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My MVC Flashed GTX 1080

flowrider

flowrider

macrumors 604
Original poster
Nov 23, 2012
7,341
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I recently bought a Gigabyte Windforce 3 fan GTX 1080. The model I bought was the G1 Gaming card. I'm not a gamer. The primary reason I bought this card was it was the fastest GTX 1080 card that Gigabyte sells that has only one 8 pin power connector. I was running a GTX 780 (also MVC flashed) with two 8 connectors. Two of the pins were shorted on each connector so I could run with the stock double six pin connectors. I wanted to reduce my TDP. The 8GB of memory was an added bonus.

I bought my card from Amazon and had it shipped directly to MVC. He kept it for awhile, until the final flash was completed, and I received it yesterday. I am very pleased with the card, it is fast, and quiet and, of course, having the boot screen is a big bonus IMHO.

Screen redraws while fast before, are now lighting fast. My UPS has a display and my total watts for all devices plugged into it are now between 30 and 50 watts less than they were before.

The only difference with this card, vs my previous 2 MVC cards (a GTX 570 and the GTX 780) is that during boot there is a 2 to 3 second period of black screen. It starts about ½ way through the process and the screen return to life about ¾ way through. Boot Picker is still available so, it's really no problem for me, but something I should mention. It's the result of the transition between EFI and the OS.

This card also has a Fan Stop feature, where the fans stop spinning when not needed. There is a visual readout and I can view it through the cheese grater ventilation screen.

Results of the tests I have run are attached. The first the GTX 780, the Second the GTX 1080.

Needless to say I'm am extremely pleased with everything.

LuxMark ball - 10.9 -780.jpg Luxball. 10.12.4 GTX 1080.png GTX 780 Cuda Geekbench 4.png Geekbench 4.1, Cuda, 10.12.4 GXT 1080.png GTX 780 Metal Geekbench 4.png Geekbench 4.1 Metal, 10.12.4, GTX 1080.png Heaven 10.10.jpg Heaven 10.12.4, GTX 1080.png Valley, 10.11.3 Web Driver.jpg Valley 10.12.4 GTX 1080.png

Lou
 
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Are you powering it using a Y-cable that combines the two 6-pins on the MB into a single 8-pin for the card, or do you have something more complex rigged up?
 
I'm curious as to what the experience is using verbose boot - is the blackout during, or after the text startup?
 
flehman said:
Are you powering it using a Y-cable that combines the two 6-pins on the MB into a single 8-pin for the card, or do you have something more complex rigged up?
Click to expand...

Yes, The Y - two 6 into one 8 pin.

Lou
 
>It starts about ½ way through the process and the screen return to life about ¾ way through. Boot Picker is still available so, it's really no problem for me, but something I should mention. It's the result of the transition between EFI and the OS.

Let me get it right, you see bootscreen with apple and progress bar, then it goes black screen, then back to life and to desktop ?

if it's right, it's just transition between efi and driver, happens faster for me tho, just a blink of black screen
 
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Great work guys, it's always nice when people can edge a little more life out of older hardware.

I remember working with Joe Van Tunen on the old Radeon 9100 PCI rom, to try and squeeze every last ounce of performance out of my PowerMac 8600.

Arti Itra, Joe VT, @netkas, and MVC really took video card hacking to a new level, and provided, millions, tens of millions?, of users a way to enhance and extend the life of our Macs.

We owe these people our gratitude, and a cold beer, for all they have done for us.
 
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markwilliams432 said:
Try emailing him again now.
Click to expand...

Well, it does state on his contact page, "Please do not email us regarding out of stock items or the availability of new products" (italicized underline was my emphasis)!

But I'll give it another go...
 
netkas said:
>It starts about ½ way through the process and the screen return to life about ¾ way through. Boot Picker is still available so, it's really no problem for me, but something I should mention. It's the result of the transition between EFI and the OS.

Let me get it right, you see bootscreen with apple and progress bar, then it goes black screen, then back to life and to desktop ?

if it's right, it's just transition between efi and driver, happens faster for me tho, just a blink of black screen
Click to expand...

Yes - That's correct. And yes, I knew that from my eMail discussions with MVC. And that's what I stated in my Post #1.

Lou
 
flowrider said:
The only difference with this card, vs my previous 2 MVC cards (a GTX 570 and the GTX 780) is that during boot there is a 2 to 3 second period of black screen. It starts about ½ way through the process and the screen return to life about ¾ way through. Boot Picker is still available so, it's really no problem for me, but something I should mention. It's the result of the transition between EFI and the OS.
Click to expand...
My GTX980 work same way
 
flowrider said:
Screen redraws while fast before, are now lighting fast. My UPS has a display and my total watts for all devices plugged into it are now between 30 and 50 watts less than they were before.

Lou
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing your experience. Mind sharing any thoughts on UPS units? I recently moved to a desktop system and out of curiosity, what's the brand/model you are using? Having wattage on display is super useful and there's a lot of units out there to select from.
 
^^^^I probably don't have the best UPS, because it's not sine wave. But, it's been working well for me. It's an APC Back-UPS Pro 1500. I've had it awhile.

Lou
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Filin said:
My GTX980 work same way
Click to expand...

Yes. My understanding is that there was an Apple/Nvidia EFI available that could be modified for Nvidia cards up to the Kepler generation. From Maxwell on, MVC created a completely new EFI and when the transition from the MVC EFI resolution to the Mac OS resolution causes that for some is a flicker and for me a 2-3 second black screen. Again, IMO, this is not an issue, as all services that supposed to be available during boot are available.

Lou
 
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Have any of you with MVC-flashed cards tested them in regular PCs? Interested in getting mine flashed, but would like to know I can use the card beyond the Mac Pro as and when I replace it.
 
Draeconis said:
Have any of you with MVC-flashed cards tested them in regular PCs? Interested in getting mine flashed, but would like to know I can use the card beyond the Mac Pro as and when I replace it.
Click to expand...
I'd expand the question to "can I use it in a UEFI PC". UEFI is quickly becoming the norm for new PCs, and the current cards support UEFI out of the box. If the flashed cards can't be used in a UEFI PC, that would be a worry.
 
AidenShaw said:
I'd expand the question to "can I use it in a UEFI PC". UEFI is quickly becoming the norm for new PCs, and the current cards support UEFI out of the box. If the flashed cards can't be used in a UEFI PC, that would be a worry.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure there is a limit to how many Option Rom images the chip can contain, so I think you could have all three( PC Bios/ Mac EFI/ UEFI ), but the one to ask would be Dave or @netkas.

That's assuming the Flash Rom chip on the card was physically big enough to contain them all. May require minor surgery to transplant a larger chip.
 
I think that "PC Bios" contain UEFI part, so card should work in regular PC without any issues.
 
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