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New Nvidia Drivers for Lion - Allow most cards to run, no EFI or ATY_Init needed

M

MacVidCards

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Original poster
Nov 17, 2008
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Hollywood, CA
http://www.nvidia.com/object/macosx-270.00.00f01-driver.html

You may have to right-click and install pieces separately but I just realized that using these drivers allow you to run most Nvidia cards in Mac Pro.

You won't have boot screens, but just like many ATI cards, you WILL have normal function once you reach desktop.

Should work with 9400GT to GTX580 and everything in between.

Nvidia is joining the "all cards work now" bandwagon.

Can't be an accident that within a year, ALL video cards now work, no injection needed. They are trying to make it easier, just not sure if it is Apple or Nvidia/AMD. Somebody wants these cards to work.
 
MacVidCards said:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/macosx-270.00.00f01-driver.html

You may have to right-click and install pieces separately but I just realized that using these drivers allow you to run most Nvidia cards in Mac Pro.

You won't have boot screens, but just like many ATI cards, you WILL have normal function once you reach desktop.

Should work with 9400GT to GTX580 and everything in between.

Nvidia is joining the "all cards work now" bandwagon.

Can't be an accident that within a year, ALL video cards now work, no injection needed. They are trying to make it easier, just not sure if it is Apple or Nvidia/AMD. Somebody wants these cards to work.
Click to expand...

Although it says 2008 and above, you think these will work on Mac Pro 1,1 with Lion?
 
Quaam said:
Although it says 2008 and above, you think these will work on Mac Pro 1,1 with Lion?
Click to expand...

You will probably have to right click to install the parts separately. But I would guess that it would work.

Just tried with an Nvidia GTX560Ti. Worked fine except for EFI boot screens.

Going to try a GTX560 Regular next, it has HDMI and MDP.
 

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MacVidCards said:
You will probably have to right click to install the parts separately. But I would guess that it would work.

Just tried with an Nvidia GTX560Ti. Worked fine except for EFI boot screens.

Going to try a GTX560 Regular next, it has HDMI and MDP.
Click to expand...

thanks. going to try this.
 
Quaam said:
thanks. going to try this.
Click to expand...

Just tried with 560GTX that has HDMI and MDP.

It's a No GO on the special ports.

The lower DVI port works, but it seems that the further something deviates from Dual DVI, the less likely to work.

If you have a look at last 2 Quadro cards they put out, they had to reduce outputs to 2 only on Mac card.

The whole basis of Mac Nvidia display drivers is for 2 ports only. Bit of a curse really.

MDP and HDMI will likely require other help.
 
MacVidCards said:
Nvidia is joining the "all cards work now" bandwagon.

Can't be an accident that within a year, ALL video cards now work, no injection needed. They are trying to make it easier, just not sure if it is Apple or Nvidia/AMD. Somebody wants these cards to work.
Click to expand...
Yes, I've been thinking about that too. I was intrigued by AMD drivers that support unflashed PC cards (since 10.6.8). Now that nVidia is doing it as well, there's definitely something going on in the graphics card area. Just when new Mac Pros are around the corner. Coincidence?
I think Apple is going to change their policies regarding GPU cards in the next tower line.
 
jeanlain said:
I think Apple is going to change their policies regarding GPU cards in the next tower line.
Click to expand...


I'm not sure Apple can change much. The basic issue is still one that Nvidia/AMD could fix in a flash. (literally) If they started included EFI on their cards, there is a good likelihood that most video cards would work already.

The drivers have been there for some time, there has just been nothing to "hook" into the drivers. Netkas wrote ATY_Init to do that, mimic the connection the EFI would have made if it had been there.

For Apple to change to fit the cards, they would have to abandon EFI and switch backwards (by 20+ years) to BIOS. That isn't going to happen.

In theory, EFI should be everywhere by now, it has been "just around the corner" for many years now. Had the EFI revolution happened, we would already have many cards running.

There is a secondary issue in how the Nvidia drivers vary between OSX and Windows. It is this issue that causes a GTX560 Ti with 2 DVI ports to work well with these new drivers but a GTX560 with 2 @ DVI, 1 @ HDMI and 1 @ DP to NOT work well. OSX does not have the same ability to dynamically switch outputs. This is so built into the drivers at this point it would be difficult to fix it and not orphan many existing cards.

Nvidia wants to be competitive but when an ATI card can run 6 displays but an Nvidia card just 2, all the raw HP in the world won't make that difference up to someone who wants to run a wall of displays.

Netkas says there are Keppler references in these new drivers, let's hope that means something exciting. Who knows, maybe Nvidia will take the lead and require combo EFI/BIOS firmware on their new Keppler cards? It would help drive the industry push to EFI and make more cards "Mac" able right off the bat.
 
