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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti

Pretty soon, I am getting my EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (PC-Edition), well, I will let you know about my experinces with this card in my :apple: MacPro 2009, OSX 10.10.4..

After reading all comments, I feel a little.... afraid :eek:, because all these "issues" are time, breath and nerve-taking. I am not shure about powering the card, maybe, I will try to connect 2 6pin y-cable from the motherboard to the 6pin of the card and 2 sata y-cable to 8pin from the 5,25 drives to the 8pin of the card. Hopefully, it will work:rolleyes:.

I really do not know, what to expect from the difference performance between a flashed card (McVidCards f ex.) or a PC-card. I actually do not need a boot screen. I don't use the card for games, but for After Effects, Premiere and Cinema 4D and other video and photo applications.

I would order one from MacVidCards, but from Germany with VAT and shipping, it would be sooo expensive...
 
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I have to say that now that I have things sorted, I love the 980ti, it's stupid fast and a very good card. Current driver release from Nvidia has cleared up all the issues. You should be good to go without a flashed version. The only thing you will miss is the boot screen, but honestly, that's not that big of a deal, especially if you have your old card.

Most of my issues through all this stem from trying to run a 4k monitor on mac os. This still seems to be fairly buggy. I put this machine together for Blender rendering, and it appears that the Mac OS and a 4k display will burn up all the VRAM if you have your display set to hiDPI (1440) resolutions. Work around is to just switch resolution to a low DPI (1440) version and it's good to go. Hopefully apple will sort this all out with El Cap. I also have to turn off OpenCL in photoshop as that crashes my machine. Still uses GPU though, so not having OpenCL on for Photoshop isn't that big of a problem.

enjoy your new card!
 
I expect next year there will be very efficient cards using Pascal that use no more than 2x6pin again. That's why I will wait. It might be the last ever card suitable for cMP.
 
Can I ask, is there a difference between an EVGA reference 980Ti and say a Zotek or MSI one? The latter appear to be cheaper here in the UK. I’d be running in my CMP without EFI.
I know the fan configuration will be different but is the board different too?
 
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Upgrader said:
Can I ask, is there a difference between an EVGA reference 980Ti and say a Zotek or MSI one? The latter appear to be cheaper here in the UK. I’d be running in my CMP without EFI.
I know the fan configuration will be different but is the board different too?
Click to expand...

If the cards are reference 980Ti as you say, then no. The only difference will be the design.
 
Zorn said:
If the cards are reference 980Ti as you say, then no. The only difference will be the design.
Click to expand...

Or quality?

Reference means the same circuit board design are the same, but they still produced by different manufacture. So the quality may be different, isn't it?
 
Thanks. My main concern is that I’m running unflashed and as Macvidcards uses EVGA exclusively then there may be some hidden issue with other brands. I’m also concerned about the card fitting into my MacPro if it has a more elaborate fan design than the EVGA. Has anyone read of anyone else running anything other than an EVGA in a CMP?
 
I remember in the GTX 680 thread, users were running many different brands of GTX 680s without any problems. I don't think there's too much to be concerned about with following reference designs or not. I think it's more important to watch for cards that have been overclocked too much and may cause too much power draw.
 
pastrychef said:
I remember in the GTX 680 thread, users were running many different brands of GTX 680s without any problems. I don't think there's too much to be concerned about with following reference designs or not. I think it's more important to watch for cards that have been overclocked too much and may cause too much power draw.
Click to expand...
Ok, sounds promising. I'd avoid the highly overclocked ones anyway. Only other concern then is like I say, the fan position. The EVGA reference with the one fan at the rear looks sensible as its clear of my other PCIe cards. The only other thing I need to know now is whether the fans draw cooler air into the card or expel warm air outwards? If the latter then that could be bad as my SSD would be covering one of the fans on a non EVGA version.
 
I also like the reference coolers because they push the hot air out of the back of the card. However, remember that the Mac Pros 1,1-5,1 have a case that has lots of little holes and fans that suck in air from the front and blow it out the back...

As for having adjacent PCI-e cards partially blocking one of two fans in coolers with dual fans, I would think that the partially blocked fan pulling air would help the adjacent PCI-e card stay cooler. Of course, this is just guess work and conjecture on my part...
 
