New Nvidia GTX 970 and 980 - cMP?

[m4v3r1ck]

New Nvidia GTX 970 and 980 - cMP?

Probably because the GT 120 is not supported by windows nvidia drivers anymore. It would conflict with the GTX 970 and you'd have all kinds of driver weirdness happen.

Correct!

To upgrade my GTX 670 FTW 4GB (non EFI) to the latest NVidia 344.75 drivers I had to remove my 8800GT MAC due to being unable to install the driver for both cards, because the 8800GT is not supported anymore for the new driver. Causing even Windows BSD's!

Exchanged it for the ATI 2600 HD which is connected with 3rd monitor for bootscreen. Problem solved!

 

[Executor]

Great news. I have a question for Macvidcards. Will you offer a flashing service at the same time? and if so, will I be able to get any GTX 980 and have it flashed?. I would like to get the Asus Strix GTX980 but I am not sure if you'll support it since is not the reference design. Thanks

 

[m4v3r1ck]

Great news. I have a question for Macvidcards. Will you offer a flashing service at the same time? and if so, will I be able to get any GTX 980 and have it flashed?. I would like to get the Asus Strix GTX980 but I am not sure if you'll support it since is not the reference design. Thanks

Good question, perhaps MVC can give us a listing of all GTX-970/980 GPUs he'll be supporting for flashing service and/or for sale!

Thanks in advance MVC! Cheers...

 

[MacVidCards]

Guys, have barely got Reference 980 done so far. I'm at JFK waiting for my flight back to LA where I will do more advanced testing. Thinking I need to get an SST 4K to adequately test the HDMI 2.0 (Attn: do not try this with your nMP, will lead to sad disappointment) Then maybe a Dell 5K to test running dual DP to it in OS X and Windows. Running a 5K in Windows is going to need every bit of that PCIE 2.0 extra bandwidth !

Anyhow, we will be doing more testing before we send this into the wild.

Will likely start out with just reference 980s then work our way into the OC'd versions and 970s. But this is truly unchartered territory. ROM is written in a very new and different way. I am fearful of sending too many cards out and finding that some display we didn't test on has issues.

Meanwhile, I sit in JFK and watch CNN go on ad nauseam about the missing airplane. Reminds me of the scene in "Airplane" where they watch the in flight movie and it is about plane crashes. Err, beer please !

 

[Upgrader]

Would the Superclocked version of the 980 require an external power supply?

 

[EdDuPlessis]

Would the Superclocked version of the 980 require an external power supply?

No, both versions of the EVGA Superclocked use dual 6 pins and consume the same average 165w as the reference spec.

 

[Upgrader]

Damn, just read that Macvidcards doesn’t provide a ‘flash only’ service for international customers. That’s a shame. In light of this, do any fellow UK users know anyone here as trusted and reputable as MVC?

Thanks.

 

[Synchro3]

Damn, just read that Macvidcards doesn’t provide a ‘flash only’ service for international customers. That’s a shame. In light of this, do any fellow UK users know anyone here as trusted and reputable as MVC?

Mmh, more than a year ago MacVidCards did flash my GTX 570. And i was a international customer.

Just paid him over Paypal, and sent him my card (with indication of my PayPal-Name).

 

[Upgrader]

Mmh, more than a year ago MacVidCards did flash my GTX 570. And i was a international customer.

Just paid him over Paypal, and sent him my card (with indication of my PayPal-Name).

Ah, thanks, good to know, maybe not all is lost...

 

[MacVidCards]

Damn, just read that Macvidcards doesn’t provide a ‘flash only’ service for international customers. That’s a shame. In light of this, do any fellow UK users know anyone here as trusted and reputable as MVC?

Thanks.

We are still hopeful of working out a deal for an EU partner.

I can guarantee you that nobody else outside of NVIDIA or Apple can make the card work.

 

[m4v3r1ck]

We are still hopeful of working out a deal for an EU partner.

It would realy be great to have that service avaliable for EU customers MVC! ;-)

 

[Upgrader]

We are still hopeful of working out a deal for an EU partner.

I can guarantee you that nobody else outside of NVIDIA or Apple can make the card work.

So I know I can run the card now minus the boot screen as others are doing but you're basically telling me that I'd definitely be wasting my time going down the flashing rabbit hole myself?

Also, if I knew someone in the US, could I post my card to them and have them post it to you for flashing?

 

[m4v3r1ck]

Also, if I knew someone in the US, could I post my card to them and have them post it to you for flashing?

Great idea!!!!! Any MR member from the States that wants to be my friend? ;-)

 

[Upgrader]

So to confirm if I may, installing the latest web drivers then installing an unflashed SC 980 will mean:

1) no boot screen which means no option+boot or any other maintenance startup procedure?
2) resetting PRAM will need to be done with my GT120 installed instead?
3) because the mac can't recognise/use the BIOS, the card will run at the reference speeds, not the super clocked speeds?
4) the card will run at PCIe 1.0 speeds (though as Ed pointed out, this isn't really an issue)?
5) running as above is workable but makes maintenance a big pain and a flashed card solves all these issues?

Thanks.

