EVGA GTX-970/980 Mac Edition...?

[Asgorath]

Where do you get the impression that Apple has to support a third party component for perpetuity or even at all when they are closing off their computers? We can only be grateful that NVidia and AMD produce graphics drivers for Mac Pro tower owners. We have no idea how long that will last now that Apple no longer produces Macs with PCIE slots for upgrades.

Please re-read my posts, I'm talking about official support by NVIDIA via their web drivers. Apple only officially supports products built by them, which as you indicate, are basically closed systems now. NVIDIA only officially supports Mac Edition cards under OS X, which is why you don't find their web driver when you search for things like GTX 570 or GTX 980 on their web site. They still provide drivers for add-in cards like the GTX 285, as you can see from the list off officially supported products on their latest web driver for OS X.

As I discuss in my FAQ thread, there is a big difference between:

- Official Apple products, where the built-in drivers work.
- Official NVIDIA products, where you need the web driver for it to work.
- All other NVIDIA products, which usually work but aren't officially supported.

Again, subtle but important difference between "officially supported" and "mostly works". The GTX 570 is not an officially supported product under OS X, but it mostly works. There might be the occasional issue like one of the display connectors not working, as nigelbb indicated. My point is that you won't see bugs like that on an official NVIDIA product.

 

[h9826790]

Where do you get the impression that Apple has to support a third party component for perpetuity or even at all when they are closing off their computers? We can only be grateful that NVidia and AMD produce graphics drivers for Mac Pro tower owners. We have no idea how long that will last now that Apple no longer produces Macs with PCIE slots for upgrades.

Nvidia is a good company, they update the web driver for every OSX update. However, I did contact the 7950 Mac Edition card's manufacture for driver's issue, and the official answer is that "Please directly contact Apple for the driver update.". So, my understanding is that Apple license them to print the Mac logo on the box, let them sell the card with EFI, and Apple will provide reasonable support which including proper driver in the OSX (not necessary make the card able to perform 100%, but at least work without trouble basically).

I won't say graphic card is special. However, it's not as simple as just saying "Mac compatible" on it's box like a USB stick. If that's the case, most of the Nvidia card are actually "Mac compatible", they have no boot screen, but the card actually works under OSX. Then why they don't print that Mac logo on the box?

I have the impression that Apple has to support these 3rd party graphic cards is because the official answer from Sapphire. Then why you believe that Apple has zero responsibility to these Mac Edition card, but the manufacture MUST provide the driver which obviously not true for the HD7950 (if you know where to download the 7950 driver for Mavericks or Yosemite, please let me know, even the manufacture won't provide that).

 

[Asgorath]

Nvidia is a good company, they update the web driver for every OSX update. However, I did contact the 7950 Mac Edition card's manufacture for driver's issue, and the official answer is that "Please directly contact Apple for the driver update.". So, my understanding is that Apple license them to print the Apple logo on the box, let them sell the card with EFI, and Apple will provide reasonable support which including proper driver in the OSX (not necessary make the card able to perform 100%, but at least work without trouble basically).

I won't say graphic card is special. However, it's not as simple as just saying "Mac compatible" on it's box like a USB stick. If that's the case, most of the Nvidia card are actually "Mac compatible", they have no boot screen, but the card actually works under OSX. Then why they don't print an Apple logo on the box?

I have the impression that Apple has to support these 3rd party graphic cards is because the official answer from Sapphire. Then why you believe that Apple has zero responsibility to these Mac Edition card, but the manufacture MUST provide the driver which obviously not true for the HD7950 (if you know where to download the 7950 driver for Mavericks or Yosemite, please let me know, even the manufacture won't provide that).

NVIDIA releases a separate driver on their website (i.e. the "web driver"), AMD does not as far as I know. This allows NVIDIA to officially support GPUs that are not supported by the version of the NVIDIA driver that Apple ships with the OS itself.

 

[theitsage]

Hi MacVidCards, best buy and newegg have started selling nvidia reference GTX 970s with a tdp of 146w, is it possible that two of these could be run on internal power?
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/nvidia-...lack/9855169.p?id=1219441201895&skuId=9855169
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814132038


as they are now available at less than 150w is there going to be any work on your end to get these flashed with boot screens/full speed?

would be pretty awesome if i could run dual 970s in my cMP (maybe even in SLI?) without worrying about external power. plus the reference cards just look awesome, match the cMP so well.