Hello - is anyone here using GTX 980TI with El Cap? Could you please share your experience with the card? Any issues with Adobe or UI lag? I think the Nvidia driver should be optimized by now, for 980TI on El Capitan.
 
pastrychef said:
I also like the reference coolers because they push the hot air out of the back of the card. However, remember that the Mac Pros 1,1-5,1 have a case that has lots of little holes and fans that suck in air from the front and blow it out the back...

As for having adjacent PCI-e cards partially blocking one of two fans in coolers with dual fans, I would think that the partially blocked fan pulling air would help the adjacent PCI-e card stay cooler. Of course, this is just guess work and conjecture on my part...
Click to expand...

Just checked with an online retailer - apparently the 980Ti fans draw air into the card - this is true across all brands and configurations. So another PCIe card partially blocking a fan shouldn’t really be an issue.
 
kennyman said:
@ lowendlinux
Yes, I thought having the AUX PSU was a nice add-on back in 2011 until I saw another thread here recently where they tap power directly from the Apple PSU, that is so cool and clever.

Sadly I have returned my 980 Ti. For gaming it is a very good card and a good upgrade. But I always had to switch back and forth with my AMD card for working and so on. + I have El Capitan on another partition and I had to swap out cards again if i wanted to test some legacy apps and scripts on El Cap (no nvidia drivers yet for El Capitan).

So to conclude, if you need CUDA for your apps and want to have the best affordable single card for gaming on cMP, then definitely go for Nvidia 900 series. If you need OpenCL/GL for your apps/work, then go AMD and you can also game at low settings (280X is not that bad).
Click to expand...
which amd card? and what is the real terms difference on say rendering in fcp..?
 
Hi
I'm experiencing unsolved problem trying to install a non-EFI GTX 980Ti in my 2009 Mac Pro with Yosemite 10.10.5
I of course installed the latest WebDriver 346.02.03f01.
All I get is a black screen.

I have tried several processes, thanx to all the info I got here :

- Uninstalled the previous Nvidia Driver and Cuda Driver
- Booted using a GT120
- Did the "nv_disable=1" trick described in point 24) of the first post of the FAQ Non-EFI thread
- Tried to uninstall and re-install the driver using a AMD card
- Reseted NVRAM
- Followed what was described in this thread by DMCDesign, using my AMD card

Well, after a whole day of trying different solutions, I still have the same result: black screen from the 980 Ti
(I have only connected my screen to the DVI port as I don't have any Displayport adaptator at the moment)

The 980Ti is plugged via two cables from the motherboard, one is a 6-Pin, one is a 6-to-8-Pin.
The card green letters lighting is working
In system info, the card appears as NVIDIA Chip Model with... 256 Mo of VRAM (!!)
In NVIDIA Driver MAnager, the slot where the card is says pci10de,fb0
(well actually it's very strange, as the GT120 is in slot 1 but presented in the manager as in slot 3, and same vice-versa with slot 3 where is the 980Ti)

Here is my setup :
Mac Pro 2009 4,1 upgraded to 5,1 / 12X3,46
OS X 10.10.5
Apple HD Displays 30" / 23"
EVGA Standard GTX 980Ti

I have an extra GT120, a GTX 480 from Macvidcards, and another Radeon, if that can help for a process..

I really don't know what to do now, if someone has encountered the same issue and found a way out, please let me know, thanx!
 
chouki said:
Hi
I'm experiencing unsolved problem trying to install a non-EFI GTX 980Ti in my 2009 Mac Pro with Yosemite 10.10.5
I of course installed the latest WebDriver 346.02.03f01.
All I get is a black screen.

I have tried several processes, thanx to all the info I got here :

- Uninstalled the previous Nvidia Driver and Cuda Driver
- Booted using a GT120
- Did the "nv_disable=1" trick described in point 24) of the first post of the FAQ Non-EFI thread
- Tried to uninstall and re-install the driver using a AMD card
- Reseted NVRAM
- Followed what was described in this thread by DMCDesign, using my AMD card

Well, after a whole day of trying different solutions, I still have the same result: black screen from the 980 Ti
(I have only connected my screen to the DVI port as I don't have any Displayport adaptator at the moment)

The 980Ti is plugged via two cables from the motherboard, one is a 6-Pin, one is a 6-to-8-Pin.
The card green letters lighting is working
In system info, the card appears as NVIDIA Chip Model with... 256 Mo of VRAM (!!)
In NVIDIA Driver MAnager, the slot where the card is says pci10de,fb0
(well actually it's very strange, as the GT120 is in slot 1 but presented in the manager as in slot 3, and same vice-versa with slot 3 where is the 980Ti)

Here is my setup :
Mac Pro 2009 4,1 upgraded to 5,1 / 12X3,46
OS X 10.10.5
Apple HD Displays 30" / 23"
EVGA Standard GTX 980Ti

I have an extra GT120, a GTX 480 from Macvidcards, and another Radeon, if that can help for a process..

