GTX 980 Ti + MacOS Mojave on 2009 MacPro 4,1(Flashed to 5,1)

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Hello all,

I apologize in advance if this has been asked in another thread but I can't find one that matches my setup.

I have a 2009 MacPro 4,1 that has had the firmware flashed to become a 5,1 and allow the install of High Sierra. I was using it with the stock Nvidia GT 210 and then with a GTX 1050 Ti and it was working fine with the Nvidia web drivers on 10.13.X.

Now, I got a GTX 980 Ti that has been flashed to show the boot screen on MacPro's and I'm trying to install Mac OS Mojave and it won't install because it says that the card is not Metal compatible, which, I can understand. So I decided to install High Sierra again and once I did, I installed the Nvidia web drivers(387.10.10.10.40.105) and once I rebooted I found out that MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6 will not switch to the new driver even though the installer was successful and I can even see the Nvidia driver manager in my top bar. Here's what I've tried:

1. Reinstall High Sierra from scratch with the GT 210, install Web drivers, swap to the GTX 980 Ti

2. Same as #1 but I fellback to the GTX 1050 Ti, and now, not boot screen and no OS either :-(

I checked on a few forums for a solution but apparently everyone else but me built a hackintosh and their solutions don't really apply to an actual Mac(This is me speculating as I'm not well versed in the art of hackintoshing)

Anyways, I'm now set on getting the following done:

1. Install Mac OS Mojave with this card(even if the drivers don't work fine initially)

2. Find a way to get the drivers to work unless I really have to wait for an official release from Nvidia(I think it can be done as some people have claimed to do it with Nvidia cards older than mine)

If anyone has any idea on how to point me in the right direction I would greatly appreciate it. Please don't suggest buying a Radeon, that's not what I want to do and it's not the point of asking for help on this forum.

Thanks,
 
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I got this solved. I won't be able to use Mojave until the drivers are officially released and I don't want to go the hackintosh way. Here's what I did:

1. Reset the NVRAM by booting with CMD+OPT+P+R pressed.

2. Completely reformatted my hard drive and installed a fresh copy of High Sierra while using the graphics card that came with the mac, the Nvidia GT120

3. With High Sierra up and running, I installed the Nvidia Web Driver 387.10.10.10.40.105 because that one matched my Mac OS build version.

4. Once the driver was installed successfully, I shut down completely and replaced the GT 210 with the 980 Ti.

5. Reboot and voila, my 4 monitors work beautifully with the Nvidia drivers and my 980 Ti.


Hope this helps anyone.


Thanks,
Wxsabi
 

pigoo3

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I got this solved. I won't be able to use Mojave until the drivers are officially released and I don't want to go the hackintosh way. Here's what I did:

Thanks for sharing...and great you found a solution to get back to where you started.:)

Word to the wise is...when a computer has been modified this much to be able to do things that Apple never orignally designed it to do...when a new OS version comes out...upgrading is really not an immediate option. It may take months & months & months for other users to figure out IF the new macOS version can be run on modified Mac Pro's...and it may take even longer before procedures or patches are written to make things work.

Here are some another ways to "experiment" when a new macOS comes out so any issues can be avoided:

- Clone the hard drive or SSD that Mac Pro is running on & works fine...and set this clone aside & don't modify it.
- Experiment with a 2nd hard drive or SSD...and don't touch the original boot drive.
- Partition the current boot drive...and install the new macOS on a fresh partition...and don't touch the original boot partition.

This way if the new OS doesn't work properly...you can revert back to the old setup quickly & easily.:)

- Nick

p.s. By the way...the "H" word is not allowed here!;)
 

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