Confirmed and Possible Flashable GTX 680 Models

xcodeSyn · May 3, 2013

I recently acquired a used EVGA 02G-P4-2684-KR and flashed it with the Mac ROM. So far it has worked as expected, the only thing unusual is that the boot screen from the HDMI output has a light green instead of the light gray background. Most issues and answers related to flashing the Mac ROM could be found from the following links:

1. EVGA announces a GTX 680 Mac Edition
2. Flashable GTX 680s being sold in the UK, super cheap!
3. Flashing the GTX680 2GB

Added on 08/04/13: Dr. Stealth has an excellent thread on how to flash the GTX 680 4GB models at this link, and what 4GB models were successfully flashed.

Currently both Newegg and Amazon are out of stock for the EVGA Mac Edition GTX 680. If you have no patience of waiting or want to save some money, a list of confirmed and possible reference design models that could be flashed is compiled as follows:

Confirmed Flashable Models:
EVGA 02G-P4-2680-KR
EVGA 02G-P4-2682-KR
EVGA 02G-P4-2684-KR
EVGA 02G-P4-2687-KR
MSI N680GTX-PM2D2GD5
PNY VCGGTX680XPB
ASUS GTX680-2GD5
Gainward GeForce® GTX 680 2GB

Most products here are linked to Amazon in the US and the price may vary frquently. Feel free to add other flashable models not listed here.

Possible but Unconfirmed Models:
Galaxy 68NPH6DV5ZGV
ZOTAC ZT-60101-10P

Based on the specs, these two could be flashable, but no confirmation yet. So do it at your own risk.

Note: 1. Some people also mentioned the Palit GTX 680 2GB (NE5X68001042F) working, but there was a 10-second delay before the boot sceen appeared after the chime, and it is not sold in the US.

ActionableMango · May 3, 2013

Thanks for the list!

Is the reference 680 quiet under heavy load?

I'd like a flashable model some day, but I don't like how a lot of reference cards with single fans are fairly loud under load.

xcodeSyn · May 3, 2013

ActionableMango said:
Is the reference 680 quiet under heavy load?

I'd like a flashable model some day, but I don't like how a lot of reference cards with single fans are fairly loud under load.

My EVGA fan isn't loud under some stress tests, but this could be quite subjective to each person. I suppose there are some custom solutions to replace the stock heatsink and fan if necessary. For now the single fan seems to be one of the criteria for the reference design until someone is brave enough to flash the Mac ROM to multi-fan models.

Chumnick · May 3, 2013

I also confirm about this video card: EVGA GeForce GTX 680 SC Signature 2(P/N: 02G-P4-2687-KR). Flashed and running successfully!

cal6n · May 3, 2013

My PNY sounds no different to my 5870. When stress-testing with fur mark, the loudest fan is still the PCI slot fan.

xcodeSyn · May 3, 2013

Chumnick said:
I also confirm about this video card: EVGA GeForce GTX 680 SC Signature 2(P/N: 02G-P4-2687-KR). Flashed and running successfully!

Thanks for your post. I notice that this particular model has two fans, and 6-pin+8-pin power connector, two things that deviate from the reference design. This may suggest that more 2GB EVGA models could be flashed successfully, and I'll add it to the confirmed list.

mizar · May 4, 2013

Gainward GeForce® GTX 680 2GB

Hi guys

I'm new in the forum but very old mac user since I owned a Powermac G3 beige

I can confirm that the Gainward GeForce® GTX 680 2GB

http://www.gainward.com/main/vgapro.php?id=867&lang=en

Works like a charm, its 8+6 pin and I flashed it with the original macrom since was out.(flashed with nvflash in windows 8!!!)

I only used a 6 to 8 pin adaptor and pair of better custom mini 6pin to 6pin Pcie cable 18awg to have better conductivity instead the standard Apple cable.

kunia · May 4, 2013

I flushed mine, but os x crashes
on top of that its running at x8 speed - and it was running at x16 for about 6 hours...till it crushed

I dunno if the card is screwed up on my motherboard is faulty

xcodeSyn · May 4, 2013

mizar said:
I can confirm that the Gainward GeForce® GTX 680 2GB

http://www.gainward.com/main/vgapro.php?id=867&lang=en

Works like a charm, its 8+6 pin and I flashed it with the original macrom since was out.(flashed with nvflash in windows 8!!!)

I only used a 6 to 8 pin adaptor and pair of better custom mini 6pin to 6pin Pcie cable 18awg to have better conductivity instead the standard Apple cable.

Thanks for your confirmation. Looks like 6+8-pin connectors don't have any effect on flashing.

----------

kunia said:
I flushed mine, but os x crashes
on top of that its running at x8 speed - and it was running at x16 for about 6 hours...till it crushed

I doubt it has anything to do with flashing the Mac ROM, more likely a hardware defect on either the GPU or motherboard as mentioned in another thread.

lewdvig · May 4, 2013

Chumnick said:
I also confirm about this video card: EVGA GeForce GTX 680 SC Signature 2(P/N: 02G-P4-2687-KR). Flashed and running successfully!

How do you power the 8 pin connector? Does osx see all 4 gb?

Chumnick · May 5, 2013

lewdvig said:
How do you power the 8 pin connector?

