GTX 980 Ti Not working on Bootcamp Mac Pro 4,1

[elliots11]

Hey all,

I have a Nvidia GTX 980 Ti reference model by Zotac, I just picked it up last week, an unflashed, stock PC card. I wanted to get it running on Windows 7 via bootcamp so I have that as an option, but it doesn't power the display even though it's recognized by the device manager. I'll boot on the GT120 my Mac came with and try to switch the DVI cable for my 30" Cinema Display to the 980, but when I do that it doesn't work, it's just a black screen. Works fine on the Mac side ironically.

I found this thread:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/gtx-970-and-gt-120-under-win-7-fail.1803620/

But when I try to remove the GT 120 it never displays a picture, and I've also tried changing the GT 120's driver to Generic VGA Device in Device Manager.

- I was able to install the cards drivers off the disc, it's on the NVidia 9.18.13.5306 driver per device manager.
- The GeForce Experience App says 341.92 Driver is available, but it's unable to connect to NVidia, despite me clearing it in the Windows Firewall.
- Not real sure what to make of the driver naming discrepancy.
- Tried updating via device manager, but it said I had the latest version, but there's still no image :-/

Anyone run into this or have an idea for a fix?

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

You must uninstall all Nvidia drivers and apps, remove the GT120, boot back with only the 980 installed, then reinstall the newest driver. Then the 980 will work.

If you have Windows 8.1 or earlier, you will then be able to reinstall the GT120 for a second card, but you must not let Windows install a driver for it, disable that driver in software updates. The old Nvidia driver for that is not compatible with your newer card and vice versa. They clash. The GT120 can run fine with the generic Microsoft Video Adapter driver.

If you have Windows 10 you will not be able to use the GT120 with the newer card because Windows will force install the older driver and you will have a clash again. You can't disable the update.

 

[elliots11]

You must uninstall all Nvidia drivers and apps, remove the GT120, boot back with only the 980 installed, then reinstall the newest driver. Then the 980 will work.

If you have Windows 8.1 or earlier, you will then be able to reinstall the GT120 for a second card, but you must not let Windows install a driver for it, disable that driver in software updates. The old Nvidia driver for that is not compatible with your newer card and vice versa. They clash. The GT120 can run fine with the generic Microsoft Video Adapter driver.

If you have Windows 10 you will not be able to use the GT120 with the newer card because Windows will force install the older driver and you will have a clash again. You can't disable the update.

Thanks, will give it a shot

 

[H_Robb]

Thanks, will give it a shot

I'm assuming this worked for you? Having a very similar issue with my gtx 780ti and this is the only forum I've found with this issue.

 

[elliots11]

I'm assuming this worked for you? Having a very similar issue with my gtx 780ti and this is the only forum I've found with this issue.

Yes, this worked

 

[H_Robb]

Work for me!

 

[GuiPol]

Hello Guys,
I'm new to this forum (as a "writer", but an old reader we might say).
Got the same issue.

Mac pro with windows 7/bootcamp on another hard drive.
GT120 and a GTX 970 (pc version with no mac EFI) installed together...
=> Fail : can't get it to work !

what i've done so far :

-at first i had my GTX 680 mac edition with bootcamp it worked flawlessly wth the latest nvidia drivers (390.XXX.XXX...).
-Then i bought a gt120 and a PC GTX 970
-removed the GTX 680 and instead put the 2 cards together.
-Wired the gt120 (DVI) to another screen and the GTX 970 to my main screen (hDMI)

=> on boot i can see bootscreen on the gt120 screen and black screen on the GTX 970 screen = normal
-I choose Bootcamp and only the gt120 is "active" on windows. As OP said the GTX 970 IS seen by device manager but the screen stays black.
-UNinstalled all nvidia drivers with "display drivers uninstaller" in safe mode.
-Blocked the GT120 to "standard microsoft display adapter", prevented windows to ever install update (disabled windows update PLUS put a special group policy to prevent driver installation for this device in particular (gt120).
-Reboot
-Installed GTX 970 latest driver which installed flawlessly
-But the screen connected to the 970 stays BLACK on windows (whereas on mac osx all work together real well)...
-The GT120 doesn't EVEN appear anymore in the windows device manager (i've also "disable" this device in addition to the above steps.. just in case ! )
-The GT120 still continue to provide minimum picture as a generic device on its own screen but the GTX 970 screen stays black .. forever.

I've read from SoycapitanSoycapitan that you have to boot with ONLY the GTX 970 instead, install it, reboot, and THEN put back the GT120.. then (i can imagine) force the newly installed gt120 with basic drivers.. (am i right ?)

