Unflashed GTX 970 Running on OS X Default Driver Mac Pro 5,1 Yosemite

[pastrychef]

Ah. Okay. I understand what's going on now...

Since you do not have a working video card, it's a bit more complicated... Disabling the built-in drivers from your MacBook will not work because the Terminal commands puts these settings in to the NVRAM of computer.

Leaving the GTX 970 in the computer with the built-in drivers enabled will cause the computer to go in to a boot loop which you won't be able to see.

I don't know what happens if you boot a Mac without a video card installed... But I guess we can try...

1. Plug the Mac Pro hard drive in to the your MacBook and boot from the Mac Pro hard drive.
2. Follow the following directions to enable screen sharing:
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18686?locale=en_US
3. Plug the hard drive back in to your Mac Pro and boot it up WITHOUT any video card in the computer.
4. Follow the directions in the above link and try to connect to the Mac Pro from your MacBook.
5. If you successfully log in to your Mac Pro, proceed to enter in the Terminal commands.
6. Shut down your Mac Pro and install your GTX 970.
7. Boot.

If step 5 doesn't work, you may need to try and get your hands on a video card that works with the built-in drivers. Perhaps a Windows using friend may be able to help you...

 

[ngollop]

Ah. Okay. I understand what's going on now...

Since you do not have a working video card, it's a bit more complicated... Disabling the built-in drivers from your MacBook will not work because the Terminal commands puts these settings in to the NVRAM of computer.

Leaving the GTX 970 in the computer with the built-in drivers enabled will cause the computer to go in to a boot loop which you won't be able to see.

I don't know what happens if you boot a Mac without a video card installed... But I guess we can try...

1. Plug the Mac Pro hard drive in to the your MacBook and boot from the Mac Pro hard drive.
2. Follow the following directions to enable screen sharing:
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18686?locale=en_US
3. Plug the hard drive back in to your Mac Pro and boot it up WITHOUT any video card in the computer.
4. Follow the directions in the above link and try to connect to the Mac Pro from your MacBook.
5. If you successfully log in to your Mac Pro, proceed to enter in the Terminal commands.
6. Shut down your Mac Pro and install your GTX 970.
7. Boot.

If step 5 doesn't work, you may need to try and get your hands on a video card that works with the built-in drivers. Perhaps a Windows using friend may be able to help you...

Ok, starting to understand. I already have the web drivers installed as I said before (mac pro hd) so this should make things easier. The only thing im not quite getting is: how can i enable screen sharing from my hd booted on my macbook and get it to connect it to show the screen on the mac pro without a card? I cant understand how that would work.. Do you understand me?

 

[pastrychef]

I'm hoping that by enabling screen sharing when your Mac Pro hard drive is connected to the MacBook, your Mac Pro will be able to boot properly without a video card in to a basic resolution of 640x400 or something even without a video card being installed.

If it does manages to boot, you can do all that is necessary to enable the Nvidia web drivers remotely from your MacBook.

 

[ngollop]

I'm hoping that by enabling screen sharing when your Mac Pro hard drive is connected to the MacBook, your Mac Pro will be able to boot properly without a video card in to a basic resolution of 640x400 or something even without a video card being installed.

If it does manages to boot, you can do all that is necessary to enable the Nvidia web drivers remotely from your MacBook.

Ok. It makes sense to some extent. If i dont have a card installed inside my mac pro, how can an image be produced? I will have no cable attached to my monitor (i use an hdmi cable). Or do you mean that i will be able to access my mac pro "screen" from my mac book?

 

[ngollop]

Ok. It makes sense to some extent. If i dont have a card installed inside my mac pro, how can an image be produced? I will have no cable attached to my monitor (i use an hdmi cable). Or do you mean that i will be able to access my mac pro "screen" from my mac book?

And if by "enabling web drivers from my macbook" you mean being able to install the driver manager, I must tell you that it is already installed and set to boot from web drivers. What i think you mean is being able to type the sudo commands in terminal, correct?

 

[ngollop]

Ok. It makes sense to some extent. If i dont have a card installed inside my mac pro, how can an image be produced? I will have no cable attached to my monitor (i use an hdmi cable). Or do you mean that i will be able to access my mac pro "screen" from my mac book?

I'm hoping that by enabling screen sharing when your Mac Pro hard drive is connected to the MacBook, your Mac Pro will be able to boot properly without a video card in to a basic resolution of 640x400 or something even without a video card being installed.