I tried two options: 1- used a 6pin to 8pin adapter and connected it to the PCI-E power cables on the mobo or 2- a)-used the motherboard's two 6-pin outputs to power the one 8-pin on the GTX680 and b)-used an adapter cable from 2xSATA power outputs (located on the harddisk bays) to the remaining one 6-pin connector on the graphics card.
Differences in work has not felt. Everything is working great! Stopped on the first option.

lewdvig said:
Does osx see all 4 gb?

This video card has only 2 GB of memory.
And sorry for my English.

lewdvig · May 5, 2013

Chumnick said:
I tried two options: 1- used a 6pin to 8pin adapter and connected it to the PCI-E power cables on the mobo or 2- a)-used the motherboard's two 6-pin outputs to power the one 8-pin on the GTX680 and b)-used an adapter cable from 2xSATA power outputs (located on the harddisk bays) to the remaining one 6-pin connector on the graphics card.
Differences in work has not felt. Everything is working great! Stopped on the first option.

This video card has only 2 GB of memory.
And sorry for my English.

Your English is awesome.

I have a 680 with 6+8 pin and just used the two 6 pin connectors from the mobo. The 680 does not need 300 watts. Mine works fine including playing games.

Chumnick · May 5, 2013

lewdvig said:
I have a 680 with 6+8 pin and just used the two 6 pin connectors from the mobo. The 680 does not need 300 watts. Mine works fine including playing games.

And what is your pci fan speed? at startup and at work?
Thanks.

lewdvig · May 5, 2013

At start it is quiet. When i play games i have headphones on so do not notice nise, but i will log temps and fans when i play blood dragon later.

Chumnick · May 5, 2013

lewdvig said:
At start it is quiet. When i play games i have headphones on so do not notice nise, but i will log temps and fans when i play blood dragon later.

and I have at startup about 1500 rpm pci fan and after 5-10min 800 rpm. On Sapphire 7950 do not watch this! in what could be the problem?

lewdvig · May 5, 2013

Mine is 1100-1200 (30%) waking from sleep at about ~11% of max TDP.

I played Sleeping Dogs maxed out for 90 min. Fan never exceeded 2300 rpm (about 60%) and temp never went over 80 Celsius. TDP as a percentage of max got as high as 90%.

Romulis · May 6, 2013

Just a headsup :
It seems the flashed EVGA 02G-P4-2680-KR (at least mine does) have problem in Windowz 7 professional (64 bit) under bootcamp, it crashes and reboots every time windows try to sleep/disable the display.
Latest Nvidia drivers and windowz updates as on 5th May 2013.

Remedy disable all power management for the display in windowz.

No such problems in OSX ( that I have detected yet ).

ActionableMango · May 15, 2013

Two questions

Do all of the output ports work on a flashed 680? At a minimum I will need both of the DVI ports to work.

The MSI and PNY reference cards seem to be less expensive (10% less) than the EVGA reference cards that everyone seems to prefer. Is there a difference? I'm not seeing it.

cal6n · May 15, 2013

Here you go...

DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort connected to a 24" HP monitor and DVI connected to a projector via a DVI/VGA adapter.

ActionableMango · May 15, 2013

Thanks for the quick reply! For some reason I didn't think Nvidia could do four displays at the same time.

cal6n · May 15, 2013

You're welcome. Incidentally, mine's a flashed PNY card.

xcodeSyn · May 16, 2013

ActionableMango said:
The MSI and PNY reference cards seem to be less expensive (10% less) than the EVGA reference cards that everyone seems to prefer. Is there a difference? I'm not seeing it.

I think people picked EVGA models for flashing mainly because the original ROM came from EVGA. Once more brave souls tried it on other brands of reference design, it's clear that no major issue ever came up. Amazon.com currently has the MSI reference design on sale for $391.75, this is the lowest price for a new GTX 680 I've seen so far. It'll be gone pretty soon since only 6 left in stock. There are rumors that the new GTX 770 would be a rebadged refernce design of the GTX 680 and priced at $399, so the price of the GTX 680 may fall further in the second half of this year.

Edit: Forgot to mention there is also a rebate of $10 expires on 5/31, so $381.75 for the final cost.

ActionableMango · May 20, 2013

xcodeSyn said:
I think people picked EVGA models for flashing mainly because the original ROM came from EVGA. Once more brave souls tried it on other brands of reference design, it's clear that no major issue ever came up. Amazon.com currently has the MSI reference design on sale for $391.75, this is the lowest price for a new GTX 680 I've seen so far. It'll be gone pretty soon since only 6 left in stock. There are rumors that the new GTX 770 would be a rebadged refernce design of the GTX 680 and priced at $399, so the price of the GTX 680 may fall further in the second half of this year.

Edit: Forgot to mention there is also a rebate of $10 expires on 5/31, so $381.75 for the final cost.

Wow, that was a great price! I missed it and it's $490 now.

nox-uk · May 26, 2013

any reason why this one wouldn't be flash able?

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...tx680keplerseries/n680gtxtwinfrozr2gd5oc.html

Have liked the sturdiness and twin fans on the frozr's

Nox

bsbeamer · Jun 12, 2013

Does anyone have experience with the Zotac ZT-60101-10P cards? It's a reference 680, so would assume they will work and could be flashable. Can't find the "Mac" versions in-stock from the usual retailers, so figured might as well do it myself...

Confirmed and Possible Flashable GTX 680 Models

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