Well, how am i supposed to do that if i dont have a bootscreen... Cause on high sierra you cannot select bootcamp from the boot disc preference it cannot "see" bootcamp with windows 7.. (probably because high sierra installs windows 10 by default or maybe because it's on a SSD, i don't know).

Anyway thanks guys for your input !!!
Cheers !

 

[H_Robb]

Hello Guys,
I'm new to this forum (as a "writer", but an old reader we might say).
Got the same issue.

Mac pro with windows 7/bootcamp on another hard drive.
GT120 and a GTX 970 (pc version with no mac EFI) installed together...
=> Fail : can't get it to work !

what i've done so far :

-at first i had my GTX 680 mac edition with bootcamp it worked flawlessly wth the latest nvidia drivers (390.XXX.XXX...).
-Then i bought a gt120 and a PC GTX 970
-removed the GTX 680 and instead put the 2 cards together.
-Wired the gt120 (DVI) to another screen and the GTX 970 to my main screen (hDMI)

=> on boot i can see bootscreen on the gt120 screen and black screen on the GTX 970 screen = normal
-I choose Bootcamp and only the gt120 is "active" on windows. As OP said the GTX 970 IS seen by device manager but the screen stays black.
-UNinstalled all nvidia drivers with "display drivers uninstaller" in safe mode.
-Blocked the GT120 to "standard microsoft display adapter", prevented windows to ever install update (disabled windows update PLUS put a special group policy to prevent driver installation for this device in particular (gt120).
-Reboot
-Installed GTX 970 latest driver which installed flawlessly
-But the screen connected to the 970 stays BLACK on windows (whereas on mac osx all work together real well)...
-The GT120 doesn't EVEN appear anymore in the windows device manager (i've also "disable" this device in addition to the above steps.. just in case ! )
-The GT120 still continue to provide minimum picture as a generic device on its own screen but the GTX 970 screen stays black .. forever.

I've read from SoycapitanSoycapitan that you have to boot with ONLY the GTX 970 instead, install it, reboot, and THEN put back the GT120.. then (i can imagine) force the newly installed gt120 with basic drivers.. (am i right ?)

Well, how am i supposed to do that if i dont have a bootscreen... Cause on high sierra you cannot select bootcamp from the boot disc preference it cannot "see" bootcamp with windows 7.. (probably because high sierra installs windows 10 by default or maybe because it's on a SSD, i don't know).

Anyway thanks guys for your input !!!
Cheers !

Hey! This is what I did:

- Start windows with ONLY Mac edition GPU

- go to graphics settings and uninstall ALL graphics drivers

-Boot into MAC OS with MAC edition GPU

-Select windows as the startup disk, and turn OFF computer.

-take Mac edition GPU out, and put in ONLY the new “windows” GPU

-BOOT

-Allow time for windows to do its thing and and you’ve got windows using the new GPU natively.

Downside - to get boot screen back into Mac OS, you MUST install Mac edition GPU before booting into Mac. And you must hold option to get disk selection screen at boot.

Let me know if that works!

 

[GuiPol]

Hello Robb !
Thank you so much for your answer !

ok i understand but i would have two questions though :
1/ i cannot select boot camp from mac osx since its disc is not appearing as a choice...
(maybe if i unplugg every disc except the bootcamp one it will eventually boot on this one ?)

2/ if you do all the above AND plug back the GT120 after that as a secondary card (for bootscreen). Does it screws your window back again ??? OR is window still considering the GTC970 as the "main card"...

=> for ex. when i boot with the GT120 and a gtx 680 flashed (just to test a theory), there a 2 bootscreen card and i can see only one screen with the actual boot screen (the gtx 680) and when im on windows: the screen with the GT120 is black this time !! the GTX 680 which was "used for bootscreen" seems to prevail...

Sadly it is not the case when i pu a non flashed GTX 970.. always the card with bootscreen seems to prevail and in that case it would be the GT120. hence my question : when you install your GTX 970 on windows and it works, if you put back the GT120 as a secondary card (even with microsoft driver).. since it will have bootscreen.. will it be "considered" as the "main card" by windows and completly turn off the GTX 970 as before ???


thanks mate

 

[H_Robb]

To the first question: I don’t understand how you can have windows booted at all if you say it doesn’t show as a possible boot option - especially since you also said later that you are currently booting back and forth.. ?

