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Frequently Asked Questions About NVIDIA PC (non-EFI) Graphics Cards

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howiest said:
I should've mentioned... I'm in Canada, and I'd have to send it away to have it flashed, which increases the cost substantially. I've been looking on MacVidCards site and there's a few cards just below the GTX 980 that are more in my price range though.
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Ah. You also didn't mention you wanted a flashed card...
 
howiest said:
Since you guys are on the topic...
Which video card would be a good upgrade for my cMP, which currently has a flashed Radeon 6870 in it? Primarily for Boot Camp gaming (GTA V, Wolfenstein New World Order, etc).
I run dual displays, Dell UltraSharps.

Something in the mid-range price and performance-wise, say, $400.00 to $500.00.
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Choose a card with at least 4 GB VRAM. On my Mac Pro GTA V uses ~3.2 GByte of VRAM @ 1440p with details maxed out (FXAA, no MSAA, no 'long shadows'). I'm playing GTA V with a GTX 770 4 GB from MVC. Very smooth @ resolution 2560 * 1440. And as a Kepler card it's supported by OS X drivers, so no hassles with OS X updates. The GTX 770 has the same GK104 chip as the harder available GTX 680, and you can still buy it new. Note: Only the MVC version supports 2 * 6 pin power. For non-4K-gaming up to 1440p, I would say it's the sweet spot.

These charts may be useful: http://barefeats.com/gtx980ti.html

If you don't mind that Maxwell cards are only supported by Nvidia Web drivers, or you are planning to play games @ 4K or 5K (~6 GB VRAM needed for maxed details), buy a GTX 980 Ti. At 4K resolution and above the Maxwell cards will separate considerably from Kepler cards: http://barefeats.com/mpt4k.html
 
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Synchro3 said:
Choose a card with at least 4 GB VRAM. On my Mac Pro GTA V uses ~3.2 GByte of VRAM @ 1440p with details maxed out (except 'long shadows'). I'm playing GTA V with a GTX 770 4 GB from MVC. Very smooth @ resolution 2560 * 1440. And as a Kepler card it's supported by OS X drivers, so no hassles with OS X updates. The GTX 770 has the same GK104 chip as the harder available GTX 680, and you can still buy it new. And the MVC version supports 2 * 6 pin. For non-4K-gaming up to 1440p, I would say it's the sweet spot.

These charts may be useful: http://barefeats.com/gtx980ti.html

If you don't mind that Maxwell cards are only supported by Nvidia Web drivers, or you are planning to play games @ 4K or 5K (~6 GB VRAM needed), buy a GTX 980 Ti.
Click to expand...

Thanks man. That's exactly the info I was looking for.
 
howiest said:
I'm not too concerned about the boot screens (I can get around that with BootChamp), but I assumed that in order to have all the card's ports active, flashing was required.
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Other benefits from a MVC flashed GTX 770 apart from boot screen is PCI express 2.0 support in Windows, and support for 2 * 6 pin power cables, even if one of the connections is 8 pin.


I quote MVC: When there is a 6 pin and an 8 pin, things get more complicated. On many GTX680 cards the 8 pin is "optional". This means you can plug in a 6 pin and the card works fine. For many GTX770 and GTX780 cards we do a mod to the card that creates this same functionality. So you can just plug in the 2 @ 6 pin cables and it should boot right up. http://www.macvidcards.com/blog/my-...tops-during-boot-and-then-crashes-and-reboots
 
Synchro3 said:
Other benefits from a MVC flashed GTX 770 apart from boot screen is PCI express 2.0 support in Windows, and support for 2 * 6 pin power cables, even if one of the connections is 8 pin.


