MacPro Crashes are certainly to do with my NVIDIA Video Card

So I have been having some serious crash problems of late on my MacPro 4,1 that has been firmware flashed to a 5,1 with an NVIDIA GTX 670 and 4GB of RAM. I have posted about it here and here.

I am running 10.12.2 with 32 GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 4095 MB and I had started getting bad crashes with noise in the image, which I show in a previous post. And it was happening more and more, especially when trying to run Premiere Pro. I had been running the OS X driver instead of the web driver, as it seemed to be more stable, but when I switched to the web driver 367.15.10.25f01 those crashes stopped, though I did get random restarts still, and crashes when I try and run Premiere Pro (which my previous posts show was from the Web Driver).

So the fact that the different drivers have the different crashes to me seems to show that it is for sure the video card that is causing the crashes. Unfortunately I don’t really have the money right now for a replacement. Eventually I want to replace this whole rig with a PC (as the 2013 Trashcan MacPro is not a powerful enough machine for what I need) but that would be even more.

Now I currently have Premiere Pro running, but am doubtful it won’t crash again soon. And I have run TechTool Pro 12 and it showed my Graphics RAM as being fine. Are there any other tests to see if my video card is for sure failing? I posted at Apple forums, but have gotten no help.

EDIT: Well I was wrong about none of the video noise crashes with the Web Driver. I hadn’t had any, but when running Premiere they happen with consistence. I have had 4 of them in less than an hour. Seems like as soon as CUDA cuts in the issue is happened with the web driver. Basically I can’t use Adobe (the main use for my machine) or I get the crashes. SHIT!

EDIT 2: Also posted on MacRumors and at least one poster says bad video card.

Still getting bad crashes on my MacPro, seems to be connected to NVIDIA card

Still getting nasty crashes, and seems to be with my GTX 670 4 GB in my 4,1 (firmware updated to 5,1) MacPro on Sierra 10.12.2. I am running Web Driver 367.15.10.25f01 and CUDA 8.0.57. From my included Crash Log it is looking like it is the Web Driver, and it crashed as soon as I started Premiere Pro 2017, though I seem to have been not having the previous noise crash running it, but am going to try switching back to the standard NVIDIA driver with Sierra and see if that works.

Tue Jan  3 17:13:57 2017

*** Panic Report ***
panic(cpu 14 caller 0xffffff7f8c15235e): NVRM[0/5:0:0]: Read Error 0x0010a1c4: CFG 0x118910de 0x00100406 0x8a000000, BAR0 0x8a000000 0xffffff93b424d000 0x0e4090a2, D0, P3/4
Backtrace (CPU 14), Frame : Return Address
0xffffff93cd37b760 : 0xffffff800aef211c
0xffffff93cd37b7e0 : 0xffffff7f8c15235e
0xffffff93cd37b8a0 : 0xffffff7f8c22cf7d
0xffffff93cd37b900 : 0xffffff7f8c53ee0a
0xffffff93cd37b960 : 0xffffff7f8c21e17e
0xffffff93cd37b9b0 : 0xffffff7f8c21de09
0xffffff93cd37ba60 : 0xffffff7f8c2c6b82
0xffffff93cd37bac0 : 0xffffff7f8c26884d
0xffffff93cd37bb00 : 0xffffff7f8c268230
0xffffff93cd37bcb0 : 0xffffff7f8c12ebf8
0xffffff93cd37bcf0 : 0xffffff7f8c2c6a61
0xffffff93cd37bd20 : 0xffffff7f8c540530
0xffffff93cd37bd40 : 0xffffff7f8c540418
0xffffff93cd37bd90 : 0xffffff7f8c528252
0xffffff93cd37be00 : 0xffffff7f8c25e109
0xffffff93cd37be20 : 0xffffff7f8c158b71
0xffffff93cd37bee0 : 0xffffff800b4be51f
0xffffff93cd37bf30 : 0xffffff800b4bcd81
0xffffff93cd37bf80 : 0xffffff800b4bc366
0xffffff93cd37bfb0 : 0xffffff800aea0af7
      Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
         com.nvidia.web.NVDAResmanWeb(10.1.5)[5273B57C-0D1D-344A-93A7-BEFDDD7C0F73]@0xffffff7f8c0e6000->0xffffff7f8c40ffff
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[6F8D3ACB-27CB-3B57-9E06-53E377762F5C]@0xffffff7f8b69d000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(513.1)[07F97C14-C6EE-3577-9875-8BA38DDCBCCD]@0xffffff7f8c0ca000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(513.1)[578F9D07-96F4-3F09-A6A6-047F257CB3BA]@0xffffff7f8c083000
            dependency: com.apple.AppleGraphicsDeviceControl(3.13.78)[FD48FB7F-3F5F-38F1-A8C7-B82C80807726]@0xffffff7f8c0da000
         com.nvidia.web.NVDAGK100HalWeb(10.1.5)[64926FEF-8B32-39BB-AA94-06FA5E0F9AFE]@0xffffff7f8c422000->0xffffff7f8c5dffff
            dependency: com.nvidia.web.NVDAResmanWeb(10.1.5)[5273B57C-0D1D-344A-93A7-BEFDDD7C0F73]@0xffffff7f8c0e6000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[6F8D3ACB-27CB-3B57-9E06-53E377762F5C]@0xffffff7f8b69d000

