GeForce GTX 970 - Mac Pro Early2009

[Lynchlion3]

Hey Guys,

I read through the very helpful thread of Frequently asked questions, and was unable to locate my issue out of the bunch (ref: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1440150/)

I am encountering an issue where my screen will not load after installing the MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G Graphics Card. I have attempted to install this in all available ports, and it appears my system is not even registering it in any of them. I am currently running 10.10.3 Yosemite on my Mac Pro (early 2009) model.

Before inserting the card, I installed the following drivers on my system:
http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/84221/en-us
&
http://www.nvidia.com/object/macosx-cuda-7.0.36-driver.html

And I used the following cables to connect it:
PCIe PCI-e Power Cable for Mac G5 nVidia ATI Video Card - High Quality
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002UR1654/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
&
StarTech PCI Express 6 pin to 8 pin Power Adapter Cable (PCIEX68ADAP)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001TK3TJY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The card lights up and appears to be physically installed okay, however I can't get the mac to recognize the Graphics card in my system.

Unfortunately I am not having any luck beyond the Gtx card lighting up when the mac is powered on. I wanted to reach out to this helpful community and see if I am missing a big step in this setup.

I based my initial approach on this setup video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFOcbQ-A5y0

But have tried multiple troubleshooting options with no progress or success, any help would be very appreciated it.

- Ryan

 

[avemestr]

Insert the GTX 970 in slot 1.

Insert your old card in some other slot.

Boot the machine with the display connected to your old graphics card.

Check "About this mac" and tell, if the GTX 970 is shown under the "Graphics" menu.

Edit: Also: If you went for the EVGA GTX 970 instead, you should be able to use only 6-pin connectors.

 

[MacVidCards]

Ditto

If your old card requires cables connected, then use it to enable "Screen Sharing" and verify that you can do it from another Mac on network.

Then you can check it with just 970 in.

 

[Lynchlion3]

Thank you both for your lightning fast responses. I was able to view the new card in slot 1, it is showing up as 'NVIDIA Chip Model' and has the following settings:

NVIDIA Chip Model:
Chipset Model: NVIDIA Chip Model
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x13c2
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: VBIOS 1.0.0

I really appreciate it, because this is a lot more progress then I experienced on my own. So thank you for taking the time to answer. I am going to have to head to school for the night, but will take the time to play with this more tomorrow morning.

 

[MacVidCards]

You are either not getting power to the card or you don't have the Nvidia drivers loading.

Click on the Nvidia icon in upper menu bar and check which driver you have engaged.

Double check power cables.

I have had 2 of those cards in my hands for EFI, one was defective. (stayed in low power loop)
Right now the card isn't turning on.

Either power, drivers, or bad card.