macOS High Sierra drivers for Nvidia PCI-E video cards now available for Mac Pro, eGPU

AppleInsider · September 27, 2017 9:35PM

After skipping the assorted High Sierra betas, Nvidia has rolled out drivers for its line of PCI-E graphics cards, all suitable for use in the 5,1 Mac Pro, and in a Thunderbolt 3 external graphics card enclosure.

The drivers were made available on Wednesday, with the release first noted by xlr8yourmac. Version 378.10.10.10.15.114 is specific to the current High Sierra build, and will need to be updated and re-released for every incremental upgrade of the operating system that follows.

Nvidia notes that the macOS Security & Privacy Preferences may open during the installation process, necessitating the user to allow the installation prior to completion.

The driver contains unspecified performance improvements and bug fixes. Additionally, the driver package that includes a new CUDA download that includes the new 9.0 version of the toolkit, plus beta support for iMac and MacBook Pro systems with Nvidia graphics.

Specific MacBook Pro and iMac models include those produced between 2012 and 2013 that are compatible with High Sierra.

Brief testing of the new driver with an external GPU and Nvidia GeForce 980ti showed compatibility of the combo restored under the 10.13.0 beta release of High Sierra. Further AppleInsider comparative testing on Nvidia versus AMD cards in Thunderbolt 3 enclosures will resume as a result of the release.

The new Quadro and GeForce macOS Driver release is a 62MB download. The updated CUDA driver is 26.6MB and supports macOS 10.12 Sierra and up.

welshdog · September 28, 2017 12:02AM

This seems like good news.

macxpress · September 28, 2017 12:07AM

I just used these today. Upgraded my 2012 Mac Pro tower to High Sierra. I have a non-Mac supported NVIDIA GeForce 970 in my MacPro so I always have to wait for these drivers to come out, then put the original ATI 5770 in it so I can upgrade (including dot dot releases), then install the updated driver and then put the NVIDIA card back in. Pain in the ass yes, but I only have to do it every once in a while (whenever Apple releases any kind of macOS update). I'm glad NVIDIA is typically on the ball with updating the driver.

Mike Wuerthele · September 28, 2017 12:17AM

macxpress said:

I just used these today. Upgraded my 2012 Mac Pro tower to High Sierra. I have a non-Mac supported NVIDIA GeForce 970 in my MacPro so I always have to wait for these drivers to come out, then put the original ATI 5770 in it so I can upgrade (including dot dot releases), then install the updated driver and then put the NVIDIA card back in. Pain in the ass yes, but I only have to do it every once in a while (whenever Apple releases any kind of macOS update). I'm glad NVIDIA is typically on the ball with updating the driver.

It's generally been within a few days of a shipping OS version, which is nice. While I've got the RX580 in my eGPU for most of the work here, I've got a 980ti in my 5,1.

lorin schultz · September 28, 2017 12:51AM

So remind me please Mike (I lose track of what does and doesn't work), with a 2016 MacBook Pro (USB-C/TB-3), can an e-GPU be used to accelerate the built-in display, or will it only work with an external monitor?

Mike Wuerthele · September 28, 2017 1:19AM

lorin schultz said:

So remind me please Mike (I lose track of what does and doesn't work), with a 2016 MacBook Pro (USB-C/TB-3), can an e-GPU be used to accelerate the built-in display, or will it only work with an external monitor?

It'll work in High Sierra with a minor hack, but it's rough on bandwidth, to the tune of about a 50% hit on max speed of the card if it was connected to an external display. There's just not enough speed in TB3 to feed both the card at full speed, and loop it back at full resolution.

I don't recommend it.

tallest skil · September 28, 2017 1:23AM

Yep, just downloaded and updated on my unsupported 2009 Mac Pro and… Oh, wait, I forgot to switch card inputs! …okay, doesn’t work. I’ll have to troubleshoot.

EDIT: The driver is activated, but it doesn’t seem to recognize my GTX 980. It reports as pci10de,fbb instead of its proper name (it did that with the old driver, too). Hmm.
EDIT: PRAM reset didn’t do anything; fuck.

Mike Wuerthele · September 28, 2017 1:35AM

tallest skil said:

Yep, just downloaded and updated on my unsupported 2009 Mac Pro and… Oh, wait, I forgot to switch card inputs! …okay, doesn’t work. I’ll have to troubleshoot.

EDIT: The driver is activated, but it doesn’t seem to recognize my GTX 980. It reports as pci10de,fbb instead of its proper name (it did that with the old driver, too). Hmm.

When I've seen that, it has generally meant that the card isn't close enough to the reference standard for the driver to work properly. Who made your card?

Also, are you on the beta track? The driver specifically only works on the High Sierra "retail" release.

macxpress · September 28, 2017 1:44AM

Mike Wuerthele said:

tallest skil said:

Yep, just downloaded and updated on my unsupported 2009 Mac Pro and… Oh, wait, I forgot to switch card inputs! …okay, doesn’t work. I’ll have to troubleshoot.

EDIT: The driver is activated, but it doesn’t seem to recognize my GTX 980. It reports as pci10de,fbb instead of its proper name (it did that with the old driver, too). Hmm.

When I've seen that, it has generally meant that the card isn't close enough to the reference standard for the driver to work properly. Who made your card?

Also, are you on the beta track? The driver specifically only works on the High Sierra "retail" release.

Yeah you must be using macOS High Sierra build 17A365 in order for the driver to work. Also, I sometimes have to make sure the NVIDIA system preference is set to use the NVIDIA Web Driver instead of the OS X Default Driver. I've had it set to the OS X one before and then realized why once my display didn't come back up normally.

tallest skil · September 28, 2017 1:50AM

Mike Wuerthele said:
Who made your card?

