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Frequently Asked Questions About NVIDIA PC (non-EFI) Graphics Cards

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mac666er

macrumors regular
Feb 7, 2008
240
185
San Francisco, CA
vizion said:
Does the flash video problem happen on either card ?
Click to expand...

It happens on both, but it only started happening after I installed the 630. Before, I didn't have Flash crashes in the 680.

The crash restarts the Mac Pro. It does not even show a kernel panic. It automatically restarts the computer in less than 1 sec.

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mac666er said:
The crash restarts the Mac Pro. It does not even show a kernel panic. It automatically restarts the computer in less than 1 sec.
Click to expand...

By the way, that was on 10.8.1 and the latest Nvidia drivers (separate download). Just upgraded to 10.8.2 and this particular issues seems to be gone.

:) :apple:
 
S

sea800

macrumors newbie
Oct 23, 2006
13
1
Mac Pro 1,1 GTX 650 - no go

caveat emptor for the FAQ?:Mac Pro 1,1 with a new GTX 650 does NOT work tested:

10.7.5 with its included drivers, NVIDIA 270.00.00f01 and 304.00.00f20 (the latter 2 through a hacked installer Distribution.dist file). PCIe 6-pin card power drawn from a drive-bay molex - not the motherboard connectors. Current-draw should not really be the issue for this card though.

The OS boots fine - the machine is reachable over the network (which gives hope) - but the displays (DVI or HDMI) stay dark.

I have not tried 10.8.x with Chameleon for obvious reasons.
 
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V

vizion

macrumors newbie
Sep 17, 2012
13
0
Sea800,

Which 600 series card work with MP 1,1 ? 640 ?
 
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S

sea800

macrumors newbie
Oct 23, 2006
13
1
Re: Mac Pro 1,1 GTX 650 - no go

vizion said:
Sea800,

Which 600 series card work with MP 1,1 ? 640 ?
Click to expand...

there is anecdotal evidence that Fermi cards work on 1,1. Any Kepler 1,1 experiments to share - positive or negative?
 
Redneck1089

Redneck1089

macrumors 65816
Jan 18, 2004
1,211
467
I just bought a GTX 670. Am I right to assume that it will only work in PCI-E x1 running in windows under boot camp?
 
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MacVidCards

Suspended
Nov 17, 2008
6,096
1,056
Hollywood, CA
Yes, we will be offering EFI cards with PCIE 2.0 function in the near future.

Currently, if you want PCIE 2.0 in Windows on your Mac Pro, you need an one of our EFI cards.
 
Redneck1089

Redneck1089

macrumors 65816
Jan 18, 2004
1,211
467
MacVidCards said:
Yes, we will be offering EFI cards with PCIE 2.0 function in the near future.

Currently, if you want PCIE 2.0 in Windows on your Mac Pro, you need an one of our EFI cards.
Click to expand...

Thanks again for the response.

So if that's the case and the GTX 670 only runs in PCIe 1.0 in Windows, is there any advantage of having it over my Mac Edition ATI 5870 for gaming then?

Running in PCIe 1.0 should hit the performance quite a bit I would think.
 
M

MacVidCards

Suspended
Nov 17, 2008
6,096
1,056
Hollywood, CA
It is not as big a deal in games I think as when using CUDA/OpenCl type stuff where 2 @ GPUs might like to chit chat.

Sadly, even when we get them running at 2.0 in Bootcamp, they will STILL be running at 1/2 speed. Since there is no Mac Pro running at 3.0 PCIE, that is just how it is. But a GTX680 running at 1.0 PCIE is running at 1/4 bus speed. Oh, technology and it's ceaseless marching.....
 
C

charliebee

macrumors newbie
Sep 29, 2012
2
0
G4DP said:
Asgorath, the GT520 works as well. It's what i'm using at the moment as a stop gap.
Click to expand...

Could you give me more details on your setup cause I can't make it work on mine.

I have a Mac Pro 3,1 (Early 2008) running 10.8.2 and an ASUS GT 520. It has no fan, only a (rather large) heat sink and no additional power connector.

If I replace the current HD 2600 XT with the GT 520 I get the startup chime but doesn't seem to load the OS at all. I waited a several minutes and nothing happened. OS X in on a SSD so the system boots up in like 10 seconds usually.

I've tried keeping the 2600 XT in there and putting the GT 520 in slot 2. This gives me the ability to boot up the system but it reboots by itself when it gets to the login screen.

