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

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nigelbb said:
Cooler & quieter than a 760 plus a 5770. Plus it can be flashed for free without paying the MVC tax:) A 680 has 2 x dual-link DVI plus DisplayPort plus HDMI. All you would need is DVI to VGA adaptor. The point is that you don't need two graphics cards to hook up 4 monitors.

The performance of the 680 is a bit higher too. http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-760-vs-GeForce-GTX-680
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Okay, and 680 costs 2.5x 760?
How much MVC charges just for downloading the EFI?
Is it legal if somebody who has it, gives a link?
Or am I even allowed to ask that last question here?
 
toke lahti said:
Okay, and 680 costs 2.5x 760?
How much MVC charges just for downloading the EFI?
Is it legal if somebody who has it, gives a link?
Or am I even allowed to ask that last question here?
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The binary file to flash the 2GB GTX680 to a genuine Mac GTX680 is freely available. It's not from MVC. He is the only option if you want some other Nvidia card flashed so you have a boot screen.

Here is the link to a thread on this forum that discusses flashing the GTX680 https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/confirmed-and-possible-flashable-gtx-680-models.1578255/

I have flashed a couple of GTX680s without problem using the instructions & downloading the files linked from this other forum (except that I used -4 -5 -6 flags) http://forum.vrayforc4d.com/index.php?threads/13946/ It seems there is a problem using newer versions of nvflash but the one linked there is confirmed to work.
 
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nigelbb said:
The binary file to flash the 2GB GTX680 to a genuine Mac GTX680 is freely available. It's not from MVC. He is the only option if you want some other Nvidia card flashed so you have a boot screen.

Here is the link to a thread on this forum that discusses flashing the GTX680 https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/confirmed-and-possible-flashable-gtx-680-models.1578255/

I have flashed a couple of GTX680s without problem using the instructions & downloading the files linked from this other forum (except that I used -4 -5 -6 flags) http://forum.vrayforc4d.com/index.php?threads/13946/ It seems there is a problem using newer versions of nvflash but the one linked there is confirmed to work.
Click to expand...
I was asking about EFI to gtx760...
 
toke lahti said:
Okay, and 680 costs 2.5x 760?
How much MVC charges just for downloading the EFI?
Is it legal if somebody who has it, gives a link?
Or am I even allowed to ask that last question here?
Click to expand...

As far as I know, if you want one of MVC's firmwares, you have to send your video card to him and have him flash it for you.
 
toke lahti said:
Do MVC make their EFIs by themselves and those aren't floating around the web?
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Yes, they make it themselves.

Also, it's not just a matter of "floating around" or not.

The EEPROM capacity on Nvidia cards is too small to contain the Mac EFI in addition to everything else in the ROM file. So you have to replace the existing chip with a higher capacity EEPROM before the card can manage the larger file. The only exception to this among Nvidia cards (that I'm aware of) is the GTX 680, which is why that's a popular card to flash yourself.

ATI/AMD cards have a sufficiently large EEPROM capacity, so no chip replacement is required. That's why everyone flashes AMD cards instead of Nvidia (exception being the GTX 680).
 
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ActionableMango said:
The EEPROM capacity on Nvidia cards is too small to contain the Mac EFI in addition to everything else in the ROM file. So you have to replace the existing chip with a higher capacity EEPROM before the card can manage the larger file. The only exception to this among Nvidia cards (that I'm aware of) is the GTX 680, which is why that's a popular card to flash yourself.
Click to expand...

It's purely a software solution from MVC with no soldering of chips. The Nvidia ROMs are plenty big enough. The reason that the GTX680 ROM is freely available is that the ROM has been read & copied from a genuine eVGA Mac Edition GTX680. Incidentally the same has been done with MVC's Nvidia cards but those who have read the ROMs haven't released the code but use it themselves to flash cards for sale.

There have been cases in the past where it was necessary to solder an EEPROM onto the graphics card but that is not true of the current crop of Nvidia cards e.g. 760, 970, 980 etc
 
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ActionableMango said:
The EEPROM capacity on Nvidia cards is too small to contain the Mac EFI in addition to everything else in the ROM file. So you have to replace the existing chip with a higher capacity EEPROM before the card can manage the larger file. The only exception to this among Nvidia cards (that I'm aware of) is the GTX 680, which is why that's a popular card to flash yourself.
Click to expand...

