EVGA announces a GTX 680 Mac Edition

[jeanlain]

If GTX680 and another display card (i.e 5870) need totally 4 power connector, so how does it work to power on macpro, and do the flash in bootcamp????

Why would you need 2 cards for that? A GTX680 PC card (unflashed) should output video on a Mac Pro under DOS or Windows.

 

[TheEasterBunny]

Why would you need 2 cards for that? A GTX680 PC card (unflashed) should output video on a Mac Pro under DOS or Windows.

You have to resolve the power (cords) first, the cards need them to boot under any OS

 

[xcodeSyn]

You have to resolve the power (cords) first, the cards need them to boot under any OS

As clearly stated by jeanlain, you only need to have the GTX 680 card in the machine for flashing purpose, so I'm not sure what power issue needs to be resolved? Anyone who has done it before knows it only needs one video card, the one that needs to be flashed. The only reason to have two video cards in a machine is when you need to flash a dead video card, and hopefully this would never happen to anyone.

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I have used your ROM to flash a MSI Gforce GTX680 2GB. I was a little scared because the size of the original ROM was 166 ko against 218 ko for your mac ROM. Fortunatly, it perfectly works, including boot screen and PCIe 2.0, as reported by GPU-Z! 3DMark Vantage report 31502 on graphic test, so everything looks excellent. Thanks again.....

Since MSI has more than one GTX 680 2GB model, could you let us know which model number did you flash so people could have another choice other than the EVGA models? Thanks.

 

[Cash68]

So is there anyway to get one of these working in a Mac Pro 2.1? It's heavily upgraded, but I'm kinda guessing it won't work due to the 32 bit EFI. Is there a work around?

 

[stevedusa]

I did the flashing with the unmodded GTX 680 in the Mac under Bootcamp (Windows 7 x64).

No need to make a complicated bootable CD, 2nd card at all.

However if you want to be SAFE? Do the long route.

 

[xcodeSyn]

Link speed under bootcamp?

It has been confirmed that the flashed GTX 680 has the PCIe 2.0 link speed under OS X. Has anyone tested the link speed under bootcamp?

 

[tomvos]

I am about to take the leap and flash my EVGA GTX680 SC card with the Mac ROM. However, taking a look at the excellent manual from tomvos, and before I do I have a few questions:

1) It states I should make a "bootcd/floppy" folder in step 4, but it also mentions that I should copy the files into the "bootcd/CD" folder???

2) I only have an ATI5870 and my GTX680. Is it OK to run both with only one power cable in each?

3) What is a good way to get a backup of my original GTX680 ROM?

Thanks!

1. Don't copy files to the bootcd/CD folder. The files in this folder will only be accessible via the MSCDEX driver. Since this driver does not work with the SATA superdrive of the Mac Pro you have to put any file into the bootcd/floppy folder instead.
   
   
2. I used a ATI 5770 which worked with one internal power cable. Video output was connected to the ATI 5770 so that I could see something on screen. The GTX680 was powered only by PCIe bus and one internal power cable. This is less than the requirement, but seemed to be sufficient to operate the card as far as flashing was required. Of course I did not do any heavy computation on the GTX680 in this mode and plugged back both connectors into the GTX680 as soon as possible.
   
   So basically I never booted into OS X or Windows with only one power cable attached to the GTX680!
   
   
3. This is a flaw in my guide. The floppy image which is booted is read only. No way to store your BIOS on this. You would need a method to access a writeable medium from DOS.
   That's why I recommended to put a copy of the EVGA ROM on the floppy image, too. Just in case of … being forced to switch to a plan B scenario.

Perhaps to clarify the intension of my guide:
I don't have bootcamp on my Mac. Basically, because I had trouble to do so with the unflashed GTX680 and an Apricorn X2 Solo as boot drive. I was looking for a way to flash the GTX680 without Windows or Bootcamp or putting the card into another PC (which I don't have, all my other boxes are old SGIs ). This left the DOS way as the only option. Since I spent some time to get this working, I thought I share my method — just in case that there might be others who face similar restrictions related to Bootcamp, Windows, etc.

