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

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With GTX680 for Mac...

With the EVGA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition on the horizon - could it be possible that Nvidia hasn't purposely released their 10.8.3 drivers yet, so not to divert some would be sales away from their new toy? If so, I don't blame them - it just seems their OS update isn't as timely as usual...

But on the flip side - the Mac Edition at least guarantees we will see a 10.8.3 Nvidia driver - doesn't it...

Just thinking outloud...
 
mamasboy said:
With the EVGA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition on the horizon - could it be possible that Nvidia hasn't purposely released their 10.8.3 drivers yet, so not to divert some would be sales away from their new toy? If so, I don't blame them - it just seems their OS update isn't as timely as usual...

But on the flip side - the Mac Edition at least guarantees we will see a 10.8.3 Nvidia driver - doesn't it...

Just thinking outloud...
Click to expand...

Nothing is certain.
 
Asgorath said:
What do you mean? The stock 10.8.3 driver fully supports the GTX 680 Mac Edition.
Click to expand...

Well as per your first page (and yes you are awesome for all this info gathering and testing, Asgorath)... I made the assumption that with each OS update, we would need Nvidia's corresponding driver update as well...
10.7.3 has 270.00.00f01
10.7.4 has 270.00.00f06
10.7.5 has 295.00.05f03
10.8.1 has 304.00.00f20
10.8.2 has 304.00.05f02

So, I've been waiting for the driver that corresponds with 10.8.3 before I update my OS - in addition to purposely not updating the OS till all bugs and kinks have been discovered and worked out within the pro-apps and hardware I use. FYI, I have a gtx570 2.5gb with 10.8.2 & 05f02 - and everything plays nicely thx to this forum... and use Adobe's Cuda apps for income).

So, have I led myself astray with my GPU driver assumptions?

Thanks for the input,
Lonnie
 
mamasboy said:
Well as per your first page (and yes you are awesome for all this info gathering and testing, Asgorath)... I made the assumption that with each OS update, we would need Nvidia's corresponding driver update as well...
10.7.3 has 270.00.00f01
10.7.4 has 270.00.00f06
10.7.5 has 295.00.05f03
10.8.1 has 304.00.00f20
10.8.2 has 304.00.05f02

So, I've been waiting for the driver that corresponds with 10.8.3 before I update my OS - in addition to purposely not updating the OS till all bugs and kinks have been discovered and worked out within the pro-apps and hardware I use. FYI, I have a gtx570 2.5gb with 10.8.2 & 05f02 - and everything plays nicely thx to this forum... and use Adobe's Cuda apps for income).

So, have I led myself astray with my GPU driver assumptions?

Thanks for the input,
Lonnie
Click to expand...

Well, hopefully the OP makes it clear that starting with 10.7.5 and 10.8 the stock Apple drivers do allow these PC cards to work (10.7.5 for Fermi, 10.8 for Kepler). If there's an NVIDIA driver for the current OS release, it's pretty much always advised to install it, but just because 10.8.3 doesn't have an NVIDIA driver yet is not a reason to avoid updating to it. I've been on 10.8.3 since it came out and everything is running fine on my GTX 680. I don't think it was a coincidence that both the 7950 Mac Edition and the 680 Mac Edition were released right after 10.8.3 came out -- everyone was probably waiting for that update to ship since it supported the cards right out of the box.

I still think NVIDIA will release a driver for 10.8.3, and as soon as they do, I will post a link in the OP since so many people were having trouble finding the correct driver download page.
 
It is crystal clear now :)

I guess for me personally, where Cuda, pro apps, third party I/O, etc, play such a vital role... I'm always at least one OS-dot-point behind anyways to ensure rock solid stability and integration. So waiting for Nvidia's matching driver is just one of my own precautions before potentially disturbing a rock solid system. But at least now I know I can jump in - if I wanted too...

Thanks again for clearing it all up for me,
Lonnie
 
Asgorath said:
I still think NVIDIA will release a driver for 10.8.3, and as soon as they do, I will post a link in the OP since so many people were having trouble finding the correct driver download page.
Click to expand...

I disagree. With the imminent release of OS update 10.8.4, there's no reason for new drivers for an OS soon to be updated. If Nvidia had updated drivers for 10.8.3, we would have seen them by now. What's puzzling to me though is the Cuda driver. 5.0.45 is still the latest release on Nvidia's web site, but 5.0.58 is out, but you have to know how to find it. Nvidia has not made it easy to get?