Finally, I've tried booting in safe mode, which this time lets me in the system, only to find out that OS X doesn't seem to detect the card properly (see attachment). It does detect that its a GPU from NVIDIA but not the exact model. Also, none of the output connector works.

I've also tried to install the latest drivers from Nvidia (304.00.00f20) but it says that I already have the latest version.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as that 2600 XT is killing me!

Thanks!
 

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C

charliebee

macrumors newbie
Sep 29, 2012
2
0
charliebee said:
Could you give me more details on your setup cause I can't make it work on mine.

I have a Mac Pro 3,1 (Early 2008) running 10.8.2 and an ASUS GT 520. It has no fan, only a (rather large) heat sink and no additional power connector.

If I replace the current HD 2600 XT with the GT 520 I get the startup chime but doesn't seem to load the OS at all. I waited a several minutes and nothing happened. OS X in on a SSD so the system boots up in like 10 seconds usually.

I've tried keeping the 2600 XT in there and putting the GT 520 in slot 2. This gives me the ability to boot up the system but it reboots by itself when it gets to the login screen.

Finally, I've tried booting in safe mode, which this time lets me in the system, only to find out that OS X doesn't seem to detect the card properly (see attachment). It does detect that its a GPU from NVIDIA but not the exact model. Also, none of the output connector works.

I've also tried to install the latest drivers from Nvidia (304.00.00f20) but it says that I already have the latest version.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as that 2600 XT is killing me!

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Fixed my own problem, thanks to the hackintosh community!

The problem is pretty simple, it seems that the device id for the GT 520 has been removed from the Nvidia driver plist in Moutain Lion.

FIX:

Open Terminal.app
Code: 
sudo nano /System/Library/Extensions/NVDAGF100Hal.kext/Contents/Info.plist

Scroll down until you see a bunch of string such as 0x124010de&0xffc0ffff, create a new line just after the last one and add:

Code: 
0x104010de&0xffc0ffff

Hit Ctrl+O then Enter to save and restart your system.

This should work with any other card supposedly not supported. Just get the device id from System Information, add "0x" to the beginning and "10de&0xffc0ffff" to the end and add it to Info.plist like the other one. I don't know what that last hex part means but it seems to be the same for most cards so I guess it's safe to try.
 
phickers

phickers

macrumors newbie
Oct 1, 2012
8
0
Walla Walla
GTX 570 Superclocked

I am considering buying a EVGA GTX570/Superclocked card. I was wondering if this card will work without an additional PS. Does the overclocking of the processor 1.work in the mac pro,2. are there any additional heat or power issues to consider. IE does the overclocking demand more power than the regular version? I know I could send it back if it did not work... I am getting the 1280mb version to leave behind the "above 2gb issue".
Also many of the EVGA cards have a rebate of $20 on Amazon through October. It might be the time to move on a new card for others too. If you already bought one you have till the end of the month to claim the rebate.





Small Print: I am not now nor have I ever been employed or consorted with any company named Amazon or any other configuration of those letters including Azonam, Namoza, Zomana, Maazno, etc...
A man has got to know his limitations. Dirty Harry
 
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A

Asgorath

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 30, 2012
1,573
479
Cuyahoga said:
Awesome, thanks. Does anyone know if this is just the 10.8.1 304 driver modified to work with 10.8.2, or if it's supposed to be further optimized still?
Click to expand...

It appears to support 4 displays on Kepler cards, so I think it's more than just the 10.8.1 driver rebuilt for 10.8.2.

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beto2k7 said:
Does anyone know why nvidia drivers keep breaking display sleep? and maybe how to solve it?
Click to expand...

Define "breaking display sleep"? This works fine for me.
 
B

beto2k7

macrumors 6502
Jan 6, 2010
339
0
::1
Asgorath said:


----------



Define "breaking display sleep"? This works fine for me.
Click to expand...

I have my mac pro set to sleep the display after 3 minutes of inactivity. This works fine using apple's stock drivers but after installing nvidia's driver set the display won't sleep anymore not even pressing control+shif+eject key, doing this will turn off my cinema display for about a second and then come back. I'm using MVC's GTX 570.
 

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S

scottrichardson

macrumors 6502a
Jul 10, 2007
698
272
Ulladulla, NSW Australia
Can someone here with more knowledge than me on nVidia cards recommend a version of a 680 that will drive two cinema displays? I have two 24" Apple LED displays with Mini Display port. Are there any 680's with two display ports? Or will I need to use my DVI > Displayport converter box that I'm using on my Radeon 4870?
 
I

initialsBB

macrumors 6502a
Oct 18, 2010
688
2
charliebee said:
Fixed my own problem, thanks to the hackintosh community!

