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m4v3r1ck

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 2, 2011
2,571
510
The Netherlands
Quote form the EVGA forums from on of the moderators:

I could see a 980 or a 970 being made into a Mac Edition card, simply because power levels are much lower, compared to the 700 series. However, like with most hardware that goes into Macs, Apple's hardware certification system is proprietary and EVGA would have to modify the power and performance levels of such a card to be able to qualify as a Mac product.

That's not to say it won't happen, but EVGA has to go through those extra steps to get them to be officially supported for Mac systems.

Self-fulfilling prophecy by me? :rolleyes:
 

EdDuPlessis

macrumors 6502
Nov 23, 2014
339
8
Who cares? Boot screen lasts five seconds if you got a fast boot drive. The speed difference between PCIE versions is tiny. The lane width is much more important.
 

flowrider

macrumors 604
Nov 23, 2012
7,231
2,958
We don't really need a Mac Edition Card. MVC is working the issue now, and we should have MVC flashed GTX 9xx series cards with boot screens in the near future.

Lou
 

ilikewhey

macrumors 68040
May 14, 2014
3,579
4,614
nyc upper east
hmm i do miss the boot logo, plus i wanted to try bootcamp now. if they come out with mac edition i hope someone can pull the firmware so these of us with 970 can flash ours.
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,614
8,546
Hong Kong
Who cares?

If there is a Mac edition card, that means OSX MUST officially support this card, and Apple will work on it's native driver to improve the performance and make sure it works as expected on every OS update.

You don't need to buy the Mac Edition card if you think it's not worth. but that means much more than just a boot screen.
 

m4v3r1ck

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 2, 2011
2,571
510
The Netherlands
If there is a Mac edition card, that means OSX MUST officially support this card, and Apple will work on it's native driver to improve the performance and make sure it works as expected on every OS update.

You don't need to buy the Mac Edition card if you think it's not worth. but that means much more than just a boot screen.

+1
Excactly what I was thinking! :cool:

----------

We don't really need a Mac Edition Card. MVC is working the issue now, and we should have MVC flashed GTX 9xx series cards with boot screens in the near future.

Lou

If the GTX-9xx is supported by Apple, we don't have to worry about those kext tinkering by Apple! But agreed that the MCV would be a great alternative!
 

flowrider

macrumors 604
Nov 23, 2012
7,231
2,958
^^^^True, but with the way Nvidia has been supporting the Mac Platform with CUDA and Driver updates, I see that as a non issue.

Lou
 

m4v3r1ck

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 2, 2011
2,571
510
The Netherlands
Who cares? Boot screen lasts five seconds if you got a fast boot drive. The speed difference between PCIE versions is tiny. The lane width is much more important.

I do care for those (and myself) who are not used to .rom flashes and want a high-end-graphics card, that will outlive all future OS X driver / Cuda updates!

----------

^^^^True, but with the way Nvidia has been supporting the Mac Platform with CUDA and Driver updates, I see that as a non issue.

Lou

Like it used to be a non-issue for Trim Enabler? I just don't trust Apple for that matter anymore... Apple likes WELDING hardware to much :rolleyes:
 

Asgorath

macrumors 68000
Mar 30, 2012
1,573
479
If there is a Mac edition card, that means OSX MUST officially support this card, and Apple will work on it's native driver to improve the performance and make sure it works as expected on every OS update.

You don't need to buy the Mac Edition card if you think it's not worth. but that means much more than just a boot screen.

This is slightly inaccurate. NVIDIA will need to officially support the card, but Apple does not. That would mean you might have to use the NVIDIA Web driver to enable the card, as the stock Apple driver might not support it. That is, the only difference from what we have today is that NVIDIA would officially support the Mac Edition of the 970/980.
 

goMac

Contributor
Apr 15, 2004
7,662
1,694
If there is a Mac edition card, that means OSX MUST officially support this card, and Apple will work on it's native driver to improve the performance and make sure it works as expected on every OS update.

You don't need to buy the Mac Edition card if you think it's not worth. but that means much more than just a boot screen.

Ugh, no.

Apple does NOT have to support any third party component. But given that there is no such thing as an Apple native driver and that Apple is just using Nvidia's driver, that means Nvidia can get support into the OS themselves.

An MVC card has just as much support as a Mac Edition card as far as Apple is concerned. It's Nvidia that would keep it working, as all Apple is doing is taking drops of the Nvidia web driver and bundling them into the OS (without the CUDA component.)
 

