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

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Would not suggest anyone trying to patch an incompatible NVIDIA web driver with Mojave unless you are doing it for experimental reasons on a test OS drive. Stick with the Mojave recommendations for GPU at this time or stay with High Sierra.

I'm still on High Sierra 10.13.6 17G5019 with 140.0.0.0.0 BootROM and 387.10.10.15.15.108 driver. Basically have a pass on forced upgrades for client compliance until end of Q1 2019 at the moment, which I can easily get extended through NAB 2019 given the timing. Have a feeling I may be forced to swap the Sapphire Pulse RX 580 8GB in after that or move to Windows full time.

(As an aside: somehow Windows 8 is still allowed for compliance, but macOS High Sierra may be dropped from list? Gotta love corporate IT folks...)
 
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star-affinity said:
Pascal Cards was released in the summer of 2016 (May, June) with Mac (beta) drivers arriving on 27th September of the same year.

Now, if Nvidia are among for Mojave support and adding support for Turing cards, we might just have to wait a little more.

Maybe there are other reasons for the absent Mojave drivers, but perhaps it’s not yet time to dismiss the possibility of them arriving at all?
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The “issue” this time is not even about adding lastest generation GPU support. The existing supported GPUs (even minus VOLTA) in High Sierra are not supported in Mojave. NVIDIA is officially on record stating APPLE must approve them. They’re either not being approved, or they don’t exist. Either way, there has never been this much of a delay for issuing updated drivers for a new OS.

I’d fully expect RTX delays 6+ months on Mac after the PC equivalent. That is typical.
 
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bsbeamer said:
Either way, there has never been this much of a delay for issuing updated drivers for a new OS.
I’d fully expect RTX delays 6+ months on Mac after the PC equivalent. That is typical.
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True. Hopefully this is caused by the extra work due to Metal 2.

I can live with a 6 months delay, I'd be really happy if there's a driver at all (for Mojave that would be)
 
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09872738 said:
Metal 2 is new in Mojave - so drivers need to be compatible to Metal 2.
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Nah, Metal 2 was announced in conjunction with High Sierra (a bit down on the page): https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2017...-technologies-for-storage-video-and-graphics/

But there do seem to be some new Metal 2 features in Mojave:

Further evolving its support for GPU controlled pipelines, Metal 2 in iOS 12, macOS Mojave, and tvOS 12 enables the GPU to construct its own rendering commands.

https://developer.apple.com/metal/
 
Correct me if I'm wrong: Metal 2 for HS is optional, Metal 2 for Mojave required? That's how I understood it
 
09872738 said:
Correct me if I'm wrong: Metal 2 for HS is optional, Metal 2 for Mojave required? That's how I understood it
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No. GTX 680 Mac Edition is an officially approved GPU for Mojave. It does not support Metal 2v1 with Apple’s driver. Believe Metal 1v4 only.
 
I see.

However, in my opinion supported is not fully correct. With CUDA support missing its not fully usable as intended
 
09872738 said:
I see.

However, in my opinion supported is not fully correct. With CUDA support missing its not fully usable as intended
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My confusion is that Metal runs just fine on the 770 pushing 60 FPS+ on GFXBench Metal at 1440p, the newer tech should obviously handle it and the drivers are just a matter of time if they devote the resources. CUDA has been an add-on extension for a while so it's kind of expected to be an extra driver at this point. I've not understood why it wasn't ever packaged in the web-driver though since it's tied to it now; I guess it gives them opportunity to update one without having to update both.

bsbeamer said:
No. GTX 680 Mac Edition is an officially approved GPU for Mojave. It does not support Metal 2v1 with Apple’s driver. Believe Metal 1v4 only.
Click to expand...

That's what's reporting on my 770/650.
 
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Reindeer_Games said:
(...) the newer tech should obviously handle it and the drivers are just a matter of time if they devote the resources. (...)
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I agree. Problem is not incapable hardware, problem is company policy (Apple and/or nVidia).

