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WARNING! 10.6.7 bad news w/ NVIDIA Quadro 4000

NY Guitarist

NY Guitarist

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 21, 2011
1,585
1,581
Found out the hard way!

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=196111

From NVidia:
"Apple's Mac OS X version 10.6.7 update removes the NVIDIA Quadro 4000 display drivers during the installation process. As a result, you will not be able to boot into Mac OS X 10.6.7 with a Quadro 4000 graphics card installed. The previous NVIDIA Quadro 4000 display driver version 256.01.00f03 is not compatible with Mac OS X version 10.6.7 and so you can not reinstall this driver after installing Mac OS X 10.6.7. A new NVIDIA display driver for the Quadro 4000 graphics card version 256.2.35f05 will be available from the NVIDIA Software Downloads page on March 22nd, 2011 which will install on Mac OS X 10.6.7.

Since Mac OS X 10.6.7 will not let you boot into the OS if the graphics card is missing display drivers, you will need to install an older graphics card into your Mac in order to boot int the OS. Once you are in Mac OS X, proceed to download the latest Quadro 4000 Mac drivers from the NVIDIA Software Downloads and install them. After the Quadro 4000 drivers have been installed, you may re-insert the NVIDIA Quadro 4000 back into your Mac Pro."
 
Apple's Quality Control

Looks like Apple's type of quality control with software updates and service packs is seriously lacking.. Funny, we did not see this when Apple used to be in the "computer" business as Apple Computer during the PowerPC days.
 
Wow, just wow.

Not only is it the most expensive mac video card available, it is:

1. NOT the fastest among Apple's blessed cards, even for OpenGL, because you see, it DOESN'T work with Maya, what a joke:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1079571/

2. NOT the fastest video card, even when it works, under Windows 7, see 3DMArk benchmark part:

http://www.barefeats.com/wst10g9.html

And now, we are supposed to buy a helper card??? Just to install it? What is this non-sense?

To quote Dr. Grace from Avatar:

"They are pissing on us and not even bothering to call it rain..."
 
alphaod said:
Apple will most likely revise their 10.6.7 build to fix this.
Click to expand...

From what I understand from a friend who is a registered Apple developer, Apple gave a heads up to video card makers well in advance about needing new drivers for 10.6.7. From what he says, it's apparently NVidia that dropped the ball.
 
Yep, it would have long been noticed before the full release of 10.6.7 with the developer seeds they always give Apple Developers. This is made especially obvious with the installer proactively removing the video drivers. NVidia seems to be the ones at fault here for not having finished drivers by the release.
 
Look this problem is avoided with ease. Proper backup. Never do a software update with at least the bare minimum in backups. That means a clone of the osx in 10.6.6 before you update the master osx to 10.6.7.
 
NY Guitarist said:
Found out the hard way!

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=196111

From NVidia:
"Apple's Mac OS X version 10.6.7 update removes the NVIDIA Quadro 4000 display drivers during the installation process. As a result, you will not be able to boot into Mac OS X 10.6.7 with a Quadro 4000 graphics card installed. The previous NVIDIA Quadro 4000 display driver version 256.01.00f03 is not compatible with Mac OS X version 10.6.7 and so you can not reinstall this driver after installing Mac OS X 10.6.7. A new NVIDIA display driver for the Quadro 4000 graphics card version 256.2.35f05 will be available from the NVIDIA Software Downloads page on March 22nd, 2011 which will install on Mac OS X 10.6.7.

Since Mac OS X 10.6.7 will not let you boot into the OS if the graphics card is missing display drivers, you will need to install an older graphics card into your Mac in order to boot int the OS. Once you are in Mac OS X, proceed to download the latest Quadro 4000 Mac drivers from the NVIDIA Software Downloads and install them. After the Quadro 4000 drivers have been installed, you may re-insert the NVIDIA Quadro 4000 back into your Mac Pro."
Click to expand...
So what's their excuse for not submitting proper drivers to be inclued in 10.6.7 or for not insuring that Quadro 4000 drivers weren't removed by the update? :rolleyes:
It's not as if 10.6.7 beta had not been available for sevearal weeks.
I really doubt that Nvidia warned Apple and was replied "***** off, we don't want your graphics drivers in our update, even if it breaks compatibility with some Mac Pro configs".
They sell the card, they provide the drivers. It's not Apple's job to test all possible configurations with 3rd party hardware. How do you think it works on Windows?
 
philipma1957 said:
Look this problem is avoided with ease. Proper backup. Never do a software update with at least the bare minimum in backups. That means a clone of the osx in 10.6.6 before you update the master osx to 10.6.7.
Click to expand...

Or even simpler, wait a few days/weeks/months with the update to see where the chips fall.
 
The problem is that NVidia replaces the Apple drivers, and then (surprise surprise) the drivers are replaced back to Apple drivers during a system update.
 
I plan to buy the 4000 but have decided to wait to see what happens with Lion announcements, etc.

It's odd: Apple seems all cozy with Nvidia when it comes to MacBooks, but the two companies seem at odds with each other in Mac Pro GPUs.

I can't help but wonder if we see problems due to Apple wanting to see Adobe Mercury fail, which of course utilizes Nvidia's CUDA.
 
Last edited:
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