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

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Is anyone experiencing a drop in performance using nvidia cards with Mavericks?

I'm running Mavericks on a Mac Pro 1 1 with a GTX 570, everything is running fine.

However the Luxmark score only hit 722 on Mavericks. This was around 1100 on Lion.

The only difference was the Nvidia web driver I've got installed for Lion. That and Chameleon boot loader, of course.

Any ideas? Is it just the lack of web driver?
 
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richgoga said:
Is anyone experiencing a drop in performance using nvidia cards with Macericks?

I'm running Mavereicks on a Mac Pro 1 1 with a GTX 570, everything is running fine.

However the Luxmark score only hit 722 on Mavericks. This was around 1100 on Lion.

The only difference was the Nvidia web driver I've got installed for Lion. That and Chameleon boot loader, of course.

Any ideas? Is it just the lack of web driver?
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I certainly am, I dip below 60FPS on low intensity games, while I fly through them in Windows on my GTX 660. I haven't benchmarked, but hopefully we'll have a Web Driver today or tomorrow.
 
richgoga said:
True, but I'm comparing 10.9 to 10.7.5.
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My reply was to the person saying OS X was slower than Windows and not any other post in the thread. Which is why I quoted his post. ;)

As for your issue, I recall Mountain Lion was initially slower than Snow Leopard, but things improved over time and its much better now. Mavericks is very new and I suspect we'll have to wait a bit for performance fixes to fall into place.
 
Quick question... if you have an EFI card in with a third party (more powerful) and a second monitor plugged into the EFI one, which will the system choose as its "main" one? whichever you specify in the system prefs?
 
MacGamver said:
Quick question... if you have an EFI card in with a third party (more powerful) and a second monitor plugged into the EFI one, which will the system choose as its "main" one? whichever you specify in the system prefs?
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Whichever display is set as your main display will get the "Main Graphics Card" priority. For example, I run my 2600XT which is an EFI card solely for my VGA display. HDMI out covers my 1080p main display, and that is the one that gets the little white bar in display preferences. That causes it to be recognized as the "main display" and the GPU to be counted as the "main GPU" - don't know if this affects benchmarks or performance, but it certainly changes the GPU description in System Profiler.
 
NOTNlCE said:
Whichever display is set as your main display will get the "Main Graphics Card" priority. For example, I run my 2600XT which is an EFI card solely for my VGA display. HDMI out covers my 1080p main display, and that is the one that gets the little white bar in display preferences. That causes it to be recognized as the "main display" and the GPU to be counted as the "main GPU" - don't know if this affects benchmarks or performance, but it certainly changes the GPU description in System Profiler.
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That's what I figured, I've just never tested it. Also, how does Mav handle that with multiple menu bars?
 
MacGamver said:
That's what I figured, I've just never tested it. Also, how does Mav handle that with multiple menu bars?
Click to expand...

Multiple Menu Bars only APPEAR on the screen, the Display settings still maintain that one is your main screen, so usually the one with your dock. I know a feature is that you can bring up a bottom dock on both monitors, but I use a left side dock. My "main display" gets the dock when that little white bar is set to it in display preferences. Again, not sure how this affects benchmarks, but it affects the system profiler.
 
NOTNlCE said:
Multiple Menu Bars only APPEAR on the screen, the Display settings still maintain that one is your main screen, so usually the one with your dock. I know a feature is that you can bring up a bottom dock on both monitors, but I use a left side dock. My "main display" gets the dock when that little white bar is set to it in display preferences. Again, not sure how this affects benchmarks, but it affects the system profiler.
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Again, that's what I figured; thanks for confirming that! :D
 
Multiple PC 680s?

Hey there, I searched through here and didn't see it addressed, but can I run 2 GTX 680s on a 2009 Mac Pro under OSX 10.8.5?

Thanks!
 
