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

[Killerbob]

Checking LuxMark 2.0, with the GTX680 (10.8.3) I have 8 Compute units. I don't think I remember what it said in 10.8.2/NVIDEA drivers.

 

[transonic]

I purchased a GTX 470 thorugh Macvidcards. Haven't had the slightest problem till just about last weekend. Used CUDA mainly and it was fine. I just updated to 10.8.3 with the current cuda drivers as well. I installed the OS through a couple months old image, so I am not sure if the graphics drivers have been overwritten by 10.8.3.
The mac is a MacPro 3.1. I startied using Vdmx and Quartz composer under this mac and am having constant OpenGl Kernel crashes (monitor freezes with many additional rectangular dots and patched and some flickers.) I wanted to check if the error was caused by openGL and I downloaded GPU_Test_GUI through http://www.geeks3d.com/gputest/ After a minute of using the OpenGL test and just a little time after the cooling unit of the card spinning in the screen froze again. Below is the error I retrieved through the console.
Would you guide me on what I should do ? I don't know if it is caused by the heat and if an extra heatsink is necessary (overheated just in a minute ??) or if the drivers of nvidia are causing an error ? I ran RAMTEST for over 14 hours yesterday and it all came out okay. I reinstalled the Os last weekend.
BTW, I am also getting 2.5 GB under PCI.

ERROR:
3/22/13 12:17:31.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0x8 = Fifo: Watchdog Timeout Error
3/22/13 12:17:31.000 PM kernel[0]: IOVendorGLContext::ReportGPURestart
3/22/13 12:17:31.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDA(Private): Channel exception! exception type = 0x1f = Fifo: MMU Error
3/22/13 12:17:31.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception!
exception type = 0xd = GR: SW Notify Error
.................................
3/22/13 12:17:51.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDA(Private): Channel exception! exception type = 0x1f = Fifo: MMU Error
3/22/13 12:17:51.000 PM kernel[0]: IOVendorGLContext::ReportGPURestart
3/22/13 12:17:51.000 PM kernel[0]: 00000069
3/22/13 12:17:51.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0x1f = Fifo: MMU Error

 

[Bildbearbeiter]

10.8.3 Evga GTX 660 Ti Mac Pro 3,1 2008 Working

I have read all pages here before I took the leap to upgrade my Old ATI Radeon 4890 Card - which was well on the way to blowing up...

So I bought an EVGA Geforce GTX660 Ti Card. I first tried it whilst running OSX 10.7.4 - with no luck after installing the Drivers and Cuda etc... May be it did not work as I have Netkas Patches installed for the ATI 4890 Card ? I did not know how to Uninstall them...

(Mac 3,1 Early 2008 - now running OSX ML 10.8.3 on a SSD 256GB Drive - 28gb Ram)

So - I took the massive step to Upgrade to a Completely Fresh Install on my freshly Erased (but Backed up) SSD Boot Drive - of OSX 10.8 ML and then Combo Update to 10.8.3

Once the OSX Upgrade was completed - I installed the latest Nvidia Drivers for 10.8.1 & Latest CUDA Drivers. (as the 1st Page here) and then shut down to Install the Hardware / Card.

I Popped it into Slot 1 (even though others have used slot 2) - I used BOTH 6-Pin Power Cables from the previous Card and closed her up and re-booted.

I do NOT get the Boot Screen Apple Logo but the SSD starts up so Fast - it does not bother me.

The Card Worked Perfectly - OMG this card is So quiet I love it - my Old card drove me mad with the Fans spinning madly and causing increased mac fan noise as well every time the screen re-drew in Photoshop CS5 & CS6.

I can recommend this card to all Mac Pro 3,1 Early 2008 Users. I cannot vouch for those of you who do NOT make a Brand New Install of the OSX 10.8 - 10.8.3 as I never just Upgrade over an old system - I have never had any issues since SL going this Erase Boot Drive - fresh Install route.

I have NOT had to play with the OpenCL / Nor any secret programing in Terminal App - I am a simple person when it comes to hardware - so never venture there.

I hope this helps someone ?

