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MP 7,1 Nvidia’s RTX 3090/ 4090/ A6000/ 6000 Ada in a Mac Pro (2019)
- Thread starter Romanesco
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As in it can't be connected to the Mac Pro's power supply. If it's powered up, macOS will fail to boot. Folks use external power supplies so it can be effectively rendered inert by having it switched off while booted in macOS.
Again, IIRC.
OK, sort of:
Looking at the @eric79won post he/she doesn't use external PSU and the boot issue is only with HDMI cable connected. @eric79won did you have a chance to try using the HDMI (2+ port) switch to check if switching the port on the switch to inactive mitigates the issue?
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That’s weird, I’d have thought TrevorR90 would have mentioned that in his prior post, since he has a 4090. I’ve been leaning towards the MPX (macOS) + GeForce (Windows 11) route from his reply.
as I said, If I Recall Correctly - I may be wrong. Certainly there's reports a couple of pages back here of it kernel panicking on wake from sleep with the Nvidia powered up, which would be a non-starter for me.
Yeah, from what I read in this thread, I think that if it's installed, then you can't put the Mac Pro to sleep (and possibly no display sleep) unless you install the fakenvidia.kext. You can however simply set the Mac Pro to never sleep and set the displays to not sleep, and it'll be fine.
I'm still trying to figure out from the various posts, what the exact process is for installing the fakenvidia.kext, but in general it seemed to work well. I also think some reported that display sleep seems fine, and it's just the machine itself that can't go to sleep without causing a panic.
This problem affected all RTX cards though I believe; it isn't just the 4000-series.
I finally nabbed a 4090FE and put it in my 7,1 2019 Intel Max Pro. In the picture, I have a 3 pcie power plugs going to the 4090 and one going to a 3060. I removed some pcie slot covers so the hot air from the GPU can be pushed out. Works quite well in windows (obviously). I haven’t gone back to MacOS yet though. For that I usually just use my laptop.
It still can be connected/powered when on Mac OS, it'll just cause issues when Mac Pro is trying to sleep and wake up. It crashes the Mac OS that's all. It'll even detect is as an unidentified PCIE device in Mac OS system report.
I have both 3090FE and 4090FE and I'm glad I changed it to 4090FE because it now fits perfectly without needing to push my Mac Pro fans out a bit, as 3090FE was a bit longer than the allowed length on Mac Pro inside.
You can use both in Boot Camp mode. It will just use more power and electricity bills if you're not necessarily needing to use both. But both can be used without any issue. I use 6900XT for display and 4090FE for gaming at the same time. (even when the monitors are connected to 6900XT some games allow to use 4090FE for gaming).
Can you let me know what fakeNvidia.kext is? Does it prevent you from sleep panic issue that I'm seeing when I hooked up RTX4090FE while in Mac OS?
Ahh fair enough - that would make it pretty much a non-starter for me. I sleep my machine whenever it's not actively in use.
It's a kext file that I believe allows displays to sleep and possibly manual system sleep. I haven't actually tried it and wish someone who had, would do a nice write-up for creating/editing it.
I'm just curious: if you boot into macOS with the 4090FE, what is the max resolution and refresh rate that you can get on the display it is connected to? I know there is no acceleration, but I'm curious as to the max resolution and refresh rate you can get.
Just noticed you also put another 3060. What's the use for both Nvidia GPU's (even 3 GPU's including the MPX in Windows Boot Camp)?
Did you end up solving the sleep panic issue with the kext or other means?
I’ve still been trying to figure out the kext option, or otherwise just shutting down between uses, before making the jump to using an nvidia card.
I’ve still been trying to figure out the kext option, or otherwise just shutting down between uses, before making the jump to using an nvidia card.
For all those still looking for an answer, I can confirm that the FakeNvidia.kext will prevent crashing on your device with an RTX card installed in MacOS. I do not see perfect sleep performance (fans still seem to be running; will do further testing).
There is still an issue with bootup however, an HDMI cable connected to a display from the RTX card will cause a 'hiccup' where the boot loading screen goes no further. In my testing, an HDMI switcher seems to resolve this. (Aka just have the RTX card think it is unplugged during boot up).
Important note for the FakeNvidia kext; be sure to add your correct model & manufacturer details for your specific card. Visible in System report.
There is still an issue with bootup however, an HDMI cable connected to a display from the RTX card will cause a 'hiccup' where the boot loading screen goes no further. In my testing, an HDMI switcher seems to resolve this. (Aka just have the RTX card think it is unplugged during boot up).
Important note for the FakeNvidia kext; be sure to add your correct model & manufacturer details for your specific card. Visible in System report.
Vendor ID: 0x10de
Device ID: 0x2704
Out of curiosity, are you signing the next? I’m just curious since I thought unsigned kext required disabling SIP, which seems like a big deal?
Many thanks for the confirmation! A dumb question maybe, but where from can I grab this kext? In my case, Google search doesn't return anything meaningful
Post in thread 'Nvidia’s RTX 3090/ 4090/ A6000/ 6000 Ada in a Mac Pro (2019)'Many thanks for the confirmation! A dumb question maybe, but where from can I grab this kext? In my case, Google search doesn't return anything meaningful
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...0-ada-in-a-mac-pro-2019.2252358/post-29417691
Read up to make sure your GPU pcie ID is in there
Just chiming in here -
Am still waiting on a few things to finish the build, but I am able to physically get a 3090 into my 2019 MP. It is tight, and you must flex the fan grill a bit...but it does fit in, and you can very easily put both the front and rear PCI slot covers back on, the rear one especially shouldn't be an issue since the card bracket should lock into the slot. The front cover wasn't an issue, I suppose if the grill was flexed *a lot* it could have been, but it's really only being pushed on just a little bit. Waiting on the Belkin cables (which are strangely hard to get a hold of now) and still trying to figure out what I'm going to run as a startup disk for Ubuntu. But, at least physically, everything fits.
Am still waiting on a few things to finish the build, but I am able to physically get a 3090 into my 2019 MP. It is tight, and you must flex the fan grill a bit...but it does fit in, and you can very easily put both the front and rear PCI slot covers back on, the rear one especially shouldn't be an issue since the card bracket should lock into the slot. The front cover wasn't an issue, I suppose if the grill was flexed *a lot* it could have been, but it's really only being pushed on just a little bit. Waiting on the Belkin cables (which are strangely hard to get a hold of now) and still trying to figure out what I'm going to run as a startup disk for Ubuntu. But, at least physically, everything fits.
