MP 1,1-5,1 Can't use a nVidia GTX780 card in my MacPro5,1

[maurizo]

Hi everyone, and thanks for the incredible amount of info in this site.

This is my first post here, and ok, I'm a little worried. Because, let's face it, in the realm of GPUs I'm a complete newbie, so please forgive me for any inaccuracies in my post.

The situation: bought a year ago or so a GTX780 for my MacPro4,1 (in desperation flashed to 5,1, see below). Supposedly a bargain Amazon offer (and probably a PC card, too), but everything worked very well till I updated MacOS from El Capitan to High Sierra because of new requirements for Adobe Suite, that I use professionally and for teaching.

Obviously the card has stopped working. I tried (repeatedly)
- flashing MacPro firmware from 4,1 to 5,1
- installing new nVidia driver and CUDA
- following a lot of your posts on the topic
but all I have obtained is eternally repeating screen login if I use the nVidia drivers or a flickering, unusable screen with Apple ones.

Reading that Mojave should have native support for nVidia cards I tried to install Mojave onto another SSD, but I obtained only a black screen: Mac is working (I can turn off with the keyboard) but I see nothing. I was forced to go back to the old and crappy GT120, but some Photoshop's features are now disabled, and I need to explain them in my lessons, at least.

I know that probably the issue have been addressed in some of your posts, but I wasn't able to get a clear path to the solution. Now I read of someone flashing the ROMs to make a similar nVidia card work with a MacPro, and I'm almost to give a last try with this procedure. I remember I saw the necessary files here on a post, but currently I can't find them, hoping on the web.

I know that MacVidCards offer this service, too, but prices and shipping/flashing times from Italy are a bit too much for me.

Could someone please give some last advice on this issue? In the end, I know I'll probably move to a different card; AMD GPUs seem to have better support on Macs, but before throwing away the GTX780 I'd like to think I've tried everything possible. Just in case, any advice on the best AMD model for my configuration?

Thanks a lot

 

[Project Alice]

Hi everyone, and thanks for the incredible amount of info in this site.

This is my first post here, and ok, I'm a little worried. Because, let's face it, in the realm of GPUs I'm a complete newbie, so please forgive me for any inaccuracies in my post.

The situation: bought a year ago or so a GTX780 for my MacPro4,1 (in desperation flashed to 5,1, see below). Supposedly a bargain Amazon offer (and probably a PC card, too), but everything worked very well till I updated MacOS from El Capitan to High Sierra because of new requirements for Adobe Suite, that I use professionally and for teaching.

Obviously the card has stopped working. I tried (repeatedly)
- flashing MacPro firmware from 4,1 to 5,1
- installing new nVidia driver and CUDA
- following a lot of your posts on the topic
but all I have obtained is eternally repeating screen login if I use the nVidia drivers or a flickering, unusable screen with Apple ones.

Reading that Mojave should have native support for nVidia cards I tried to install Mojave onto another SSD, but I obtained only a black screen: Mac is working (I can turn off with the keyboard) but I see nothing. I was forced to go back to the old and crappy GT120, but some Photoshop's features are now disabled, and I need to explain them in my lessons, at least.

I know that probably the issue have been addressed in some of your posts, but I wasn't able to get a clear path to the solution. Now I read of someone flashing the ROMs to make a similar nVidia card work with a MacPro, and I'm almost to give a last try with this procedure. I remember I saw the necessary files here on a post, but currently I can't find them, hoping on the web.

I know that MacVidCards offer this service, too, but prices and shipping/flashing times from Italy are a bit too much for me.

Could someone please give some last advice on this issue? In the end, I know I'll probably move to a different card; AMD GPUs seem to have better support on Macs, but before throwing away the GTX780 I'd like to think I've tried everything possible. Just in case, any advice on the best AMD model for my configuration?