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task

Mac OS version:
16C67

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 16.3.0: Thu Nov 17 20:23:58 PST 2016; root:xnu-3789.31.2~1/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: 8DF81F81-019F-348E-B47E-40A4484B9E21
Kernel slide:     0x000000000ac00000
Kernel text base: 0xffffff800ae00000
__HIB  text base: 0xffffff800ad00000
System model name: MacPro5,1 (Mac-F221BEC8)

System uptime in nanoseconds: 23837399125361
last loaded kext at 23090533694669: com.apple.driver.AppleXsanScheme    3 (addr 0xffffff7f8e32e000, size 32768)
last unloaded kext at 23625041872161: com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMergeNub    900.4.1 (addr 0xffffff7f8e31f000, size 12288)
loaded kexts:
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com.nvidia.CUDA    1.1.0
com.Cycling74.driver.Soundflower    1.6.7
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com.nvidia.web.GeForceWeb    10.1.5
com.nvidia.web.NVDAResmanWeb    10.1.5
com.blackmagic-design.driver.BlackmagicIO    10.8.3
jp.plentycom.driver.SteerMouse    4.2.6
com.apple.filesystems.cddafs    2.6.1
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com.apple.filesystems.autofs    3.0
com.apple.driver.AppleTyMCEDriver    1.0.2d2
com.apple.driver.AGPM    110.23.14
com.apple.driver.AppleOSXWatchdog    1
com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC    1.70
com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient    3.6.4
com.apple.driver.AppleMCCSControl    1.2.15
com.apple.driver.pmtelemetry    1
com.apple.iokit.IOUserEthernet    1.0.1
com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyHIDDriver    127
com.apple.driver.AppleHDA    278.56
com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyDriver    278.56
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothSerialManager    5.0.2f4
com.apple.Dont_Steal_Mac_OS_X    7.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleHV    1
com.apple.iokit.BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport    5.0.2f4
com.apple.driver.AppleLPC    3.1
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelSlowAdaptiveClocking    4.0.0
com.apple.driver.ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin    1.0.0
com.apple.driver.MaxTranserSizeOverrideDriver    404.30.1
com.apple.driver.Oxford_Semi    404.30.1
com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient    394.30.2
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage    295.20.1
com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI    5.5.5
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless    1.0.0d1
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib    1.0.0
com.apple.driver.Intel82574LEthernet    2.7.2
com.apple.driver.AirPort.Brcm4360    1130.3.1a4
com.apple.BootCache    40
com.apple.filesystems.hfs.kext    366.30.3
com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort    326
com.apple.driver.AppleRTC    2.0
com.apple.driver.AppleHPET    1.8
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons    5.0
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS    2.1
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC    5.0
com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC    1.7
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient    219.0.0
com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall    172
com.apple.security.quarantine    3
com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet    8
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement    219.0.0
com.apple.kext.triggers    1.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSurface    153.3
com.apple.driver.DspFuncLib    278.56
com.apple.kext.OSvKernDSPLib    525
com.apple.iokit.IOAcceleratorFamily2    289.27
com.apple.AppleGraphicsDeviceControl    3.13.78
com.apple.driver.AppleSSE    1.0
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusController    1.0.14d1
com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport    513.1
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport    5.0.2f4
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothHostControllerTransport    5.0.2f4
com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController    278.56
com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily    513.1
com.apple.iokit.IOHDAFamily    278.56
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusPCI    1.0.14d1
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireIP    2.2.7
com.apple.iokit.IOSlowAdaptiveClockingFamily    1.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleSMC    3.1.9
com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginLegacy    1.0.0
com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginFamily    6.0.0d8
com.apple.iokit.IOSerialFamily    11
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBAudio    307.7
com.apple.iokit.IOAudioFamily    205.11
com.apple.vecLib.kext    1.2.0
com.apple.driver.usb.IOUSBHostHIDDevice    1.1
com.apple.driver.IOBluetoothHIDDriver    5.0.2f4
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothFamily    5.0.2f4
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver    900.4.1
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBMassStorageDriver    131.1.1
com.apple.driver.usb.networking    5.0.0
com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBHostCompositeDevice    1.1