Thanks for all the hard work you do for cMP users, my gtx 780 from you is still going strong =]

I tried a Gigabyte 970 with a single power cable from PCIe Booster A to a Y adapter that connects to both 6 pin and 8 pin connectors on the GPU. It works perfectly fine. Running 2 of these 970s is possible and SLI is more than likely a go in Windows.

 

[MacVidCards]

I Did install Nvidia GTX 970 to my Mac Pro 5.1 Yosemite. I have nvidia's drivers installed and 970 works fine without the boot screen.
I have Dell UP2414Q 4K display in use but I can get only 3200x1800 pixel out of the card. It will detect monitor type and max resolution correctly but does not provide 3840x2160 option.
Any idea why or how to fix this issue?

Hi, sorry you are having trouble. The crucial detail you have left out is HOW you are connecting display. Cable, adapters, connectors.

As far as rest of recent posts, part of my well documented angst when nMP was announced was I could see where it all headed. When Apple ends support for all cMPs then the ONLY drivers they will have to keep in the OS (or even allow to work) will be the ones for components in actual shipping products. If they ship an iMac with 970m, there will be no reason for driver to also support 960 and 980 as things work now.

We are most likely ceasing work on AMD cards for a similar reason that isn't often understood. AMD cards give Apple better control in that the ports are hard coded into the drivers. NVIDIA has used a different method where the ports are defined by the EFI and BIOS. This is why we have been able to create the 780 and Titan cards where all ports work perfectly. Same with 750ti and 750. Card behaves as if Apple made it.

AMD cards work best if you use the version IDENTICAL to the Mac version. With recent R9 280 cards moving to a single DisplayPort we have discovered a new issue. The Apple driver for these expects 2 Displayports. When only one is present it leads to mayhem. An unflashed one of these has twice proven completely unusable for us. The first one we were able to fix with EFI but yesterday we had to contact a flash job customer and tell them their single DP R9 280 is untenable in OSX, with or without EFI. Mind you, this is a card that system sees as "679a", same as 7950. This is why Apple writes AMD drivers as they do. So while we have been able to give bootscreens and PCIE 2.0 to R9 290, the rom will likely never be "finished" in that Apple will never include a useable "personality" in the OS. The ONLY personality so far in the family is for a 6 DP personality. (Wanna guess what that is for?)

So, since they know they aren't going to create a R9 290x for Mac they will likely never finish making a driver for it, and we will never be able to create a "perfect" R9 290x. Hackintosh folks have found ways to mod the driver to match the ports, but this requires a rewrite for every OS update, not tenable for us.

So we need to concentrate on NVIDIA cards as they are the only ones with futures as far as I can tell. The flexability in their drivers will allow us to keep making "perfect" cards for a little while . (Couple of years at least, Apple willing)

The only Ray of Hope I can offer is an obscure thing. For some reason Apple has kept a version of Expansion Slot Utility in the OS right through today. Only works or is needed on 2006/7 Mac Pro but you can go look in your Core Services folder and find a version there today. Literally 3 OS versions after what OS last "ran" on those machines. I see this as a sign that there are a few sane folks at Apple still supporting computers instead of looking forward to a day when they are all sealed up like an iPhone.

Support NVIDIA for Macs, they are our best hope, both for cMP and eGPUs in TB Macs.

 

[flowrider]

I used AMD (ATI) GPUs for years. However, my last two cards have been MVC modified Nvidia (A GTX570 and my current card, a GTX 780). Both were 3 fan Gigabyte accelerated models. The reason I switched was simply the better support from Nvidia. Years ago ATI did provide driver support, but as I said, that was a long long time ago.

Lou

 

[knowhate]

.

 

[EdDuPlessis]

As far as rest of recent posts, part of my well documented angst when nMP was announced was I could see where it all headed...

Support NVIDIA for Macs, they are our best hope, both for cMP and eGPUs in TB Macs.

