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GTX 980 SuperClocked or GTX 680, Any guide on how to flash it?

T

troy14

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 25, 2008
773
131
Las Vegas (Summerlin), NV
Hi everyone...:confused:

Going absolutely crazy here with this video card stuff. I was looking at the GTX 680, then started researching other cards, 770, 780ti, 680, titan, 980, etc. etc. and my head is almost about to explode!

I therefore narrowed my choices.. I just picked up a 2010 5,1 Mac Pro with a single 3.2ghz processor and 5770. Im going to add a SSD and upgrade the video card.

I am either going to get a GTX 680 mac edition, or there's a GTX 980 super clocked (EVGA) nearby me for a great great price. However, I want it to be fully compatible and can't find any information/guides on how to flash a card like this. Do any exist? I would be fine flashing it myself if someone has already written a guide :cool::D

Thanks in advance!
 
There are GTX 680 ROMs floating around and plenty of instructions for flashing both the 2GB and 4GB models.

I've not seen anything out in the open for the 980. The closest you can get to a Mac edition GTX 980 right now is to buy a flashed card from MacVidCards, or pay him to flash your existing PC card.
 
troy14 said:
Hi everyone...:confused:

Going absolutely crazy here with this video card stuff. I was looking at the GTX 680, then started researching other cards, 770, 780ti, 680, titan, 980, etc. etc. and my head is almost about to explode!

I therefore narrowed my choices.. I just picked up a 2010 5,1 Mac Pro with a single 3.2ghz processor and 5770. Im going to add a SSD and upgrade the video card.

I am either going to get a GTX 680 mac edition, or there's a GTX 980 super clocked (EVGA) nearby me for a great great price. However, I want it to be fully compatible and can't find any information/guides on how to flash a card like this. Do any exist? I would be fine flashing it myself if someone has already written a guide :cool::D

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

If you really want to be fully compatible - aka. Bootscreen etc. your best options would be either to buy a regular GTX 680 an flash it yourself, or get a already-flashed card from MacVidCards. You also can send your card to MVC in order for him to flash it for you.

It all depends on what you wanna be able to do with it. The 680 is the "simplest" while still bringing a nice performance.

You can get used 680's for around 150-200$ (probably even cheaper in the US) and flash the card yourself in like 5 minutes.
 
troy14 said:
Hi everyone...:confused:
<SNIP>
However, I want it to be fully compatible
<SNIP>
Click to expand...

Agree with other responses, but the pedantic part of me wants to point out that technically the 980 route is not quite fully compatible since the Apple bundled drivers are too old to support it and the nvidia web drivers must be used.

This is a minor hassle whe Apple issues updates that bump the build number and break the web drivers for a few days until nvidia releases updated drivers.

-JimJ
 
Agree with jimj740. The more "fully compatible" card is the 680, take that one to avoid any potential trouble.
 
Thanks everyone for the posts. Everything about me wants to just get the 680 and be done with it, but almost double? the performance for a mere $125 more really can't be passed up I don't think.
 
troy14 said:
Thanks everyone for the posts. Everything about me wants to just get the 680 and be done with it, but almost double? the performance for a mere $125 more really can't be passed up I don't think.
Click to expand...

you are asking the wrong group of people for advice.

get the 980 (or even titan x) and don't look back.
 
troy14 said:
Thanks everyone for the posts. Everything about me wants to just get the 680 and be done with it, but almost double? the performance for a mere $125 more really can't be passed up I don't think.
Click to expand...

Are you refering to the GTX 980 when you're saying "a mere 125$ more"?
Because buying a used 680 for around let's say 170$, and getting a already flashed 980 from MVC (which is your only 980 option if you want bootscreens) for like 800$ - there's a gap of like 600$+

What you could do however is: get a regular 980 and add a Apple GT120 in there for the bootscreen. However, I've read several times that the GT120 seems to be holding other cards back, rather then to add a little performance boost.

Also, the GT120 seems to be working not so great in Yosemite - which you will need if you want a 980.

I don't know if you are on a budget or not - according to the GTX 980 probably not though xD - but I personally would suggest a GTX 680 which you should then flash yourself.

What are you planning to do with the card anyway? Just gaming?
 
troy14 said:
Hi everyone...:confused:

Going absolutely crazy here with this video card stuff. I was looking at the GTX 680, then started researching other cards, 770, 780ti, 680, titan, 980, etc. etc. and my head is almost about to explode!

I therefore narrowed my choices.. I just picked up a 2010 5,1 Mac Pro with a single 3.2ghz processor and 5770. Im going to add a SSD and upgrade the video card.

I am either going to get a GTX 680 mac edition, or there's a GTX 980 super clocked (EVGA) nearby me for a great great price. However, I want it to be fully compatible and can't find any information/guides on how to flash a card like this. Do any exist? I would be fine flashing it myself if someone has already written a guide :cool::D

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

As others have said the GTX680 mac edition is the easiest, most compatible.
You might prefer/need the extra power from a GTX980 it depends on your needs. What do you want to use the 5,1 for?
 
For all the people saying the GTX 680 is "fully compatible" once flashed with the freely available ROMs, I'd just like to clarify that this is true of the 2GB model but not the 4GB. If you have the 4GB model you won't be able to use the upper DVI port unless you get one from Macvidcards or have him flash yours.