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIBlockCommandsDevice    394.30.2
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireSerialBusProtocolTransport    2.5.1
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireSBP2    4.2.7
com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBHub    1.1
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIMultimediaCommandsDevice    394.30.2
com.apple.iokit.IOBDStorageFamily    1.8
com.apple.iokit.IODVDStorageFamily    1.8
com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily    1.8
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily    4.6.5
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCISerialATAPI    266
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily    394.30.2
com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family    1200.12.2
com.apple.driver.mDNSOffloadUserClient    1.0.1b8
com.apple.driver.corecapture    1.0.4
com.apple.filesystems.hfs.encodings.kext    1
com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily    3.2
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily    288
com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBEHCIPCI    1.1
com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBUHCIPCI    1.1
com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBUHCI    1.1
com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBEHCI    1.1
com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBXHCIPCI    1.1
com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBXHCI    1.1
com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBHostPacketFilter    1.0
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily    900.4.1
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHostMergeProperties    1.1
com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM    2.1
com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime    2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily    2.0.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily    1.1
com.apple.security.sandbox    300.0
com.apple.kext.AppleMatch    1.0.0d1
com.apple.driver.AppleKeyStore    2
com.apple.driver.AppleMobileFileIntegrity    1.0.5
com.apple.driver.AppleCredentialManager    1.0
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com.apple.driver.AppleBusPowerController    1.0
com.apple.driver.DiskImages    444.30.5
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com.apple.driver.AppleFDEKeyStore    28.30
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com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily    2.9
com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily    1.4
com.apple.kec.pthread    1
com.apple.kec.Libm    1
com.apple.kec.corecrypto    1.0
Model: MacPro5,1, BootROM MP51.007F.B03, 8 processors, Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 2.26 GHz, 32 GB, SMC 1.39f5
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670, PCIe, 4095 MB
Memory Module: DIMM 1, 4 GB, DDR3 ECC, 1066 MHz, 0x830B, 0x4D324C344737324342344E41314E2D424520
Memory Module: DIMM 2, 4 GB, DDR3 ECC, 1066 MHz, 0x830B, 0x4D324C344737324342344E41314E2D424520
Memory Module: DIMM 3, 4 GB, DDR3 ECC, 1066 MHz, 0x802C, 0x33364A53463531323732505A2D3147344631
Memory Module: DIMM 4, 4 GB, DDR3 ECC, 1066 MHz, 0x802C, 0x33364A53463531323732505A2D3147344631
Memory Module: DIMM 5, 4 GB, DDR3 ECC, 1066 MHz, 0x830B, 0x4D324C344737324342344E41314E2D424520
Memory Module: DIMM 6, 4 GB, DDR3 ECC, 1066 MHz, 0x830B, 0x4D324C344737324342344E41314E2D424520
Memory Module: DIMM 7, 4 GB, DDR3 ECC, 1066 MHz, 0x802C, 0x33364A53463531323732505A2D3147344631
Memory Module: DIMM 8, 4 GB, DDR3 ECC, 1066 MHz, 0x802C, 0x33364A53463531323732505A2D3147344631
AirPort: spairport_wireless_card_type_airport_extreme (0x14E4, 0x111), Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (7.21.171.68.1a4)
Bluetooth: Version 5.0.2f4, 3 services, 27 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Network Service: Ethernet 1, Ethernet, en0
Network Service: Ethernet 2, Ethernet, en1
Network Service: Wi-Fi, AirPort, en2
Serial ATA Device: HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GH41N, 841.8 MB
Serial ATA Device: HL-DT-ST BD-RE  WH12LS38
Serial ATA Device: ST3000DM001-1CH166, 3 TB
Serial ATA Device: ST3000DM001-1CH166, 3 TB
Serial ATA Device: ST3000DM001-1ER166, 3 TB
Serial ATA Device: OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD, 960.2 GB
USB Device: USB 3.0 Bus
USB Device: USB Bus
USB Device: BRCM20702 Hub
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller
USB Device: USB Bus
USB Device: USB Bus
USB Device: Natural® Ergonomic Keyboard 4000
USB Device: USB Bus
USB Device: Microsoft Trackball Explorer®
USB Device: USB Bus
USB Device: USB Bus
USB Device: USB 2.0 Bus
USB Device: iPhone
USB Device: Hub
USB Device: Razer Orbweaver
USB Device: Hub
USB Device: PTK-540WL
USB Device: EDIROL UA-1D
USB Device: Transcend
USB Device: USB 2.0 Bus
USB Device: USB 2.0 Hub [MTT]
USB Device: USB 2.0 Hub [MTT]
USB Device: USB UltraPro
USB Device: USB 2.0 Hub [MTT]
USB Device: USB 2.0 Hub [MTT]
USB Device: Powerbeats³
USB Device: Fitbit Base Station
FireWire Device: ElitePro Qx2, OWC, Up to 800 Mb/sec
FireWire Device: Mercury Elite Pro Quad USB 3, OWC, Up to 800 Mb/sec
FireWire Device: built-in_hub, Up to 800 Mb/sec
FireWire Device: unknown_device, Unknown
Thunderbolt Bus:

