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Is MVC Still Running?

T

The Buggman

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 25, 2013
43
18
Hey all,

Would anyone happen to know if MacVidCards is still an active shop? They haven't made new post on Twitter or their blog since September. I sent an e-mail asking a question on Saturday as well, but no response yet.

I was planning to make a purchase, obviously, but I'm getting kinda nervous about it now. Flashing a GTX 970 would only grant the convenience of a boot screen after all, right? And waiting for any driver updates on the 10xx's is looking like wasted time based on a lot of comments here...

So, is it maybe more worth just buying a BIOS 970 and foregoing the boot screen?
 
Why risk it.

If a company that is supposed to be active on working hours isn't responding to emails, tweets, and doesn't seem active. ... Just don't risk it?
 
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That's how I feel, but I'm caught up in trying to determine what my other options are. Maybe I don't necessarily need the EFI addition. Maybe there's somewhere else that I can purchase flashed cards. Or maybe the pascal driver updates are right around the corner, making the 10xxs the better option regardless...

I've had to bake my 8800 for the 6th time recently (I might have to contact Guinness soon and see how close I am to the record), so I realize I'm running out of time on making a purchase decision.
 
I've no personal experience with the MVC business side of things, but as a contributor to the forum they had an oddly antagonistic style which would turn me off using them as a supplier.

I notice they have been banned from the forum a number of times.

Again, no comment on the product, just an observation of behaviour on the forum over the years. If you're running a business, I'd aim to make phone contact to establish credibility and support likelihood before going any further.
 
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nerdynerdynerdy said:
I notice they have been banned from the forum a number of times.
Click to expand...


Wow, that is news to me. When I was last on the forums for GPU support just over a year ago, they're the ones who originally set me down the path of baking my card. They seemed genuinely helpful in that short exchange and I would have been ready to buy my new card from them on the spot if baking my faulty one didn't work so smoothly. Hard to imagine that same account getting banned... The More You Know.

As far as alternate forms of contact go, the only ones they seem to have made available are their Twitter and email.

I guess something did happen since my last experience with them. It's a shame to write them off, but I suppose I'll check Ebay or something in the morning for other shops that flash cards. If I come up dry on that endeavor, at least I'll get to shave about $100 off the price of a new card...

Edit:
pastrychef said:
You can try installing Clover to get boot screen. Fl0rIan has stated that by using Clover, you can get boot screens.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll be looking into this.
 
The Buggman said:
So, is it maybe more worth just buying a BIOS 970 and foregoing the boot screen?
Click to expand...
A cheaper option is to buy a used GTX680 & flash it yourself so you have the boot screen. There are a couple of AMD cards that can be flashed by the user too.

MVC does have a European partner who seems to offer the full service but the prices are just as high as those of MVC e.g. £100 to flash a GTX680 that you can do yourself for £0 http://www.macstoreuk.com
 
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As far as I know, Clover won't patch anything unless it's told to.

My guess is that the only possible thing that MAY need to be done would be to clone your Mac's info in to the SMBIOS section.

Going forward, Clover may be the solution to install future versions of macOS when Apple drops support for the 5,1s.
 
Last edited:
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The Buggman said:
Hey all,

Would anyone happen to know if MacVidCards is still an active shop? They haven't made new post on Twitter or their blog since September. I sent an e-mail asking a question on Saturday as well, but no response yet.
Click to expand...

I was wondering the same thing a couple days ago. And they used to be fairly active on MR as well, now nothing, not even a little rant on the latest MBPs;)
 
pastrychef said:
You can try installing Clover to get boot screen. Fl0rIan has stated that by using Clover, you can get boot screens.
Click to expand...

So, traditionally, the Mac Pro use EFI to provide boot screen (Apple logo, boot manager, loading bar, recovery partition) until GPU driver loaded. AFAIK, this is true until 10.12.

In 10.12, EFI provide Apple logo, boot manager, and then GPU driver is loaded to provide the loading bar. This also makes any non EFI (but supported by macOS) GPU can access recovery partition.

For Maxwell card. Before Sierra, non EFI card won't shows anything until driver loaded (boot to desktop). And not sure it the web driver can provide loading bar in Sierra. However, web driver won't be loaded in recovery partition, so non EFI Maxwell can't access it.

On the other hand, the EFI Maxwell can provide boot screen, boot manager, loading bar, recovery partition before Sierra (but not acceleration until web driver loaded). And after Sierra, Apple logo still there, boot manager still usable. But not sure if it can still provide the loading bar, or even display anything after OSX loaded (but web driver not activated). A member report that his flashed Maxwell card cannot show anything in recovery partition now in Sierra.

For Clover, may I know how it work? It will preload some driver before OS, or even before the boot manager?

Is it actually possible to provide any display without any OSX driver and Nvidia web driver?
 
