MP 1,1-5,1 Mac Pro 5,1 doesn't show anything about my Quadro 4000 which was working fine until yesterday.

[alexkalibur]

Hi,
My Mac Pro 5,1 has two GPUs:
Nvidia GForce GT 120 512Mo
Quadro 4000

I have a dual boot, one to boot on 10.9 (with the GT120), and another one to boot on 10.13.6 (with the Quadro).
Until yesterday, it was working correctly.
Now, I noticed that I have to plug my displays in the GT120 to use the MacPro. The Quadro is no longer showed in the system infos, everything shows only the GT120 as if I would have only one GPU inside.

How could I check what's going on ?
What could I test to determine where the issue is coming from ?

The GT120 makes sense only on the 10.9 that I use for music production (compatibility for my "no-so-old" I/O hardware), on 10.13.6 the display is not really efficient, and the Quadro was not supported on 10.9.

Thank you in advance for your help.
Regards

 

[Borowski]

You can remove the GT120, Quadro 4000 (Fermi-based) is supported since OSX 10.6.5. No webdriver needed, install optional, try if performance is better.

In my opinion the thermal-design of this card is poor, Fermi is known for high power-consumption and high temperatures, the single-slot-design is overstrained to cool the GPU. Many cards died caused by overheating.

 

[alexkalibur]

You can remove the GT120, Quadro 4000 (Fermi-based) is supported since OSX 10.6.5. No webdriver needed, install optional, try if performance is better.

In my opinion the thermal-design of this card is poor, Fermi is known for high power-consumption and high temperatures, the single-slot-design is overstrained to cool the GPU. Many cards died caused by overheating.

Hi Borowski,

Thank you for your answer. You're right, the Quadro could do the job on both 10.9/10.13.6. And should! :-D
The reason why I needed the GT120, is to have it for my display on 10.9 to avoid the Quadro to make noise while recording music (I use 10.9 for the music only, and I really needed a silent graphic card).
But the GT120 is not the issue, in fact it's the only remaining one which seems to work fine.

My problem is that the Quadro 4000 is not seen anymore in the system informations (The "about this mac" menu then "system report"), as if it wasn't detected anymore.
What should I do to get it detected by MacOS ?
Should I remove the Quadro, boot, then shutdown, put it back, and see what's going on ?
Or is it just something to configure ?
Or do you really think that my Quadro is dead ? How could I check this ?

If I ever should replace this card because it's dead, just keeping this for the 10.13.6 (the GT120 can still be used as the only one on the 10.9), which one would you then recommend ? I guess another Quadro 4000 is not going to be your recommendation... :-D
I really don't intend to upgrade my MacOS, 10.13.6 is really fine for me.

Kind regards

 

[sfalatko]

Well you could always try and remove the Quadro, clean the contacts and reseat it though if it isn't seen all of the sudden I would expect it died.

 

[Borowski]

You can try this:
- PRAM-Reset
- reseat the Quadro 4000
- or put it on another PCIe-slot
- put the Quadro in another mac or PC.

Is the LED on the quadro light green?

Why two gpus? Both are older and don't support metal, but that seems no problem for your use. Hard to give a recommendation without informations, a silent/passive cooled gpu could be a good choice for recording.

 

[alexkalibur]

Hi guys,
I've removed the Quadro, cleaned the pins with a dry smooth microfiber cloth, put it back, then startup.
It worked...
It's really strange that all of a sudden, such a card can have a faulty connection. And in a MacPro, there is also a level to hold the cards seated in the slots, and another piece to screw them firmly to the chassis.

Anyway, I'm back with this configuration, until I'd eventually get the next issue.
Thank you Sfalatko and Borowski for your advice to remove/clean/replace it, it was the solution.

Prior to this, I tried earlier PRAM-Reset without success. As the connection was at issue inside the slots (I presume, from how it was solved), I don't think the PRAM would have solved this, but it was also a good attempt.

@Borowski
Two gpus because one is very silent alghough not really efficient. I use it on 10.9 for the music recording (which doesn't require gpu performances).
And the other one is much better, but a bit louder. I use it on 10.13.6 for my standard usage, and I can really notice the performance difference between both gpus.

Correction though: I was wrong, my Quadro is not 4000, but K5000. I think I had 4000 in mind since I planned to use it but I finally got the K5000 installed by the provider.

 

[alexkalibur]

(is there a way to mark this thread as "solved" ?)

 

[KeesMacPro]

(is there a way to mark this thread as "solved" ?)

Yes, you can since you're the OP.

Go to top of the thread> edit thread > prefix > choose resolved

 

[basslik]

Hello folks, thank you all for your valuable time.

I have two Quadro's 4000. I installed the correct web driver on High Sierra. But when I installed CUDA now it won't let me login in to my Mac. If I remove one of the Quadro's it boots up fine. If I put back the second Quadro back in it won't except my password. Any help greatly appreciated, thanks.