GTX680 4GB - ROM Image - Full Boot Screens, Full Clock Rates & PCI-E 2.0 - 5GT/s

[raymanster]

Here is a step-by-step version for flashing a GTX680 card in Windows. There is also a FreeDOS method, but I don't know anything about that.

Do this at your own risk. Some exotic GTX680s cannot be flashed successfully (some can). Nearly all plain ones can. If you are concerned about it, pick one that's already been verified by someone else in this 4GB thread you're in right now, or this other thread for 2GB models: Confirmed and Possible Flashable GTX680 Models.

Notes:

• You have to boot Windows natively on your Mac Pro or on a PC (do not do this in a virtual machine like VMWare or Parallels).
• The GTX680 card must be installed in the computer. Don't have any other video cards installed at the same time.

1) Obtain these files:

• An older version of NVflash (5.134) that works with GTX 680 cards, from here.
• If you have a 2GB card, get the ROM for it here.
• If you have a 4GB card, get the ROM for it here.

Thank you for these instructions, just flashed my newly acquired 680 successfully and can now see the boot screen.

Edit: Forgot to add thank you to the community here and all info.

 

[m4v3r1ck]

Get yourself a GTX780, no need to flash!

Flashing is VERY overrated, I would not spent a dime on it.

Imho a wrong advice/statement!

I exchanged my non flash-able GTX-670-4GB-FTW - used together with an old ATI-2600-HD Mac Edition for boot screens - for a 2nd hand GTX-680-4GB-FTW that I was able to flash with Mac EFI .ROM - FOR FREE! - thanks to the MR community.

1. BOOT SCREENS!!! for selecting boot drives after boot +alt key and e.g boot in safe-mode.

2. Very strong and versatile GFX Card for my likings and needs, even in 2017.

3. Freed another PCIe slot, that is now occupied by my second Apricorn Velocity DUO x2!

I'm very happy with my decision to buy the GTX-680 and flash it. Hey, YES you can!

Cheers

 

[raymanster]

Imho a wrong advice/statement!

I exchanged my non flash-able GTX-670-4GB-FTW - used together with an old ATI-2600-HD Mac Edition for boot screens - for a 2nd hand GTX-680-4GB-FTW that I was able to flash with Mac EFI .ROM - FOR FREE! - thanks to the MR community.

1. BOOT SCREENS!!! for selecting boot drives after boot +alt key and e.g boot in safe-mode.

2. Very strong and versatile GFX Card for my likings and needs, even in 2017.

3. Freed another PCIe slot, that is now occupied by my second Apricorn Velocity DUO x2!

I'm very happy with my decision to buy the GTX-680 and flash it. Hey, YES you can!

Cheers

I'd have to agree.

I was running a GTX 750ti and a GT120, sort of a pain as my Windows bootcamp install didn't like two cards installed at once. I was reluctant to remove the GT120 as I sometimes need the boot screen for troubleshooting. So I decided to get a GTX 680, flashed it today and all seems well, so nice having a boot screen.

The GTX 680 seems to perform better, Unigine Heave score of FPS 63.5, and 750ti was 43.5 fps.

 

[m4v3r1ck]

I'd have to agree.

I was running a GTX 750ti and a GT120, sort of a pain as my Windows bootcamp install didn't like two cards installed at once.

I had a two Nvidia set-up at first as well. The GTX-670 (PC) and a 8800GT (Mac), due to the limits of the compatible drivers for the 8800GT in Windows 8/8.1/10 - too old for the newest driver package for the GTX-670 - I removed it and swapped the 8800GT for the ancient ATI 2600HD (Mac). So now I could run the latest drivers for the GTX-670 and used its own driver package for the ATI 2600HD. The ATI provided me its bootscreens.

Cheers

 

[mrhali]

Hey guys,

I know I'm late to the party, I'm getting used to it...

I've attached a modified ROM which will enable all ports in OS X. My approach is quite different from what MVC hinted here, the result should be similar though (anyone who can make an IOReg dump will see what I did to the EFI).
Only drawback is that you'll lose the PCI section in system profiler (which isn't bad since it makes the ROM less attractive for those eBay douchebags ). Still full boot screens and OS X on all 4 ports, 5.0GT/s should work, too.

I didn't touch the VBIOS portion of the ROM, so any card that can run the ROM in the first post of this thread won't get bricked by mine either.

Thanks @Rankel for testing it!

Hi Fl0r!an, Thanks for all your awesome work. I tried flashing this rom on a Zotac 4gb GTX680 and it works well... with the one exception that it fails to wake up from sleep. Then it requires a forced, blind reboot. Ugly. This guy also reported the same issue with the same configuration. Seems like something is off on the Zotac branded cards. I'm curious if there is a way to use the original ROM to cook a custom rom by patching only the EFI, kinda similar to your work that you did on the ATI HD5770's? I'm thinking the custom cooked version might help restore the ability to sleep the monitor, if its indeed possible to cook your own. Kindly advise? Vielen Dank!

 

[Stephen Valente]

Is there an ideal set of cards to track down with Fl0r!an's ROM? I was considering a Radeon 460 card given it seems to have some inbuilt recognition in OSX thanks it's use by Apple in one form or another. On balance is the GTX 680 or Radeon 460 better? Thanks

 

[ActionableMango]

with the one exception that it fails to wake up from sleep

I'm curious did it wake from sleep before you flashed it? (Or if you flash the original ROM back in?)

On balance is the GTX 680 or Radeon 460 better? Thanks

They are both well supported once OS X boots. The GTX 680 can be flashed for boot screens very easily, which provides some additional benefit.

