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Update & Install procedure with EFI cards NOT in the OS X default drivers.

6/18/2015

8 Comments

 


As we all know, Apple has done a bunch of foot-dragging when it comes to OS X drivers for Nvidia cards. In fact, no new Nvidia cards have been added to the default OS X drivers since 10.8.5. So, starting with GTX780Ti and the Titan Black, there has been no built-in driver support. 

Nvidia has been kind enough to continue supplying drivers for download and has even been pretty good about getting the updates out shortly after Apple creates a need.

While this has solved most issues, there are problems when you need to run an OS install or use a Recovery partition. Fortunately, the EFI on our cards gives you an option that unflashed cards don't have. The root of the issue is that the default OS X Nvidia drivers don't know what to do with these cards.

So, the answer is to not use those drivers and just rely on the EFI driver.

1. Boot into Single User mode by holding "S" and "Command" keys during boot.

2. You will see a black screen with a wall of text. At the text prompt, enter:

 nvram boot-args="nv_disable=1"


3. Hit return


4. Next type:


reboot


5. Hold "option" key to choose the partition you wish to use. On reboot the machine will be running on the EFI drivers only. You will probably notice the screen refreshing via black lines moving upwards. Moving windows, etc will be sluggish.

6. Do your install/recovery work and then restore the NVIDIA drivers to get back to work. TO CLEAR THE NVDISABLE, type:

sudo nvram boot-args="nvda_drv=1"

into terminal, this will enable the drivers and turn off the disabling. If you have other things you need in boot args (span mode for 5K, etc,) add them to that string, it overwrites existing ones. 
8 Comments
perunosx
6/19/2015 06:06:56 am

In user mode one doesn't need to use sudo, minus 4 chars to type.

Reply
James Liu
6/20/2015 12:35:34 pm

I am having an amazing hard time with running boot camp with the flashed GTX 980 I just got back from you. Any hints to make the process smoother? Somehow windows does not fully recognize the flashed GTX 980 card -- it does not output to any of the ports under Windows. I tried updating to the latest Nvidia drivers, but when I reboot, it reverts back to basic windows drivers.
I am running a MP 4,1-->5,1 with dual X5670 CPUs
Also, as you said, it is sometimes difficult to boot with just the flashed GTX 980 -- I am still using a GT120 to help me out -- Apple needs to get their act together and starting putting out at least basic support for the newer Nvidia cards

Reply
JP Castel link
6/23/2015 08:28:51 am

Hey James. Not sure if you will check back here. But you should really look into installing windows 8+ in an EFI environment. I recently went through the Reddit EFI Mega thread install and I have to say I haven't looked back. Eliminated all my problems. Also running the macvidcard GTX 980 Rom and it screams. Wish we had PCI 3.0 in the MP...

Reply
star-affinity
8/14/2015 03:23:25 am

Sure it would be nice with PCI-E 3.0 in the Mac Pro's, but at the same time the performance gains in 3.0 compared 3 to 2.0 seem quite small even with a GTX 980 card.

Some discussion here: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2305815/pcie-bottleneck-gtx-980.html here:

cmech
7/8/2015 05:57:40 pm

Following these instructions I was able to update to 10.10.4. I got to the part where the windows and mouse cursor were sluggish, but couldn't get NVIDIA web driver to load after that. Turns out I had to reset the boot-args, and then select the nvidia driver in the nvidia prefs pulldown menu again. The command to reset the boot args is:

sudo nvram -d boot-args

Reply
Lensjocky
8/13/2015 06:20:32 am

OMG. Wasted about 2 hours of my time trying to get out of "EFI drivers only" mode on my updates to 10.10.4 & 10.10.5

Simply installing new Nvidia Drivers doesn't rest the boot args, at least not on my machine.

As mech wrote above "sudo nvram -d boot-args" does the trick. Should have been in the instructions all along....

Reply
CrazedEditor link
9/18/2015 02:56:01 pm

Thank you to MacVids and comments for making my life move a little faster. Remember to reset those boot-args mentioned by cmech!

Reply
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1/27/2019 10:34:18 pm

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