Help with 2009 Mac Pro and Titan Black

[peter55]

Hi all,

Hoping someone might be able to help me with this one. Would really appreciate any help you could provide. I installed the Titan Black into my 2009 (4,1) Mac Pro but it's not working. I'm on OSX 10.8.5.

I have a GT 120 card in the computer that I have hooked up to the monitor. I want to use the Titan Black just for GPU processing. I see the mac logo and the gray circle spinning. But the computer eventually reboots itself and comes up with an error message (never gets to the login screen or the desktop).

It will continue to reboot itself and never finishes booting. Bit frustrating.

Here are the steps I've taken.

Installed the Titan Black in slot 1 to replace my old GTX 285. I have the GT 120 in slot 2. Won't boot up.

I tried to take out the GT 120 and just have the Titan Black. Same problem. I waited over 5 minutes (I know it won't show a boot screen) but it never gets to the desktop. Just keeps rebooting itself.

Tried to put the card in slot 2 (no other cards in the computer) and it's the same problem.

Went back to the original config (GT 120 in slot 2 and GTX 285 in slot 1) and it works fine again.

I tried to reset the NVRAM a few times. Would that even matter at all?

All this was with the 'stock' OSX Nvidia driver. I do have the CUDA 5.5.2.8 driver installed. At this point I tried to install the Nvidia web driver 313.01.04. After I installed it and rebooted, I tried the Titan Black again. Still same problem.

Also a side note.. I do have the FSI Booster X5 hooked up to the Titan Black for it's power source (since I've read that the Mac Pro might not provide enough power). The FSI is turning on and lighting up. I tried both sets of cables on the unit in case one was bad.

Well I think that is everything. Does it sound like a hardware issue or some OSX issue? Do I have to have Mavericks installed? I thought I read that Mountain Lion would work ok.

Thanks so much,
Peter

 

[xcodeSyn]

Does it sound like a hardware issue or some OSX issue? Do I have to have Mavericks installed? I thought I read that Mountain Lion would work ok.

Mountain Lion drivers won't work since the Titan Black is also based on GK110B as stated here. You need to use Mavericks 10.9.2 drivers as stated in the NVIDIA FAQ sticky thread, item 5.

 

[stjames70]

Almost same set up

I have a MP 3,1.

I have the FSI Booster installed in one of my optical drives and I routed the power cables to run a GTX Titan card. I have the latest version of Mavericks installed and have had no issues with it at all.

I think as someone pointed out, you should probably upgrade to Mavericks if you can.

 

[peter55]

Thanks all. I went ahead and upgraded to Mavericks and that seems to have solved the problem.

Surprised that the computer would just reboot itself if there is a incompatibility with OS/drivers. The Apple vid driver didn't recognize the card properly in the system information list. But I did find a recent Nvidia driver (that worked with my updated 10.9.2 os) that did install and now the card is recognized properly.

Cool. Will Nvidia ever 'support' the card? Or will it always be a partially supported card (when I search for Titan Black drivers they don't list any Mac ones).

thanks,
Peter

 

[flowrider]

Will Nvidia ever 'support' the card? Or will it always be a partially supported card (when I search for Titan Black drivers they don't list any Mac ones).

thanks,
Peter

Not unless a graphics card manufacturer makes a Mac version of the card. With the oMP now discounted, I doubt that we'll ever see a Macintosh Version of a card again. Just be happy that both Apple Drivers, Invidia Drivers and CUDA Drivers support the late cards in Mac Pros in the latest OS. And, as far as no factory support goes, also be happy that MVC is around both to advise us, and to develop EFI flashing techniques that make PC Edition cards into unofficial Mac Edition Card.

Lou

 

[MacVidCards]

Yeah, Nvidia is writing drivers that make the cards work.

Be happy.

When an Apple "security" update broke them they released a fix.

So, we still have friends there.

If there is a true God in Nvidia Heaven, they will release one final Maxwell GPU for cMP and we will have chance at one last round of cards.

I wouldn't count on it though. (I'm not)

 

[Redneck1089]

Yeah, Nvidia is writing drivers that make the cards work.

Be happy.

When an Apple "security" update broke them they released a fix.

So, we still have friends there.

If there is a true God in Nvidia Heaven, they will release one final Maxwell GPU for cMP and we will have chance at one last round of cards.

I wouldn't count on it though. (I'm not)

Do you think that 10.9.3 will support the GTX 780 Ti and Titan Black without Nvidia drivers upon its release, or are we always dependent upon Nvidia and their drivers for these cards going forward?

 

[MH01]

Mac pro + Titan Black = Respect!

That's why the cMP is still awesome!

 

[Redneck1089]

Mac pro + Titan Black = Respect!

That's why the cMP is still awesome!

I agree. I have a GTX 780 Ti Classified over clocked and over-volted with EVbot.

The problem is that it's impossible to update the OS with these cards at the moment without editing kext files, etc. so the OS will recognize them upon reboot.

That's why I want to know if next Mac OS update will natively support the Kepler B cards without the run around.


I've gone so far as to order an old GTX 570 cheaply off eBay to do my updates and then reinstall the Nvidia drivers so I can put my GTX 780 back in.