Of course booting Windows would have been a much easier way. But then it was fun to see a DOS prompt on this big killer box just like it used to be on my first PC, a 12Mhz 286 box.

 

[Killerbob]

I did the flashing with the unmodded GTX 680 in the Mac under Bootcamp (Windows 7 x64).

Did you just open a CMD window while in Bootcamp Windows (as Administrator)? And, afterwards, did Windows have issues at all, or did you just restart into OSX or Windows?

 

[Killerbob]

I just tried running NVFLASH in a CMD window in Windows7. However, I get the following error message even when just trying to get a backup of the current ROM;

c:/ROM>nvflash -b backup.rom
NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.128)
ERROR: PCI BIOS not present
NOTE: This program can only be run under DOS.

Is it something I am doing wrong? I am running this CMD in Windows7, in Bootcamp, on my MacPro3,1...

 

[patlee88]

Dear all,

I'm ready for everything, just missing the modified GTX680 4GB rom image, and I'm dummy and really know nothing about modify rom, would anyone can share it to me. Really Really Appreciated for the help.

 

[stevedusa]

Did you just open a CMD window while in Bootcamp Windows (as Administrator)? And, afterwards, did Windows have issues at all, or did you just restart into OSX or Windows?

Yup, run as admin, list the cards then just flash.

I heard few beeps and since I asked the program to automatically restart after flashing, the machine rebooted and there it was, verbose boot screen, which I have turned on and haven't seen since the EFI 5870.

 

[MacVidCards]

I just tried running NVFLASH in a CMD window in Windows7. However, I get the following error message even when just trying to get a backup of the current ROM;

c:/ROM>nvflash -b backup.rom
NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.128)
ERROR: PCI BIOS not present
NOTE: This program can only be run under DOS.

Is it something I am doing wrong? I am running this CMD in Windows7, in Bootcamp, on my MacPro3,1...

You did get Nvflash for windows'yes?

It is a different version than DOS version

 

[Killerbob]

You're right, I used the wrong version of NVFLASH. I just successfully flashed my EVGA GTX680 SC card, and it is indeed using PCIe ver. 2.0 in OSX as well as Bootcamp Windows 7

Lost a few MHz on the GPU Clock (1059->1006MHz) and the Memory (1552MHz->1502MHz). This of course results in a slightly slower Pixel Fillrate (33.9GPixel/s->32.2GPixel/s), as well as a slower Texture Fillrate (135.6GTexel/s->128.8GTexel/s).

Now onto overclocking the card to it's former glory

Thanks to all for your help and guidance!

 

[fouel]

You're right, I used the wrong version of NVFLASH. I just successfully flashed my EVGA GTX680 SC card, and it is indeed using PCIe ver. 2.0 in OSX as well as Bootcamp Windows 7

Lost a few MHz on the GPU Clock (1059->1006MHz) and the Memory (1552MHz->1502MHz). This of course results in a slightly slower Pixel Fillrate (33.9GPixel/s->32.2GPixel/s), as well as a slower Texture Fillrate (135.6GTexel/s->128.8GTexel/s).

Now onto overclocking the card to it's former glory

Thanks to all for your help and guidance!

The way you did also works on your card but the better way is to use the original BIOS.

I use Mac K5000 EFI on the pc GTX 670 (reference card) and it works on mac with boot screen (Mac K5000 rom revision is 3730 and Mac GTX 680 EVGA is 3731).
Yes. Maybe all GTX 6xx ,Titan ,K4000 and Tesla K20c could show boot screen with Mac K5000 EFI part on Mac.
Thanks NVIDIA for offering drivers.

 

[ghislain]

As clearly stated by jeanlain, you only need to have the GTX 680 card in the machine for flashing purpose, so I'm not sure what power issue needs to be resolved? Anyone who has done it before knows it only needs one video card, the one that needs to be flashed. The only reason to have two video cards in a machine is when you need to flash a dead video card, and hopefully this would never happen to anyone.

