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Help GTX 770 or 680 for 3,1 Mac Pro

R

rowl3y

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 28, 2014
19
0
Hi all,

Hope someone can help me .. Im looking to add a new card to my system ,,

I have knocked it down to a

GTX 770 or GTX 680.

I understand I won't be able to see the boot screen but can keep my old card for that if I need to :)

So I just want to know what best for my system running 10.13.2
 
Basically same performance. I'd get the 680 because it is very easily flashed and then you can have your card and your boot screens too. (See steps in my sig.)

If you want to flash it, try to get a normal card (not an exotic one). The Mac 680 firmware works on a very diverse number of cards, but not quite all of them.
 
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GTX 680 and GTX 770 have the same GPU, so booth are supported by OS X without web drivers. Unlike GTX 680 most GTX 770 have one 6 pin and one 8 pin power connector (not optional).

However, GTX 680 is easy to flash DIY for boot screens, but GTX 770 you have to send in for MVC flashing services: http://www.macvidcards.com/store/p81/Nvidia_Flashing_Services.html

GTX 770, once flashed by MVC, supports 2 x 6 pin power.
 
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bsbeamer said:
Are you abandoning your GTX 1050?
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/gtx-1050-mac-pro-3-1-gfx-really-bad.2101101/

Regardless, you'll need to address the issue with your system being ID'd as an iMac via your 3,1 > 5,1 hack.
Click to expand...
Yeh I have given up & returned the card
[doublepost=1516135431][/doublepost]
ActionableMango said:
Basically same performance. I'd get the 680 because it is very easily flashed and then you can have your card and your boot screens too. (See steps in my sig.)

If you want to flash it, try to get a normal card (not an exotic one). The Mac 680 firmware works on a very diverse number of cards, but not quite all of them.
Click to expand...
Thanks I think I will go for the 680.

I look on eBay and there are loads of 680 but all look different and made by different company’s. Does it matter witch one I get ?
 
rowl3y said:
I look on eBay and there are loads of 680 but all look different and made by different company’s. Does it matter witch one I get ?
Click to expand...

Basically any 2x6-pin model without any crazy ports or fans. The more it looks like reference the better.

If you want to be sure, click on my instructions where it talks about confirmed models, and pick a model that someone else has already confirmed to work.
 
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the gtx 680 can be flashed super easy, do a search here to find the ones with a mac bios.
with that you get a native' like mac gpu for super cheep

iv got a 770 seems to work fine but lacks boot displays etc cots a lot more (two times the cost last time i looked) and it's maybe 10% faster depending on the model i gess

if you run windows you can oc an 680 to close to a 770

both work on the native display driver

edit XD you dont need to search just look at ActuonableMango's links, im slow
 
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I have some mixed experience with a GTX 770 on a Mac Pro 3,1 and Mojave.
- Some Videos can be shaky.
- New Tab in Safari are flickering black and grey.
- Right now Pdf are not displaying in PDF Expert but the thumbnails YES!
- Pause-play and full screen buttons in Youtube are flickering

Is there because there is no acceleration ?

How do I know if it is Metal supported ? There is not this info on System Reports

Sytem Reports :
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770:
Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Dynamic, Max): 2048 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x1184
Revision ID: 0x00a2
ROM Revision: MacVidCards
(also it says : NVDA parent, None slot-1)

Thanks!!
 
Anything Nvidia is not recommended. Indeed, Geforce owners still don't have Mojave drivers.
 
^^^^Stating the obvious? The GTX 680 does not need Web Drivers, Unless you need Cuda. But, in that case anything AMD would be worthless.
 
wait, i just re looked at your first post :eek: wow i need to read posts better, your on a macpro 3.1 you need to go ask in the "ruining 10.14 on not supported computers" for help this may be something related to that.

this is what i was going to recommend;

well if you have bugs, there may be bugs

you can try a clean install, some times that will fix it.

may be a bug in osx10.14 that will be fixed later

may make life simple to use osx10.13.
i do work, my apps work on 10.13 im ok with that so im sticking to it till i know 10.14 will have no problems
till then ill just do what i do

if you want you can start doing troubleshooting, depends how much time you want to spend.

what you can do is try firefox/chrome see if that helps and check what reslotions the videos are, on my 3.1 i stick to 720p 60fps or 1080p 30fps higher than that tends to give problems for me.

try a different PDF app
 
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Frenchtouch said:
But they also says the 770 is natively supported?
Click to expand...

Yes the 770 is supported using Apple native drivers, so should work fine in Mojave and you don't need to use or wait for Nvidia web drivers.

Like orph, I speculate the problem is that you are running Mojave on an unsupported Mac, but I don't know much about that. Read this thread and ask any questions you have there. It says that Nvidia cards are fine in a 3,1 (actually, required...you can't use AMD), so I think your problem lies elsewhere.
 
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Hey guys,

Sorry to revive this thread but I thought I'd ask my own variation of this question.

I've got a Mac Pro 3,1 with the Nvidia 8800GT. I had it replaced once under warranty, but the card is probably still almost 10 years old. I dual-boot between Win7 and El Capitan.