I quote MVC: When there is a 6 pin and an 8 pin, things get more complicated. On many GTX680 cards the 8 pin is "optional". This means you can plug in a 6 pin and the card works fine. For many GTX770 and GTX780 cards we do a mod to the card that creates this same functionality. So you can just plug in the 2 @ 6 pin cables and it should boot right up. http://www.macvidcards.com/blog/my-...tops-during-boot-and-then-crashes-and-reboots
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Interesting.
I'm currently bartering with my wife over the cash outlay. ~grimace~

The 4 GB GTX 770 is $440.00 at MVC. Add 25% currency exchange plus shipping and duty. Ouch.
It wasn't long ago that our dollar was on par. If only I'd have jumped on this upgrade then.
I'll be checking out eBay as well.
 
This information is not valid anymore, at least I don't think so. I know you haven't mentioned AMD Graphics Cards but my 7950 Appears to be working at full link speeds under Windows. Only under OSX am I limited to PCI-E 1.0..
 
Yamcha said:
This information is not valid anymore, at least I don't think so. I know you haven't mentioned AMD Graphics Cards but my 7950 Appears to be working at full link speeds under Windows. Only under OSX am I limited to PCI-E 1.0..
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This thread is about Nvidia cards.

Your card is AMD, a different company.

And unless you removed the R17 resistor, you are in error.
 
dmylrea said:
You double posted basically the same thing in the last two posts.

In any case, I have a 4,1 (flashed to 5,1) with a GTX970 and I haven't had any issue (apart from forgetting that ANY update caused my video to go black and having to wait for nVidia to release a new web driver).

10.10.5 -> 10.11 -> 10.11.1 just fine.

I'm thinking it may be something with your OS X configuration? Uninstall the nVidia webdrivers, put in your GT120 and try installing 10.11.1 (if you haven't installed 10.11 at all, you should be able to download and install 10.11.1 directly from the app store).
Click to expand...


Hi, I have a similar Mac Pro 4,1 as yours, but the video card in mine is GTX 660 ti. Thinking about upgrading to GTX 970.
Wondering if you use Adobe CC apps, esp. Premiere, Prelude, and Speedgrade? My main goal is to make use of the GPU CUDA acceleration in these video editing apps.

Thanks!

Alex
 
chouki said:
Hi
I'm experiencing unsolved problem trying to install a non-EFI GTX 980Ti in my 2009 Mac Pro with Yosemite 10.10.5
I of course installed the latest WebDriver 346.02.03f01.
All I get is a black screen.

I have tried several processes, thanx to all the info I got here :

- Uninstalled the previous Nvidia Driver and Cuda Driver
- Booted using a GT120
- Did the "nv_disable=1" trick described in point 24) of the first post of the thread
- Tried to uninstall and re-install the driver using a AMD card
- Reseted NVRAM
- Followed what was described in this thread by DMCDesign, using my AMD card

Well, after a whole day of trying different solutions, I still have the same result: black screen from the 980 Ti
(I have only connected my screen to the DVI port as I don't have any Displayport adaptator at the moment)

The 980Ti is plugged via two cables from the motherboard, one is a 6-Pin, one is a 6-to-8-Pin.
The card green letters lighting is working
In system info, the card appears as NVIDIA Chip Model with... 256 Mo of VRAM (!!)
In NVIDIA Driver MAnager, the slot where the card is says pci10de,fb0
(well actually it's very strange, as the GT120 is in slot 1 but presented in the manager as in slot 3, and same vice-versa with slot 3 where is the 980Ti)

Here is my setup :
Mac Pro 2009 4,1 upgraded to 5,1 / 12X3,46
OS X 10.10.5
Apple HD Displays 30" / 23"
EVGA Standard GTX 980Ti

I have an extra GT120, a GTX 480 from Macvidcards, and another Radeon, if that can help for a process..

I really don't know what to do now, if someone has encountered the same issue and found a way out, please let me know, thanx!
Click to expand...
 
Just tried to install a GTX 980 in my upgraded Mac Pro (4,1 to 5,1). Was also getting the black screen. On whim of an old thread about Macbook Pro users seeing black screens, I reset the SMC by unplugging all cables (including power), holding down the power button for more than 5 seconds, and hooked it all back up. Came to life!