Thanks a lot

How have you powered the GTX 780? Also, just to clarify; this is regular 780, not a 780 Ti correct?
I have a 780 Ti, and it has one 8 pin + one 6 pin and I'm not sure if the regular 780 is the same or not.
If the 780 is also like that, and it isn't powered with an EVGA powerlink or with the pixlas mod there may be issues.

Either a 780 or a 780 Ti should be natively supported in High Sierra (as well as mojave and catalina).
If the card is powered right, and it was working in 10.11 it should still work in high sierra.

Do you have a PC you could test the card in?

 

[Macsonic]

Hi everyone, and thanks for the incredible amount of info in this site.

This is my first post here, and ok, I'm a little worried. Because, let's face it, in the realm of GPUs I'm a complete newbie, so please forgive me for any inaccuracies in my post.

The situation: bought a year ago or so a GTX780 for my MacPro4,1 (in desperation flashed to 5,1, see below). Supposedly a bargain Amazon offer (and probably a PC card, too), but everything worked very well till I updated MacOS from El Capitan to High Sierra because of new requirements for Adobe Suite, that I use professionally and for teaching.

I have a Nvidia 780GTX GPU and works well in High Sierra and Mojave 10.14.6. Not using any EVGA powerlink. When you get a black screen, you can try to wait a few more seconds until your Mac boots to your desktop. You can also try to reset the PRAM. Updating the firmware to 5,1 is not related to the problem with your GPU. Kepler GPUs works ok in Mojave or Catalina.

 

[maurizo]

Hi, Project Alice, thanks for the reply.

I think I have a regular GTX780, this is the hardware report from MacOS (sorry, it's in Italian)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780
Modello Chipset: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780
Tipo: GPU
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-2
Larghezza canale PCIe: x16
VRAM (dinamica, massima): 4095 MB
Fornitore: NVIDIA (0x10de)
ID dispositivo: 0x1004
ID revisione: 0x00a1
Revisione ROM: VBIOS 70.26.37.00.01
Metal: Supportata

No external power is applied, I found no slots for power pins on the card itself, apparently the GPU takes power from the PCI slot. I attach a couple of photos of the GPU.

And no, unfortunately I have no PC to test the card in.

Thanks again

 

[tsialex]

Hi, Project Alice, thanks for the reply.

I think I have a regular GTX780, this is the hardware report from MacOS (sorry, it's in Italian)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780
Modello Chipset: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780
Tipo: GPU
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-2
Larghezza canale PCIe: x16
VRAM (dinamica, massima): 4095 MB
Fornitore: NVIDIA (0x10de)
ID dispositivo: 0x1004
ID revisione: 0x00a1
Revisione ROM: VBIOS 70.26.37.00.01
Metal: Supportata

No external power is applied, I found no slots for power pins on the card itself, apparently the GPU takes power from the PCI slot. I attach a couple of photos of the GPU.

And no, unfortunately I have no PC to test the card in.

Thanks again

This is not a GTX 780, it's a fake Chinese GPU.

A GTX 780 is a lot bigger and have at least two power inputs.

 

[maurizo]

This is not a GTX 780, it's a fake Chinese GPU.

A GTX 780 is a lot bigger and have at least two power inputs.

Hi, Tsialex, thanks for the reply.

So the advice you're giving is to give up and buy an AMD card altogether? Or there is something (even extreme) I can try?

Thanks

 

[tsialex]

Hi, Tsialex, thanks for the reply.

So the advice you're giving is to give up and buy an AMD card altogether? Or there is something (even extreme) I can try?

Thanks

Since you wrote that it worked with El Capitan, it's probably a very old NVIDIA GPU, before GT 2xx, that was modified to represent itself as a GTX 780.

It's a fake GPU, besides sending it back to the seller or throwing it in the bin, the only thing that you can do is going back to El Capitan.

 

[Project Alice]

Hi, Project Alice, thanks for the reply.