The problem is pretty simple, it seems that the device id for the GT 520 has been removed from the Nvidia driver plist in Moutain Lion.

FIX:

Open Terminal.app
Code: 
sudo nano /System/Library/Extensions/NVDAGF100Hal.kext/Contents/Info.plist

Scroll down until you see a bunch of string such as 0x124010de&0xffc0ffff, create a new line just after the last one and add:

Code: 
0x104010de&0xffc0ffff

Hit Ctrl+O then Enter to save and restart your system.

This should work with any other card supposedly not supported. Just get the device id from System Information, add "0x" to the beginning and "10de&0xffc0ffff" to the end and add it to Info.plist like the other one. I don't know what that last hex part means but it seems to be the same for most cards so I guess it's safe to try.
Click to expand...

You can add the GT 610 to the list of compatible cards, using this exact same fix as the GT610 is a GT520 rebrand. Only problem now is LuxMark won't run with both GPUs, it throws up a "RUNTIME ERROR: PathOCL kernel compilation error". This is strange considering nVidia list the GT6xx cards as being OpenCL compatible ?



I'm going to try the new nVidia driver for 10.8.2 now.

Update: installed new GeForce and CUDA drivers, boots fine and GT610 patch still active as NVDAGF100Hal.kext wasn't modified by the update. My subjective test - opening a 'heavy' late game save of Civilization 5 Mac - shows that performance is back :)

Update 2: regarding GT cards, it actually looks like the files were modified and there is no mention of any device IDs in NVDAGF100Hal.kext anymore ????
 
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A

Asgorath

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 30, 2012
1,573
479
beto2k7 said:
I have my mac pro set to sleep the display after 3 minutes of inactivity. This works fine using apple's stock drivers but after installing nvidia's driver set the display won't sleep anymore not even pressing control+shif+eject key, doing this will turn off my cinema display for about a second and then come back. I'm using MVC's GTX 570.
Click to expand...

I've used a stock non-EFI GTX 560 Ti and GTX 680, and have never had this problem.
 
E

Elandrion

macrumors newbie
Jan 13, 2008
16
0
Open a Terminal window and look at the output of the command
Code: 
pmset -g assertions

It may be that some process is keeping your mac from sleeping, like Time Machine or Internet Sharing. The corresponding process should be named where it says "Listed by owning process".
 
B

beto2k7

macrumors 6502
Jan 6, 2010
339
0
::1
Elandrion said:
Open a Terminal window and look at the output of the command
Code: 
pmset -g assertions

It may be that some process is keeping your mac from sleeping, like Time Machine or Internet Sharing. The corresponding process should be named where it says "Listed by owning process".
Click to expand...

Thanks I will try as soon as I get back home. I hope to get some answers by this. But the weirdest thing is it only happens with the nvidia drivers installed.
 
N

nadeama

macrumors newbie
Oct 3, 2012
9
0
I purchased and installed a GTX 660 in my 2010 Mac Pro yesterday and I have the exact same problem with display sleep breaking after about one second. I never had this problem with the stock Radeon 5870, so I'm guessing the problem is with the Nvidia drivers.

If you find a solution, please let us know because I really don't know what to try to fix this.

----------

By the way, I also kept my Radeon 5870 in the Mac Pro to drive a second display and get a boot screen. I have one display attached to the Radeon and the other one to the GTX. The display that's plugged into the 5870 can sleep with no problems, but the one in the GTX will break sleep after about one second.
 
A

Arkados

macrumors regular
Dec 10, 2010
104
0
430GT confirmed

Might not be a big deal for some of you but for me it was a big deal, I can finally toss away my dell inspiron 530 :p. The 430GT (no 6pin cable required one) works. Bought this card for about $50US from best buy a few weeks ago for Diablo 3 on my dell so popping this baby in was a small victory for me, plus the fact now my 1,1 Mac Pro doesnt sound like a jet when going off with that 1900XT in it.
 
B

beto2k7

macrumors 6502
Jan 6, 2010
339
0
::1
So I put my old apple GT 120 inside:

1. GT 120 + apple drivers = display sleep works
2. GT 120 + nvidia drivers = display sleep works.
3. GTX 570 + apple drivers = display sleep works, slow graphics performance
4. GTX 570 + nvidia drivers = display sleep broken, better graphics performance.

Currently I'm using a display port to miniDisplay Port to connect my 24 Apple Cinema Display. So two options, either the adapter or the card itself. Will be contacting MacVidCars asap to get this solved out.
 
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