ActionableMango

macrumors G3
Sep 21, 2010
9,612
6,907
Who cares? Boot screen lasts five seconds if you got a fast boot drive. The speed difference between PCIE versions is tiny. The lane width is much more important.

It's not just boot screens you are missing, it's anything prior to the OS loading the video drivers.

There are dozens of threads in this subforum from people with non-EFI cards wondering how to do something without being able to see the screen. In some cases, like selecting an OS, there are reasonable alternatives. But in other cases there are not, and the awkward solution is to keep an EFI card around and temporarily use it. It would be nice if the card just had EFI in the first place, which Mac Editions (and their flashed PC counterparts) all have.
 

MacVidCards

Suspended
Nov 17, 2008
6,096
1,056
Hollywood, CA
Consider for a moment that in 10.10.1 there are still no OS drivers for 780Ti and Titan Black. Almost every one we sell we end up with befuddled buyers claiming they don't work, despite our notes to get Web Driver up and running BEFORE install.

Apple has 780 drivers in 10.8.5 (no OpenCl, but Gl and Cuda) but could never be bothered to include the top tiered cards, throughout Mavericks. So each OS update leads to minor nightmare for owners of those cards.

I wouldn't count on these guys creating the card. This is also part of why we have not been rushing to get 980 out. Nobody reads the web driver warning and if they follow standard "fix" procedures they might do a PRAM reset which will also render the cards useless.

We have bootscreens and display support on 980. Can choose & use OSX or Windows on 4,1/5,1. On 3,1 there is a glitch that requires disconnecting display and reconnecting after boot to get to Windows.

We are hopefully near a PCIE 2.0 solution. We are also working on the 4K bootscreens still. So cards may be ready soon. I wish I could take credit but much of this progress comes from much further East.

I can't imagine EVGA releasing these but maybe they will. Hard to imagine if it requires Web Drivers. Apple dragging their feet to keep cMP from shinning while nMP an easy target.
 

m4v3r1ck

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 2, 2011
2,571
510
The Netherlands
EVGA GTX-970/980 Mac Edition...?

Consider for a moment that in 10.10.1 there are still no OS drivers for 780Ti and Titan Black. Almost every one we sell we end up with befuddled buyers claiming they don't work, despite our notes to get Web Driver up and running BEFORE install.

Apple has 780 drivers in 10.8.5 (no OpenCl, but Gl and Cuda) but could never be bothered to include the top tiered cards, throughout Mavericks. So each OS update leads to minor nightmare for owners of those cards.

I wouldn't count on these guys creating the card. This is also part of why we have not been rushing to get 980 out. Nobody reads the web driver warning and if they follow standard "fix" procedures they might do a PRAM reset which will also render the cards useless.

We have bootscreens and display support on 980. Can choose & use OSX or Windows on 4,1/5,1. On 3,1 there is a glitch that requires disconnecting display and reconnecting after boot to get to Windows.

We are hopefully near a PCIE 2.0 solution. We are also working on the 4K bootscreens still. So cards may be ready soon. I wish I could take credit but much of this progress comes from much further East.

I can't imagine EVGA releasing these but maybe they will. Hard to imagine if it requires Web Drivers. Apple dragging their feet to keep cMP from shinning while nMP an easy target.

Hi MVC, keep up the good works! I really need to free a PCIe for greater need than a ATI 2600 HD! :rolleyes:

Let's all keep (nMP) Deerhunting! :D
 
Last edited:

Gav Mack

macrumors 68020
Jun 15, 2008
2,193
22
Sagittarius A*
Would be very handy if only to get the later Nvidia driver code base baked into OS X. DIY flashing the cards would be a bonus...
 

A Hobo

macrumors 6502
Jul 12, 2010
367
215
Somewhere between Here and There
Hi MacVidCards, best buy and newegg have started selling nvidia reference GTX 970s with a tdp of 146w, is it possible that two of these could be run on internal power?
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/nvidia-...lack/9855169.p?id=1219441201895&skuId=9855169
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814132038


as they are now available at less than 150w is there going to be any work on your end to get these flashed with boot screens/full speed?

would be pretty awesome if i could run dual 970s in my cMP (maybe even in SLI?) without worrying about external power. plus the reference cards just look awesome, match the cMP so well.

