from this post, triple checked, that the Nvidia drivers are set, and I end up having a black screen with no video output whatsoever after restart. Via screen sharing I see that the display is recognized as "pci10de, 10f1" in the Nvidia driver manager. The system information shows that the display resolution is at 1280 x 1024 and no further information. Although, "No Kext Loaded" is somewhat disturbing.

I don't want both GPU's to run. It is just a coincidence that I have these GPU's that I can test and play with. I need only one of them to work properly.

Spoiler: Screenshots

What I have tried:

• Different versions of drivers post my build (15G1611) and pre my build (for the research sake and "what if").
• Power is not an issue, since the 1060 both 3GB and 6GB work perfectly fine in the Bootcamp with the mini connectors and external PSU connectors.
• Resetting NVRAM and SMC (another "what if")
• Booting one of the two 1060's with the NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT that I have from the even older Mac Pro 1,1 for the boot screen. The result is the same, as with the screen sharing. The only difference is that with the 7300 I can actually see the display, but not the working 1060's.
• The clean install did not help.
• Installed CUDA drivers. No difference.
• Did the combinations of different driver versions and installation and no installation of CUDA drivers as well. It takes time. But no effect at all.

I would appreciate if any person could guide into any other way other than what was already tried and may be effective. I am really concerned with the No Kext Loaded. I am not a specialist in these kind of things. Thanks a lot in advance.

Cheers.

 

[owbp]

If you look closely through the Macvidcards driver guide you'll see that Pascal cards (GTX 10xx series) require 10.12.4 or newer macOS.
Hope you don't have some software that won't work with Sierra, because that's the only way for you to use your GPU.

 

[Supersoberguy]

If you look closely through the Macvidcards driver guide you'll see that Pascal cards (GTX 10xx series) require 10.12.4 or newer macOS.
Hope you don't have some software that won't work with Sierra, because that's the only way for you to use your GPU.

Oh my God!

I've been looking through the MVC site since I wanted the 980ti and had a false perception ever since for the new GPU that it needed the El Capitan or Yosemite as a minimum requirement... How stupid...

Thank you, owbp, very much!

I'll think about the upgrade of the OS... But without any desire, though. I still don't like the new look of the OS since the Yosemite.

 

[owbp]

I would love if I could run up to date apps with with anything from 10.6 to 10.9 (although Mavericks us already too iOS influenced for me) like Windows 7 users can, but that's not gonna happen...

Back to topic, It's either macOS upgrade or Maxwell GPU...
GTX 980 should be in a ballpark, and it's quite bug free ( I've experienced just two, few seconds of choppy desktop after idling and occasional black toolbar parts).
I'm boring myself here repeating this again and again but if I weren't so much FCPX dependent, I would definitely hold onto it for good.
Out to this world power states, temperatures and performance ( of course, if you're using anything but Final Cut Pro...).

 

[Supersoberguy]

For sure, previous generation of OS, 10.6 to 10.9 were the best IMHO. I still do all the work on my main machine on 10.9.5 and I keep some space for the further upgrades of the system for these kind of situations as the new GPU and other stuff.

I would love to do the OS upgrade, or even another GPU, but, due to some circumstances, I have some of 1060's lying around and I wanted these to work properly in the Mac OS. I do now hope that they will have few bugs...

Thanks again. I'll be upgrading the OS then, as it is the most cost efficient way in my situation.

 

[pierrox]

10.8.5 was probably the best of those!
10.9 started the iOS-isation of the OS, then it was all downhill!

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

I use a 1060, but it's glitchy under NVIDIA's new Mac drivers. Don't get this card. In fact, the whole of the 10xx series is basically the least supported, regarding Mac Pro-compatible GPUs. The 1080 is the only viable option. I'm going with AMD until Apple starts providing firmware again for NVIDIA cards... hopefully with the new-new Mac Pro of 2018/2019(?)

 

[owbp]

I use a 1060, but it's glitchy under NVIDIA's new Mac drivers.

That's why i mentioned GTX 980 as option.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

That's why i mentioned GTX 980 as option.

Yeah, that's a good option. There's also the AMD route. An RX 460 2GB works under High Sierra, AFAIK.