I think I have a regular GTX780, this is the hardware report from MacOS (sorry, it's in Italian)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780
Modello Chipset: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780
Tipo: GPU
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-2
Larghezza canale PCIe: x16
VRAM (dinamica, massima): 4095 MB
Fornitore: NVIDIA (0x10de)
ID dispositivo: 0x1004
ID revisione: 0x00a1
Revisione ROM: VBIOS 70.26.37.00.01
Metal: Supportata

No external power is applied, I found no slots for power pins on the card itself, apparently the GPU takes power from the PCI slot. I attach a couple of photos of the GPU.

And no, unfortunately I have no PC to test the card in.

Thanks again

This is not a GTX 780, it's a fake Chinese GPU.

A GTX 780 is a lot bigger and have at least two power inputs.

He’s right. Here’s a picture of my 780 Ti for reference.

Mine is the common EVGA blower style card, even if you had a different cooler from a different brand, a 780 of any kind will have external power.

I have a Nvidia 780GTX GPU and works well in High Sierra and Mojave 10.14.6. Not using any EVGA powerlink. When you get a black screen, you can try to wait a few more seconds until your Mac boots to your desktop. You can also try to reset the PRAM. Updating the firmware to 5,1 is not related to the problem with your GPU. Kepler GPUs works ok in Mojave or Catalina.

Just out of curiosity, have you pushed the GPU? And is it 6+8 like my Ti?

When I don’t use the power link, random shutdowns have occurred. This is talked about here.

 

[tsialex]

Anyway, @maurizo, start to search for an used AMD RX 560 or RX 580, when you find one that the price is accessible to you, buy it.

If you gonna use eBay, don't buy from overseas sellers. Don't buy from AliExpress/AliBaba/etc or you have a chance to buy a fake again.

Even if the seller don't send you a fake on AliExpress/AliBaba/etc he could send you a Chinese version of the card that has less CU units and don't work correctly with macOS, just Windows.

Most Chinese/South Asia cards have less units than the cards that are sold in the western.

 

[h9826790]

That's a GTS 450 4GB card, belongs to Fermi (GF116-200-KA-A1), not Kepler. That's why it won't work in Mojave.

There are plenty of "names" for this card (all fake) from China, GTX780, GTX780Ti, GTX960, GTX1050Ti...... All from this same GTS450.

All these cards can ident themselves "correctly" (according to the fake names) in the OS, but of course because of the ROM is hacked / modded.

 

[maurizo]

Wow, thanks folks, really useful info.

Now I'm feeling a little dumb for wasting my money in such a fraud from Amazon, but ok, as I told I'm a total newbie. At least, I hope I'll learn from this lesson.

So, looking out for a new/used AMD RX 560 or 580 (thanks Tsialex). May I ask you a last advice (just to not repeat my errors)? I was on these AMD cards on Amazon
RX560

MSI V809-2467R scheda video Radeon RX 560 4 GB GDDR5

Caratteristiche: AMD FreeSync: Sì CUDA: No Colore del prodotto: Nero, Bianco Tipo di raffreddamento: attivo Quantità di porte DVI-D: 1 Profondità: 39 mm Versione DirectX: 12.0 Memoria adattatore grafica discreta: 4 GB Quantità di DisplayPorts: 1 Dual Link DVI: Sì FireStream: Sì Full HD: Sì Tipo d...

www.amazon.it

RX570

XFX - Componenti per computer

XFX RS Radeon RX 570 4GB Triple X OC 1284 Mhz GDDR5 Dual Fan 3X DP HDMI DVI - OC in fabbrica, backplate personalizzato XFX Fatto per i Gamers. Progettato con l'architettura Polaris pensata per adattarsi alle prossime generazioni e tecnologie, La gamma Radeon RX-570 trasforma i tuoi giochi preferi...

www.amazon.it

RX580

Sapphire Radeon RX 580 Pulse Scheda Grafica da 4 GB, GDDR5, PCI-E, Grigio

Scheda grafica Sapphire pulse radeon RX 580. Memoria 4 GB GDDR5. Uscite video dual HDMI / DVI-D / dual DP OC W/BP (UEFI).

www.amazon.it

MSI Radeon RX 580 ARMOR 8G OC Scheda Grafica, Nero, V341-064R

8 GB MSI Radeon RX 580 ARMOR OC, 14nm Polaris, 2304 Stream, 1366MHz Boost, 8000MHz GDDR5, DP. HDMI. DVI-D. Tecnologie avanzate di raffreddamento GPU.

www.amazon.it

Which one would you buy? a difference of 50 euros it's not a big problem, and I really need Photoshop features full enabled for my job and mostly my lessons.