So if you're seeing a black screen, try resetting SMC and PRAM too..
 
Tim980 said:
Just tried to install a GTX 980 in my upgraded Mac Pro (4,1 to 5,1). Was also getting the black screen. On whim of an old thread about Macbook Pro users seeing black screens, I reset the SMC by unplugging all cables (including power), holding down the power button for more than 5 seconds, and hooked it all back up. Came to life!

So if you're seeing a black screen, try resetting SMC and PRAM too..
Click to expand...

OK I'll try this, I've reset the PRAM but not SMC
Thanx !
 
chouki said:
OK I'll try this, I've reset the PRAM but not SMC
Thanx !
Click to expand...

I can't promise it will work, but who knows! I had tried everything I could think of. The only other thing that changed, was that after I went back to my GTX 660, which works fine, the Nvidia driver did a .update to the driver. So it's possible there was a bug in the initial 10.11.1 release driver that this fixed. But I've read that when installing a new PCI card, resetting the SMC can help..

Just remember to unplug all cables, let it sit a minute, hold the power button for at LEAST five seconds (I do 10 to be overly safe).

Good luck, please report back if it works, I'll be curious!
 
Tim980 said:
I can't promise it will work, but who knows! I had tried everything I could think of. The only other thing that changed, was that after I went back to my GTX 660, which works fine, the Nvidia driver did a .update to the driver. So it's possible there was a bug in the initial 10.11.1 release driver that this fixed. But I've read that when installing a new PCI card, resetting the SMC can help..

Just remember to unplug all cables, let it sit a minute, hold the power button for at LEAST five seconds (I do 10 to be overly safe).

Good luck, please report back if it works, I'll be curious!
Click to expand...

Well I've tried the SMC reset and it didn't work neither. Next step is powering the card with an external PSU, then if still not working, trying the card on another macpro or a PC.
Thanx anyway Tim!
 
I have just plugged a GTX 960 in my Mac Pro, running El Capitan with latest NVidia web drivers (346.03.03f02). Card only requires a 6pin power cable and is virtually silent when idle (ASUS STRIX OC model).

Compared to my stock GT120, the OpenGL boost is of course very significant, but it looks like Open CL support might be broken: I have very low scores in most Open CL benchmarks, only 8 Compute Units are detected and Luxmark even renders incorrectly (I'm getting a hazy, grayish result instead of the expected image).

Any clue?
 
Hey, question here. I have a 2008 Mac Pro with a Radeon X1900 XT. Currently dual monitor, looking for three.

If I keep the X1900 XT in one slot and install a newer NVidia card in another slot (say, Geforce 660 Ti?), is it possible to retain the boot screen (on the monitor hooked up to the X1900 XT) while otherwise getting the benefits of the newer card for gaming and the other monitors?
 
GFLPraxis said:
Hey, question here. I have a 2008 Mac Pro with a Radeon X1900 XT. Currently dual monitor, looking for three.

If I keep the X1900 XT in one slot and install a newer NVidia card in another slot (say, Geforce 660 Ti?), is it possible to retain the boot screen (on the monitor hooked up to the X1900 XT) while otherwise getting the benefits of the newer card for gaming and the other monitors?
Click to expand...

Yes, this should work fine.
 
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^^^^Yes it should, but the X1900XT was really a crappy card that Apple recalled and replaced for numerous field failures. I'm surprised Mr. Praxis's card is still working at this point. I would scrap it and replace it at this point.

Lou
 
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I read the article above but I'm doing every day more and more confusing, if you buy a Geforce for windows (non-flashed) my MacPro 5.1 after starting the recognized or not.
I do not know why but graphics cards with firmware apple always cost more!
So if I have a black screen until the MacPro not started, and after the video card is recognized, I can buy any video card on the market, but if after login card is still not recognized, they are forced to buy it "for mac "-" for mac "or visit" macvidcards.com ".
 
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