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

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I just installed a GTX 660 today in my Mac Pro 3.1. The 10.8.2 stock drivers don't work. I had to download the latest from Nvidia.

The 660 is very quiet and only uses one power cable. It doubled the game performance of the 5770. The only problem I have encountered so far is that the System Profile can no longer display PCI card info.

I hope 10.8.3 will included the latest drivers from Nvidia. Otherwise, it will be a pain to put in the old card to reinstall the drivers again.
 
I spoke too soon. The 660 keeps crashing when playing Diablo 3. It was fine for the first 30-40 minutes. It might be heat related or driver issue with the game.
 
Einz said:
I spoke too soon. The 660 keeps crashing when playing Diablo 3. It was fine for the first 30-40 minutes. It might be heat related or driver issue with the game.
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Application or system crash? If it's the app crash, what does the crash log look like? If it's a system crash, is there anything in /var/log/system.log or the panic log? Trying to understand if this issue is related to the GPU or drivers.
 
Just reporting in, I installed the EVGA GTX680 SC in my Mac Pro 4,1 and it seems to be working just fine. Haven't done many tests from within OSX though (no games etc.). I can't list any PCI devices in system profiler but other than that, it seems fine. Using latest nVidia web drivers for 10.8.2.
 
Asgorath said:
Application or system crash? If it's the app crash, what does the crash log look like? If it's a system crash, is there anything in /var/log/system.log or the panic log? Trying to understand if this issue is related to the GPU or drivers.
Click to expand...

No crash log, after studying some more, I think it's the card. The screen got pixlelated and then the system freezes. It looked like the card was overheated when stressed. I'm returning it and getting another one. I like the card.
 
Einz said:
No crash log, after studying some more, I think it's the card. The screen got pixlelated and then the system freezes. It looked like the card was overheated when stressed. I'm returning it and getting another one. I like the card.
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Did you check /var/log/system.log (you can use /Applications/Utilities/Console to view this) for messages from the driver? They will have a prefix of "NVDA:" and might hint at what was going wrong.
 
That was the first thing I looked at. There was nothing related to the card or any crash. When I get my replacement card then I'll know if it was the card or the drivers.
 
Quick update. Finally found an EVGA GTX570 in the US, which has been ordered and is on its way. I figured the CUDA performance, power requirements, VRAM and ease of use made the 570 the way to go. Thanks to Asgorath for collating this info. Hopefully I'll have some CUDA goodness before long! (I'm not expecting much from OpenGL to be honest.)
 
^^^^You say there are none in the UK?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=gtx570

Lou
 
so when 10.8.3 comes out, the best route to upgrading would be to wait until nVidia releases their new drivers for that particular OS, then upgrade to it? i assume i wont need to download new CUDA drivers and redo the hack so that the OS recognizes the 2.5gb of VRAM with OpenCL as well correct?
 
GT630 in a Mac Pro 1.1

I have carried out a test of installing an Nvidia Geforce GT630 in my Mac Pro 1.1.
Before plugging the card in, I installed the Nvidia drivers for 10.7.4 Lion. Booting up the system with the new card in the machine worked like a charm. My 27" and my 23" display both lid up as Lion loaded to the desktop.

In system profiler the card reads as an "NVIDIA Chip Model 256 MB".
To test the performance of the newly installed card, I launched Unreal Tournament 2004. With every graphic setting on the very highest everything runs lightning fast and flawless. When operating the OS everything seems very fast as well.

My old card is the passively cooled 7300GT. This i have kept in the machine. The GT630 is installed in lane 1, and the 7300GT has been moved to lane 4. The first time Lion boots with both cards installed, the user is allowed to alter the allocation of bandwidth for each lane.

I've got Windows 7 installed on the machine as well, with Boot Camp.
In Windows everything is working like a charm too! Both cards in the machine, both recognized, both outputting full resolutions properly. And games executed by the GT630 seem to run amazingly well. As examples I tested Sniper Elite V2 and F.E.A.R. 3. Both games run smoothly at an HD resolution of 1280x720 with details on high.

