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

[romanboy]

So I got it all working!

The EVGA GeForce 8800 GT Superclocked 512MB PCI-E Video Graphics Card has a 128k rom. I ran NVflash in Dos from a USB stick and typed in NVFlash check. The results said 1024 which means it's flashable to the Mac Rom.

After flashing the card my MacPro 1,1 now boots with bootloading grey apple screen

It's running 10.7 on one SSD and 10.10.1 on another. They both display boot apple graphic. I'm pretty thrilled.

If anyone cares, I ended up installing a clean copy of 10.10.1 on my other Mac Pro. Then CCC that to a SSD and replaced the two ROM files using Mr. Zarniwoop's instructions.



Still can't believe this old mac is not EOL

Nice, we'll done man!! good work!

 

[klhr890]

Hi there,

I have an early 2008 Mac Pro (3.1). Running 10.10.1. My oringinal graphic card recently failed.

I upgraded to latest CUDA driver and installed a new Nvidia Geforce card.

I understand that installing a PC graphic card will mean a black boot up screen but does anyone know if the screen will appear for login? I just get a pure black screen. I tried just simply typing in password blind but that doesn't appear to work.

I know the card works because if I boot up in safe mode, the display works perfectly.

Anyone know any solutions?

 

[romanboy]

Hi there,

I have an early 2008 Mac Pro (3.1). Running 10.10.1. My oringinal graphic card recently failed.

I upgraded to latest CUDA driver and installed a new Nvidia Geforce card.

I understand that installing a PC graphic card will mean a black boot up screen but does anyone know if the screen will appear for login? I just get a pure black screen. I tried just simply typing in password blind but that doesn't appear to work.

I know the card works because if I boot up in safe mode, the display works perfectly.

Anyone know any solutions?

I have the same Mac, with the same OS, but I don't have manual login.

Try setting auto login in safe mode, see if that works. Also, install the latest video driver from the nvidia site, this might be what you need.
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/download/driverResults.aspx/81220/en-uk

Also, the latest CUDA drive doesn't work properly for certain things (Adobe apps if I remember correctly), but version 6.5.25 works fine. I might be wrong though

Here's how to enable auto login: System Preferences, Users & Groups, Login Options (under list of users), Auto Login.

Hope this help buddy.

 

[klhr890]

Sadly my HD is encrypted so unable to turn on automatic login.

Any other ideas?

 

[romanboy]

Sadly my HD is encrypted so unable to turn on automatic login.

Any other ideas?

You fool of a took. Let me test it on my mac. Try the nvidia web driver in the mean time. I'll get back to you.

----------

OK, login window is showing up on my mac. Try installing the web driver.

 

[klhr890]

You fool of a took. Let me test it on my mac. Try the nvidia web driver in the mean time. I'll get back to you.

----------

OK, login window is showing up on my mac. Try installing the web driver.

My old card has now failed completely.... don't really know how to install the web driver if i can't login?

 

[klhr890]

My old card has now failed completely.... don't really know how to install the web driver if i can't login?

Only thing I can access from safe boot is terminal. Sadly I don't really know what to do with it. Any terminal commands that I can use to disable file vault?

 

[romanboy]

My old card has now failed completely.... don't really know how to install the web driver if i can't login?

download the package onto a USB stick, then use the terminal to do this

sudo installer -pkg /Volumes/USBSTICK/package.pkg -target /

Obviously change the name of the USB stick to what it's actually called, and the name of the NVIDIA package to what it's actually called.
Good luck, let me know how it goes.

 

[klhr890]

sudo installer -pkg /Volumes/USBSTICK/package.pkg -target /

Sadly not working. Says Installer can't create the folder ...etc.

Also tried to unencrypt from terminal but unable the find my LV UUID. Using the command diskutil corestorage list says no corestorage volumes found.

Also tried to boot up with USB boot disk but again just black screen.

 

[romanboy]

Sadly not working. Says Installer can't create the folder ...etc.

Also tried to unencrypt from terminal but unable the find my LV UUID. Using the command diskutil corestorage list says no corestorage volumes found.

Also tried to boot up with USB boot disk but again just black screen.

Did you mount the drive first?

mount -uw /

I'm assuming you did. I don't know what else to suggest. Apart from trying this package here: http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,8496.0.html

 

[Sbrocca]

EVGA GTX760 + Mac Pro 4,1 Yosemite

Mac Pro 4,1 (2009)
OSX 10.10.1
2 x 2,93 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
16 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC

EVGA 02G-P4-2765-KR GeForce GTX 760 Superclocked ACX

After reading forum and millions of pages.. my GTX760 didn't work with OSX. The monitor stays off (no-signal), the Mac Pro boot and the hard disk seems to load regularly.
If I boot under Windows with Bootcamp the gpu works.
I have also tried to change the BIOS on gpu, same..
After weeks I'm thinking of selling it!
Any suggestions?
Thanks!

 

[romanboy]

Mac Pro 4,1 (2009)
OSX 10.10.1
2 x 2,93 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
16 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC

EVGA 02G-P4-2765-KR GeForce GTX 760 Superclocked ACX

After reading forum and millions of pages.. my GTX760 didn't work with OSX. The monitor stays off (no-signal), the Mac Pro boot and the hard disk seems to load regularly.
If I boot under Windows with Bootcamp the gpu works.
I have also tried to change the BIOS on gpu, same..
After weeks I'm thinking of selling it!
Any suggestions?
Thanks!