Frankly if I were buying a card today I'd get a 980, but I'm waiting for the driver nonsense to get fixed because I don't want the card to stop working every time Apple bumps OS X.
 
ActionableMango said:
Frankly if I were buying a card today I'd get a 980, but I'm waiting for the driver nonsense to get fixed because I don't want the card to stop working every time Apple bumps OS X.
Click to expand...

Same here. I'm happy with the 7970 I got from MVC for now, but I'll likely get the 980 when driver issues go away. Already having to make allowances for non-Apple SSDs. I don't want to add complication to the machine.
 
ActionableMango said:
For all the people saying the GTX 680 is "fully compatible" once flashed with the freely available ROMs, I'd just like to clarify that this is true of the 2GB model but not the 4GB. If you have the 4GB model you won't be able to use the upper DVI port unless you get one from Macvidcards or have him flash yours.

Frankly if I were buying a card today I'd get a 980, but I'm waiting for the driver nonsense to get fixed because I don't want the card to stop working every time Apple bumps OS X.
Click to expand...

I know that you were the one that actually hinted me on that issue, but doesn't this problem occure on 10.9.3 only?
 
ActionableMango said:
For all the people saying the GTX 680 is "fully compatible" once flashed with the freely available ROMs, I'd just like to clarify that this is true of the 2GB model but not the 4GB. If you have the 4GB model you won't be able to use the upper DVI port unless you get one from Macvidcards or have him flash yours.

Frankly if I were buying a card today I'd get a 980, but I'm waiting for the driver nonsense to get fixed because I don't want the card to stop working every time Apple bumps OS X.
Click to expand...

Well pointed out, 2Gb ones are the most compatible.

Re the GTX980 - I am also waiting for that driver to be more stable while updating OS, until then I'm sticking with my GTX680 2Gb.
 
Pending said:
As others have said the GTX680 mac edition is the easiest, most compatible.
You might prefer/need the extra power from a GTX980 it depends on your needs. What do you want to use the 5,1 for?
Click to expand...

Thanks everyone for all the awesome replies. As of right now, I don't really need the GTX 980. But, if I ever want to start playing some games or anything, I'd rather have the best than have to worry about getting rid of my 680 or paying for another video card while keeping the 680. There's a killer deal local to me so I am not really spending that much more.
 
Ah yeah, go buy something with rom pirated from me. From the guy who tried to threaten me. Making no investment into future dev. And our great moderators forbiding me to try to protect my IP on this forum.

btw, did I said that guy have broken the rom when pirated it?

I may just choose to not do rom for future pascal cards and fenites la comedy.

Ешьте, не обляпайтесь
 
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troy14 said:
Thanks everyone for all the awesome replies. As of right now, I don't really need the GTX 980. But, if I ever want to start playing some games or anything, I'd rather have the best than have to worry about getting rid of my 680 or paying for another video card while keeping the 680. There's a killer deal local to me so I am not really spending that much more.
Click to expand...

The GTX 770 has the same GK104 chip as GTX 680, and is therefore compatible with OS X drivers. But it has faster 4 GB Video RAM.

And presently you can buy it new. And you can send it to MVC for flashing service.
 
The GTX680 2gb games really well on my Mac Pro. I was actually suprised at just how good it still is. Unless you are a full on gamer stick with the 680 and you cant go wrong.
 
avkdm said:
The GTX680 2gb games really well on my Mac Pro. I was actually suprised at just how good it still is. Unless you are a full on gamer stick with the 680 and you cant go wrong.
Click to expand...

I can confirm this. :) Unfortunately GTA V benefits from 4 GB Video-RAM. That's one of the reasons why I use a GTX 770 4 GB now.
 
Synchro3 said:
I can confirm this. :) Unfortunately GTA V benefits from 4 GB Video-RAM. That's one of the reasons why I use a GTX 770 4 GB now.
Click to expand...
Oh OK, Thanks for pointing that out, Even Hitman Absolution and Tomb Raider runs well with a 680. I guess the newer games you might have to turn off effects, but who buys a Mac for serious gaming anyhow? Thats why I have a PC as well. But gee I wish Apple would have better support for GPUs, Id switch permanently at home. At work I only need Windows running on Parallels(no time for games :))
 
avkdm said:
Oh OK, Thanks for pointing that out, Even Hitman Absolution and Tomb Raider runs well with a 680. I guess the newer games you might have to turn off effects, but who buys a Mac for serious gaming anyhow? Thats why I have a PC as well. But gee I wish Apple would have better support for GPUs, Id switch permanently at home. At work I only need Windows running on Parallels(no time for games :))
Click to expand...

I'm using Windows 7 Pro 64 Bit. With a GTX 680 @1440p you don't need to turn off effects in GTA V. Just no MSAA, thats enough. Getting around 57 fp/s .GTA V uses all six cores of the Mac Pro (6 threads), so single core performance is no more that important (thanks to PlayStation 4). For maximum visibility you need 3.2 GB V-RAM on the graphics card @2560*1440 pixels. For 4K/5K you need a Haswell card with recommended 6 GB V-RAM.
 
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