To the second question:
Here is the main issue. We are dealing with a computer that was designed to only use its own GPU to utilize Bootcamp as a function. Though the Mac OS will still use the new* GPU once booted, it will not boot successfully with ONLY that card when you are also using Bootcamp. And the similar issue occurs when booting into Bootcamp windows - it only
Knows to look for the GPU that it was told to look for (Mac Pro original card) however, thanks to NVIDIA, the drivers are so smart, that they allow the computer to utilize the new gpu - only because the computer has nothing else to use (the original card)

so no - you cannot leave the old card in, if you want windows to boot with the new card. And no - you cannot get Mac OS to boot without the old card in.

Did that help? I’m hoping we are understanding each other

 

[GuiPol]

in fact to be more precise : i cannot see, well high sierra, cannot "see" the bootcamp partition in the disc selection screen under mac os high sierra settings (ive uploaded a picture to show you what it can actually see). I really don't know why it's that way but for me the ONLY way to go into my bootcamp installation is to use the "alt" key at the start up.. hence the NEED of a bootscreen...:/


it sees it's own disc and another one called "head" which has snow leopard on it.. but not the bootcamp disc (but finder can see it with no problem, it's not "elligible for boot disc in the settings of high sierra for some unknown reason).

i'll add to that, in windows, the bootcamp app which normally gives you the option to boot back to mac os is absent too...
it can only see the disc "head" with snow leopard on it but not he one with high sierra.. to put in another way, they completely ignore each other from a booting point of view but finder and explorer can see their disc with no problem...

Maybe it's because i've installed bootcamp not from high sierra (because it prevented it saying the machine was too old.. so i've installed bootcamp from my snow leopard disc called "head" that was the only way..)


thank you for your input on that...


If i need to ditch the GT120 to make the GTX 970 it would be a shame, i've bought it to offer me a bootscreen ahahah what a shame..

ps: sorry the pictures are in french but i guess you can tell i was in system settings-> booting order

 

[H_Robb]

That is indeed a very interesting dilemma! My suggestion would be as follows:

If you’re able, downgrade to Sierra, or even El Capitan.

Wipe the windows Bootcamp completely and make a fresh partition under Sierra/El Cap.

Boot and finish installing windows completely with the flashed (Mac edition) GPU, and from there, try my original steps to get the GPU to run via windows Bootcamp

 

[GuiPol]

ok got it, i'll try that.
You are sure that sierra can install a valid bootcamp for mac pro 5,1 ? it will not tell me the sam thing as high sierra :"cannot install bootcamp on this machine, check compatibility list" ...

 

[H_Robb]

I can’t be sure. I am running El Capitan. But that’s only because I have a 1,1 Mac Pro. It won’t upgrade further :/

 

[GuiPol]

ah ok better play it safe then and install el capitan... truth is, most of the mac pro users on bootcamp with GTX on forums, don't explain their background. And trust me installing bootcamp with high sierra on a mac pro 5,1 is just impossible out of the box.
[doublepost=1519976218][/doublepost]besides, an interesting point is that guy :

he manages to install BOTH cards at the same time on a windows 10 bootcamp (but the process is the same on windows 7 , the trick was to install the GT120 with a microsoft standard display driver (and prevent windows from installing anything else with group policy cleverly edited) and the GTX 970 with the latest nvidia drivers of course...

What he says makes sense. But even by following his steps i cannot get the GTX 970 to even display something... it seems as if once windows has elected a card as its "main card" it won't change nevermind the drivers and the tweaks you can throw at it... must have done something wrong ! grrrrr

i'm doing this for fun though, i like challenges !!! ahahah but yes it's frustrating when it fails miserably like this ahaha

edit: typo and i want to add that my GTX 970 is detected by windows and with the good drivers moreover ! (the latest ones!) and the GT120 is on basic microsoft drivers so no conflict at all !! but no screen for GTX 970 !! ) :/

 

[GuiPol]

ok i've found the "mystery" behind this bootcamp issue....after days of research google finally decided to bring me to that page : https://kb.paragon-software.com/article/204 which explain WHY bootcamp disappear from boot disc selection in high sierra.

Truth is if you have an NTFS driver like paragon or tuxera or whatever it disables your ntfs drive in boot selection screen. They say Osx is at fault here not their driver.. hum.

Anyway. Mystery solved but my problem is still here because if i install "only" a non flashed card i can boot to windows now from mac (by disabling the NTFS driver) but i can't go back to mac osx (it will always boot to windows first) and windows 7/10 cannot see APFS drive so no boot selection in bootcamp app on windows... argh too bad.