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Since MSI has more than one GTX 680 2GB model, could you let us know which model number did you flash so people could have another choice other than the EVGA models? Thanks.

Here are the references of my MSI GTX680 GPU: MSI - N680GTX-PM2D2GD5 - Carte Graphique NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 - 2 Go GDDR5 - HDMI/DL-DVI-I/DL-DVI-D. Ordered on Amazon. Hope this helps...

 

[Killerbob]

The way you did also works on your card but the better way is to use the original BIOS.

@fouel, I am nor sure I understand what you mean? I have an original PC card, without boot screen and only PCIe ver. 1.0 capabilities in OSX and Bootcamp. I get a boot screen and ver. 2.0 when I flash it with the Mac ROM. My original card was slightly overclocked, and of course I loose this, but I guess I can get that back via overclocking.

One thing that is slightly irritating is that the boot screen (with the Apple logo) as well as the boot menu (when accessing via OPTION) is in VGA. Using my (very) original ATI5870 this was all in high resolution, but with this flashed GTX680 it is "back" to VGA

 

[cal6n]

I use Mac K5000 EFI on the pc GTX 670 (reference card) and it works on mac with boot screen (Mac K5000 rom revision is 3730 and Mac GTX 680 EVGA is 3731).
Yes. Maybe all GTX 6xx ,Titan ,K4000 and Tesla K20c could show boot screen with Mac K5000 EFI part on Mac.

Sorry, but could you explain more clearly, please?

Did you flash your GTX 670 using an unmodified K5000 BIOS file?

Or did you modify your existing GTX 670 BIOS by adding the K5000 EFI portion?

Either way, would you be able to provide the relevant files and/or a brief explanation of the editing process, please? I'd like to try to flash my Gainward Phantom GTX 670.

 

[ghislain]

Here are the references of my MSI GTX680 GPU: MSI - N680GTX-PM2D2GD5 - Carte Graphique NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 - 2 Go GDDR5 - HDMI/DL-DVI-I/DL-DVI-D. Ordered on Amazon. Hope this helps...

Just discover that if there is now a normal boot screen on the macos X side, it is still missing on the Bootcamp/Windows 7 side, i.e screen remains black until windows GPU drivers are loaded. Slightly ennoying since this preclude to start windows in safe mode. Anyone else have seen this problem with flashed 680?

 

[Killerbob]

Nope, on my flashed GTX680 I get the PCIe card BIOS screen, before the Windows booting screen, when starting the bootcamp...

 

[ghislain]

question

Nope, on my flashed GTX680 I get the PCIe card BIOS screen, before the Windows booting screen, when starting the bootcamp...

what GTX680 do you have? EVGA or MSI or anything else?

 

[Zeov]

thunderbolt card please.

 

[Asgorath]

thunderbolt card please.

They don't, and probably never will, exist. Intel owns the Thunderbolt technology, and I don't see them allowing anyone else to build it. TB is part of the chipset, so it's not like a GPU vendor can just slap a TB port on their card and call it a day.

 

[Killerbob]

what GTX680 do you have? EVGA or MSI or anything else?

I have the EVGA GTX680 SC, now flashed with the EVGA GTX680 Mac ROM.

 

[ghislain]

thanks

I have the EVGA GTX680 SC, now flashed with the EVGA GTX680 Mac ROM.

fortunatly, I have now solved the problem. In fact, the Windows boot screen was not on the primary monitor, but on the TV I use as secondary monitor. When I disconnect the TV, everything is back to normal...thanks again.

 

[Zeov]

They don't, and probably never will, exist. Intel owns the Thunderbolt technology, and I don't see them allowing anyone else to build it. TB is part of the chipset, so it's not like a GPU vendor can just slap a TB port on their card and call it a day.

the enclosures do exist.. but they only support cards that are horrible..

But an eGPU thunderbolt box for high end gaming cards would be so freaking nice