Mac Pro '09, non-Mac graphics card. No display after Security Update.

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steaktaco Author

Level 1

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Mac Pro '09, non-Mac graphics card. No display after Security Update.

I'm not that knowledgable about this but here's what I know:

- GTX 660 won't work after the update. The displays stay asleep.

- The OEM graphics card works. ATI Radeon 4870(?)

- Nvidia web driver is disabled. Apparently not compatible. Uninstalled.

- Latest Nvidia web driver won't install. Not compatible with Yosemite.

- GT 640 won't work either.

I think I'll live with the OEM card for now and wait for a driver update.

What concerns me is that the non-Mac cards won't work at all. They used to work without the native Yosemite drivers.

Anyone have insight to share on this? Thanks.

Powerbook G3, Power Mac G4, iBook G3, Mac Pro Nehalem, MacBook Air 2010, iPad

Posted on Mar 20, 2015 8:14 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

lllaass

Level 10

210,411 points

Mar 20, 2015 8:16 AM in response to steaktaco

You need to update the drivers. See:

Mac Pro 3.1 (early 2008) and nVIDIA Quadro FX5600

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Answer 2

Mar 20, 2015 8:34 AM in response to steaktaco

Apple don't support fitting third-party video cards to the classic Mac Pro. As such Apple do not take a lot of consideration to the effects of their software changes. Nvidia are still providing updated drivers to support newer video cards in the classic Mac Pro, however it is a constant game of cat and mouse between them and Apple.

Recently Nvidia issued an update to support Yosemite 10.10.2 only for Apple to issue Security Update 2015-002 which broke the Nvidia driver. Nvidia then issued another newer version of their driver which fixed that compatibility issue. Guess what, last night Apple released another Security Update 2015-003 which has broken the Nvidia driver yet again. I am sure soon enough there will be an official updated driver from Nvidia to fix this.

I believe the current latest and broken again Nvidia version is http://www.nvidia.com/content/DriverDownload-March2009/confirmation.php?url=/Mac /Quadro_Certified/343.02.02f03/WebDriver…

See this thread http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1853748&page=4 for discussion about this and how to manually 'fix' your Nvidia driver.

(One hopes Nvidia get the message and make their driver more robust in terms of handling different build numbers of OS X.)

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Answer 3

steaktaco Author

Level 1

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Mar 20, 2015 8:48 AM in response to John Lockwood

Thanks the driver worked!

I did have to swap out the cards just last week to download the latest Nvidia driver, but this morning it wasn't that simple. Troubleshooting is always a great way to start the spring.

Is it just me or did these non-Mac cards work (to some capacity) with just the native Yosemite drivers in the past?

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Answer 4

Mar 23, 2015 4:03 AM in response to steaktaco

steaktaco wrote:

Is it just me or did these non-Mac cards work (to some capacity) with just the native Yosemite drivers in the past?

If I remember correctly Mavericks supported via its built-in drivers older GTX models cards including yours, but the latest GTX 9xx family is only supported in Yosemite. Furthermore the first web-download driver that supports the GTX 9xx range only works in Yosemite. Therefore the GTX 9xx range only works in Yosemite and note Mavericks.

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Answer 5

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Mar 23, 2015 4:35 AM in response to steaktaco

There is an FAQ on Nvidia cards on MacRumors

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1440150

When you go with a non-Mac Edition card you get into more concerns as not every GTX 6xx and even not every 680 variant is a guarantee. Plus how to handle whether it is easy to power (two 6-pin power).

Right now a GTX 770 looks good in price and availability. Some uses though are better off with an AMD 7970 perhaps. Or your 4k monitor compatibility is a main concern?

Anyway, use search thread for yours in that thread FAQ.

And www.xlr8yourmac.com is great for news and tips along with head over to Netkas.org and its forum

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