960GTX on 4,1 running windows 10

[tesstme]

Hello,

recently I got a 4,1 mac pro, that I wanted also to use for games. I installed windows from scratch (needed to create disk from an iso and boot from it). After that I installed 5.0.5621 Bootcamp drivers. Now i wanted to insert the new graphics card (MSI NVidia 960gtx). But before opening the packaging I wanted to ask some questions, since I didn't got any clear answers by reading the forum for several days.

1. Will the 960gtx run in PCIe 2.0? Some threads say no, some threads say you need to flash etc.
2. Can I reuse the power cable from 8800gt for powering the 960gtx?

 

[Draeconis]

Hello,

recently I got a 4,1 mac pro, that I wanted also to use for games. I installed windows from scratch (needed to create disk from an iso and boot from it). After that I installed 5.0.5621 Bootcamp drivers. Now i wanted to insert the new graphics card (MSI NVidia 960gtx). But before opening the packaging I wanted to ask some questions, since I didn't got any clear answers by reading the forum for several days.

1. Will the 960gtx run in PCIe 2.0? Some threads say no, some threads say you need to flash etc.
2. Can I reuse the power cable from 8800gt for powering the 960gtx?

1. Not that I know of, no. Flashing is for boot screens and EFI menu, for PCIe 2.0 you'd need a resistor mod. Only MVC offers this currently, for a price.

2. The TDP of your card is about 150w (reference is 120, but your version has 1x8-pin rather than a 6-pin), so you'll need both 6-pin traces from your motherboard. If you don't have two cables, look online for an additional 6-pin male to male power cable.

 

[tesstme]

Thanks for fast answer Draeconis! I just wondered in it makes Sence to mod the card, since I read that the 1.1 is about 2% slower in fps for 2k gaming. Is it true?

 

[Draeconis]

Thanks for fast answer Draeconis! I just wondered in it makes Sence to mod the card, since I read that the 1.1 is about 2% slower in fps for 2k gaming. Is it true?

Doing the resistor mod (from what I can tell) is an in-depth, risky, specialist electronics task. If you don't have the correct tools, experience, and willingness to risk killing your GPU, I'd avoid attempting it on your own.

That MSI card you have is almost certainly not reference either, so even if someone pointed you in the right direction with a stock MVC card, it wouldn't necessarily be the same resistor mod with yours.

All that for 2% or so, not sure if it's worth it really.

What is love to know, is what the impact is from something far more demanding, like the 1080. I wonder if PCIe 1.1 speeds bottleneck that.

 

[Fl0r!an]

Nvidia cards use a soft strap as PCIE 2.0 switch, so ne soldering required. The necessary change isn't public though.

 

[Draeconis]

Nvidia cards use a soft strap as PCIE 2.0 switch, so ne soldering required. The necessary change isn't public though.

Ahh, is that where the EFI flash comes in?

 

[h9826790]

Resistor mod is for AMD card, NOT for Nvidia card. Nvidia need Mac EFI to enable PCIe 2.0 in Windows, not resistor mod.

Power cable is just a cable. All you need is match the pin number, if both card has 6pin input, than your original cable is fine. If one card has 6pin, the other card has 8pin, then you better get a correct cable.

 

[lowendlinux]

The 960 is really a 1080p card

 

[tesstme]

Resistor mod is for AMD card, NOT for Nvidia card. Nvidia need Mac EFI to enable PCIe 2.0 in Windows, not resistor mod.

Power cable is just a cable. All you need is match the pin number, if both card has 6pin input, than your original cable is fine. If one card has 6pin, the other card has 8pin, then you better get a correct cable.

Thanks. I installed it and it works ok, but as expected in pcie 1.1 .
Is the Mac epi for Nvidia some kind of "secret" that only macvideocards have?

 

[Squuiid]

Thanks. I installed it and it works ok, but as expected in pcie 1.1 .
Is the Mac efi for Nvidia some kind of "secret" that only macvideocards have?

MVC (and Netkas) put in a lot of work to create the EFI roms, not a secret necessarily but they charge for that work.
I wouldn't worry about PCIe 1.1 vs 2.0 with a GTX960. You will see little if any performance gain from 2.0 on that card.