My MacPro 4,1 is having nasty crashes, and I don’t know why

So my MacPro 4,1, which has been firmware updated to a 5,1 so it is running OS X Sierra is having some nasty crashes, where I get this crazy video noise and the machine is basically locked up. I have to do a hard shutdown.

The system has 32GB of RAM and it’s system is running of an OWC SSD in the a PCI Slot. It also has a USB 3 card, a Black Magic Intensity Pro and a PC NVIDIA GTX 670 with 4GB of RAM.

It started crashing in Premiere Pro, and DaVinci resolve so I thought it was video card related, but lately has been crashing at any time.

First I ran Cocktail and it’s full suite of Automation. Then I restarted and ran Diskwarrior 5.0 from it’s USB, but that didn’t fix much if anything. And I upgraded to Tech Tool Pro 9 and ran it’s full suite, and everything passed, including the video card (and I ran it’s test a few more times). Strangely it ran longer while in the E-Drive than it has lately on it’s own, which makes me think something with the system, and yet this looks like a very hardware centric crash.

And the system install is very recent, in the last 6 months it was a totally clean install.

Here is video of the crash:

I am just wondering if anyone else has seen anything like this? I am hoping it isn’t hardware. Be it Video Card, motherboard or power supply, but it is getting so I can’t do anything without a crash.

EDIT:

I have posted on the Apple Forums, and have one response.

I have looked at the console log and the files at ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ and have not seen anything that would be causing this.

