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Help with Incorporating a EVGA GTX 970 in a 4,1 MP

S

SIRmisterD

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 8, 2013
67
2
Hello everyone,

I recently acquired a EVGA GTX 970 to put into my 2009 Mac Pro. I've mainly been using my Windows 7 Bootcamp partition rather than my Mac partition, so I haven't really been bothered with getting the card to work on the Mac side.

I got the card to work fine on the windows side by simply downloading drivers. However on the Mac side, it hasn't been so easy. I downloaded some drivers beforehand that I thought were the right ones, but when I tried to boot into OSX all I got was a black screen. At this point, I believe it is not as simple as I thought for getting the card to get along with mac, but I know it's possible. I am asking if anyone could list a step by step guide on how to get this card working the right way on Mountain Lion 1.8.5. (If I recall, it's not as easy as downloading drivers and restarting. I believe I have to enter some commands into Terminal, or change some things. Maybe not? I'm not too sure.)

Any advice is greatly appreciated,
Thank you!
 
It won't work unless you upgrade to 10.10 Yosemite. The nVidia web drivers are OS X build dependent. Others will offer a more detailed technical explanation, but that is the short version.

Edit: here is the post from MacVidCards on this, #89.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1838090/
 
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Looking through the link you provided, I can see why Yosemite is required. However, what process do I do before I update? I saw that post #84 showed some steps, but that was after you already had the EFI drivers installed.
 
You would install Yosemite using whatever existing GPU you have that works, then download the latest version of nVidia web drivers. I do not know which build number of Yosemite you will get by downloading from the App Store now - I am guessing that the security updates eventually get rolled into the installer package. After installing Yosemite and nVidia web drivers, reconnect the 970 and attempt a startup. If it works, great - but be careful installing any security updates or system updates because that will change build number and break the nVidia drivers until nVidia updates them (usually a few days). The web drivers are build-specific. If the 970 doesn't work after you installed Yosemite and the web drivers, first thing to do would be to hack your plist file to match the build number for the nVidia drivers. The best discussion of this is on the thread discussing Security Update 2015-002 breaking web drivers (now tagged as resolved).
 
I am downloading Yosemite right now, and I will post again once the drivers are installed.
 
SIRmisterD said:
I am downloading Yosemite right now, and I will post again once the drivers are installed.
Click to expand...

Good luck. The latest version of the nVidia web drivers restored compatibility with 10.10.2 after the 2015-002 Security Update - there was about a 6-day lag time. Then the day after those drivers were released, Apple released Security Update 2015-003 which broke compatibility all over again. Once you get the card working OK, you will have the following choice every time Apple releases a new OS update or security update:

1) Wait until nVidia updates its drivers, then follow the procedure outlined by MacVidCards in another thread. It is either the Security Update 2015-002 thread, the EFI GPU Cards sticky thread, or the 970/980 thread. I cannot keep them all straight anymore. He may also have the procedure posted on his website.

2) Hack the plist file of your updated OS X to match the previous build number, which will fool the nVidia web drivers into working.
 
flehman said:
Good luck. The latest version of the nVidia web drivers restored compatibility with 10.10.2 after the 2015-002 Security Update - there was about a 6-day lag time. Then the day after those drivers were released, Apple released Security Update 2015-003 which broke compatibility all over again. Once you get the card working OK, you will have the following choice every time Apple releases a new OS update or security update:

1) Wait until nVidia updates its drivers, then follow the procedure outlined by MacVidCards in another thread. It is either the Security Update 2015-002 thread, the EFI GPU Cards sticky thread, or the 970/980 thread. I cannot keep them all straight anymore. He may also have the procedure posted on his website.

2) Hack the plist file of your updated OS X to match the previous build number, which will fool the nVidia web drivers into working.
Click to expand...

Once I finished the upgrade to Yosemite, I installed all the latest updates that were available from the App Store (Safari update, Remote Desktop Client, and the 2015-003 Security). Next, I downloaded the latest nVidia drivers along with the latest CUDA driver. At first, the web driver wouldn't install because I had the wrong build number. I easily fixed that by finding out how to change the SystemVersion.plist (Changed from 14C1514 to 14C1510 and the web driver installed without errors. Likewise with the CUDA driver.). I gave a good reboot with the web drivers selected, before reinstalling my 970. I then reinstalled the 970 booted it up, and it worked! OSX was recognizing the 970 and the monitor name properly. However, I have three monitors that I want to use. When I plug the other two in, every screen goes black and I don't have a display at all.

EDIT: I unplugged all the monitors but only one. It'll stay black for a bit, then go to the grey boot up screen (without the apple logo) and prompt me with messages saying "Your computer was restarted because of a problem." It seems anytime I try to use more than one monitor at a time, the MP crashes.

EDIT 2: I shutdown the MP, took off the side panel, unplugged the power to the 970 and replugged the power back in. Before starting up again, I connected all three monitors and it seemed to boot up fine. All three monitors are recognized. I must've not plugged in one power cable properly or something.
 
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Unfortunately I do not have any experience with multiple monitors - I just use one big one. I'm sure there are some other folks around here who might have some advice about that topic. At least you got it working with 1 display though!
 
flehman said:
Unfortunately I do not have any experience with multiple monitors - I just use one big one. I'm sure there are some other folks around here who might have some advice about that topic. At least you got it working with 1 display though!
Click to expand...

The Edit 2 in my last response seemed to do the trick. Must've been my fault with the silly error. Thank you so much for your help with this. I think I have everything up and running.
 
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