Having problems installing an Evga nVidia gtx680 Mac edition in a mac pro

[btanguy]

Hello everyone,

I've juste purchased from ebay/Macmotive a NVIDIA GTX 680 4GB CUDA Video Card for the Apple Mac Pro with 4K resolution but I am unable to install it. Here is my config :

MacPro 5,1 (early 2009 upgraded in 2010)
processor 6-Core Intel Xeon, 3,33 GHz
RAM : 32 Go
High Sierra 10.13.4
Firmware : MP51.0085.B00
2 screens : 1 Apple LED Cinema Display 27" (miniport) and 1 Apple Cinema 20" (DVI)

Here is what happens :

1) with GTX 680 card only and no driver upgrade (default Mac Os graphic drivers) : the mac starts again and again with error message : "your computer restarted because of a problem..."

2) with NVIDIA drivers for High Sierra (387.10.10.10.30.107) and an additionnal GT 120 card connected to the Apple cinema 20 : the Mac starts ok but only Apple cinema 20 on GT 120 works fine, although the 2 cards are well recognized by the system (system report / video cards shows GTX 680 but no monitor connected). Same thing if I exchange monitors : only the GT120 + connected monitor works fine

If you have any advice, I would be delighted. Thank you !

 

[lclev]

It is possible the GTX 680 card is bad. I have a 2009/2010 Mac Pro. I am running a GTX 1080 (flashed so boot screen shows) with web drivers and I have no issues. Even with just the OS drivers my GTX 1080 will show a screen and be usable enough to update the drivers.

The fact the GT120 works would lead me to believe the GTX680 card is bad. Hopefully you can return it.

Lisa

 

[bsbeamer]

That GTX 680 is not legitimate for Mac edition, so it was flashed by a user and resold on eBay. No idea how it was flashed, or if it was done properly. Contact seller first.

I’d suggest returning and either flashing yourself, or find a legit EVGA for Mac Edition GTX 680, or go with a newer model without boot screens.

 

[btanguy]

@Iclev and @bsbeamer Thank you for your advice. I am going to contact the seller and eventually return the card.
@bsbeamer What newer model would work fine with my config ?

 

[bsbeamer]

If you use latest NVIDIA web drivers, the GTX 1080 FE works great in 5,1 with dual mini 6-pin to standard 8-pin power cable.

There are reports of GTX 1060 and GTX 1070 working, but stick with FE variations or at least those that do not have the board itself modified. Those would likely have the NVIDIA logo on board near pins, not a manufacturer logo. Other variations are heavily modified from reference and MAY have an issue with drivers in the future.

 

[lclev]

It just depends on whether you want a genuine apple card or will use a PC Nvidia card. I purchased my recent GTX 1080 (8GB) off of MacVidCards.com. He flashed the cards so they will show the apple boot screen. I had to wait until a card became available as they have a very limited supply. Following them on Twitter helps.

Previously, I had a Gigabyte Geforce GTX 780 (3GB) - not flashed, strait PC card in my Mac Pro which worked great too. I changed to the 1080 because I wanted the additional GPU power. I do a ton of video work and with After Effects the additional power is very nice.

To give you an idea what I am running, my MP is a 12-core 2.66 2009/2010 model with 64GB of memory and a 1TB SSD main drive.

You might also check out MacVidCard's FAQ page. It has tons of information about cards for older MP's.

http://www.macvidcards.com/faqinstallation.html

Lisa

 

[h9826790]

Evga NEVER sell GTX680 4GB Mac Edition card. That’s 100% a flashed card. And most likely a badly flashed one. Definitely ask for a full refund if possible.

 

[orph]

sounds like a badly flashed PC card, the apple card was 2GB vram.

if you dont need boot screen then a PC (not flashed) card can be as cheep as £50-70 on ebay and will work with few problems. there not worth more than that, i shake my head at people trying to sell them for over £100!!

there's a few newer cards that are worth looking at if you want more speed (but maybe a bit extra work).

im ruing a PC gtx770 4GB with no problems for 2 years now? just no boot display. (uses the native osx drivers, it's just a OC'ed GTX680 relay).

 

[btanguy]

Thank you everybody. I will let you know what will happen with the Ebay seller Macmotive.

 

[orph]

if you want to get a pc GTX680 4GB and want boot display & are happy to flash yourself look here

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ens-full-clock-rates-pci-e-2-0-5gt-s.1603260/

had a quick look on ebay and im sad to say the gtx 680's cost more now than a year ago

if you dont need boot display then there's a variety of cards you can use from low power (low fan noise) cards for light use (and cheep) to mid range and higher end cards depending on what apps you want to run etc.

 

[btanguy]

Hello everybody, now my card is working fine. I had forgotten to plug the second power cable (my previous card had only 1 power cable)... thank you macmotive (the Ebay seller) for the good deduction and thank you everybody for your time !

 

[lclev]

Ha! I thought only I did things like that! Well I am glad you got it figured out and everything is all good and working now.

Lisa