Cheers and keep up the great site:

Ben

 

[Xeocon]

Hey all,

Max pro 4.1 owner with an EVGA Geforce 660ti installed. I first mentioned when I got it that the display would not wake from sleep after being out for a while. At the time I was running 10.8.2 with the appropriate CUDA driver installed. I have now updated to 10.8.3 and running the latest CUDA update and the sleep issue seems to have been solved Just thought I'd give a heads up for anyone on the fence about grabbing this great card.

 

[MidKnight44]

I am really sorry if this has been covered a bunch of times already but I have been going round in circles trying to get questions answered and you lot on here all seem to know what you are on about so I am hoping you can clarify some things for me!

I have a 2010 Mac Pro running the ATI 5870 gfx card at the moment (on the lastest version of Lion OS).

I want to update the card - I use the Mac Pro for video editing (FCP, Avid, After Effects) and I have a bootcamp partition running Windows 7 that I use for gaming.

I am looking at the Mac Version of the Sapphire 7950 but it seems really expensive and I wondered if I can just out in a stock off the shelve Nvdia 6800GTX (preferably 4GB) - I know I need one with the 6 and 6 power but is it literally just a case of downloading the latest drivers from Nvidia and then installing the card (I know I lose the boot screen in the Mac side of things) - will I get full functionality?

Or would I be better off buying a Mac approved card?

Thank you for reading!

 

[Killerbob]

I don't know anything about the 6800GTX card, but everything sounds right. Put it in, connect the 2x6-pin power, and start up OSX. It'll generally just work, and you need to load the Cuda driver and possibly update some of the CS apps to recognise your Cuda card. No NVIDEA drivers fro 10.8.3 yet though, just live with the reference drivers that OSX came with.

 

[MidKnight44]

I don't know anything about the 6800GTX card, but everything sounds right. Put it in, connect the 2x6-pin power, and start up OSX. It'll generally just work, and you need to load the Cuda driver and possibly update some of the CS apps to recognise your Cuda card. No NVIDEA drivers fro 10.8.3 yet though, just live with the reference drivers that OSX came with.

Thank you,

Okay - so there really is no specific advantage in buying the Sapphire 7950 Mac version then? - Will I be able to take advantage of 4GB of VRAM if I opt to get the 4 version or would I be better off with 2?

 

[Killerbob]

I think there are plenty of reasons to get the 7950 Mac card, but if you can live without a boot screen (and use the USB stick method when needing a bootmenu), you probably get more bang for the buck buying a GTX680. Look for the MSI or eVGA ones, some of them use 2x6-pin power.

As for the ATI cards, they are also cool (and fast), and their drivers will only get better... I checked out the games I'll be playing, and the majority clearly are more NVIDEA minded. Also I like the Cuda cores in OSX

Regarding 2 vs 4GB VRAM, I believe there used to be a hack, but I think that was resolved with 10.8.3???

 

[MidKnight44]

So when you say resolved you mean all 4 will be utilized if needed?

So basically if I was to go with a 680 4GB I would be getting full use of it (with relevant software) in OSX and in my bootcamp partition - so the ONLY downside is no boot screen - right?

 

[Killerbob]

As I said, I believe it has been sorted in 10.8.3, but perhaps someone else can verify?

 

[DanielCoffey]

Don't forget the current lack of PCIE 2.0 speeds under bootcamp when using a non-Mac card. It may be an issue you want to research according to your specific needs for the card.

 

[MidKnight44]

Don't forget the current lack of PCIE 2.0 speeds under bootcamp when using a non-Mac card. It may be an issue you want to research according to your specific needs for the card.

Does that apply to the Sapphire 7950 Mac specific card?

 

[bsbeamer]

is the consensus still to recommend the GTX 570 cards after the 10.8.3 update for CUDA-based work? curious what the latest recommendations are...

 

[Asgorath]

So when you say resolved you mean all 4 will be utilized if needed?

So basically if I was to go with a 680 4GB I would be getting full use of it (with relevant software) in OSX and in my bootcamp partition - so the ONLY downside is no boot screen - right?