I got a solution to go with that. Boycott the trashcan Mac Pro. Even though apps and storage will be web based in the future that is far far away and for now we need workstations with upgradability and customisation. We don't want everything dangling off our desks because they need to be connected to Thunderbolt. We want just as much expansion inside our workstations as outside. The last thing we want our workstation to be is a G4 Cube, NeXT box or SGI O2. They all failed for an obvious reason. Good looking but expensive and easily surpassed by the competition.

When someone comes on this forum for buying advice send them to buy a Mac Pro tower. It's the only way Apple will listen and graphics card manufacturers will keep writing drivers.

 

[m4v3r1ck]

EVGA GTX-970/980 Mac Edition...?

Will Apple be advertising the GTX-980 Mac Editon in 2015?:

"Our most powerful Mac Pro (pre-2013) GPU upgrade ever!"

I'll bet you for a Dollar! ;-)

 

[jar-i]

Hi, sorry you are having trouble. The crucial detail you have left out is HOW you are connecting display. Cable, adapters, connectors.

As far as rest of recent posts, part of my well documented angst when nMP was announced was I could see where it all headed. When Apple ends support for all cMPs then the ONLY drivers they will have to keep in the OS (or even allow to work) will be the ones for components in actual shipping products. If they ship an iMac with 970m, there will be no reason for driver to also support 960 and 980 as things work now.

We are most likely ceasing work on AMD cards for a similar reason that isn't often understood. AMD cards give Apple better control in that the ports are hard coded into the drivers. NVIDIA has used a different method where the ports are defined by the EFI and BIOS. This is why we have been able to create the 780 and Titan cards where all ports work perfectly. Same with 750ti and 750. Card behaves as if Apple made it.

AMD cards work best if you use the version IDENTICAL to the Mac version. With recent R9 280 cards moving to a single DisplayPort we have discovered a new issue. The Apple driver for these expects 2 Displayports. When only one is present it leads to mayhem. An unflashed one of these has twice proven completely unusable for us. The first one we were able to fix with EFI but yesterday we had to contact a flash job customer and tell them their single DP R9 280 is untenable in OSX, with or without EFI. Mind you, this is a card that system sees as "679a", same as 7950. This is why Apple writes AMD drivers as they do. So while we have been able to give bootscreens and PCIE 2.0 to R9 290, the rom will likely never be "finished" in that Apple will never include a useable "personality" in the OS. The ONLY personality so far in the family is for a 6 DP personality. (Wanna guess what that is for?)

So, since they know they aren't going to create a R9 290x for Mac they will likely never finish making a driver for it, and we will never be able to create a "perfect" R9 290x. Hackintosh folks have found ways to mod the driver to match the ports, but this requires a rewrite for every OS update, not tenable for us.

So we need to concentrate on NVIDIA cards as they are the only ones with futures as far as I can tell. The flexability in their drivers will allow us to keep making "perfect" cards for a little while . (Couple of years at least, Apple willing)

The only Ray of Hope I can offer is an obscure thing. For some reason Apple has kept a version of Expansion Slot Utility in the OS right through today. Only works or is needed on 2006/7 Mac Pro but you can go look in your Core Services folder and find a version there today. Literally 3 OS versions after what OS last "ran" on those machines. I see this as a sign that there are a few sane folks at Apple still supporting computers instead of looking forward to a day when they are all sealed up like an iPhone.

Support NVIDIA for Macs, they are our best hope, both for cMP and eGPUs in TB Macs.

Thanks for a good explanation. the card is Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970. It is conencted to display using Display port cable, There is no difference which display port is in use.
I have also tested with diplay port to mini display port cable without any difference.
if I go to About this Mac > displays. It identify Dell UP2424Q monitor correctly 24" (3849x2160)
I also noticed that HDMI port does not give signal to monitor.
Both power cables are connected to the GTX 970 card.

 

[Zwhaler]

Will Apple be advertising the GTX-980 Mac Editon in 2015?:

"Our most powerful Mac Pro (pre-2013) GPU upgrade ever!"

I'll bet you for a Dollar! ;-)

Seems like these days Apple is more about leaving old technology in the dust as quickly as possible.

 

[A Hobo]

I tried a Gigabyte 970 with a single power cable from PCIe Booster A to a Y adapter that connects to both 6 pin and 8 pin connectors on the GPU. It works perfectly fine. Running 2 of these 970s is possible and SLI is more than likely a go in Windows.