I do see that Expandrive is crashing all the time, which I know.

The New NVIDIA TITAN X is the King of the Hill!

Yes there is a new king of the hill in the consumer video card arena, and that is the new NVIDIA TITAN X. I had expected this to take a while to come out after them releasing the new 10 series, 1080, 1070 and 1060, but it was quickly announced and is coming out August 2nd! Wow! And the specs are amazing!

GPU Engine Specs                                               TITAN X                 GTX 1080

NVIDIA CUDA® Cores                                          3584                         2560

Base Clock (MHz)                                                   1417                         1607

Boost Clock (MHz)                                                  1531                        1733

Memory Specs:

GbpsMemory Speed                                                10                              10

GDDR5XStandard Memory Config                        12 GB                       8 GB

Memory Interface Width                                         384-bit                      256 bit

Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec)                                 480                           320

Thermal and Power

Maximum GPU Temperature (in C)                       94                             94

Graphics Card Power (W)                                       250 W                     180 W

Supplementary Power Connectors                          8 pin and 6 pin       8 pin

That is an extra 1024 CUDA Cores for Adobe Creative Suite to play with, and an extra 4GB of faster RAM for not that much more power draw!

If you have been reading my posts, I have come to the realization that my next computer won’t be a Mac, and have been looking at custom build PC’s like Origin PC or Puget Systems. For a bit I was thinking that maybe 2 SLI GTX 1080’s would be the answer for my CUDA needs, but that would basically eat all of my PCI slots. And I likely need some sort of Black Magic Design card to kick out video at least to an HD Monitor for editing, if not an Intensity Pro 4k. And while I can get a USB 3,1 external Raid for hard drives (as I likely won’t get a ThunderBolt 3 Motherboard, unless I decide to build for myself), so I could live without a raid controller I would like need a Firefire PCI board to deal with my all my old hard drives until I can afford new enclosures.

So it looks like the new NVIDIA TITAN X would be my $1200 card of choice.

Trying to figure out what programs I will use if I move from Mac to PC

I have been talking about it for ages, and have used Apple Computers since I was 7 and got an Apple IIC. I love my Mac, but it getting old, and the next macOS Sierra has end of lifed my 4,1 MacPro. Luckily I can hack it to become a 5,1 with a simple firmware hack, so I can install Sierra, but it is likely the last Mac OS my computer will run. And big Adobe updates usually require the latest Mac OS. And the new “MacPro”, the trashcan is a joke that has not been upgraded since it’s release in 2013. It isn’t upgradeable, nor can it have more than one harddrive internally, so it isn’t pro. And it’s use of a Xeon processor is not a boon. Xeon’s are usually a few generations behind on technology, the big difference is that Xeon’s don’t have an integrated graphics processor (which doesn’t affect you if you us a high end graphics card) and they 2 processors! But the trashcan can only use one! And yes it can have 12 cores (for an insane price), but i7’s have now reached 8 or 10 cores and are newer tech, so why not use those if you are only using one processor. I really don’t get it!

And yes I could build a Hackintosh, but I have been using a Quo at work,mand while it is great, upgrades are never too fun, and you must disable security features to even install El Capitan.
So it is looking like my next computer is a PC, cause I can put an NVIDIA Geforce 1080, but I need to figure out moving away from many of my current programs.
I know I can move iTunes to PC, though I hear it doesn’t work as well on the PC, but my library and ratings will make it over.
I can export and move my mailboxes, browsers and the like pretty easily. There is nothing to easily move my Photos library to Windows, but I can import my Library into Adobe Lightroom and it will take my Keywords, then move to PC so it will work there. Pages and the whole iWorks suite is a pain as I need to open each file and save it out to word (hopefully I can automate it).
Making my web sites is more of a pain. I have used many programs over time, starting with Net Objects Fusion before it went Windows only, and I have even used Dreamweaver, though my HTML skills have gone to hell, and I don’t want to code anymore. So currently I use Rapidweaver, which makes it easy and I have 2 different web sites for me and my mom’s web site, which can link to much web site content. Now I am starting to look at Adobe Muse as an alternative, but I am not sure it will easily plug into all the content I currently use, from YouTube, Vimeo, 500px, or Flickr, so sites you can easily upload things and have them automatically show up on your web site. And it looks like there is no way to embed my blogger blog into muse, as I have done with Rapidweaver. Might be able to do my self hosted wordpress, but not my blogger blogs. Damn!
Then I will of course have to figure out a bunch of other programs, and especially system tweaking, and a new backup system, as I can’t use time machine anymore.
It is surprising to me how little info there is online for moving from Mac to PC. Any info or even programs to help seem to be made to go the other way.
Oh well, when it happens I will likely be running both machines for a while, until I am sure everything is moved over.
And I am sure I will miss my Mac in many ways as I have Windows 10 in parallels and bootcamp on my mac, but it works, and honestly is a more pro system nowdays.

