PCs GTX285/275/260/295 working in any MacPro....

[mroy]

for most users, kexthelper is a better/easier choice

I will give kexthelper a try. Thanks.

 

[mroy]

Fast Single PCB Edition GTX 295 under Leopard

I managed to overclock my card (in the card's bios) to 648 core, 1512 shader and 1180 for the memory. It reaches near 800 GFLOPS/s combined with just 316 watts. This reaches my goal of 2.5 GFLOPS/s per watt and as close to 300 watts total power consumption for the system (not including the display).

The system uses 94 watts when idled.

 

[mroy]

I wish Apple/Nvidia would allow Mac Pro owners the option to purchase the GTX 295 Single PCB edition. It truly is an amazing card. I was hoping the Folding@Home client would make use of the GPUs under Leopard like it does under the Windows environment.

 

[MacVidCards]

GTS250....another Netkas triumph !

The GTS250 is yet another rebadged G92, but nonetheless it is nice that Netkas package allows it too to work.

Interestingly, the Nvidia "helper" card can NOT be another G92 EFI card, causes a no boot scene.

By using a G70 helper I got it to boot.

The GTS250 is QUITE a bit faster than 8800GT, if only someone really clever would help me on the Nvidia EFI ROM sewing project...........

 

[mroy]

This is all fascinating. The OpenGL scores are weak but in all other respects this is amazing, especially now we see a boot card is not needed.

Can you run the Cuda program MonteCarlomultiGPU as that will show the performance of (a) two cards (b) how the card is being clocked and power-managed. A Single 285 will show about 100,000 options per second, and my two 285s will show about 80000 each when both are up. I took a chance on going for a twin 285 set up but was always wondering about a 295.

I was able to overclock my card safely in the bios. I settled with 648 MHz core, 1512 MHz shaders and 1180 MHz for memory. This gives a good increase for both OpenGL and CUDA computing. Total power consumption is 316 watts (not including the display).


$ ./MonteCarlo

Generating input data...
Allocating memory...
Generating normally distributed samples...
Running GPU Monte Carlo...
Options : 256
Simulation paths: 262144
Time (ms.) : 2.542000
GPU options per sec.: 100708.101664
GPU Monte Carlo vs. Black-Scholes statistics
L1 norm : 3.083966E-06
Average reserve: 361.436058
TEST PASSED
CPU Monte Carlo vs. Black-Scholes statistics...
L1 norm: 2.994799E-06
Average reserve: 376.179301
CPU vs. GPU Monte Carlo statistics...
L1 norm: 8.917579E-08
Shutting down...

Press ENTER to exit...


$ ./MonteCarloMultiGPU

main(): generating input data...
main(): starting 2 host threads...
main(): waiting for GPU results...
main(): GPU statistics
GPU #0
Options : 128
Simulation paths: 262144
Time (ms.) : 1.526000
Options per sec.: 83879.422071
GPU #1
Options : 128
Simulation paths: 262144
Time (ms.) : 1.531000
Options per sec.: 83605.485621
main(): comparing Monte Carlo and Black-Scholes results...
L1 norm : 3.083966E-06
Average reserve: 361.436058
TEST PASSED
Shutting down...

Press ENTER to exit...

Also attaching the OpenGL Extensions Viewer test results.

 

[mroy]

The GTS250 is yet another rebadged G92, but nonetheless it is nice that Netkas package allows it too to work.

Interestingly, the Nvidia "helper" card can NOT be another G92 EFI card, causes a no boot scene.

By using a G70 helper I got it to boot.

The GTS250 is QUITE a bit faster than 8800GT, if only someone really clever would help me on the Nvidia EFI ROM sewing project...........

The GTS250 is a power efficient card.

 

[MacVidCards]

The GTS250 is a power efficient card.

Yes, it is very nice. If I get some help with Nvidia EFI ROM "sewing" we may suddenley be able to add many cards to the Mac Pro list.

BTW, the GTS250 exhibits same "ramping up" behavior that GTX285 does. So it seems that Apple's reliance on PC BIOS is the culprit. When they write their own ROMs or make their drivers work better with the PC BIOS they are secretly relying on, the "ramping up" issue will be no more.

 

[TheStrudel]

Not to be cynical, but doesn't that seem a little unlikely? Given how little  has cared about GPUs to this point? I think it's likely that eventually a wider range of cards will be compatible with OS X, but I also think that  expects the GPU companies to do all the legwork there. I hope I'm wrong, but when was the last time  wrote their own drivers except to facilitate the PC BIOS?

 

[Dae]

Hi, I've read this thread but it's still not very clear for me. I want to replace the old HD2600 with a Gainware GTX 285 (PC card) in my Mac Pro '08.

What is now the most efficient way of making a PC GTX 285 work on Mac? Reflashing it with Netkas' utilities or possibly installing drivers from Nvidia might work?

Additionally: do I need any special cables to connect it? Will the PSU handle one GTX 285?

Thank you! (And sorry for noob questions).

 

[grue]

Do we have any confirmation of this working in Snow Leopard yet?

 

[MacVidCards]

Do we have any confirmation of this working in Snow Leopard yet?

have a look in the OpenCl on a GTX285 thread

 

[grue]

1char

 

[grue]

Turns out to work fine in 10.5 instead of… that other OS I'm running

So I'm going to try doing the full setup and cloning my normal boot drive, then upgrading it to [redacted] and I'll report back.

 

[grue]

and just a minor update… I reinstalled "the other OS" with the latest seed from ADC, and it worked fine. So apparently it works if you apply the hack, then upgrade… but not if you upgrade, then apply the hack.

Hmmm…

NB: I used kexthelper under 10.6, and the hacked nvidia installer under 10.5, so I did vary the procedure a bit.