Thanks for all the hard work you do for cMP users, my gtx 780 from you is still going strong =]
 

ScottishCaptain

macrumors 6502a
Oct 4, 2008
871
474
It'd sure be nice if Apple actually fixed their !@#$ing SMC firmware and made the PCI-e slots in the Mac Pro truly compatible with everything- because as it stands right now, their firmware only supports Apple branded GPUs and if you stick anything else in the Mac Pro then you run the risk of having excessively loud fans.

-SC
 

nigelbb

macrumors 65816
Dec 22, 2012
1,140
264
This is slightly inaccurate. NVIDIA will need to officially support the card, but Apple does not. That would mean you might have to use the NVIDIA Web driver to enable the card, as the stock Apple driver might not support it. That is, the only difference from what we have today is that NVIDIA would officially support the Mac Edition of the 970/980.
The NVIDIA Web drivers are not the be all & end all. I have a GTX570 that works properly with the native OS X drivers (drives two monitors) but does not work properly with the Nvidia web drivers (only drives one monitor)
 

jar-i

macrumors newbie
Dec 3, 2014
3
0
Finland
I Did install Nvidia GTX 970 to my Mac Pro 5.1 Yosemite. I have nvidia's drivers installed and 970 works fine without the boot screen.
I have Dell UP2414Q 4K display in use but I can get only 3200x1800 pixel out of the card. It will detect monitor type and max resolution correctly but does not provide 3840x2160 option.
Any idea why or how to fix this issue?
 

m4v3r1ck

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 2, 2011
2,571
510
The Netherlands
EVGA GTX-970/980 Mac Edition...?

It's not just boot screens you are missing, it's anything prior to the OS loading the video drivers.



There are dozens of threads in this subforum from people with non-EFI cards wondering how to do something without being able to see the screen. In some cases, like selecting an OS, there are reasonable alternatives. But in other cases there are not, and the awkward solution is to keep an EFI card around and temporarily use it. It would be nice if the card just had EFI in the first place, which Mac Editions (and their flashed PC counterparts) all have.


I for sure can't operate my cMP properly without bootscreens!

- Lately it's suffering from the GSOD, nice to see that
- selecting OS / CCC bootable disks / install DVD's
- bootoptions like safemode / verbose

That's why I have reinstalled my ATI 2600 HD connected to an ancient SyncMaster 191T! My 8800GT Mac was EOL for updating to the latest Windows 8 driver 344.75 WHQL it together with my GTX-670 PC.

Green and Red working together as one team! ;-)

e4a434220908e9eac65ea141fdc2cfd3.jpg


But I would like to upgrade to ONE low TDP EFI GPU, so I can free the PCIe slot.

Cheers
 
Last edited:

apphotography

macrumors regular
Nov 19, 2014
134
0
I have the GT120 as a back up card. Install it only if there's an OS update that disables the GTX 980's web drivers. I don't need boot screen and only go into Windows to double check printer profiles and soft proofing.
 

Pressure

macrumors 603
May 30, 2006
5,045
1,384
Denmark
I Did install Nvidia GTX 970 to my Mac Pro 5.1 Yosemite. I have nvidia's drivers installed and 970 works fine without the boot screen.
I have Dell UP2414Q 4K display in use but I can get only 3200x1800 pixel out of the card. It will detect monitor type and max resolution correctly but does not provide 3840x2160 option.
Any idea why or how to fix this issue?

Have you tried holding down ALT when clicking on Scaled resolution under System Preferences -> Displays?
 

Asgorath

macrumors 68000
Mar 30, 2012
1,573
479
The NVIDIA Web drivers are not the be all & end all. I have a GTX570 that works properly with the native OS X drivers (drives two monitors) but does not work properly with the Nvidia web drivers (only drives one monitor)

You're missing my point. The GTX 570 is not officially supported under OS X, but it happens to mostly work. You don't see Mac Edition cards like the GTX 680 having that kind of problem, do you? If there was an official Mac Edition of the 970 or 980, then you wouldn't see those kinds of issues either.
 

EdDuPlessis

macrumors 6502
Nov 23, 2014
339
8
You're missing my point. The GTX 570 is not officially supported under OS X, but it happens to mostly work. You don't see Mac Edition cards like the GTX 680 having that kind of problem, do you? If there was an official Mac Edition of the 970 or 980, then you wouldn't see those kinds of issues either.

Where do you get the impression that Apple has to support a third party component for perpetuity or even at all when they are closing off their computers? We can only be grateful that NVidia and AMD produce graphics drivers for Mac Pro tower owners. We have no idea how long that will last now that Apple no longer produces Macs with PCIE slots for upgrades.
 
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