I really don't know what to do now, if someone has encountered the same issue and found a way out, please let me know, thanx!
Click to expand...

I'm still stucked with this. Even after a new Clean install of Yosemite 10.10.5 and several test with different procedures, exactly same result: Black Screen from GTX 980Ti, and card doesn't seem to be recognized properly by the system. Could it be a card issue? I just don't understand why this is happening.
 
chouki said:
I'm still stucked with this. Even after a new Clean install of Yosemite 10.10.5 and several test with different procedures, exactly same result: Black Screen from GTX 980Ti, and card doesn't seem to be recognized properly by the system. Could it be a card issue? I just don't understand why this is happening.
Click to expand...

Can you try out your card in a different system? A friend's Pro or PC? Just to make sure that the problem is not the card itself?
 
bokkow said:
Can you try out your card in a different system? A friend's Pro or PC? Just to make sure that the problem is not the card itself?
Click to expand...

I'm gonna try to power the card with an external PSU. Actually I thought the card in a macpro could run without a problem (power speaking), as Macvidcard's one does. But then I understood MVC are making a mod on the card also regarding the power, right?

Also, I thought that powering the 980ti with an external PSU would allow me to keep my actual MVC 480 beside (as a C4D Octane user I'm in need for Cuda cores)
Anyway, I'll let you know if it's getting better like this. If not, yes I'll try on a friend's PC or so.
Thanx!
 
chouki said:
I'm still stucked with this. Even after a new Clean install of Yosemite 10.10.5 and several test with different procedures, exactly same result: Black Screen from GTX 980Ti, and card doesn't seem to be recognized properly by the system. Could it be a card issue? I just don't understand why this is happening.
Click to expand...

I hate to ask a dumb question, but are you certain the Nvidia web driver is the one loading? If you reset the NVRAM, OS X returns back to using the default driver, regardless of which driver you selected.

When you look at the Nvidia Driver Manager, you should see "Nvidia Web Driver" selected. Also, 2-3 different people here have discovered that the actual driver loaded is not necessarily the one displayed in Nvidia Driver Manager! So to double check, also go to System Information and check to see which actual KEXT has loaded.

P.S. Maxwell driver updates and driver switching is WAY easier if you get the card flashed. It saves you from needing to swap to a backup card to do things.
 
Demigod Mac said:
Power issues with Maxwell, like people not plugging the aux power cables in?
Click to expand...

Yes, at least once a month someone will literally not plug in any cables at all. They see them as optional for some reason, even when we include them in the box. If I bought a toaster and it didn't work, I'd figure out that the power cord wasn't optional.

Or they will use the 6 pin cables from their 4870 on an 8 pin card like 980Ti.

Invariably I will see something like "well, I know the power is OK because the fan is spinning and the card is lit up" in the email trying to convince me that our card is bad. Fan will spin with no cords plugged in most often.

But the drivers are the biggest headache. With the EFI cards the screen will still be drawn, and some just think card is bad due to laggy behavior while CPU draws everything.
 
Makes sense as I've never been able to get mine to switch off no matter what torture test I throw its way using a 6 + 6to8 adapter config, but it will still display even if you forget to plug them in. Would it be reasonable to assume that Titan X and 980Ti only have 8-pin connectors for the overclocking crowd, otherwise they'd be fine if they were manufactured as 6x6 pin cards?

Interestingly, Nvidia's manual says you just need 6x6 pins but everywhere else insists you need 6x8.
http://www.nvidia.com/content/geforce-gtx/GTX_TITAN_X_User_Guide.pdf
 
The Titan-X doesn't look for sense pin 8. I don't make a fuss about it but yes, most are fine with Dual 6s. I have seen 2 that needed all 8, not sure why or how.

The 980Ti looks for that 8th pin though.
 
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