Not all cards require an EPROM swap. For example, the GTX 770s do not require it.


nigelbb said:
The reason that the GTX680 ROM is freely available is that the ROM has been read & copied from a genuine eVGA Mac Edition GTX680.
Click to expand...

There's also the 4GB GTX 680 ROM which was made freely available by someone. That one must have been modified by somebody...
 
Synchro3 said:
No.
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So,
I'm not going to buy expensive ancient card, which will be obsolete, when I buy my next monitor.
MVC's $200 flashing makes me want to ask if anybody could PM me about sending me EFI for "tryout", but I don't want to get MVC mad, so I won't ask.

Are there any newer nvidia card that has EFI "floating around"?
How good performance newer AMD cards would have in cs6, cs cc, fcpx & motion?
 
MVC also dose the resistor mod to the cards (i think) & provides support, so it's not just the firmware. for most the cards you dont actually need to mod them & why not just get an ati card if you want to know about performance just do a google
(never chase a 'obsolete' mind set or you will always be behind, get what works and stick with it)
 
I really don't understand anybody would flash a GTX, my favorite for Apple dummies is the GTX 780, great gpu and dummy proof.
The ones insiting on having a bootscreen should have their heads examined....
 
carpsafari said:
I really don't understand anybody would flash a GTX, my favorite for Apple dummies is the GTX 780, great gpu and dummy proof.
The ones insiting on having a bootscreen should have their heads examined....
Click to expand...


It's not about the boot logo, but able to use boot manager, recovery partition, and know what's happening (when things go wrong).

For some users, may be PCIe 2.0 is important as well.

It may be useless for you, but very important to other users. If you can understand this simple logic, you should have your head examined.

e.g. Without this "boot screen", there is no way to turn off SIP in El Capitan. There is no way to flash the 4,1 to 5,1. It will be unable to identify the problem if a wrong kext is injected and cause Kernal panic during boot.
 
Boot manager,...hahahahaha, yeah most modern Mac dummies are too stupid to do 'screensharing'

Recovery partition is THE worst 'innovation' of Apple and I refuse to use it, EVER! (like TimeMachine)

Its already Pci 2.0

You guys keep feeding this fear with dummies, I would not pay 10 cents for flashing.

MVC is laughing all the way to the bank, good for him, if you are too thick, you deserve to pay!!

btw, Stick a Yosemite loaded sled into your Mac and do the firmware thing...this is exactly what I mean,..feeding fear to make money of stupid users.
 
carpsafari said:
Boot manager,...hahahahaha, yeah most modern Mac dummies are too stupid to do 'screensharing'
Click to expand...

Screensharing works with the boot manager? I never knew.


carpsafari said:
Recovery partition is THE worst 'innovation' of Apple and I refuse to use it, EVER! (like TimeMachine)
Click to expand...

That's you. Plenty of other people use them.


carpsafari said:
Its already Pci 2.0
Click to expand...

Not in Bootcamp.


carpsafari said:
You guys keep feeding this fear with dummies, I would not pay 10 cents for flashing.
Click to expand...

I don't see anyone feeing fear to anyone. I haven't paid anyone for flashing either.


carpsafari said:
MVC is laughing all the way to the bank, good for him, if you are too thick, you deserve to pay!!
Click to expand...

He provides a service and earns money doing so. Nothing wrong with it. No one is forced to use his service.


carpsafari said:
btw, Stick a Yosemite loaded sled into your Mac and do the firmware thing...this is exactly what I mean,..feeding fear to make money of stupid users.
Click to expand...

What sled are you talking about? Which firmware thing are you talking about? I have no clue what you mean.
 
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An HDD/SSD sled. The 4.1 to 5.1 firmware, read above mine.

Time Machine is backing up for dummies and even than often it goes wrong.

The fact 'Recovery' is used is not out of choice and when you know how not to use it,....byebye...the Restore fuction worked 100x better but all for the IOS users eh.
 
One good thing about having Mac compatible firmware is for Maxwell based cards. From what I understand, it can provide basic, unaccelerated video when doing OS X updates. This makes things far more convenient especially when you do not have a second, supported video card installed.

For pre-Maxwell based cards, flashing is less important. The boot manager can be circumvented in a number of ways.

Time Machine is very convenient for me when I want to recover a file that I deleted and works seamlessly. I haven't had to do any full recoveries so I can't speak for how well it along with the Recovery partition works. I have used the Recovery partition to do a clean install for a friend before and it worked as advertised. I don't know if all the negativity regarding it is warranted.
 
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