macOS only recognizes Default Graphics Driver on restart after installing/enabling NVIDIA Web Driver

[Ecologgia]

There are two mini 6-pin power cables on the board in the MacPro. When I had a GTX 680 (official EVGA for Mac version) there were two 6-pin power cables on the GPU itself. Needed to use two mini 6-pin to standard 6-pin power cables to power the GPU.

Your GTX 680 is a 4GB model, so it's not an official Mac version. It's either a straight PC card, or it's been flashed/modified by someone to "make" it a Mac card.

What brand & model is the GPU?
What are the power requirements?
Are there two 6-pin power slots on the card? One 6-pin? One 8-pin? One 6-pin + one 8-pin?
What port/connection are you using to connect to your monitor?

The card appears to be an ASUS GeForce GTX 680 DirectCU II NVIDIA - 4GB
It has two 6 pin power slots both of which are connected. It's connected to the monitor with a VGA cable. I'm informed by the person who sold me the machine that the card is NOT flashed, but I can't verify that.

 

[bsbeamer]

Is this the only GPU you have? Any old Mac GPUs from another machine?

If the seller says it’s not flashed that likely is the case since they’d sell at a premium if they did. CPU is upgraded from non-standard though so the machine itself has been modified.

 

[Ecologgia]

Is this the only GPU you have? Any old Mac GPUs from another machine?

If the seller says it’s not flashed that likely is the case since they’d sell at a premium if they did. CPU is upgraded from non-standard though so the machine itself has been modified.

No I don't have any other GPUs. I've just upgraded to the MacPro from a Macbook Pro

 

[bsbeamer]

Would suggest setting up a spare hard drive with a clean/fresh install of High Sierra, then get the web drivers to work.

There is a driver install issue if you cannot select between the two drivers. Without having a Mac EFI card handy, makes it hard to further troubleshoot.

I’m guessing it’s an issue with SIP. You (probably) cannot get into recovery mode with your GPU and will be hard to figure out for sure. Also will not be possible to update the MacPro firmware. If you CAN get into recovery mode, enable SIP then reinstall drivers.

May want to look for a cheap official Mac GPU, not one that’s been flashed by an eBay user. It’s good to have one on hand for troubleshooting and boot issues.

 

[Ecologgia]

Would suggest setting up a spare hard drive with a clean/fresh install of High Sierra, then get the web drivers to work.

There is a driver install issue if you cannot select between the two drivers. Without having a Mac EFI card handy, makes it hard to further troubleshoot.

I’m guessing it’s an issue with SIP. You (probably) cannot get into recovery mode with your GPU and will be hard to figure out for sure. Also will not be possible to update the MacPro firmware. If you CAN get into recovery mode, enable SIP then reinstall drivers.

May want to look for a cheap official Mac GPU, not one that’s been flashed by an eBay user. It’s good to have one on hand for troubleshooting and boot issues.

Very many thanks for all your kind help with this issue. As I have a couple of internal spare hard drives I'll try the High Sierra route. If that works I'll just migrate to that OS. High Sierra was installed when I got the machine, but I was having so many problems that I downgraded. Now I'm a bit more educated I'm not quite so overwhelmed.

In the meantime I'm supposed to be doing actual work...

 

[rustychris]

I have the same thing. I've been using the Mac OS Cuda Drivers in my iMac and tried the Nvidia web drivers but they just cause a restart loop. I tried it all again yesterday as the Premiere update claims that it's not compatible with CUDA and only with the web drivers. Hmm.

 

[yfile]

I strongly recommend to throw Nvidia card out of widow, get AMD card and install Mojave.

 

[bsbeamer]

I have the same thing. I've been using the Mac OS Cuda Drivers in my iMac and tried the Nvidia web drivers but they just cause a restart loop. I tried it all again yesterday as the Premiere update claims that it's not compatible with CUDA and only with the web drivers. Hmm.

I strongly recommend to throw Nvidia card out of widow, get AMD card and install Mojave.

Kinda hard when this user is on an iMac...

 

[yfile]

Kinda hard when this user is on an iMac...

Indeed this make thing a bit more complicated.
Try to disable Nvidia junk (look at egpu.co forum) and get eGPU box with RX570/580/Vega.

 

[grifu]

I have a similar issue and some insights that are interesting.
Hardware details: MacPro3.1 Early 2008 with the default ATI Radeon HD 2600 and a EVGA 650TI with 6xpin connected to the logic board since 2014. The graphics work fine and are both recognised in windows and mac.
Since 10.9 (I think) have been trying to switch to Nvidia Web Driver (upgrading the system, formatting new disks with new operation systems, and so on). I have never been able to switch.
Last week bought a Gigabyte GTX1080 ITX (pascal) with 1x8pin with 2x6pin connectors into the Logic Board.
It works well in Windows, but it is not recognised in El Capitan. From readings in the Web I realised that I should upgrade to Sierra or High Sierra (unsupported systems for MacPro3.1 but possible with some tweaks and patches).
Upgraded to High Sierra with a patch that disables SIP forever. Installed Web Driver and still the same result as ever. Read some posts in forums about the SIP. So I went to Recover drive and move the kext that disables automatically SIP (/Volumes/xxxx/Library/Extensions/SIPManager.kext) to another place and enable the SIP through csrutil enable. After boot and installing the Web driver I achieve----- the same result !!!!!!

And now for the strange thing. Yesterday I brought a Macpro3.1 from a friend to install an SSD. Having this computer in my home I tried installing my GTX1080 and formatted with the same Pendrive using the same HighSierra and fowling the same procedure but from a fresh start. After installing the system it is fundamental to upgrade to the last security upgrade (if not, there is no web driver for that OS version 17G66), however the SIP must be disable to do this upgrade. After upgrading and downloading the latest Nvidia Web Driver I went to Recover Mode, move the Kext and enable SIP. Boot and install the driver, Gatekeeper will requires opening permissions to allow the installation. Finally, after booting.....everything worked out.... the GTX1080 was now recognised by the system, tested the graphics and it was OK.

Then....Made the same procedure with my computer...and at the end.... nothing.....still in default mode....
Removed the SSD disk from the other computer and installed on mine... booted from this SSD and the result was the same ...defalut mode....

Conclusion:
Similar machines with the same hardware using the same system and the result is different. How come?