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New Nvidia GTX 970 and 980 - cMP?

My mistake. I searched for "quadro mac" drivers as I saw one listed that was even older. When you search for those, the latest that is listed high is the December update.

I searched for just "mac drivers" and the newer one showed up.

I ***in' hate search engines, sometimes.

Also, I should stop replying to posts like this when I am not at home in front of my Mac.

It STILL did not bring up the one I need. It stopped at 346.01.02f01.
Never had to search for a build # just to get the most recent. I am good to go.
 
Last edited:
Can anyone help me? Yesterday I bought an EVGA GeForce GTX 970 ACX 2.0 card to put in to my Mac Pro 5.1 which is connected to a 30" cinema display using DVI.

I updated to 10.10.3 from 10.9.5 using the app store.

Then I installed the nvidia web driver 346.01.02f04, and Cuda Driver 7.0.36.

I select the nvidia web driver and restart, but all I get is a black screen. Both fans are spinning on the card, so don't think it's a power problem.

I notice that if I look in Cuda Prefs, GPU driver version is greyed out and says No Version Found.

How can I get the card working? I'm a bit disappointed as many many forums and websites said this was EASY :rolleyes:
 
mitchino said:
I select the nvidia web driver and restart, but all I get is a black screen. Both fans are spinning on the card, so don't think it's a power problem.

I notice that if I look in Cuda Prefs, GPU driver version is greyed out and says No Version Found.
Click to expand...

Do you have both power cables plugged in?
 
MacVidCards said:
Do you have both power cables plugged in?
Click to expand...

Yes both plugged in, both fans spinning on card. Earlier in the thread someone suggested that you have to install the latest drivers before upgrading to Yosemite - does that really matter? Downgrading the OS would be a major PITA.
 
mitchino said:
Yes both plugged in, both fans spinning on card. Earlier in the thread someone suggested that you have to install the latest drivers before upgrading to Yosemite - does that really matter? Downgrading the OS would be a major PITA.
Click to expand...

Well, you do need to install the web driver before installing the graphic card.
 
When dealing with Non-EFI cards it is a good idea to have a back up plan.

And by this I mean a way to "see" what is going on.

Easiest is to set up screen sharing from another Mac on the same network. Obviously this should be set up BEFORE you put new card in.

OS X screen sharing works pretty easily if you figure it all out BEFORE the trouble happens.

Primarily you would want to see if the card is recognized and what driver is running.

If it isn't making it to desktop then likely driver or power issue. If your "volume" keys usually make chirping noises then you can check pretty quickly if it is booting coompletely.
 
I have set up screen sharing and started up with the 970 back in the machine.

When I check the CUDA setting in system prefs, it says:

CUDA Driver Version: 7.0.36
GPU Driver Version: 10.3.7 (this is greyed out)

When I check monitor settings it says 'Unknown Display' and the resolution is set to 1280 x 1024, no other settings are available.

----------

Meant to say in System Information under Graphics/Displays it says:

Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
Vendor: nVidia (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x13c2
Revision ID: 0x00a1
Kernel Extension Info: No Kext Loaded
Displays: Display:
Resolution: 1280x1024 @ 60Hz
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
 
The easiest thing to do is to use a GT120 for boot screen and such, and the GTX 970 or 980, or any other non-Mac card for everything else. The GT120 can be had fairly cheap.
 
Moonshot said:
The easiest thing to do is to use a GT120 for boot screen and such, and the GTX 970 or 980, or any other non-Mac card for everything else. The GT120 can be had fairly cheap.
Click to expand...

Hi,

Interesting. So you’re saying I can leave my GT120 installed alongside a stock/non flashed 980 - see the boot screen as I boot - then once fully booted, the 980 will somehow take over all other GFX card tasks? How does OS X know which card to use for what tasks? How do I know the GT120 is redundant once booted?

Thanks.
 
Right now no driver has loaded for the card.

Click on the Nvidia logo in upper right of screen and verify that "Nvidia Web Driver" is selected.

Either the driver isn't liaded or power isn't there. Fans will spin without power cords plugged in.
 
Asus GTX 980 strix stays black

I do have the same problem:

- I've bought a ASUS GTX 980 card. I use an external power supply. It's a 350W supply and I added a few adapters to convert the MOLEX plugs to 8- and 6-pin plugs. I have plugged both the 8-pin and 6-pin connector (I don't think there are any others)

- The system boots (ie makes a sound and runs quietly), but the screen stays black. Anything I could do to resolve the problem? I do have a spare old GT120 lying here. Should I use that in the additional slot to boot? - How do I switch to the GTX displays after that?

I've tried the different outputs (HDMI and DP) but still there is no signal on any one of them.

My system is a cMP 3,1 (2008) - It has no problem running an GTX 560, which is quite a power-hungry monster. But to be sure I switched to an external power supply.

Thanks for any pointers
 
MacVidCards said:
Right now no driver has loaded for the card.

Click on the Nvidia logo in upper right of screen and verify that "Nvidia Web Driver" is selected.

Either the driver isn't liaded or power isn't there. Fans will spin without power cords plugged in.
Click to expand...