Thanks a lot, everybody

 

[tsialex]

Wow, thanks folks, really useful info.

Now I'm feeling a little dumb for wasting my money in such a fraud from Amazon, but ok, as I told I'm a total newbie. At least, I hope I'll learn from this lesson.

So, looking out for a new/used AMD RX 560 or 580 (thanks Tsialex). May I ask you a last advice (just to not repeat my errors)? I was on these AMD cards on Amazon
RX560

MSI V809-2467R scheda video Radeon RX 560 4 GB GDDR5

Caratteristiche: AMD FreeSync: Sì CUDA: No Colore del prodotto: Nero, Bianco Tipo di raffreddamento: attivo Quantità di porte DVI-D: 1 Profondità: 39 mm Versione DirectX: 12.0 Memoria adattatore grafica discreta: 4 GB Quantità di DisplayPorts: 1 Dual Link DVI: Sì FireStream: Sì Full HD: Sì Tipo d...

www.amazon.it

RX570

XFX - Componenti per computer

XFX RS Radeon RX 570 4GB Triple X OC 1284 Mhz GDDR5 Dual Fan 3X DP HDMI DVI - OC in fabbrica, backplate personalizzato XFX Fatto per i Gamers. Progettato con l'architettura Polaris pensata per adattarsi alle prossime generazioni e tecnologie, La gamma Radeon RX-570 trasforma i tuoi giochi preferi...

www.amazon.it

RX580

Sapphire Radeon RX 580 Pulse Scheda Grafica da 4 GB, GDDR5, PCI-E, Grigio

Scheda grafica Sapphire pulse radeon RX 580. Memoria 4 GB GDDR5. Uscite video dual HDMI / DVI-D / dual DP OC W/BP (UEFI).

www.amazon.it

MSI Radeon RX 580 ARMOR 8G OC Scheda Grafica, Nero, V341-064R

8 GB MSI Radeon RX 580 ARMOR OC, 14nm Polaris, 2304 Stream, 1366MHz Boost, 8000MHz GDDR5, DP. HDMI. DVI-D. Tecnologie avanzate di raffreddamento GPU.

www.amazon.it

Which one would you buy? a difference of 50 euros it's not a big problem, and I really need Photoshop features full enabled for my job and mostly my lessons.

Thanks a lot, everybody

XFX is not a Mac compatible brand.

If the Sapphire Pulse RX 580 fits your purse, buy one.

Search for Apple approved cards, see this support article:

Install macOS 10.14 Mojave on Mac Pro (Mid 2010) and Mac Pro (Mid 2012) - Apple Support

Learn how to prepare your Mac Pro (Mid 2010) or Mac Pro (Mid 2012) for macOS Mojave.

support.apple.com

Sapphire Nitro+ and Nitro+ SE RX 580 are too big and too power hungry for a Mac Pro, both are PC overclockers cards.

 

[Macsonic]

He’s right. Here’s a picture of my 780 Ti for reference.
View attachment 908210
Mine is the common EVGA blower style card, even if you had a different cooler from a different brand, a 780 of any kind will have external power.



Just out of curiosity, have you pushed the GPU? And is it 6+8 like my Ti?

When I don’t use the power link, random shutdowns have occurred. This is talked about here.