 

[10THzMac]

I was able to overclock my card safely in the bios. I settled with 648 MHz core, 1512 MHz shaders and 1180 MHz for memory. This gives a good increase for both OpenGL and CUDA computing. Total power consumption is 316 watts (not including the display).

$ ./MonteCarlo
GPU options per sec.: 100708.101664

$ ./MonteCarloMultiGPU
Options per sec.: 83879.422071

So you are now running more or less identical CUDA speed to 2x285 for a lot less cash and power! Very good numbers indeed. When I tried to OC in the BIOS I got a screen full of snow so am leaving well alone!

 

[Dae]

Will PC GTX 285 work with Mac Pro early-2008 on Snow Leopard?

 

[grue]

Will PC GTX 285 work with Mac Pro early-2008 on Snow Leopard?

By all indications, yes.

edit: Within the contexts of the hack in this thread. It won't "just work".

 

[10THzMac]

Will PC GTX 285 work with Mac Pro early-2008 on Snow Leopard?

I have been running PC GTX 285 under various SL seeds quite happily for months using an injector. It happens to be CoreVidia (fka nvdarwin) - I have not tried netkas under SL due to sheer inertia, but suspect it is just fine.

 

[Nitx]

Hey mroy, I have a single pcb GTX 295 galaxy addition, and I cant get it working at all using your method.

Could you possibly give a more detailed walkthrough for dummies. Im also running a Hackintosh like you so I don't see why I'm having any problems.

In your last steps where you say to use terminal, when i type the code it it says that there is no permissions on the file so in a way its telling me what Im trying to do isn't working because its read only I guess.

Any suggestions people?

 

[nullx86]

Hey mroy, I have a single pcb GTX 295 galaxy addition, and I cant get it working at all using your method.

Could you possibly give a more detailed walkthrough for dummies. Im also running a Hackintosh like you so I don't see why I'm having any problems.

In your last steps where you say to use terminal, when i type the code it it says that there is no permissions on the file so in a way its telling me what Im trying to do isn't working because its read only I guess.

Any suggestions people?

remove whatever injector you have and install NVEnabler and its prerequisites.

 

[Nitx]

Just reinstalled iatkos v7, i installed with it the NVenabler, got a kernal panic in normal boot mode, but it worked in boot mode, didn't try it out though because I somehow screwed up my password and couldn't enter safe mode as admin.

Anyways switched out my GTX 295 with my 9600Gt and rebooted and it came on with full 1920*12000 resolution. No problems. Why why why.

Ill try the safe mode again and reinstall OS X with my GTX 295 in there.

By the way what do you mean by "and its prerequisites"?

If i can boot into safe mode with my GTX295 should i then do what mroy has suggested and installed the netkas enabler, then the drivers, then do all the other stuff he suggested?

Sorry its just that I've been given so much info but not one specific method of getting this dam GTX 295 working.

Thanks for helping its really appreciated

 

[GrnEydDvl]

GTX 295 in 2009 2.26 Octo MP (not a hackintosh)

I was able to get an EVGA GTX 295 Co-op (Single PCB version) installed on my 2009 2.26 Octo MP, using netkas' injector and mroy's step by step instructions.

My GT 120 was used as the EFI "helper" card and I pulled power from the motherboard with the two molex cables used with my GTX 285. I used a 6pin PCIE to 8pin PCIE converter cable on one of them, as the gtx 295 requires both a 6pin and an 8pin.

It booted into OS X just fine.

OpenGL Extensions scores were on par with my GTX 285, but I could only get it to run at one resolution, 2500x1600 (the native rez of my display). Attempts to run at other resolutions would cause the screen to go black. I'd have to tap the Mac Pros power button twice to get it to sleep and then immediately awake to break out of the black screen.

In Vista, I did a fresh driver uninstall/install. It wasn't the smoothest install... it was taking longer than normal to boot after install and pausing/freezing for 10 seconds or so where it wouldn't normally during the boot process.

After booting all the way into Vista and swapping the display cable from the GT 120 to the GTX 295, everything appeared to be OK. Nothing strange in the NVIDIA Control Panel. "Multi-GPU" acceleration was enabled without issue.

I ran a few benchmarks. First I found out how CPU bound I am in Team Fortess 2. Left4Dead benchmarked as expected - much stronger at 2500x1600 than the GTX285. I don't have any other games installed at the moment.

Moved on to FurMark. Any time I ran any test in FurMark the MacPro would power down instantly. I presume this was caused by the card panicking from not getting enough power during Furmark's intense tests.

As of now I am leaning towards returning the GTX 295. With the system instability and necessary cable swapping I don't feel the performance increase is worth the cost of the card. Before I return it I may try pulling power from both the 2nd optical bay and the motherboard at the same time, but right now I don't have the necessary cables.

 

[peskaa]

Having given up on my GTX 275 a while back, I just noticed that under Snow Leopard I can now boot all the way to OS X desktop.

2600XT - 23" ACD, working fine
GTX 275 - 30" ACD, simply listed as "Display" by NVIDIA, no signal

Do we have any solutions under SL that are working well?

I've got a GT120 in the post that should be here next week...

 

[mroy]

EVGA GTX 295 Co-op Edition works under Snow Leopard (SL)

The single-pcb GTX 295 works well. SL detects 3 OpenCL devices. Attaching picture showing Open CL Bench in action.

 

[mroy]

I'm running SL in 32-bit mode via -x32. The Netkas ATY_Init.kext extension is not compiled for 64-bit as of this time. Otherwise, running SL in 64-bit mode was successful with the VESA driver. I'm running SL on a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard with an Intel Q9550 (EO stepping) processor.