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Nvidia GTX680 Mac Edition
- Thread starter tony3d
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Yep the 680gtx Mac Edition by EVGA was discontinued a month ago. Wish they still offered the card. It had a 2 year life cycle from its introduction in April 2013. It sold well as there was a time Amazon and OWC ran out of stock.
Seems he's sold out at the moment. That card went over like gang busters, they should have continued it. Plenty of money was left on the table. I would have gotten myself if it weren't for FCPX.
Get any reference GTX 680, EVGA is a good choice. Here is a confirmed list if you want to consider other cards too, including non-reference cards. 4GB cards are also possible, that's what I have.
Pre-requisites:
- You will need Windows running on the Mac Pro.
- You will need to download nvflash.
- If you get a 2GB model, you'll need to download the ROM for a 2GB card.
- If you get a 4GB model, you'll need to download the ROM for a 4GB card.
Then use the following procedure in Windows. Don't turn off the power, reset, or try to flash during a period of electrical unreliability (storm, planned rolling brownouts, etc.)
1) Copy all the related files to a single folder that is easily accessible from the command prompt. I suggest you make a new folder C:\mango. At a minimum it should include the following:
nvflash.exe
GTX680-4GB-ROM.rom (or whatever the 2GB ROM is called)
2) Open a command line prompt. Click Start button, type CMD, and press Enter. A command line window will open.
3) In the command line window, navigate to the folder with the files. If you used my suggestion, the command would be:
Code:
cd c:\mango4) Backup your existing firmware, so that you can flash it back to factory if needed:
Code:
nvflash --save original.rom4) Flash the new firmware (filename assumes the 4GB ROM):
Code:
nvflash -4 -5 -6 GTX680-4GB-ROM.rom5) If it asks for confirmation, press yes. When it says to wait, wait.
6) After it is successful, reboot and you will see boot screens.
7) Celebrate!
Alternatively, I just upgraded to a GTX 980 and would like to sell my EVGA GTX 680 FTW 4GB. If you are interested in a used one that's successfully flashed, has been working fine for years in OS X and Windows, and has faster clocks than stock (it's a FTW edition card). If so, PM me.
I have purchased from him twice. Great vendor and excellent products. If he has an offering that suits your needs, you won't be sorry you made the purchase.
I see you bought a 7970 from him. How does that compare with the Nvidia GTX 970 4 GB Mac Edition he sells?
Yes, I bought my GTX 980 from him. I give him the thumb's up.
If it sounds complicated, it's because I provided quite literally step-by-step instruction.
I can't personally make a comparison between the two since I've never had my hands on the GTX 970. I'm going to assume the 970 is much more powerful except for openCL. I need OpenCL for FCPX so for my application I believe I selected the right card for me. I also value Apple supported drivers out of the box. That was a major consideration for me. Apple is heavily invested in AMD video hardware, so I don't have any concerns about OS X not supporting my hardware.
That said, I may eat my on words before long. I've been eyeing the MVC TitanX.
If you can live without the boot screen you don't need to flash a GTX680 to have it work in a Mac Pro. In fact you even need to use the Nvidia web drivers as the GTX680 is supported by OS X native drivers as is the GTX570 which I have & bought used is the best bang for buck graphics card for the cMac Pro.
The main reason I need the boot screen is because I frequently switch between Windows, and OS X.
I was quite sad to see the 680 removed as well as I wanted an upgrade.
One thing to keep in mind if flashing yourself and someone can correct me if I'm wrong but if you screw up any of those steps to flash the card you may brick it, washing your money down the drain.
What videocard do you have installed now? If it only requires (less than) 75W like e.g. the GT 120, you can keep it in for boot screens.
And buy a stock GTX 970 or GTX 980 to get the latest greatest videocard (no bootscreen needed).
The actual flashing is a single step. If that is interrupted by power loss, hitting the reset button, etc., then yes. The other important bit is to make sure you have a compatible firmware.
But even so, there are ways to recover from a bad flash such as having a second card around (preferably different brand) to boot up to flash from, or clearing the ROM by using a wire to short the pins.
I've flashed many times and never had a problem. If you've ever updated a PC motherboard BIOS, or did the official Apple Mac Pro firmware update, then you've flashed too.