So I got the GTX 980 "Mac Edition" from MacVidCard

[brentsg]

Are you test it your cards with these cards? Users that want improve Mac Pro performance need upgrade Graphic Cards and HDD speed and PCI SSD cards are a must to avoid SATA bootleneck. It would be great that your Graphic cards run well with those hardware elements too.

Keep in mind that they didn't develop the card, nor do they code the drivers. They're enabling the EFI BIOS for purposes of allowing the boot screen.

 

[MacVidCards]

Tested with XP941 and Apple blades in Sintech adapters.

Hit the black screen issue and found that switching slots fixed it. Once boot issue solved it doesn't come back as boot drive saved in nvram.

 

[edenexposito]

Wich slots are you tested? then slot 3 works? can you explain your test and conclusion with more details please

 

[MacVidCards]

I was able to reproduce the described issue.

Black screen.

I found the issue much more likely to come up with 3,1 Mac Pro. This is in fact why we don't list Thomas working in 3,1 when in fact they do but are much more prone to PCIE SSD issues.

If you read through the "NGFF PCIE SSD" thread you wi see several instances where people had issues with a boot drive being recognized as boot drive. This is where I got idea to simply change slots. I was only able to create the situation once in 4,1. I am running Sintech adapted xp941 and Apple SSD blades with I issues.

Typically changing slots or doing PRAM reset will fix. Keep in mind slots 3 & 4 are on a switch sharing same 4 lanes. You can't raid 3 & 4 and get better speeds. Has to be 2 & 3 or 2 & 4. My guess is that the "can't find boot drive" issue that PCIE SSDs have occasionally doesn't play well with our 980 EFI.

I have been able to fix every time rather easily on 4,1.

 

[MacVidCards]

Fix for "Security Update"

Those running our Mac Edition GTX980 can choose to update to this Beta driver before or after running the Security Update.

install this driver before(or after security update)http://us.download.nvidia.com/dZAS8cBUHaT1cUk4pr4NBgqTMH8PbHXC/WebDriver-343.02.02b04.pkg

 

[edenexposito]

Those running our Mac Edition GTX980 can choose to update to this Beta driver before or after running the Security Update.

Thanks for your advice!

What happen with the "Security Update" (We are talking about 2015-002 1.0?) and GTX980 exactly and why we must use a beta drivers release? We must install Security update now or we can wait to final drivers release?

It would be great a MacVidCards official blog with this kind of messages

Regards!

 

[netkas]

Thanks for your advice!

What happen with the "Security Update" (We are talking about 2015-002 1.0?) and GTX980 exactly and why we must use a beta drivers release? We must install Security update now or we can wait to final drivers release?

It would be great a MacVidCards official blog with this kind of messages

Regards!

security update changes build number for osx, and nvidia drivers has a check to work only with one build of osx. They stop working

this beta drivers supports all builds of 10.10.2

 

[jelockwood]

I am considering getting a GTX 980 from MacVidCards for use with 4K displays.

As I suspect many here - certainly MVC himself know, the 980 supports 4K at 60Hz via Displayport connectors but that currently the HDMI port is not enabled for HDMI 2.0 in OS X by the Nvidia drivers and HDMI 2.0 is needed for full 60Hz support, otherwise your stuck with just 30Hz.

Since the Displayport 1.2 connectors support 4K at 60Hz a logical assumption would be to use a Displayport to HDMI 2.0 adapter. Such beasts currently seem as rare as hens teeth. Supposedly the Belkin 4K Mini Displayport to HDMI adapter on the Apple Store website which is currently an Apple 'exclusive' works for this. See http://store.apple.com/us/product/HGFB2ZM/A/belkin-4k-mini-displayport-to-hdmi-adapter?fnode=51 however I am still a bit dubious about this due to the limited info on the Apple site and as yet no info on the Belkin site.

Note: The StarTech 4K Mini Displayport to HDMI adaptor, see http://www.startech.com/AV/Displayport-Converters/active-mini-displayport-to-hdmi-adapter~MDP2HD4KS states it only support 30Hz and HDMI 1.4

I did however find a Mini Displayport to HDMI 2.0 cable here http://visionaudiovisual.com/techconnect/cables/dp/ which categorically states it does do HDMI 2.0. Therefore this cable in theory would allow connecting a GTX 980 to a 4K TV via HDMI 2.0 and give 4K at 60Hz.

Anyone able to try this out?

PS. While as above one might presume Displayport 1.2 which can do 4K at 60Hz should be possible to convert to HDMI 2.0 also at 4K and 60Hz, I have also seen articles talking about Displayport 1.3 which adds official support for HDMI 2.0 and also 8K over Displayport.