If it does manages to boot, you can do all that is necessary to enable the Nvidia web drivers remotely from your MacBook.

And if by "enabling web drivers from my macbook" you mean being able to install the driver manager, I must tell you that it is already installed and set to boot from web drivers. What i think you mean is being able to type the sudo commands in terminal, correct?

 

[pastrychef]

Ok. It makes sense to some extent. If i dont have a card installed inside my mac pro, how can an image be produced? I will have no cable attached to my monitor (i use an hdmi cable). Or do you mean that i will be able to access my mac pro "screen" from my mac book?

Yes, I realize that I'm asking you to try booting your Mac Pro with no video card and an monitor not connected. The reason for this is that if the GTX 970 is in the Mac Pro when you boot with the built-in drivers, it will go in to a boot loop.

This is why we are hoping that the Mac Pro can boot properly without any video card and we will be able to connect to the Mac Pro using your MacBook via screen sharing. If this works, we can do all that we need to do in Terminal.

Enabling the Nvidia web drivers from your MacBook won't help you because the settings are saved in NVRAM. That means, the only thing you accomplished is enabling the Nvidia web drivers for your MacBook, not your Mac Pro.

 

[ngollop]

Yes, I realize that I'm asking you to try booting your Mac Pro with no video card and an monitor not connected. The reason for this is that if the GTX 970 is in the Mac Pro when you boot with the built-in drivers, it will go in to a boot loop.

This is why we are hoping that the Mac Pro can boot properly without any video card and we will be able to connect to the Mac Pro using your MacBook via screen sharing. If this works, we can do all that we need to do in Terminal.

Ok, this is making sense now. I will try this later on and report back to you. Since i have never done this before, i am still having dificulty understanding how my Pro would cast its screen onto my macbook withou me even being able to use it, click stuff on it, etc. but this seems like a valid option. Hoping this works. What is good is that i have already managed to install the web drivers once i was on my macbook by altering files in the nvidia pkg with FPE.

 

[ngollop]

Yes, I realize that I'm asking you to try booting your Mac Pro with no video card and an monitor not connected. The reason for this is that if the GTX 970 is in the Mac Pro when you boot with the built-in drivers, it will go in to a boot loop.

This is why we are hoping that the Mac Pro can boot properly without any video card and we will be able to connect to the Mac Pro using your MacBook via screen sharing. If this works, we can do all that we need to do in Terminal.

Enabling the Nvidia web drivers from your MacBook won't help you because the settings are saved in NVRAM. That means, the only thing you accomplished is enabling the Nvidia web drivers for your MacBook, not your Mac Pro.

Hey @pastrychef , apparently this guy (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6885892) was able to screen share his mac pro using his mac book. Feeling good about this method you described.

 

[ngollop]

Yes, I realize that I'm asking you to try booting your Mac Pro with no video card and an monitor not connected. The reason for this is that if the GTX 970 is in the Mac Pro when you boot with the built-in drivers, it will go in to a boot loop.

This is why we are hoping that the Mac Pro can boot properly without any video card and we will be able to connect to the Mac Pro using your MacBook via screen sharing. If this works, we can do all that we need to do in Terminal.

Enabling the Nvidia web drivers from your MacBook won't help you because the settings are saved in NVRAM. That means, the only thing you accomplished is enabling the Nvidia web drivers for your MacBook, not your Mac Pro.

I was thinking, would holding Command+S solve this issue? Instead of having to go through all of the sharing screen process? I could use this command to get to terminal on boot, type in the codes and bingo...hypothetically speaking.

 

[pastrychef]

I was thinking, would holding Command+S solve this issue? Instead of having to go through all of the sharing screen process? I could use this command to get to terminal on boot, type in the codes and bingo...hypothetically speaking.

No.

 

[courtthree]

Hey guys, did you ever solve this?

I am in an almost identical situation and am lost. PastryChef, I have followed your instructions but to no avail!

I have a late 2009 MacPro 5,2 6 core Intel Xeon with 32GB RAM running on 10.10.5 and, currently, an AMD Radeon GPU. I wanted to upgrade to something that would perform better with After Effects and the GTX 980 was recommended by create.pro.