Let’s see… EVGA. It’s the SC (I think they mean super clocked or whatever the terminology is) variant, but I’ve never changed it from its standard settings because I read that OS X gets uppity when you do that.

Also, are you on the beta track? The driver specifically only works on the High Sierra “retail” release.

Yep, retail OS X file (downloaded from Apple on a computer that can actually install it) except for whatever modifications are done by the Tool to get unsupported machines to be registered.

macxpress said:
Yeah you must be using macOS High Sierra build 17A365 in order for the driver to work.

I just verified that's my version, too.

captjimmie · September 28, 2017 2:37AM

Tallest,

you mentioned unsupported 2009 Mac Pro. Would upgrading the firmware to 5,1 help resolve the issue?

Mike Wuerthele · September 28, 2017 2:39AM

tallest skil said:

Mike Wuerthele said:
Who made your card?

Let’s see… EVGA. It’s the SC (I think they mean super clocked or whatever the terminology is) variant, but I’ve never changed it from its standard settings because I read that OS X gets uppity when you do that.
Also, are you on the beta track? The driver specifically only works on the High Sierra “retail” release.
Yep, retail OS X file (downloaded from Apple on a computer that can actually install it) except for whatever modifications are done by the Tool to get unsupported machines to be registered.
macxpress said:
Yeah you must be using macOS High Sierra build 17A365 in order for the driver to work.
I just verified that's my version, too.

Hm, the SC shouldn't matter, that's transparent to the OS. I don't have one, but I'll shoot off some emails tonight.

I'm on an actual 5,1. I wonder if the 4,1 to 5m1 firmware flasher is a problem, somehow. I can't imagine why it would be, but I guess it's possible. That would explain the previous identification issues, in theory.

tallest skil · September 28, 2017 2:57AM

Mike Wuerthele said:
I'll shoot off some emails tonight.

Oh, really? Thanks a ton. I’ve personally had a great experience with nVidia’s support on previous (windows) drivers for this thing, so I’m grateful to them for caring about their Apple users so much.

captjimmie said:
Would upgrading the firmware to 5,1 help resolve the issue?

I remember reading about people doing that when the 2010 models came out. I think it enabled them to use the 2010 daughterboards in their 2009 cases (OWC offered an upgrade+swap service for some time), but if it helps with sleep here I’d gladly do it. Thanks for the tip.

Mike Wuerthele · September 28, 2017 3:15AM

tallest skil said:

captjimmie said:
Would upgrading the firmware to 5,1 help resolve the issue?

I remember reading about people doing that when the 2010 models came out. I think it enabled them to use the 2010 daughterboards in their 2009 cases (OWC offered an upgrade+swap service for some time), but if it helps with sleep here I’d gladly do it. Thanks for the tip.

It does allow for the newer CPUs. It also allows for a wider range of processors as well, and High Sierra isn't a hack anymore. I think this might be your solution overall.

That said, let's see what develops from the emails I sent to Nvidia and EVGA.

lorin schultz · September 28, 2017 3:32AM

Mike Wuerthele said:

lorin schultz said:

So remind me please Mike (I lose track of what does and doesn't work), with a 2016 MacBook Pro (USB-C/TB-3), can an e-GPU be used to accelerate the built-in display, or will it only work with an external monitor?

It'll work in High Sierra with a minor hack, but it's rough on bandwidth, to the tune of about a 50% hit on max speed of the card if it was connected to an external display. There's just not enough speed in TB3 to feed both the card at full speed, and loop it back at full resolution.

I don't recommend it.

Oh yeah, I remember now. You wrote a whole article about it. Duh.

Thanks for the reminder!

ksec · September 28, 2017 8:35AM

Stilling hoping Apple release their new Monitor with Integrated GPU.

riverko · September 28, 2017 10:55AM

Updated the CUDA driver and the panel in system preferences still says it needs updated driver...

dick applebaum · September 28, 2017 11:30AM

Ha!

The posts in this thread remind me of TechTalk in the late 70s and early 80s...

Now, where's my RS-232 BreakOut box?

Mike Wuerthele · September 28, 2017 11:56AM

tallest skil said:

Mike Wuerthele said:
I'll shoot off some emails tonight.

Oh, really? Thanks a ton. I’ve personally had a great experience with nVidia’s support on previous (windows) drivers for this thing, so I’m grateful to them for caring about their Apple users so much.

captjimmie said:
Would upgrading the firmware to 5,1 help resolve the issue?

I remember reading about people doing that when the 2010 models came out. I think it enabled them to use the 2010 daughterboards in their 2009 cases (OWC offered an upgrade+swap service for some time), but if it helps with sleep here I’d gladly do it. Thanks for the tip.

Nvidia says to not run High Sierra on a 4,1 and use a Nvidia card unless you want to delve into KEXT modification. Use the 4,1 to 5,1 firmware upgrade tool, install High Sierra, then install the driver.

EyeMacPro · September 28, 2017 11:58AM

ksec said:

Stilling hoping Apple release their new Monitor with Integrated GPU.

Last thing I want to see is integrated. The whole point of the E is to allow switching GPU's with hardly any TOOLS! I don't have the time to deal with intergrated when I need it now.

macxpress · September 28, 2017 12:15PM

captjimmie said:

Tallest,

you mentioned unsupported 2009 Mac Pro. Would upgrading the firmware to 5,1 help resolve the issue?

When I installed macOS High Sierra the installer made me do a firmware update on my mid-2012 Mac Pro before it would install. I wonder if that needs to be done? When I upgrade to brand new OS's, I always do an erase and install. It takes longer to reinstall macOS than it does to set my Mac back up so its no big deal to me. I don't have a lot of stuff to reinstall, or data to restore. Most everything is in the cloud now days.

macOS High Sierra drivers for Nvidia PCI-E video cards now available for Mac Pro, eGPU

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