What have you done so far to get it to work?
It will be helpful if you included the steps taken.

 

[Sbrocca]

What have you done so far to get it to work?
It will be helpful if you included the steps taken.

Step1:
-Cable 6pin to 8pin
-NVIDIA Driver 343.01.02f01
–Reset NVRAM e SMC

Step2:
-Flashing bios EVGA GTX760 (80.04.C4.00.62 in to 80.04.BF.00.62)

 

[BigCanoe]

Hi, I am new to the Mac Pro. I have a working stock system, with Yosemite running a GeForce GT 120. I just bought a 2GB GTX 650 to upgrade. Is there a walkthrough on the proper process? Should I power off, and install the 2nd card while leaving in the first card so I can install drivers? Is there a set by step for this upgrade?

Should I create an install USB for Yosemite in case things go bad?

 

[klhr890]

Did you mount the drive first?

mount -uw /

I'm assuming you did. I don't know what else to suggest. Apart from trying this package here: http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,8496.0.html

Got Really frustrated and decided to re-install OS. Which for some unknown reason did the trick!! No boot up screen but log in screen displays with no problems!

Thanks for all the help.

 

[romanboy]

Step1:
-Cable 6pin to 8pin
-NVIDIA Driver 343.01.02f01
–Reset NVRAM e SMC

Step2:
-Flashing bios EVGA GTX760 (80.04.C4.00.62 in to 80.04.BF.00.62)

Hmm... that's what I would have done. Uhm. I'm stumped. Try installing the OS (with a mac card, obviously) onto a spare drive (internal or USB/firewire) and see if it works?.

Hi, I am new to the Mac Pro. I have a working stock system, with Yosemite running a GeForce GT 120. I just bought a 2GB GTX 650 to upgrade. Is there a walkthrough on the proper process? Should I power off, and install the 2nd card while leaving in the first card so I can install drivers? Is there a set by step for this upgrade?

Install the drivers from the NVIDIA site (I posted the link in a comment above) with the GT 120, then install the new card. Turn the mac off first, install new card, plug in power cables, boot. Install the latest CUDA drivers as well.

Got Really frustrated and decided to re-install OS. Which for some unknown reason did the trick!! No boot up screen but log in screen displays with no problems!

Thanks for all the help.

My pleasure! Glad you got it working. And now you don't have an encrypted hard drive, right?

 

[BigCanoe]

Install the drivers from the NVIDIA site (I posted the link in a comment above) with the GT 120, then install the new card. Turn the mac off first, install new card, plug in power cables, boot. Install the latest CUDA drivers as well.

Thanks! So the drivers will install without the new card installed? And once they do, I swap cards in the slot, and dont leave the old card in right?

 

[romanboy]

Thanks! So the drivers will install without the new card installed? And once they do, I swap cards in the slot, and dont leave the old card in right?

Exactly. Except you can leave the old card in, or not. Doesn't matter. I left my GT 120 out, and only use my GTX 970.

 

[roblogic1]

I am having very strange problems with the Asus Nvidia GT 610 fanless. It was working fine for several month but today it starts showing green pixels flashing over dark areas.

After a SMC reset everything seems to work normally but after some minutes the pixels begin to flash and they increase as time passes.

Any ideas please?

 

[romanboy]

I am having very strange problems with the Asus Nvidia GT 610 fanless. It was working fine for several month but today it starts showing green pixels flashing over dark areas.

After a SMC reset everything seems to work normally but after some minutes the pixels begin to flash and they increase as time passes.

Any ideas please?

Perhaps the card is dying? It could mean that. I'd make sure there's no cooling issue with dust, maybe use smcFanControl to get the HDD bay fans running at a higher RPM to keep the card cool.

 

[deze]

What Graphics card?

Ok I spent a few hours reading the last X amount of posts in this thread and I am also a now confused artist looking to upgrade my graphics card.

Current setup:

Mac pro (mid2010) 5,1
3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
ATI Radeon HD 5870 (on its way out i think)
30" Cinema Display running off the Dual Dvi socket
Cintiq 21UX running off one of the Mini Display ports

OS: Yosemite 10.10.1 (14B25)

Software:
Maya, Motion, After effects, Premiere, Illustrator, Photoshop, Unity, C4D.

Question

1. What would be the best (tried and tested) make and model of card for the software i use and current monitor setup?

I'm in the UK and I'm looking to spend around £300 give or take...

Thanks People

 

[h9826790]

Step1:
-Cable 6pin to 8pin
-NVIDIA Driver 343.01.02f01
–Reset NVRAM e SMC

Step2:
-Flashing bios EVGA GTX760 (80.04.C4.00.62 in to 80.04.BF.00.62)

I am not a N user. However, AFAIK, reset PRAM will put your Mac back on native drive. You should not do this after activate the web driver.

 

[nigelbb]

Step1:
-Cable 6pin to 8pin
-NVIDIA Driver 343.01.02f01
–Reset NVRAM e SMC

If you reset the NVRAM then you revert to OS X native driver.

 

[MacVidCards]

Cuda 6.5.36

Anyone try yet?

 

[flowrider]

Nope, jumped over it straight to 6.5.37. Works and no message.

Lou