Luckily, I did not encounter random shutdowns. I’ve use the 780GTX occasionally on semi-heavy tasks. My GPU is the EVGA Reference Design Blower Type. The card is connected using the cMac Pro’s internal power supply with a 6-pin to 8-pin and a 6-pin to 6-pin cable. Maybe with the GTX 780Ti, the EVGA Powerlink is necessary. A few months ago I saw an eBay seller offering a flashed 780Ti with an EVGA Powerlink included in the sale. In his description, it indicated the powerlink needs to be included.

 

[tsialex]

Luckily, I did not encounter random shutdowns. I’ve use the 780GTX occasionally on semi-heavy tasks. My GPU is the EVGA Reference Design Blower Type. The card is connected using the cMac Pro’s internal power supply with a 6-pin to 8-pin and a 6-pin to 6-pin cable. Maybe with the GTX 780Ti, the EVGA Powerlink is necessary. A few months ago I saw an eBay seller offering a flashed 780Ti with an EVGA Powerlink included in the sale. In his description, it indicated the powerlink needs to be included.

GTX 780, even the reference, are cards that are on the limit for a MP5,1. I bet that if you run Furmark your Mac Pro backplane over current protection will shutdown your PSU within 15 minutes.

 

[maurizo]

XFX is not a Mac compatible brand.

If the Sapphire Pulse RX 580 fits your purse, buy one.

Search for Apple approved cards, see this support article:

Install macOS 10.14 Mojave on Mac Pro (Mid 2010) and Mac Pro (Mid 2012) - Apple Support

Learn how to prepare your Mac Pro (Mid 2010) or Mac Pro (Mid 2012) for macOS Mojave.

support.apple.com

Sapphire Nitro+ and Nitro+ SE RX 580 are too big and too power hungry for a Mac Pro, both are PC overclockers cards.

Ok, clear. Ordered the Sapphire RX 580. Thanks a lot for your help and patience.

 

[Macsonic]

GTX 780, even the reference, are cards that are on the limit for a MP5,1. I bet that if you run Furmark your Mac Pro backplane over current protection will shutdown your PSU within 15 minutes.

Thanks tsialex for the great input. I’ll keep that in mind. Right now most of the time I’m using the Nvidia 770GTX. Some time ago I had a Sapphire Pulse RX570 8gb and worked fine but decided to sell this card. The card occupied about 2.3 slots that I could not use the PCIe slot above the Sapphire RX570. I was concerned on the limited air space. And the backpane, there are 4 screws whose head is protruded that it caused some scratch marks on the processor cage. Though to others this may not be an issue.

 

[Project Alice]

Luckily, I did not encounter random shutdowns. I’ve use the 780GTX occasionally on semi-heavy tasks. My GPU is the EVGA Reference Design Blower Type. The card is connected using the cMac Pro’s internal power supply with a 6-pin to 8-pin and a 6-pin to 6-pin cable. Maybe with the GTX 780Ti, the EVGA Powerlink is necessary. A few months ago I saw an eBay seller offering a flashed 780Ti with an EVGA Powerlink included in the sale. In his description, it indicated the powerlink needs to be included.

That is the card I bought. It bought it like 8ish months ago. I just upgraded my main Mac Pro to a Radeon RX 590 and stuck the 780 Ti in my other 4,1 “5,1”
The 780 Ti is a great card still for what it is. And the boot screen is great. It’s that 3GB of vram that causes it to not keep up as well.

What the powerlink does is even out the power draw on both connectors. The powerlink has 2 x 8 pins instead of 1 x 6 and 1 x 8. Apparently when a card tries to draw more out of one port the MP shuts itself off. At least that’s how Jay describes it in the article I linked to in my above reply.