 

[EdDuPlessis]

So to confirm if I may, installing the latest web drivers then installing an unflashed SC 980 will mean:

1) no boot screen which means no option+boot or any other maintenance startup procedure?
2) resetting PRAM will need to be done with my GT120 installed instead?
3) because the mac can't recognise/use the BIOS, the card will run at the reference speeds, not the super clocked speeds?
4) the card will run at PCIe 1.0 speeds (though as Ed pointed out, this isn't really an issue)?
5) running as above is workable but makes maintenance a big pain and a flashed card solves all these issues?

Thanks.

1 -2 Correct.

3 The overclocking is coded into the graphic card firmware so it will still run at superclocked speeds.

4 Correct, it's not an issue and still runs at x16.

5 No real hassle maintaining it once it is set up and future graphics drivers don't have any issues. But I know some people are seeing Trim Enabler is disabling video output so don't use it

 

[Upgrader]

1 -2 Correct.

3 The overclocking is coded into the graphic card firmware so it will still run at superclocked speeds.

4 Correct, it's not an issue and still runs at x16.

5 No real hassle maintaining it once it is set up and future graphics drivers don't have any issues. But I know some people are seeing Trim Enabler is disabling video output so don't use it

Thanks, and I appreciate the TRIM enabler info - I missed that in my reading.

Kind of off topic here but it really seems like I'll not be able to run one of the latest/fastest SSD's for a media drive, like the SM951 or even XP941, unless someone makes an adaptor card with a controller that negates the use of TE as per my Accelsior boot disk. I don't want to pay £500+ for an approved Apple/Samsung SSD from eBay and have no warranty.

 

[EdDuPlessis]

If Apple does the right thing and supports all SSDs in a software update then nobody will need TE. Windows support for TRIM, Enterprise SSDs and NVME is all ahead of OSX. It's embarrassing for Apple to claim the most advanced operating system in the world yet they are behind on support for all the best graphics and storage products.

 

[Upgrader]

if apple does the right thing and supports all ssds in a software update then nobody will need te. Windows support for trim, enterprise ssds and nvme is all ahead of osx. It's embarrassing for apple to claim the most advanced operating system in the world yet they are behind on support for all the best graphics and storage products.

+1

 

[FrancoisC]

Question about the 980,

I just installed my evga 980 acx 2.0 in my 4.1 (upgraded to 5.1 with a w3690) and while it work (upgraded from a gt 120) I noticed some effect are missing, like when I switch users the cube animation is gone... Anything I can do to re enable it?

Games work fine, and I do feel that the interface is much less "lagy", but i'd like to have the effects back

One thing I hate: the PCI-E fan rev up way more now, could it be a sensor issue since the card is not a "mac edition/flashed"?

 

[EdDuPlessis]

Question about the 980,

I just installed my evga 980 acx 2.0 in my 4.1 (upgraded to 5.1 with a w3690) and while it work (upgraded from a gt 120) I noticed some effect are missing, like when I switch users the cube animation is gone... Anything I can do to re enable it?

Games work fine, and I do feel that the interface is much less "lagy", but i'd like to have the effects back

One thing I hate: the PCI-E fan rev up way more now, could it be a sensor issue since the card is not a "mac edition/flashed"?

The ACX version is noisier as the fans consume more power. Is it the 6+8 pin version?

 

[FrancoisC]

Maybe for older cards, but in this specific case it's the opposite, the 980 ACX 2.0 is quieter, use less power, etc..

What I did for now that calmed the PCI-E fan a little bit is putting back the GT 120 in slot 1 and the 980 in slot 2, and using istat pro the PCI-e sensor is back again, I could not see it with just the 980.

The card is 2x6, it consume less power than the 780 and 680, it use less than 200w (just the card) when pushed to the max.

 

[Tesseract]

One thing I hate: the PCI-E fan rev up way more now, could it be a sensor issue since the card is not a "mac edition/flashed"?

I've had similar experiences with multiple cards, including my current GTX 970.
Supposedly there are some bugs with some Mac Pro's SMC for PCIe slot 1. Loads of people reporting fan craziness from having things plugged into slot 1.
I personally doubt its anything to worry about though. Had a 5870 in slot 1 for over 2 years and never any temperature problems. If anything, it kept it a bit cooler (not that it needed to be). Just an annoyance.

 

[Sedor]

I've had that too, but a PRAM reset helped - must do this again from time to time, sometimes the fan starts spinning up again (up to 2000rpm).

 

[Synchro3]

One thing I hate: the PCI-E fan rev up way more now, could it be a sensor issue since the card is not a "mac edition/flashed"?

I've had similar experiences with multiple cards, including my current GTX 970.
Supposedly there are some bugs with some Mac Pro's SMC for PCIe slot 1. Loads of people reporting fan craziness from having things plugged into slot 1.
I personally doubt its anything to worry about though. Had a 5870 in slot 1 for over 2 years and never any temperature problems. If anything, it kept it a bit cooler (not that it needed to be). Just an annoyance.

This thread might be useful for you:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1685629/

I start CUDA-Z as login item (Auto-Start), fans are running normally after again.

 

[FrancoisC]

I'll try the cuda-z thing tonight.

By any chances do you know why some effects are missing? Not that I miss them, just wondering why there are not working on my 980 but still work if I plug my screen in the GT120.