Sounds promising, ill wait for a community rom or macvidcard flashed versions to start appearing before i order two then =]

 

[lowendlinux]

I got a solution to go with that. Boycott the trashcan Mac Pro. Even though apps and storage will be web based in the future that is far far away and for now we need workstations with upgradability and customisation. We don't want everything dangling off our desks because they need to be connected to Thunderbolt. We want just as much expansion inside our workstations as outside. The last thing we want our workstation to be is a G4 Cube, NeXT box or SGI O2. They all failed for an obvious reason. Good looking but expensive and easily surpassed by the competition.

When someone comes on this forum for buying advice send them to buy a Mac Pro tower. It's the only way Apple will listen and graphics card manufacturers will keep writing drivers.

You're going to have to leave the Apple eco-system altogether they have made a design decision and carried across their entire line there's no going back now. We all have a line in the sand moment maybe this is yours?

 

[EdDuPlessis]

You're going to have to leave the Apple eco-system altogether they have made a design decision and carried across their entire line there's no going back now. We all have a line in the sand moment maybe this is yours?

It appears to be a line in the sand for a lot of people around here

 

[lowendlinux]

It appears to be a line in the sand for a lot of people around here

I agree

 

[AidenShaw]

Seems like these days Apple is more about leaving old technology in the dust as quickly as possible.

Except that the graphics cards in the MP6,1 use the same PCIe technology as newer, faster cards - Apple is forcing obsolescence through form-factor changes.

 

[nigelbb]

You're missing my point. The GTX 570 is not officially supported under OS X, but it happens to mostly work. You don't see Mac Edition cards like the GTX 680 having that kind of problem, do you? If there was an official Mac Edition of the 970 or 980, then you wouldn't see those kinds of issues either.

I am just bemused that the super duper enhanced Nvidia web drivers manage to break basic functionality on their own card. I had always assumed that Nvidia provided the code for the driver to Apple or am I wrong? Are there two entirely different drivers one written by Apple & the other by Nvidia?

 

[lowendlinux]

The nvidia web driver will hit your computer first, there is no telling Apples schedule for the diver update they may only update it on every point release or when a new computer carrying a new card is introduced.

 

[Asgorath]

I am just bemused that the super duper enhanced Nvidia web drivers manage to break basic functionality on their own card. I had always assumed that Nvidia provided the code for the driver to Apple or am I wrong? Are there two entirely different drivers one written by Apple & the other by Nvidia?

What part of "unsupported" do you not understand? The team at NVIDIA that works on the OS X driver most likely does not test with the GTX 570 card, and so issues like the one you're experiencing will crop up from time to time. That's the very definition of "unsupported but mostly works", i.e. the card is enabled and has acceleration. The latest version of the web driver enables the latest GTX 970 and 980 cards to work, and since the 570 is a much older architecture something obviously got broken on that specific GPU between the 310-based driver Apple ships and the 343-based driver that NVIDIA ships. Hopefully it'll get fixed, I know people are having troubles with certain ports not working on their 970/980 cards so it seems like there's a generic display connection issue with the latest web driver. Again, this is the critical difference between an officially supported card and one that is not: I'm sure that NVIDIA tests all the officially supported GPUs before each release, which is why you don't see this problem on a Mac Edition of the GTX 680, or the Quadro 4000 for Mac (which is based on the same GPU family as the 570).

I'd be very surprised if Apple wrote the driver for the NVIDIA GPUs, but based on the version number differences, it seems like Apple is much more conservative about what updates they will ship (after all, they've been shipping a 310-based driver for years now). NVIDIA seems to want to enable the newer GPUs, even in an unofficial capacity, which is why the web driver version is much more up-to-date compared with the Windows one.

TL;DR - Many people will need/want to run the latest web driver for whatever reason. If you have an unsupported GPU that works better with the stock Apple driver than the web driver, then obviously you'll want to just stick with that instead.

 

[EdDuPlessis]

Except that the graphics cards in the MP6,1 use the same PCIe technology as newer, faster cards - Apple is forcing obsolescence through form-factor changes.

The graphics card and the SSD on their overpriced game console both have odd form factors that make upgrading them irritating. Imagine trying to upgrade to the next USB or Bluetooth standard, or an SSD that can hit several GB/s. This can only be done on the Mac Pro towers.