Reindeer_Games said:
(...) CUDA has been an add-on extension for a while so it's kind of expected to be an extra driver at this point. (...)
Click to expand...

Indeed. Obvious question is: why is there no appropriate extra driver? Again, for sure no question of technology per se.
 
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Yesterday at 10:21 AM from
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...10-14-not-available-workaround.260857/page-64

#639
sbeaber4 said:
"Apple has no responsibility to release drivers for products they never sold"

I'm confused. Are you implying that I or others are saying Apple needs to make drivers that are compatible? I thought they are talking about signing drivers not making them. By signing them it allows you to use the Nvidia drivers that Nvidia creates without disabling SIP, correct? I'm not sure why you're bringing up obligations. Although I'm unfamiliar with the driver signing process so it's quite possible I'm missing something.

Of course Nvidia might want to begin to play ball with Apple. Isn't that obvious? Why wouldn't they want to work with Apple and please Apple so they can business done in the future. To think otherwise is just silly.

No one said it is an admission of guilt. It's strange that they are silent though. This is a company that was quick to blame its users for holding their phone incorrectly.

For what it's worth I think there's a possibility that Nvidia has or had drivers that Apple declined to sign. Apple probably used quality as a reason because the old drivers were always just a disaster waiting to happen. They might have told them to go back to scratch or work with them before they sign them. Which could give credence to what some of those "Nvidia people" have said.

Of course, all of these people could have been misinformed but they are being believed and Apple is silent.

So on one hand Nvidia didn't bother looking at Mojave development betas and got caught with their pants down and has their employees incorrectly blaming Apple for not signing their imaginary drivers and Apple is just willing to sit by until Mr. Dan. And on the other is, Nvidia has drivers of a unknown quality that Apple has not signed and therefore requires SIP to be disabled which they don't want to have to be done.

Or the truth is somewhere in between.

Honestly I don't really care. I don't hold these companies to be silicon gods. Its just in my experience that the truth is hardly black and white like many wish to believe.
Did you read the post I linked to? The signing thing is all BS.

Nvidia has released drivers for High Sierra 10.13.6, they are able to sign Mojave drivers if they had any.

Apple doesn't do the signing. Nvidia does. As long as Nvidia has a Developer ID, which they obviously do because they sign the High Sierra drivers, they can sign Mojave drivers. Info.

Jensen Huang hasn't said anything on the topic. If silence = guilt, then Nvidia is guilty.



what to belive now ....
 
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Right, that's why my hypothesis is that Apple hasn't given NVIDIA the information (in the form of internal frameworks/kexts, including private headers) they need to produce a driver for Mojave. Without that information, NVIDIA simply cannot build a driver that works correctly with the private interfaces Apple provides for graphics drivers. That poster is correct in that NVIDIA signs their binaries with the certificate they got from Apple. If Apple doesn't want NVIDIA to release a web driver for Mojave, then they can simply not provide them the private information required to do so. This has nothing to do with driver signing in my opinion, but if my hypothesis is correct, then it's consistent with NVIDIA's position that Apple needs to approve their drivers for Mojave. At the end of the day, Apple has full control, and if they want to stop the web driver from being produced, then they can simply stop providing NVIDIA the information required to build the driver.

Again, this is purely speculation on my part, but it's the only reasonable explanation I've been able to come up with so far.

Edit: And to be clear, all of this just reinforces the point that nobody should be buying NVIDIA GPUs to work on macOS until all of this is resolved. If you're unlucky enough to require NVIDIA GPUs to do whatever you do with your Mac system, then it's likely time to start looking at alternatives.
 
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Neither nVidia nor Apple commented on the matter. Not a word.

We do not know why there are no drivers, if there will be some at all in the future. We do not know who‘s fault it is (nVidia not interested? Apple denying?).
All we know is were‘re screwed.

Franky I blame both since both are acting highly unprofessional. However I am inclined to believe that Apple takes the larger share for causing this mess.
What makes me kind of angry is that they do not even have the balls to comment on what we as customers have to expect.
 