I received it today and have spent the last 6 or so hours trying to get my machine to boot with it but just cannot. All I have is a black screen and the machine isn't even booting - I know this because you can switch it off with a single short press of the power button.

In my case, I have a working AMD card so installed the drivers and CUDA before installing the 980. I switched it over in the tool bar as described and then shut down and installed the card. The machine would not boot.

I read this thread (and a million other pages) and followed the Terminal route which again gave me no joy.

Given that I have the driver and can switch on the NVIDIA Web Driver from the tool bar, (and have tried the Terminal commands), what else can I do?

Would you mind elaborating on the Terminal process to ensure I've covered everything for example?

 

[MacVidCards]

if you can turn on driver from elsewhere, then you don't need terminal stuff

Do you have both power cables connected at both ends?

If your card has an 8 pin connector, all 8 pins need to be connected to something

If you have another Mac, enable screen sharing on the 5,1 and then log in when 980 in and running to see what System Profiler says

 

[courtthree]

if you can turn on driver from elsewhere, then you don't need terminal stuff

Do you have both power cables connected at both ends?

If your card has an 8 pin connector, all 8 pins need to be connected to something

If you have another Mac, enable screen sharing on the 5,1 and then log in when 980 in and running to see what System Profiler says

Hey MacVidCards, thanks so much for responding so quickly. This is driving me mad (and is an expensive, time consuming mistake to make so I really appreciate your help!).

Answers to your questions...

The Terminal stuff
Good to know - I had suspected this but threw it at the problem just to be sure. Nearly all the posts I'd read were on "Hackintosh" sites so I thought I might be venturing in to the wrong territory.

Power cables
I had both connected at both ends as far as I know. The card was all lit up inside my machine so I know it was getting power. In the process of trying all the different options I installed and reinstalled it about 10 times so I am pretty confident it was done right.

8 pin connector
There are only 2 x 6 pin power sockets that I can see. There is the interface that connects to the mother board on one side and then a rubber covered smaller interface on the opposite side that is not connected to anything but I believe that's normal?

Screensharing
I'd love to try this (I have an MBP I'm writing to you now with) but the Mac Pro will not boot at all with this card installed. It physically starts up and chimes but never actually boots. I know it hasn't because when I then go back to the machine to reinstall the working GPU, I can switch it off with a single short press of the power button which would normally just put it to sleep.

Any thoughts on where to go from here? Of course, I guess the card could be faulty?

 

[pastrychef]

It sounds like you've done everything correctly. If the power cables are connected correctly and the machine isn't booting, I can only assume that the card is defective.

 

[pigsyn]

Have you tried to connect your card with DVI or DisplayPort ?
On my MSI GTX 970 only 2 outputs works from cold boots.

Also when booting with DisplayPort I have to poweroff / poweron my monitor to get output.

 

[star-affinity]

I'm also running an unflashed GTX 970 (MSI Gaming) in a MacPro5,1 and I'm experiencing this relatively high fan speed for the PCI fan. Especially just after starting up and logging in to OS X it spinns quite high at around 1500-1700 RPM. Then it goes down and settles around 1200 RPM. But isn't this a bit high for the computer being idle? Anyway, After some minutes it spins up again even reaching 1900 RPM.

I've done SMC and PRAM reset.

Hmm… Maybe I can adjust the fan speed using Macs Fan Control.
And maybe I should post this question as a new thread.

 

[pastrychef]

I'm also running an unflashed GTX 970 (MSI Gaming) in a MacPro5,1 and I'm experiencing this relatively high fan speed for the PCI fan. Especially just after starting up and logging in to OS X it spinns quite high at around 1500-1700 RPM. Then it goes down and settles around 1200 RPM. But isn't this a bit high for the computer being idle? Anyway, After some minutes it spins up again even reaching 1900 RPM.

I've done SMC and PRAM reset.

Hmm… Maybe I can adjust the fan speed using Macs Fan Control.
And maybe I should post this question as a new thread.

There are already a few threads about the expansion slot fan spinning high at start up. So far, no one has been able to figure out exactly why it happens. But you can make the fan return to normal speeds by putting a bit of load on the card by running something like Cuda-Z briefly.

More info at: Do UnFlashed/Flashed 970/980/ti Cause Expansion Fan Revs?

 

[MacVidCards]

OP,

Could you correct the thread title?

You just need to hit "edit" for that post and then "advanced" or "more options".