Thinking about it being a power issue, I am using the two 6-pin leads that were powering the original Radeon card, the leads are attached to the motherboard.

Could that be the problem? The GTX970 came with 2 x 6-pin to double 3-pin molex connectors, do I need to use those and if so what do I plug them into?
 
Upgrader said:
Hi,

Interesting. So you’re saying I can leave my GT120 installed alongside a stock/non flashed 980 - see the boot screen as I boot - then once fully booted, the 980 will somehow take over all other GFX card tasks? How does OS X know which card to use for what tasks? How do I know the GT120 is redundant once booted?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't really know. I use a Quadro K5000 that I bought used from a friend, and before that I had a GTX 680. Not much of a difference, except that I now have more video RAM (4GB vs. 2GB on the old card), as well as ECC, though I don't think I'll ever need that. There was a time when I used a GT120 as well. I think that OS X will do all the on screen drawing using the GT120 and then you can select which video card to use for each individual application. Just trying trying to help, that's all.
 
mitchino said:
Thinking about it being a power issue, I am using the two 6-pin leads that were powering the original Radeon card, the leads are attached to the motherboard.

Could that be the problem? The GTX970 came with 2 x 6-pin to double 3-pin molex connectors, do I need to use those and if so what do I plug them into?
Click to expand...

On my flashed 4,1, I just used the 6-pin cables that came out of the included Radeon to power my GTX 980, and it just worked fine that way from a power perspective. It could be possible that one of your 6-pin cables is bad, or some other PSU related issue perhaps?
 
On our website in the blog I have a page labelled "my card boots to black screen" that might help you guys.

Ignore the part about boot screen.

I really don't think a 970 or 980 would ever need external power. They are physically incapable of drawing that much current, they just need all pins populated.

99% of external PSU problems are operator error, not triggering to "on".

After installing web drivers if you install trim enabler or do a PRAM/NVRAM reset they will be turned off.
 
New Nvidia GTX 970 and 980 - cMP?

ypar said:
I do have the same problem:



- I've bought a ASUS GTX 980 card. I use an external power supply. It's a 350W supply and I added a few adapters to convert the MOLEX plugs to 8- and 6-pin plugs. I have plugged both the 8-pin and 6-pin connector (I don't think there are any others)



- The system boots (ie makes a sound and runs quietly), but the screen stays black. Anything I could do to resolve the problem? I do have a spare old GT120 lying here. Should I use that in the additional slot to boot? - How do I switch to the GTX displays after that?



I've tried the different outputs (HDMI and DP) but still there is no signal on any one of them.



My system is a cMP 3,1 (2008) - It has no problem running an GTX 560, which is quite a power-hungry monster. But to be sure I switched to an external power supply.



Thanks for any pointers
Click to expand...


My old cMP 3.1 (2008) and same for my current cMP 5.1:

PCIe slot #1 -> GTX 670 -> 24" main monitor + 22" touchscreen

PCIe slot #3 -> ATI 2600 HD -> 19" very old Syncmaster for bootscreens/maintenance

A no brainer solution, the bootscreen is on the 19" and the desktop on all three monitors. Once fully booted, on the 19" I very often use Console and Activity Monitor and other monitoring software.

Cheers
 
Last edited:
mitchino said:
I have set up screen sharing and started up with the 970 back in the machine.

When I check the CUDA setting in system prefs, it says:

CUDA Driver Version: 7.0.36
GPU Driver Version: 10.3.7 (this is greyed out)

When I check monitor settings it says 'Unknown Display' and the resolution is set to 1280 x 1024, no other settings are available.

----------

Meant to say in System Information under Graphics/Displays it says:

Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
Vendor: nVidia (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x13c2
Revision ID: 0x00a1
Kernel Extension Info: No Kext Loaded
Displays: Display:
Resolution: 1280x1024 @ 60Hz
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Click to expand...

Try and move it to a different pci slot after loading nvidia drivers, this helped me once before, after moving it booted straight up and I got to desktop.I then made sure Nvidia drivers were loaded, then moved back to the bottom slot and it worked as it should.
Dont ask me why, but it just did. Probably user error as MacVidCards pointed out but worth a shot.
 
I'm struggling to see where I went wrong - using screen sharing I can see that the card shows up in System Profiler, and that the nvidia web driver is loaded.

I feel it must be something to do with the 30" ACD. Going to try a different monitor, and also try using the HDMI connector instead of the DVI.
 
OK - I just unplugged the 6-pin power leads from the card, and started up the mac. The fans on the card are spinning, and using screen sharing and system information, the card shows up as 'NVIDIA CHIP MODEL', just the same as if the power leads are plugged in.

I also notice that the power leads that came with card have no wire/contact for the lower middle pin. The power leads from the mac motherboard for the original Radeon have all 6 pins with wires/contacts. Could that mean anything?
 
Thought I'd remove all nvidia drivers and cuda software and try a previous version, so I removed all the nvidia and cuda files and downloaded the web driver 346.01.02f01

Trying to install, it says Mac OS X Version 10.10.3 (14D136) is not supported

is there another one between 346.01.02f01 and 346.01.02f04 I could try installing?
 
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