 

[netkas]

>>Allows PCs with ‘Dual-Mode’ DisplayPort (DP++) outputs to connect to displays with HDMI inputs.

DP++ is just passively passing dvi/hdmi signal thru DP output aka passive adapter

won't work for you.

 

[edenexposito]

Related to black screen issue. With 980GTX and MacPro 5.1

I had moved my PCI SSD OWC Accelsior v1 from PCI Slot 3 to PCI Slot 4, and problem seemed to be resolved, but... sometimes return since I have installed bootcamp in normal SSD Disk.

If you try to alternate boot from a PCI SSD unit (OSX) and SSD Disk Unit (WINDOWS) sometimes displays go to black and I need Power Off to retry boot with "alt" key. Sometimes works but not always. I can not see a "logical" pattern to boot always successfully.

Are you tested this environment??.

 

[Zodi4c]

Same problem with the Sonnet TEMPO SSD Pro

Hi Guys,

I've also the GTX980 MVC and a PCI based SSD Raid (Sonnet Tempo)
and I also have the problem with my boot camp partition.
OSX is running well, boot menu, OpenCL, Cuda anything is running well,
but I'm not able to boot my bootcamp (Win7/64 bootcamp version 4.0)

I reseted NVram already but without success, I deinstalled the PCI raid (osx)
and tried to boot the win partition (HD), without success.

The next step can be, deinstall PCI raid and than reset NVram.
Or change the slot of the PCI raid and reset NVram.

Any other ideas?

Regards Zodi

 

[jelockwood]

As you may be aware officially Apple do not support Boot Camp in conjunction with RAID setups. You may not be using a RAID but your PCI card is a RAID capable card.

See https://support.apple.com/en-lk/HT201803

I have been looking at SATA III PCI cards as a possible upgrade for a Mac Pro and it seems some cards support booting successfully in to Boot Camp and some support successfully booting as a Mac, but I have not yet found definitively a card that supports both.

For example this one supports booting in to Boot Camp but not in to OS X - http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/MXPRMS6G1E1I/
This one appears to support booting in to Boot Camp and OS X but with restrictions - http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/SSDPHWE2R240/
This one seems to support booting both OS X and Boot camp - http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet Technologies/TSATA6SSDE/

Note: The second one is not a RAID card neither is the third one, I believe the Sonnet card uses software RAID which is not compatible with Boot Camp, even if it does have hardware RAID it does not support having two SSDs attached for Boot Camp.

 

[Zodi4c]

Hmm, I was not aware about this recommendation:
https://support.apple.com/en-lk/HT201803

but to explain my config:
PCI slot4: Sonnet PCI SSD raid 1TB with an installed OSX 10.10.2 --> is booting well
Drivebay1: 1TB hard disk with bootcamp4.0 and an installed Win7/64 --> freeze in a black screen
PCI slot 1 GTX980 MVC

If I change the GTX980 MVC against a EVGA GTX680 Mac edition both operating systems are booting well!
Also with the GTX980 unflashed, I used the unflashed card for weeks without any problem.

 

[netkas]

Try to explain step by step what you do

black screen appears after selecting bootcamp hd in bootpicker (holding option key at bootup) ?

what macpro you have ?

if you have blackscreen after selecting boot from bootcamp hd try this trick:

select windows hd to be booted by default from osx control-panel (startup disk)

shutdown, disconnect display from mac, startup mac, after boot chime, wait 4 seconds and connect display to mac. will windows boot ?

 

[Zodi4c]

Try to explain step by step what you do

black screen appears after selecting bootcamp hd in bootpicker (holding option key at bootup) ?

Yes (or also with BootChamp)

what macpro you have ?

2009 4.1

if you have blackscreen after selecting boot from bootcamp hd try this trick:

select windows hd to be booted by default from osx control-panel (startup disk)

shutdown, disconnect display from mac, startup mac, after boot chime, wait 4 seconds and connect display to mac. will windows boot ?

Ok thank you I'll try it!

 

[Zodi4c]

I don't understand why, but it works!!!
And know? Is there a workaround in place?

Thx netkas

 

[hvtarter]

Using Premiere Pro CC and looking to upgrade to the best Video Card

Sorry but I am a Premiere guy Also for some reason I were able to use CUDA rendering with the 680 but not the 980. The old CS6 trick of adding CUDA_supported_cards.txt to the app content doesn't work with CC. It reverts back to OpenCL.

Any pointers? Not that it doesn't work but I'd love to take full advantage of CUDA if possible.

----------

Now I had the 980 in the upper slot, close to the drive bays. I was told to do that with the 680 so I'd assume I should do the same with the 980.

Am I in the wrong slot? Should I move it to the lower slot?

Somehow it's a bit louder than my 680 under load lol...