To summ up:
The GT630 in my Mac Pro 1.1 runs very well in both 10.7.4 Lion and Windows 7 (64 bit ultimate).
With both the original 7300GT and the new card in the machine, both cards are recognized and fully functional, under both operating systems.

The exact card i bought and installed is: ASUS GT630-2GD3 - 2GB
Product number 90-C1CSE1-S0UAN0BZ

What is furthermore worth mentioning: The 7300GT outputs the grey Apple boot screen (installed in lane 4, with the GT630 in lane 1).

Feel free to ask questions.
Best regards
Kristian Thomsen
 
Asgorath said:
Did you check /var/log/system.log (you can use /Applications/Utilities/Console to view this) for messages from the driver? They will have a prefix of "NVDA:" and might hint at what was going wrong.
Click to expand...

I have my replacement 660 card for the past 2 days and have not encountered any problem. So, my old card must have been defective.
 
Okay I’ve been trying to get my new EVGA GTX 680 4GB working in my 2010 Mac Pro on my bootcamp partition but I just keep getting a black screen. I’ve made sure all drivers from my previous card are gone and as far as I can tell everything is connected up right inside the tower, any ideas as to what I’m doing wrong?

edit: Just to clarify the black screen isn’t just on start up, even when windows fully loads the screen is still black.
 
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Yarrow said:
Can confirm EVGA GTX680 SC works fine with stock driver of 10.8.2 as well
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Actually i've got a problem trying to boot into bootcamp Win7 via Alt boot screen blindly (trying to count necessary right arrow key pressings and press Enter then) - black screen, it seems system got halted trying to render boot screen via EVGA GTX680 SC.

The only option for me currently to boot into Win7 is removing OS X bootable drive out from MacPro, this way Win7 is the only OS in the system and boot menu is not necessary. Not very convenient...
 
Yarrow said:
Actually i've got a problem trying to boot into bootcamp Win7 via Alt boot screen blindly (trying to count necessary right arrow key pressings and press Enter then) - black screen, it seems system got halted trying to render boot screen via EVGA GTX680 SC.

The only option for me currently to boot into Win7 is removing OS X bootable drive out from MacPro, this way Win7 is the only OS in the system and boot menu is not necessary. Not very convenient...
Click to expand...

Have you tried the methods discussed in the first post of the thread for switching to/from Boot Camp?
 
Asgorath said:
Have you tried the methods discussed in the first post of the thread for switching to/from Boot Camp?
Click to expand...

I've tried selecting startup disc in System Preferences - doesn't work
(Might be due to my specific setup - I have RAID card that boots OS X, and motherboard's HDD controller that boots windows installed on disc in 5.25" bay, so it seems startup disk selection tool doesn't lookup for a bootable partition in disc attached to MB's controller if there is a RAID card installed)

Regarding BootChamp etc. - haven't tried yet, actually I've missed that kind of apps at all, thanks for suggestion!
 
RE: sleep issue

Hi all,

Firstly, thanks for this great thread, it is awesome to know so many contributing to this pool of knowledge about using these PC nvidia cards in our mac pros.

I have a problem with my setup I would like to ask if any of you have encountered.

My setup -
12 core 2.4 mac pro -2012, 12GB RAM, Mountain Lion 10.8.2.

I just purchased 2 nvidia cards and hope to run a resolve setup on it. I purchased an Asus GT 640 1GB http://sg.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/NVIDIA_Series/GT6401GD3L/

and a Leadtek 660Ti 2GB
http://leadtek.com/eng/product/1/646/intro.aspx

I chose these cards as I am running 10.8.2 and they are kepler cards. The 64o is able to run with no additional power so I am using it to drive the GUI and having the 660Ti run as the GPU in my resolve setup.