Problem booting into Windows w/ Dual 680's

I can boot into OS 10.9 with dual 680's + external power for Mac Pro 5,1. (The 680s are both mac edition)
But I need to do the same using Bootcamp/Windows8.1 where I'm running Rhino3D and OctaneRender.
If I attempt to boot Windows from option key startup, the screen just freezes after selecting my Windows drive. If I set the Windows drive as startup disk, after a minute of drive activity, I just get a white screen and no drive activity.
Any suggestions?
 
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I think GTX780 is really a good deal now with the price cut.. take a look
checked on Amazon only $600 for new.. i'm going to get 1 of this

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/1...deep-price-cuts-in-response-to-amd-r9-barrage

but checking with you guys.. I read alot of posts that gtx780 will require external PSU.. but would we be able to adjust the "Power target" in EVGA Precision X to a lower percentage so that it matches the Mac Pro's specs?

TDP of GTX780: 250W
Mac Pro's Specs: 225W
Power Target (Precision X): 90%????
 
beltwrath said:
I think GTX780 is really a good deal now with the price cut.. take a look
checked on Amazon only $600 for new.. i'm going to get 1 of this

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/1...deep-price-cuts-in-response-to-amd-r9-barrage

but checking with you guys.. I read alot of posts that gtx780 will require external PSU.. but would we be able to adjust the "Power target" in EVGA Precision X to a lower percentage so that it matches the Mac Pro's specs?

TDP of GTX780: 250W
Mac Pro's Specs: 225W
Power Target (Precision X): 90%????
Click to expand...

I would never on rely software to control critical hardware specs such as TDP!
 
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FileVault 2 issues?

Hi Asgorath and others.

Many thanks for the detailed post, most helpful!

You mention the boot screens remain blank until you hit the desktop, I assume this would include the file vaut 2 (full disk encryption) login screen?

Does the keyboard and like still work even though the screen is blank if I remember the needed keystrokes?

Thanks again!
Richard.
 
So upgrading my imac's 6970m with a 770m would be pointless due to the pci-e 1.0 speed under the Windows am i right?

And nothing could be done?
 
Sorry if this is a bit off topic, but this thread seems to be the best place to ask this question.
I got my videocard replaced and lost boot screen, also my boot camp partition broke along with the videocard. Is there any way to get boot screen back / install windows without it?
 
penname said:
So upgrading my imac's 6970m with a 770m would be pointless due to the pci-e 1.0 speed under the Windows am i right?

And nothing could be done?
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The following two links explains the difference between PCI-e 1.0/1.1 vs 2.0 vs. 3.0 far better than I could...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XNI1GactP8

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5458/the-radeon-hd-7970-reprise-pcie-bandwidth-overclocking-and-msaa

Keep in mind that other factors can also affect your performance such as bus speed and memory speed.
 
Lol, thanks, Pastrychef. That video killed me... :D:D:D
And... what about installing windows without boot screen?
I think it will be possible to create bootcamp partition under the OSX and then just install windows there using another computer. A bit... complex, but maybe this will work,
 
To be very honest, I don't remember exactly how I got Windows 8 installed through Bootcamp. I did it on my old Mac Pro 3,1 which I have sold. I remember the installation kept giving me errors. I am guessing that it was due to an optical drive that was on its last legs. After that experience, I do not want to attempt it again.
 
penname said:
Lol, thanks, Pastrychef. That video killed me... :D:D:D
And... what about installing windows without boot screen?
I think it will be possible to create bootcamp partition under the OSX and then just install windows there using another computer. A bit... complex, but maybe this will work,
Click to expand...

Be warned that MS does NOT like you switching HD from one machine to another. I changed CPUs in one Mac and Windows invalidated itself until I called MS on the phone and explained things to them. They very much see a particular OS serial number as being tied to one machine, and one machine only.

I have a set of 5365s for my 1,1 but I have been avoiding doing the install, just for this reason. I don't want to spend 45 minutes on the phone explaining this all again just to get Win 8 working again without the black background and warnings about "This copy of Windows is ...Nu Buena"
 
Yes, I had to call Microsoft's automated system to reauthorize my Windows 8 when I moved the drive from my Mac Pro 3,1 to 5,1. Fortunately the 800 number worked and it only took a few minutes.
 
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