Hey stevedusa, you mentioned the gtx 980 did not work with Premiere Pro CC with Cuda back in January. Did you ever get this to work?
Anyone know if the the gtx 980 will work with Cuda in Premiere Pro CC

 

[vfxwolf]

Just installed flashed GTX 980

Got the card from MacVidCards. Installation went very smoothly, ensured I had installed the nvidia web driver and cuda updates before the installation.

I'm testing my apps now, and so far the only issue I've noticed is strange rendering when using Element 3D in AfterEffects. I've emailed Matt Kramer, and Chris at MacVidCards about this.

Tried rolling back CUDA to pre- 7.0, makes no difference.

Currently running Driver version 343.02.02f03 and Cuda version 6.5.46

Anyone run across this?

 

[stevedusa]

Hey stevedusa, you mentioned the gtx 980 did not work with Premiere Pro CC with Cuda back in January. Did you ever get this to work?
Anyone know if the the gtx 980 will work with Cuda in Premiere Pro CC

Actually forgot to mention... just update to the latest web driver and now CUDA in Premiere CC works just like a charm.

Loving it.

 

[hvtarter]

Mac Pro upgrade question

Actually forgot to mention... just update to the latest web driver and now CUDA in Premiere CC works just like a charm.

Loving it.

Thanks for the reply, I think my system is being slowed down by my memory, I am running 32gb (8gb x 4) of Axiom mc729g/a-ax and I am editing 1 hour videos. How much memory would you recommend I run?

Also, would you recommend I change to the Axiom mc730g/a-ax (16gb x ?)

my system is a 2009 4.1 flashed to 5.1 with 12 core 3.46 cpu's
I have 2 ssd's on a sonnet tempo card no raid 512gb OSX and 1tb video file storage

I am thinking of upgrading to 2 ssd's in raid 0 for the OSX
and 2 more ssd's in raid 0 for the video file storage

I backup nightly to internal hdd's and weekly to external

 

[Pressure]

Thanks for the reply, I think my system is being slowed down by my memory, I am running 32gb (8gb x 4) of Axiom mc729g/a-ax and I am editing 1 hour videos. How much memory would you recommend I run?

Also, would you recommend I change to the Axiom mc730g/a-ax (16gb x ?)

my system is a 2009 4.1 flashed to 5.1 with 12 core 3.46 cpu's
I have 2 ssd's on a sonnet tempo card no raid 512gb OSX and 1tb video file storage

I am thinking of upgrading to 2 ssd's in raid 0 for the OSX
and 2 more ssd's in raid 0 for the video file storage

I backup nightly to internal hdd's and weekly to external

What purpose does the two SSDs in RAID-0 serve? Simply as boot drive or scratch disk as well?

If your scratch disk is the 1TB HDD you would benefit tremendously from a faster solution.

 

[hvtarter]

Drive storage raid 0

What purpose does the two SSDs in RAID-0 serve? Simply as boot drive or scratch disk as well?

If your scratch disk is the 1TB HDD you would benefit tremendously from a faster solution.

I need more storage for the video files in the machine so I will just add another 1tb and I may as well stripe it and get more speed out of the drives

If I am going to do that on my file storage drive then I guess I should on my OSX drive

 

[Pressure]

I need more storage for the video files in the machine so I will just add another 1tb and I may as well stripe it and get more speed out of the drives

If I am going to do that on my file storage drive then I guess I should on my OSX drive

Honestly, on the work I do, I don't feel any noticeably difference between the original 80GB Intel X25-M SSD from 2008 and the new 256GB Apple PCIe SSD from 2013. Sure the PCIe SSD benchmarks a lot faster but it doesn't seem to have any effect over the traditional SSD after boot up.

If you are scrubbing a lot in your NLE a faster scratch drive will show a big gain for your workload.

You should ideally separate your video storage and scratch drive for optimal performance, so only the files you work on resides on the scratch drive.

 

[hvtarter]

Honestly, on the work I do, I don't feel any noticeably difference between the original 80GB Intel X25-M SSD from 2008 and the new 256GB Apple PCIe SSD from 2013. Sure the PCIe SSD benchmarks a lot faster but it doesn't seem to have any effect over the traditional SSD after boot up.

If you are scrubbing a lot in your NLE a faster scratch drive will show a big gain for your workload.

You should ideally separate your video storage and scratch drive for optimal performance, so only the files you work on resides on the scratch drive.[/QUOTE

Thanks for the great info, any suggestions for ram? ie how much are you using, or suggest?

 

[Zodi4c]

My GTX980 MVC is now running well!

I don't understand why, but it works!!!
And know? Is there a workaround in place?

Thx netkas

After a small bugfix of the EFI bios, is now anything fine!
Boot menu, 4K/60HZ on Windows and OS X system

Thx Chris