 

[dochoc]

I have an MVC flashed 780 Ti that came supplied with two, 6 pin mini to 6 pin and two, 6pin to 8pin. Card is supplied the additional power by connecting one each of the cables together at the 6pin to 6pin. Each cable made up of the joined cables is connected the one of the 6 pin mini outlets on the board, directly to an 8 pin on the card. I guess two, 6pin mini to 8 pin would also work. My question is why I have two 8 pin connections at the card, and am I supplying enough power? So far had no problems, but I have bought the EVGA Powerlink, and some new cables. I plan to connect a 2x 6pin mini to 8 pin to one of the 8 pin inlets on the Powerlink. The second 8 pin Powerlink inlet will connect to a 2x SATA to 8 pin using either the optical bay connections or from the Hardrive bay connections on the board, I believe that HDD 2 and 3 must be used. Possibly the SATA cable connector must have a lug removed? As I have two 8 pin connectors on the card it seems to make sense to use as an 8 rather than 6?

 

[Macsonic]

That is the card I bought. It bought it like 8ish months ago. I just upgraded my main Mac Pro to a Radeon RX 590 and stuck the 780 Ti in my other 4,1 “5,1”
The 780 Ti is a great card still for what it is. And the boot screen is great. It’s that 3GB of vram that causes it to not keep up as well.

What the powerlink does is even out the power draw on both connectors. The powerlink has 2 x 8 pins instead of 1 x 6 and 1 x 8. Apparently when a card tries to draw more out of one port the MP shuts itself off. At least that’s how Jay describes it in the article I linked to in my above reply.

Thanks for sharing your experience and the info on the EVGA powerlink. I like the silver/black design of the reference 780GTX as it blends well with the cMac Pro. I was thinking of getting the AMD RX480 reference or the RX VEGA56 but there was an advisory by tsialex on another thread last March 27 on the high power draw of these GPUs that might cause damage to the backpane.

 

[tsialex]

Thanks for sharing your experience and the info on the EVGA powerlink. I like the silver/black design of the reference 780GTX as it blends well with the cMac Pro. I was thinking of getting the AMD RX480 reference or the RX VEGA56 but there was an advisory by tsialex on another thread last March 27 on the high power draw of these GPUs that might cause damage to the backpane.

Just the reference RX 480 and Dell RX 480/580. VEGA reference don't have the same excessive power consumption from the PCIe slot.

 

[maurizo]

Hi again, and thanks again for help (and patience).

Just to be sure I'm getting what I ordered, this is the GPU arrived today from Amazon. It should be a Radeon RX580, I hope.

Now, looking on the web, I saw they mount it using a 2x6pin to 8pin adapter cable, not included in the box. The specs say that MacPro power supply should go out with a 900W, and I suppose I need that cable to get the card properly running, right?

I found this adapter on Amazon,

ILS. - Cavo Splitter 18AWG Dual Mini 6 Pin Male To 8 Pin Male PCI-e Y Power cable per Mac Pro

ILS. - Cavo Splitter 18AWG Dual Mini 6 Pin Male To 8 Pin Male PCI-e Y Power cable per Mac Pro

www.amazon.it

Is it what I need?

Thanks again

 

[Macsonic]

Hi again, and thanks again for help (and patience).

Just to be sure I'm getting what I ordered, this is the GPU arrived today from Amazon. It should be a Radeon RX580, I hope.

Now, looking on the web, I saw they mount it using a 2x6pin to 8pin adapter cable, not included in the box. The specs say that MacPro power supply should go out with a 900W, and I suppose I need that cable to get the card properly running, right?

I found this adapter on Amazon,

ILS. - Cavo Splitter 18AWG Dual Mini 6 Pin Male To 8 Pin Male PCI-e Y Power cable per Mac Pro

ILS. - Cavo Splitter 18AWG Dual Mini 6 Pin Male To 8 Pin Male PCI-e Y Power cable per Mac Pro

www.amazon.it

Is it what I need?

Thanks again

Yes that is the correct cable, two 6-Pin to One 8-Pin. Congrats and enjoy your GPU

 

[maurizo]

Thanks a lot, I'm placing the order right now

 

[maurizo]

Ok, everything's working like a charm:; Super easy installation, and voila, Photoshop's GPU acceleration in action, no more disabled features and most of all my graphic tablet now really follows my hand with no delay at all. Super!

Thank you all for invaluable support and hints.