Yes, all 4GB will be used. Only downside, if you can even call it that, is not boot screen. I've been living without a boot screen for a year now and it's really not that bad (I basically don't even notice anymore).

As I said, I believe it has been sorted in 10.8.3, but perhaps someone else can verify?

Yes, no need to hack the Apple OpenCL framework to enable acceleration for cards with more than 2GB of RAM.

Does that apply to the Sapphire 7950 Mac specific card?

No, cards with an EFI appear to enable PCIe 2.0 speeds by themselves, my guess is that it's part of the EFI init process.

----------

is the consensus still to recommend the GTX 570 cards after the 10.8.3 update for CUDA-based work? curious what the latest recommendations are...

Cross your fingers and hope the next NVIDIA driver for 10.8.3 includes GeForce Titan support?

 

[MacVidCards]

OpenCl on 560 cards

Seems to be broken in 10.8.3, hopefully newer Nvidia driver will fix.

 

[GermanyChris]

Gainward GTX 570 Phantom..running just dandy (but we already discussed them)

 

[m4v3r1ck]

Don't forget the current lack of PCIE 2.0 speeds under bootcamp when using a non-Mac card. It may be an issue you want to research according to your specific needs for the card.

Absolute in the right!

I have a GTX 670 FTW in a MP 3.1, 10.8.3 / BC 5.0.533 Windows 8 Pro and still using the Nvidia WHQL 310.96 drivers running all games in 1920x1200 ultra settings @ 30-60fps! Happy with my setup.

Want to gain a few more fps with the latest new/beta drivers? Prepair for the worst and hope for the best! Just sitting back, relaxing and enjoying my game-play.
Most modern movies have 24/25 fps! I never find them stuttering at all "-D

Just my 2c! Cheers

 

[Killerbob]

I too am super happy in Windows with the gaming performance of my GTX680. I play Crysis 3, MOH Warfighter, Sniper Ghost Warrior 2, and BF3, and they ALL are on High Ultra settings, and do not miss a beat (25+ FPS), even though I play on my 27" ACD at min. 2500x1400.

I know it supposedly is PCIe 1.0 speeds in Bootcamp, but my games surely do not feel the bottleneck

 

[hifimac]

CUDA seems to be broken in AE after the 10.8.3 update. After Effects does not recognize the card for CUDA acceleration.

 

[MacVidCards]

CUDA seems to be broken in AE after the 10.8.3 update. After Effects does not recognize the card for CUDA acceleration.

You should probably take a moment and mention which card this is with.

A few screens shots would help too.

 

[bsbeamer]

CUDA seems to be broken in AE after the 10.8.3 update. After Effects does not recognize the card for CUDA acceleration.

standard of practice - always have a working clone of your system drive before performing any updates... or multiple versions backdating even further. then, if there's an issue, you can quickly get back up and running while a solution is worked on and figured out.

that being said, hard to get any help without knowing which card you are using, what drivers you've installed, what the machine specs are, and what version of AE you are using.

assume so, but does AE still function and perform tasks otherwise? do you need to add the card back to the text list? did you perform other work arounds to get it working initially?

 

[Killerbob]

This here from AE 10.0.2.11, OSX 10.8.3, using the reference driver on my GTX680. I don't know what it looked like before, but assume this is working...

 

[hifimac]

Duh, sorry guys. I'm running a GTX 680 in a 5,1 Mac Pro. Is there something else I need to do after the 10.8.3 update to enable the card?

Edit- Weird, Premiere see the card for Mercury Playback. Must be something up with AE.

 

[m4v3r1ck]

Duh, sorry guys. I'm running a GTX 680 in a 5,1 Mac Pro. Is there something else I need to do after the 10.8.3 update to enable the card?

Edit- Weird, Premiere see the card for Mercury Playback. Must be something up with AE.

Did you juice the card with 1 or 2 PCIe power cables?

 

[hifimac]

Never mind, I added the card to raytracer_supported_cards.txt in the AE app package and now it is recognized. I did not have to do this previously with 10.8.2 and the downloaded Nvidia driver.