 

[mrhali]

I'm curious did it wake from sleep before you flashed it? (Or if you flash the original ROM back in?)



They are both well supported once OS X boots. The GTX 680 can be flashed for boot screens very easily, which provides some additional benefit.

I'm 80% certain that the issue only appeared after I flashed it. I ran the card with the stock ROM for a day. It ran fine and I was happy with it. And I'm pretty certain I must have I walked away from my computer for it to sleep during that day. The issue only became apparent after I flashed it. But, I can flash it back to the original to be 100% certain, which is what I'll do within the next day. I'll report back.

 

[Fl0r!an]

It's possible to attach the Mac EFI to the original ROM of your GPU. You can PM me a dump of your original ROM, I'll look into it.

 

[mrhali]

I'm happy to report that Flor!an patched my original rom with EFI and it works perfectly now! Wakes from sleep without any problem. He'll be releasing the rom shortly for those like me with the Zotac GTX680 4GB, which can now be added to the gfx card safe list. Woot!

 

[m4v3r1ck]

I'm happy to report that Flor!an patched my original rom with EFI and it works perfectly now! Wakes from sleep without any problem. He'll be releasing the rom shortly for those like me with the Zotac GTX680 4GB, which can now be added to the gfx card safe list. Woot!

Thanks for your positive feedback! Great news for you AND proof for how great the MR community is!

Cheers!

 

[Intell]

I have a client that has an EVGA GTX 680 4GB and is running Windows XP via Boot Camp and OS X Sierra in a 2009 Mac Pro. When running the stock EVGA ROM, XP works perfectly with it. When using either Fl0r!an's or the other ROM where the top DVI port doesn't work, XP refuses to work properly with the card. It seems like it doesn't properly detect any display and instead forces it to run as 640x480 with 4 bit color and no acceleration. I've tried both the oldest and newest XP drivers for the card, but it doesn't seem to like it. I did find one report from the EVGA forums where a user had the same problem, but the thread was only the one post detailing the problem.

 

[Synchro3]

It seems like it doesn't properly detect any display and instead forces it to run as 640x480 with 4 bit color and no acceleration.

Are you talking about Windows PX 32 Bit? If yes the problem is that Windows XP can only address around 3.5 GByte memory including VRAM. I had the same issue - 640x480 with 4 bit color and no acceleration - when I installed first a GTX 680 2 GByte replacing the old Radeon 5870 512 MB, was too much for Windows XP, could not address enough RAM apart from the Video RAM (which is addressed first).

 

[Intell]

Thank you, yes it's 32-bit. Was hoping that wasn't the problem. Will have to inform my client about it or try the 4GB+ 32-bit XP hack.

 

[Synchro3]

I tried the hack, did not work for me. Finally I deleted the Windows XP 32 Bit partition on my Mac Pro. Made no sense anymore to run a 32 Bit system.

When I bought the Mac Pro in February 2009, 3 GByte RAM and 512 MB VRAM were installed, just right for Windows XP, now 48 GB RAM and 12 GB VRAM are aboard.... no chance for a 32 Bit system.

 

[Intell]

The 680 would work fine with the stock drivers and 32GB of memory with Windows XP. It was only after flashing it with an EFI ROM that it breaks.

 

[Fl0r!an]

As promised, here's the Zotac ROM. Same EFI as before (so all ports working, but no injection in OS X), just built around the stock Zotac ROM file.

 

[m4v3r1ck]

As promised, here's the Zotac ROM. Same EFI as before (so all ports working, but no injection in OS X), just built around the stock Zotac ROM file.

Great work FI0r!an, thanks for sharing your knowledge!

Cheers

 

[zozomester]

Hey guys,

I know I'm late to the party, I'm getting used to it...

I've attached a modified ROM which will enable all ports in OS X. My approach is quite different from what MVC hinted here, the result should be similar though (anyone who can make an IOReg dump will see what I did to the EFI).
Only drawback is that you'll lose the PCI section in system profiler (which isn't bad since it makes the ROM less attractive for those eBay douchebags ). Still full boot screens and OS X on all 4 ports, 5.0GT/s should work, too.

I didn't touch the VBIOS portion of the ROM, so any card that can run the ROM in the first post of this thread won't get bricked by mine either.

Thanks @Rankel for testing it!

Hi Fl0r!an, I flashing my EVGA GTX 680 4GB W Backplatte with GTX680-4GB-DVI.rom. Has full Bootscreen, and Works well, But I get an error message on About Mac....
Error message is in PCI information: There was an error while gathering PCI device
What is the reason? Please Help.
Thanks!

 

[m4v3r1ck]

That is normal for an Mac EFI flashed gfx card!

Cheers

 

[zozomester]

That is normal for an Mac EFI flashed gfx card!

Cheers

I had Palit GTX 680 2Gb with Efi flash before, that was not the fault ...

 

[m4v3r1ck]

I had Palit GTX 680 2Gb with Efi flash before, that was not the fault ...

So with that gfx card you had the info's shown?

Cheers

 

[zozomester]

So with that gfx card you had the info's shown?

Cheers

Yes.
I guess this is the reason: "no injection in OS X"

Is not there a solution?

 

[pastrychef]

Hi Fl0r!an, I flashing my EVGA GTX 680 4GB W Backplatte with GTX680-4GB-DVI.rom. Has full Bootscreen, and Works well, But I get an error message on About Mac....
Error message is in PCI information: There was an error while gathering PCI device
What is the reason? Please Help.
Thanks!

This is normal and depends on which firmware you are running with your video card.

 

[zozomester]

This is normal and depends on which firmware you are running with your video card.

It annoys me.....I running GTX 680-4GB-DVI.rom firmware.