I'm hoping to find something reasonably priced (under $200-250 USD) with 2GB+ VRAM. And I'd like a boot screen! Call me high maintenance but I do switch back and forth fairly often.

All the threads I've found on the subject are focused on Mojave, whereas I have no need to upgrade beyond El Capitan. I just want something with as much native support in BOTH operating systems as possible.

Am I best off going with a GTX680, or is there anything superior performance-wise that I can flash fairly easily to have a boot screen?

Thanks guys!!
 
BigYellow said:
Hey guys,

Sorry to revive this thread but I thought I'd ask my own variation of this question.

I've got a Mac Pro 3,1 with the Nvidia 8800GT. I had it replaced once under warranty, but the card is probably still almost 10 years old. I dual-boot between Win7 and El Capitan.

I'm hoping to find something reasonably priced (under $200-250 USD) with 2GB+ VRAM. And I'd like a boot screen! Call me high maintenance but I do switch back and forth fairly often.

All the threads I've found on the subject are focused on Mojave, whereas I have no need to upgrade beyond El Capitan. I just want something with as much native support in BOTH operating systems as possible.

Am I best off going with a GTX680, or is there anything superior performance-wise that I can flash fairly easily to have a boot screen?

Thanks guys!!
Click to expand...
The fastest flash yourself GPU that will work with a MP3,1 is GTX 680. Any newer NVIDIA GPUs with pre-boot configuration/boot screens that will work with a MP3,1 are MacVidCards GPUs.

Don't buy an AMD GPU, unless you plan to buy a newer Mac Pro. AMD drivers for all GPUs after HD 6xxx will require a Xeon that supports SSE4.2, MP3,1 Xeons don't support it and cannot be upgraded.
 
tsialex said:
The fastest flash yourself GPU that will work with a MP3,1 is GTX 680. Any newer NVIDIA GPUs with pre-boot configuration/boot screens that will work with a MP3,1 are MacVidCards GPUs.

Don't buy an AMD GPU, unless you plan to buy a newer Mac Pro. AMD drivers for all GPUs after HD 6xxx will require a Xeon that supports SSE4.2, MP3,1 Xeons don't support it and cannot be upgraded.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much!! I'll do my research on different brands/variations.

Anything comparably easy to run with from the ATI side of things?
 
tsialex said:
The fastest flash yourself GPU that will work with a MP3,1 is GTX 680. Any newer NVIDIA GPUs with pre-boot configuration/boot screens that will work with a MP3,1 are MacVidCards GPUs.

Don't buy an AMD GPU, unless you plan to buy a newer Mac Pro. AMD drivers for all GPUs after HD 6xxx will require a Xeon that supports SSE4.2, MP3,1 Xeons don't support it and cannot be upgraded.
Click to expand...

Am I correct in understanding that the GTX 680 was never offered as a factory option, even on a Build to Order Mac Pro? After getting the (very helpful) feedback in this thread, I found a guy locally selling a used 680 listed as "Apple Mac Pro Nvidia GTX 680 2 GB PCI-E Video Card". When I contacted him to ask if this was the "mac edition" or if it had been flashed, he said he thought it was the card that came in his Mac Pro when he purchased it in 2011 (which would make it, at the newest, a mid-2010 MP, meaning it was only available with a Radeon 5770 or 5870. It only shows EVGA branding on the side, so I'm going to ask for some clarification, but so far the explanation has been that it's confirmed as "original Mac edition cards have the extra big exhaust vents like this one, whereas normal 680 GTX cards have the smaller skinny vents". Sound legit?
 
BigYellow said:
Am I correct in understanding that the GTX 680 was never offered as a factory option, even on a Build to Order Mac Pro? After getting the (very helpful) feedback in this thread, I found a guy locally selling a used 680 listed as "Apple Mac Pro Nvidia GTX 680 2 GB PCI-E Video Card". When I contacted him to ask if this was the "mac edition" or if it had been flashed, he said he thought it was the card that came in his Mac Pro when he purchased it in 2011 (which would make it, at the newest, a mid-2010 MP, meaning it was only available with a Radeon 5770 or 5870. It only shows EVGA branding on the side, so I'm going to ask for some clarification, but so far the explanation has been that it's confirmed as "original Mac edition cards have the extra big exhaust vents like this one, whereas normal 680 GTX cards have the smaller skinny vents". Sound legit?
Click to expand...
It’s a 3rd party GPU and never was offered by Apple from factory.

Just check the part number, label on the back of the card, on eVGA site. You will see what model is.
 
tsialex said:
The fastest flash yourself GPU that will work with a MP3,1 is GTX 680. Any newer NVIDIA GPUs with pre-boot configuration/boot screens that will work with a MP3,1 are MacVidCards GPUs.

Don't buy an AMD GPU, unless you plan to buy a newer Mac Pro. AMD drivers for all GPUs after HD 6xxx will require a Xeon that supports SSE4.2, MP3,1 Xeons don't support it and cannot be upgraded.
Click to expand...

hi, I have one MP 3.1 and willing to upgrade my GPU, I will keep the old GPU for the boot, in this case what can be the fastest GPU?

thanks a lot...
 
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