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Mavericks and Graph cards

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fifthmanstandin

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 11, 2009
69
0
Hi all,

Recently posted about graph cards here https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=18056075#post18056075 awhile back and right before Mavericks came out. Which at that time I was not even aware was a thing. So recently I started looking around google and didn't have much luck finding the changes between Mountain Lion and Mavericks in terms of graphics card supports for the mac pro systems. I'm running the Mac Pro 3.1 and am probably going to upgrade the card this holiday season. Does anyone have any insight on this?

Thanks in advance.
 
Mountain Lion self-inits Nvidia and AMD cards now, so most recent cards are supported. I say most because I think there are still a few weird cards that don't work right (6970?). I don't think Mavericks supports any cards that ML doesn't.

The Nvidia FAQ covers Nvidia support fairly well.

Nobody has done the same for AMD, but I know 5770, 5870, 6870, 7950, and 7970 have been popular choices.

I personally went with a GTX 680 because I like having boot screens and it's a model that is extremely easy to flash. It has good price/performance and it is quiet. All the ports work as you would expect, and once flashed it has full PCI speed in bootcamp without needing any hardware mods. It overclocks in Windows easily and the overclock settings stick around for OS X. It doesn't require supplemental power, even for the 6+8 pin versions. They can be had in 2GB and 4GB versions. It's just an all-around great card for the Mac Pro.
 
ActionableMango said:
I personally went with a GTX 680 because I like having boot screens and it's a model that is extremely easy to flash. It has good price/performance and it is quiet. All the ports work as you would expect, and once flashed it has full PCI speed in bootcamp without needing any hardware mods. It overclocks in Windows easily and the overclock settings stick around for OS X. It doesn't require supplemental power, even for the 6+8 pin versions. They can be had in 2GB and 4GB versions. It's just an all-around great card for the Mac Pro.
Click to expand...

Now hold on a sec, are you saying these cards have to be flashed? I was under the impression from my previous thread that all I had to do was buy an nvidia card, plug it in and go?
 
fifthmanstandin said:
Now hold on a sec, are you saying these cards have to be flashed? I was under the impression from my previous thread that all I had to do was buy an nvidia card, plug it in and go?
Click to expand...

That is all you have to do. Flashing enables boot screens and for some cards, full PCIE 2.0 speeds in Windows.

I *like* having boot screens and if it's easy to flash, why not?
 
fifthmanstandin said:
Ok but I can still plug it in and go and won't get a grey boot screen I assume?
Click to expand...

Yes. You will need two Mac-specific power cables because PC cards come with PC power cables.
http://www.svideo.com/x1900.html

It would be preferable to get a 760 with 2x6-pin power connectors, since that is what the Mac Pro provides, but this card is probably okay anyway.

I have no idea about your other questions. Once I got the 680 I stopped paying attention. Perhaps someone else can chime in.
 
Ok. Awesome.
Now is there a comprehensive walkthrough for flashing because I haven't looked at flashing a card in about 3 years and way back when it was pretty involved and scary.
 
I have the gtx 760+. It definitely beats the 660 and 660Ti. It is a midrange card with a nice price. The only game I find that taxes it is Crysis 3, with 30 to 60 fps on highest settings.

Like ActionableMango said, it requires two mini PCIe six pin connector cables, one to a six pin power socket and one to an eight pin power socket on the graphics card (there is an adapter six to eight pin connector included with the EVGA card).

I found no need to flash my card. If you're using Windows in bootcamp you'll be stuck in pcie 1.0 bandwidth, but the difference between that and pcie 2 is small. (imperceptible). I don't miss the boot screens, either. I actually don't know if you can even flash it. mebe MacVideoCards knows.
 
Anything is a step up from the Geforce 8880 at this point. I would actually like to be able to play skyrim and see what it's supposed to look like.

Now I'm assuming when I get this I should plug it in, boot over to windows and install the drivers per usual right? No special work arounds or anything right?
 
fifthmanstandin said:
Now I'm assuming when I get this I should plug it in, boot over to windows and install the drivers per usual right? No special work arounds or anything right?
Click to expand...


Yes, just usual driver installation.

One thing, since you don't get the boot screen, to get back to osx from bootcamp I reset the PRAM while booting. (hold down opt-cmd-P-R after first chime then release keys after fans increases audibly in speed. the computer will chime again then boot into osx).
 
fifthmanstandin said:
Anything is a step up from the Geforce 8880 at this point. I would actually like to be able to play skyrim and see what it's supposed to look like.

Now I'm assuming when I get this I should plug it in, boot over to windows and install the drivers per usual right? No special work arounds or anything right?
Click to expand...

Yes, in Bootcamp just treat it as you would on any other Windows computer.

Try looking at Bootchamp to help you easily boot to Bootcamp and return to Mac OS X. It's a very handy little app.
 
fifthmanstandin said:
Ok. Awesome.
Now is there a comprehensive walkthrough for flashing because I haven't looked at flashing a card in about 3 years and way back when it was pretty involved and scary.
Click to expand...

It's easy peasy if you get an EVGA PC reference design, just a different ROM file to flash for the 2 and 4gb versions. All done from an admin command prompt in windows, takes longer to change to the folder containing the rom and utility via typing than to flash the card itself. I paid £200 for mine used and it was unregistered for the warranty which I've since done.

It's a huge step up from the 8800GT which I retired about a month ago for the GTX 680 in my 3,1.
 
fifthmanstandin said:
Ok. Awesome.
Now is there a comprehensive walkthrough for flashing because I haven't looked at flashing a card in about 3 years and way back when it was pretty involved and scary.
Click to expand...

Here are the steps for a GTX 680 2GB, including the ROM file:
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/17225033/

The steps for your card would be the same except you'll need an appropriate ROM and I have no idea where to get one for the card you've picked.
 
ActionableMango said:
The steps for your card would be the same except you'll need an appropriate ROM and I have no idea where to get one for the card you've picked.
Click to expand...
The fact is that only the GTX 680 2GB and 4GB Mac ROMs are available at this forum (and everyone here only talked about flashing the GTX 680 so far), none for any of the GTX 7XX and Titan models. So the OP should not expect to flash the ROM unless picking up a GTX 680 (reference) model.
 
Some video cards don't need Mac specific firmware to work. You just don't get a boot screen.

Some SATA/eSATA cards work out of the box without Mac specific firmware.

Some USB 3 cards work out of the box without Mac specific firmware.
 
xcodeSyn said:
The fact is that only the GTX 680 2GB and 4GB Mac ROMs are available at this forum (and everyone here only talked about flashing the GTX 680 so far), none for any of the GTX 7XX and Titan models. So the OP should not expect to flash the ROM unless picking up a GTX 680 (reference) model.
Click to expand...

Yes, this forum is very light on ROMs. There are more over on Netkas, but they seem to be AMD related. I'm sure you know more than I do; as soon as I got my 680 working, I stopped paying attention.
 
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