I alreadY have these installed as I currently have a GTX285, but i'm tempted to try sticking a 580 or something in to test. :) Now where can I lay my hands on one just to test ? :)
 
Tall order coming up.

Any chance of retro fitting this to Snow Leopard? Long shot but I have to ask. :eek:
 
This is interesting because I have a 3,1 and have been waiting for a Mac Pro update so that I could possibly get an NVidia card for my MP. I am currently running with the stock ATI Radeon HD 2600. However, I would like something from NVidia so that I can run and take advantage of DaVinci Resolve.

I'm not really up to speed on what is going on with the "all cards work now" movement that you folks have mentioned and I don't know what you mean by "You won't have boot screens", "Worked fine except for EFI boot screens", etc. Could you explain a little?

Also, could someone recommend an NVidia card for my 3,1? As, I said above, I want to use it with for DaVinci Resolve and other video apps. Thanks!
 
jeanlain said:
Yes, I've been thinking about that too. I was intrigued by AMD drivers that support unflashed PC cards (since 10.6.8). Now that nVidia is doing it as well, there's definitely something going on in the graphics card area. Just when new Mac Pros are around the corner. Coincidence?
I think Apple is going to change their policies regarding GPU cards in the next tower line.
Click to expand...

Apple has never really had a policy for third party graphics cards. Vendors can ship whatever they want as a PCIe card for the Mac pro.

There is most certainly a policy for what cards come with the machine though...

I'm on the fence about whether it's a good sign or not. They could be doing this because they hope to ship more cards to Mac Pro users, or because Apple is ending the Mac Pro line and they don't want to invest any more time in Mac specific cards. (Pure speculation on my part.)
 
What great news! Drivers straight from the mfr; what a novel idea.

I don't understand though, the support page states up to GTX 200 series, but 500 series is working well?
 
Better news than I thought

I had been playing with that GTX560 and trying different ROMs on it.

Once I put the factory ROM back on it, the Displayport and HDMI started working. Quite likely indeed that it will run Apple Display.

Once I get it on my 1,1 which is with the 27" ACD I will post verified results.

I doubt very much that Audio will work over these connections.

As far as installing on a 1,1, a series of right clicks and "show packages" will show you:

/Volumes/NVIDIA Drivers/270.00.00f01 Web Release.mpkg/Contents/Packages/webDriverPayload_SVSSJ.pkg/Contents

In that final "Contents" folder are the kexts themselves. You can use Kexthelper, Kextdrop, or just drag and drop them into S/L/E, you will just need to do a repair permissions after to get them working, then reboot.
 
AWESOME!!!!!
So this means I can buy any 500 series card and put it in and it will work? (2009 MP) So I can finally replace my two GT 120s?
 
Yes, just remember "No EFI means no Boot Screens"

This is exactly the same deal we got on ATI cards last spring when MBP 10.6.6 came out. (and ever since)
 
Hi,

got a 580 in my 2010 Mac Pro.
Installed the new Nvidia drivers on my 10.7.3 which was previously modded with ATY_init and modified NVDAGF100Hal.kext.

But nothing appears to have changed after installing the nvidia drivers.

Do I have to undo the modifications done before installing the drivers ? (remove added line in NVDA kext and remove aty_init) ?

Thx
 
musio said:
Will these drivers appear in the apple software update?
Click to expand...

Not currently. They're third party drivers at the moment.

It's possible they'll get sent to Apple and incorporated into OS X at some point.
 
Toumak said:
Hi,

got a 580 in my 2010 Mac Pro.
Installed the new Nvidia drivers on my 10.7.3 which was previously modded with ATY_init and modified NVDAGF100Hal.kext.

But nothing appears to have changed after installing the nvidia drivers.

Do I have to undo the modifications done before installing the drivers ? (remove added line in NVDA kext and remove aty_init) ?

Thx
Click to expand...

1. What do you mean by "but nothing appears to have changed"? Does the card work or not?

2. This overwrites the NV100Hal kext, so don't worry about that.

3. The WHOLE POINT is that you don't need ATY_Init anymore, so.....remove it.
 
MacVidCards said:
1. What do you mean by "but nothing appears to have changed"? Does the card work or not?

2. This overwrites the NV100Hal kext, so don't worry about that.

3. The WHOLE POINT is that you don't need ATY_Init anymore, so.....remove it.
Click to expand...

Well sys infos still displayed the same as without the new drivers installed.
I removed ATY_init as you said and now sys infos shows me correct informations about my 580.
Plus, I tried GTA San Andreas (from the MAS) : works finally perfectly maxed out, against not working at all until now !

Thanks !
 
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