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Right, to be clear, I'm not and have never suggested NVIDIA is blameless in all of this. My point is that at the end of the day, Apple holds all the cards and if they don't want the web driver on Mojave, then it simply won't happen. NVIDIA likely does not want to make a public statement to confirm that's the case, as it probably just make the situation between the two companies worse.

In any case, I just hope the situation gets resolved one way or another soon.
 
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Speedstar said:
Jensen Huang hasn't said anything on the topic. If silence = guilt, then Nvidia is guilty.



what to belive now ....
Click to expand...

Silence may speak volumes , but it doesn't equal guilt. It's more logical to presume that statement was pertaining to OEM nvidia GPU's and the CUDA drivers we were just talking about now tied solely to the web-driver. Those should be OEM and signed by Apple since they are official Apple drivers that should be embedded to the OS, which would Apple's signature-not Nvidia's.

What to believe now? Both need to get off their soapbox's-that is, if they want the customers they've had in the past to become customer again.
 
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There is one common theme in all support outreach I've had and seen from others: WAIT FOR MORE INFORMATION. Does this mean wait for 7,1 or wait for drivers? A lot really depends on timing of the 7,1 and Apple does not seem willing to be transparent with that.

I've been informed by clients my cutoff for upgrading to Mojave for compliance is end of Q1 2019. Another High Sierra security update from Apple before then would really help delay, but I cannot continue to bank on that happening with any regularity.

Writing is on the wall: transition to AMD on Mac or use NVIDIA on Windows.
 
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bsbeamer said:
Writing is on the wall: transition to AMD on Mac or use NVIDIA on Windows.
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I would agree that is what it appears-then Apple needs to step up and give up on the bootscreen battle to not make it an issue-everyone wins. I'll get one of both when I can afford them secondhand if Apple not only let AMD but requested inclusion of backwards compatibility in their ROM's.

It could be done easily-we all know that.
 
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If you can stick with HS, it’s not an issue. Many people can stick with HS. Mojave offers nothing major for MP5,1 in the update/upgrade. In fact, I will lose more than I’ll gain.

Corporate IT doesn’t get it. They allow Windows 8 & 10 but now only most recent macOS. HS is still supported and not EOL’d.
 
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bsbeamer said:
If you can stick with HS, it’s not an issue. Many people can stick with HS. Mojave offers nothing major for MP5,1 in the update/upgrade. In fact, I will lose more than I’ll gain.

Corporate IT doesn’t get it. They allow Windows 8 & 10 but now only most recent macOS. HS is still supported and not EOL’d.
Click to expand...

Agreed - for now. But time won‘t stop moving forward. Sooner or later we either need nVidia drivers or we will have to make a decision...
 
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This thread is more interesting than half of the commissioned and still unseen Apple TV shows. #whatisthetruth

I mostly want the NVidia drivers to appear because I want dark mode. Yes. I'm shallow. Gimme purdy things.
 
I got tired of waiting for the web drivers so I built a Ryzen system. Ryzen 2600, 32GB 3000MHz DDR4, nvme boot drive and my 980 Ti - all silent thanks to a custom water cooling loop too.

It's a shame, but my purchasing decision needed to be made roughly around now and Apple's promise of support for Mac Pros with Metal 2 compatible GPUs has not been honoured yet. Regardless of whether or not this is nVidia or Apple's fault, I didn't want to wait around in this game of corporate blaming.
 
Theophany said:
I got tired of waiting for the web drivers so I built a Ryzen system. Ryzen 2600, 32GB 3000MHz DDR4, nvme boot drive and my 980 Ti - all silent thanks to a custom water cooling loop too.

It's a shame, but my purchasing decision needed to be made roughly around now and Apple's promise of support for Mac Pros with Metal 2 compatible GPUs has not been honoured yet. Regardless of whether or not this is nVidia or Apple's fault, I didn't want to wait around in this game of corporate blaming.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a nice system, but you're still stuck on High Sierra on that system, right? How did you get NVMe booting to work in High Sierra, or is that supported as long as the boot ROM in the Mac Pro is the right version?
 
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