Lou
 
I agree with flowrider's assessment that it's unlikely to have another 10.8.3 web driver two months after the official release. The web driver serves two possible purposes: bug fixes or preview of next release version. Given that three new Mac GPUs were introduced requiring 10.8.3, and 10.8.3 was released almost 5 months after the previous version, there was no reason to expect a bug fixes release at all. The 10.8.4 beta included support for the GTX Titan, which clearly suggests that NVIDIA is still working on the driver to bring more hardware compatibility on the Mac side.

There were some complaints after the release of 10.8.3 regarding the PCIe link speed. The 10.8.2 web driver supports 5 GT/s, but in 10.8.3 the 5 GT/s support for MP 3,1 is gone. I personally believe this may be done at the request from Apple, so a potential 10.8.3 web driver probably won't fix it. Of course, I may be totally wrong about this.
 
xcodeSyn said:
There were some complaints after the release of 10.8.3 regarding the PCIe link speed. The 10.8.2 web driver supports 5 GT/s, but in 10.8.3 the 5 GT/s support for MP 3,1 is gone. I personally believe this may be done at the request from Apple, so a potential 10.8.3 web driver probably won't fix it. Of course, I may be totally wrong about this.
Click to expand...

Why would Apple request this? Besides trying to move people onto newer HW (and Apple hasn't shown any interest in updating the MP anyway), there is no reason for this...
 
Killerbob said:
Why would Apple request this?
Click to expand...
Here's one possible reason:
Apple has discontinued support for certain technologically obsolete and vintage products ... Vintage products are those that were discontinued more than five and less than seven years ago.
Click to expand...
as summarized here, and it has nothing to do with whether Apple introduces new MP or not. Again, it's just my personal conjecture and you don't have to take it seriously.
 
xcodeSyn said:
There were some complaints after the release of 10.8.3 regarding the PCIe link speed. The 10.8.2 web driver supports 5 GT/s, but in 10.8.3 the 5 GT/s support for MP 3,1 is gone. I personally believe this may be done at the request from Apple, so a potential 10.8.3 web driver probably won't fix it. Of course, I may be totally wrong about this.
Click to expand...

I have a 3,1 with a Rominator flashed GTX570 and I have PCIe speeds of 5.0 GT/s. I don't believe unflashed cards achieve this on a 3,1 with 10.8.3. But a properly flashed card will run at full PCIe 2.0 speed on a 3,1.

Lou
 
flowrider said:
I disagree. With the imminent release of OS update 10.8.4, there's no reason for new drivers for an OS soon to be updated. If Nvidia had updated drivers for 10.8.3, we would have seen them by now. What's puzzling to me though is the Cuda driver. 5.0.45 is still the latest release on Nvidia's web site, but 5.0.58 is out, but you have to know how to find it. Nvidia has not made it easy to get?

Lou
Click to expand...
I downloaded & installed CUDA 5.0.58 a week or two ago & when I checked System Preferences today it prompted me to update to 5.0.59 so I checked on the Nvidia website & their new driver for 10.8.3 is now available http://www.nvidia.com/object/macosx-313.01.01f03-driver.html
 
New in Release 313.01.01f03:

1. Contains performance improvements and bug fixes for a wide range of applications.
2. Includes new NVIDIA Driver Manager preference pane.
Click to expand...
Looks like NVIDIA did work on a bug fixes release for 10.8.3 I was wrong. Thanks for the link.
 
xcodeSyn said:
Looks like NVIDIA did work on a bug fixes release for 10.8.3 I was wrong. Thanks for the link.
Click to expand...

This driver also comes with a preference pane, and appears to install side-by-side with the stock Apple drivers instead of overwriting them (which means you can revert back to the Apple drivers easily if you hit any problems). Pretty neat stuff. I like the auto-updater in particular.
 
flowrider said:
I disagree. With the imminent release of OS update 10.8.4, there's no reason for new drivers for an OS soon to be updated. If Nvidia had updated drivers for 10.8.3, we would have seen them by now. What's puzzling to me though is the Cuda driver. 5.0.45 is still the latest release on Nvidia's web site, but 5.0.58 is out, but you have to know how to find it. Nvidia has not made it easy to get?

Lou
Click to expand...


My face is pretty RED.

Lou
 
flowrider said:
My face is pretty RED.

Lou
Click to expand...

Given that the new driver:

- Has a preference pane (NVIDIA Driver Manager).
- Has an auto updater.
- Installs next to the stock Apple driver, instead of overwriting it.

I figure it must've just taken NVIDIA some time to iron out all the kinks of the new driver delivery mechanism. Pretty excited to have an auto updater, that's for sure. And, given that it's based off of the 313 driver branch I might go and get a Titan card as well.
 
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