Considering how the classic Mac Pro's are not made anymore and aging rapidly I'm guessing he will have to change his business model soon. Probably why he mostly posted vitriol comments and eventually banned.
 
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h9826790 said:
So, traditionally, the Mac Pro use EFI to provide boot screen (Apple logo, boot manager, loading bar, recovery partition) until GPU driver loaded. AFAIK, this is true until 10.12.

In 10.12, EFI provide Apple logo, boot manager, and then GPU driver is loaded to provide the loading bar. This also makes any non EFI (but supported by macOS) GPU can access recovery partition.

For Maxwell card. Before Sierra, non EFI card won't shows anything until driver loaded (boot to desktop). And not sure it the web driver can provide loading bar in Sierra. However, web driver won't be loaded in recovery partition, so non EFI Maxwell can't access it.

On the other hand, the EFI Maxwell can provide boot screen, boot manager, loading bar, recovery partition before Sierra (but not acceleration until web driver loaded). And after Sierra, Apple logo still there, boot manager still usable. But not sure if it can still provide the loading bar, or even display anything after OSX loaded (but web driver not activated). A member report that his flashed Maxwell card cannot show anything in recovery partition now in Sierra.

For Clover, may I know how it work? It will preload some driver before OS, or even before the boot manager?

Is it actually possible to provide any display without any OSX driver and Nvidia web driver?
Click to expand...

From what Fl0r!an stated, Clover has it's own basic driver.

This would allow the GPU to initialize. Once initialized, it would just display whatever the system asks it to display. I am assuming that this is similar to how flashed Maxwell cards are able to produce an image before the Nvidia drivers are loaded. The difference, of course, is one is done with custom firmware and the other is done in software.

In short, a method is needed to kickstart the video card. Firmware is one way and Clover is another way.
 
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linuxcooldude said:
Considering how the classic Mac Pro's are not made anymore and aging rapidly I'm guessing he will have to change his business model soon. Probably why he mostly posted vitriol comments and eventually banned.
Click to expand...

I don't agree with the way he handles the public as a business, but MVC has contributed a lot to the Mac community.

Unless Apple decides to go balls-to-the-wall on GPU, there's always a need for his skills. He's working on eGPU for newer Macs and there's definitely demand for it.
 
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I just don't think anyone should be charging silly money for a bit of firmware that is stuck together from part Apple/part Nvidia with a few hexes flipped. That goes for all the parties charging for these firmware. Hacking is supposed to be free.
 
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The Buggman said:
Hey all,

Would anyone happen to know if MacVidCards is still an active shop? They haven't made new post on Twitter or their blog since September. I sent an e-mail asking a question on Saturday as well, but no response yet.

I was planning to make a purchase, obviously, but I'm getting kinda nervous about it now. Flashing a GTX 970 would only grant the convenience of a boot screen after all, right? And waiting for any driver updates on the 10xx's is looking like wasted time based on a lot of comments here...

So, is it maybe more worth just buying a BIOS 970 and foregoing the boot screen?
Click to expand...

If you have a free PCIe slot, you can use your 970 with the GT120. It can also provide boot screen. In fact, you can use the GT120 with whatever card you want (at least still true in OSX), make it works like a detachable EFI part of other graphic card. It should be cheaper than flashing the 970, safer than flashing the 970, also more flexible then flashing the 970.
 
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h9826790 said:
If you have a free PCIe slot, you can use your 970 with the GT120. It can also provide boot screen. In fact, you can use the GT120 with whatever card you want (at least still true in OSX), make it works like a detachable EFI part of other graphic card. It should be cheaper than flashing the 970, safer than flashing the 970, also more flexible then flashing the 970.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, my current card is a dying 8800 which I shouldn't rely on for anything at this point.

I think I might try the Clover + 970 route. Just need to do some reading up on Clover first. But from everything here, it sounds really promising.


Flint Ironstag said:
He's alive - just posted on netkas forums yesterday. Try him there.
Click to expand...

It's Netkas.org, right? I've been trying to access Netkas all afternoon, but it seems to be down at the moment.
 
The Buggman said:
Unfortunately, my current card is a dying 8800 which I shouldn't rely on for anything at this point.

I think I might try the Clover + 970 route. Just need to do some reading up on Clover first. But from everything here, it sounds really promising.




It's Netkas.org, right? I've been trying to access Netkas all afternoon, but it seems to be down at the moment.
Click to expand...
Not working for me either.
 
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If that was truly the case, wouldn't more ROMs be available publicly? Not that that I know anything about Netkas or even much about MVC other than what I've surmised from replies here.

While I am admittedly slightly annoyed about the steep price of flashing as SoyCapitanSoyCapitan has brought up, I do still fully recognize and appreciate the very specialized knowledge required to reengineer these cards.

Obviously, it would be better to release the ROMs, especially if you're no longer committed to your business.
 
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