Everything appears to run fine and quiet. System profile also recognises both cards. I am running my monitor via the DVI-D port from the GT 640. MacSO GUI seem to be slightly faster, and FCPX runs ok too.

The only problem I have, is when I put it to sleep for an extended period of time, the blinking light on the mac pro will stay fixed and the computer will appear to have froze. Nothing I can do will wake it up. I have to restart the computer by holding the power button to shut it down and restarting.

The odd thing is, I can manually put it to sleep and it can be woken up from sleep ... if it is not too long a period of time. I did not test how long it takes before the blinking light goes into a freeze.

I think I read 2 other post mentioning something similar, but has anyone else noticed something like this? I have the habit of putting my computer to sleep instead of shutting it down, and whenever i do so at night before going to bed, I have to end up rebooting it in the morning.

Is this a widespread issue?
 
Asgorath said:
Have you tried the methods discussed in the first post of the thread for switching to/from Boot Camp?
Click to expand...

Thanks again, BootChamp helped me.

Also i've tried to use helper GeForce GT 120 card and it also works, i see boot screen. I think helper card is a bit more convenient than BootChamp because i don't need to boot OS X first if i need to get into Win7 right after power up.

There is one drawback with helper card - i don't know how to disable it in OS X after system boot complete. It's keep working and thinking it drives secondary display that is actually the same that main one, and mouse cursor sometimes goes away beyond right side of display.

Is it possible to disable particular graphics card in OS X?
 
EVGA 9500 GT 1GB working in Mac Pro 1,1

Have an EVGA 9500GT 1GB card, runs great in my Mac Pro 1,1 (flashed to a 2,1-thanks Netkas!) as a secondary card to my flashed Radeon 5770. Used driver 270.00.00f06 (running 10.7.4)...just used Pacifist to extract the files and then uses Kext Wizard to install them and rebuild the Extensions cache...works a treat and now I have full QE/CI, which I was having no luck with via other methods (ATY_Init, NVEnabler, etc would give me video but no acceleration).

Thanks for the links to the driver, I was going nuts over this for two days!
 
^^^^I never heard of the first card you posted. But, folks seem to be having good luck with the second card, the EVGA. Both have 2.5 GBs of RAM. The first one is an overclocked card and EVGA card is clocked at stock speeds. The first one has two fans, the EVGA has one cooling fan. The connection choices are the same. Both should work on you mac with the correct OS and drivers. Neither will have a boot screen unless modified by MacVidCards. Note, MacVidCards sells the very same EVGA card (on eBay in the US) as your second post modified with an EFI ROM. So, to answer your question, no they are not the same card. And Again, the EVGA card is a known item on these forums the Point of View card is not.

Lou
 
Great information. I just want to make absolutely sure that I understand everything!

Ok so first off I have a early 2009 Mac 4,1. I have Mountain Lion 10.8.2 installed.

The following is what I think I know, if I'm incorrect in any areas could you please let me know.

If I was to buy a GTX 670 or 680 they come with two 6 pin connectors. As long as I don't buy an overclocked version they will work out of the box without needing an external power supply. I'm assuming that the amount of vram they have doesn't affect the power, so a 2GB would be the same as a 4GB? I'm also assuming that they'll plug right into the existing cables that I have for my ATI card which is an HD 4870?

Mountain Lion drivers allow you to boot up with the GTX cards as in I'll see as boot screen (the Apple Logo)?

It will use PCIE 2 not 1, as long as I don't use windows?


Now for two questions I'm still not sure of.

1: Someone asked if you can display two monitors without an adapter but I didn't see an answer. I'm assuming you can?

2: If I've understood correctly, if you have a 2GB card or above, the card won't work at all so you still need to run the CL 2gb limit process with the latest drivers?
Is it the same process as for 10.7.5?
Someone posted in this thread this great tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6pEmIiN4Co but it's for 10.7.5 so not sure if it will be the same for 10.8.2

Thanks again for your consistent support, it's really helped me out.
 
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