OneRiver Media on NVIDIA GTX 1080 being death nell of high end Mac Graphics

NVIDIA recently announced the GTX 1080, which is half the price ($699) of it’s Titan, twice as fast and draws less power.

Marco Solorio of OneRiver Media talks about the NVIDIA GTX 1080 being the end of the MacPro as a high end graphics and editing system, since there is no longer a PCI based Mac! I do agree. The old PCI based MacPro will only last so much more, and it is already so far behind on modern technology.

So while I would prefer to run a Mac and OS X, I don’t want the ridiculous Trashcan MacPro, and I want 2 GTX 1080’s for a video card (or theoir version of a Titan), and hell I want the Microosft Surface Book as a laptop. Apple is pushing me away from the computer I love!

Message now works on my Mac and all it took was resetting my PRAM! Some NVIDIA weirdness though.

I can’t believe I had not tried that, but Apple support got me and now Messages works in El Capitan

There was some strangeness though, and it is to do with my NVIDIA Geforce GTX 670 I mentioned in my previous post. After resetting the PRAM the computer came back up, but all the blue was orange again, and this time I took screenshots, but they looks correct once the problem is fixed! And to fix the issue I had to re-install the latest NVIDIA web drivers, though they were showing as already installed. Next time I will take a physical picture.

10.11.2 El Capitan update did not require NVIDIA web driver to boot (though it looks crazy)

I run a NVIDIA GTX 670 with 4 GB of RAM in my MacPro, and it is not flashed. So when I update the system I have to use VNC to sign into my Mac and update the NVIDIA Web drivers and restart before my Mac shows anything on the monitors (or I have to swap my old GTX 270 and do the Update).

This seems to have changed with 10.11.2. In fact it showed the updating screen before the Desktop, and then came to the desktop. Of course it was not normal, in fact all Blue Colors were Orange! I wish I had though to take screen shots, as after the update I upgraded the NVIDIA web driver and restarted and everything was back to normal.

This is awesome news if this continues in the future, as it makes it much easier to upgrade to the latest NVIDIA web driver. I hope it just wasn’t a fluke.

OneRIver Media Blog on upgrading a 2009 MacPro to it’s fullest potential

One River Media Blog has an awesome article on fully upgrading a 2009, 4,1 MacPro to it’s fullest potential to make it rival the new trashcan MacPro.

This involves replacing the processors with Dual 6 CPU’s which you can now get for around $650 (or less for a slightly slower model) installing dual SSD’s for a startup drive, an NVIDIA Titan X with 12 GB of Video RAM, 64 GB of 1333MHz RAM, 2 6TB internals and a 4TB internal. This is all doable for around $4000, much cheaper than a new Trashcan Macpro with the added bonus of an NVIDIA graphics card VS the unupgradeable ATI graphics cards in the new MacPro.

Honestly if I had the money this is what I would love to do with my Mac! It would give me years more life with my Mac and really make it fast!

Bare Feats compared the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 with 10 other GPU’s in a 2010 Mac Pro

Not only does this card us standard six pin connectors so it will work fine in the MacPro, but in many tests it doubles the performance of a GTX 680 Mac edition! WOW!
If I had the money I would totally go for one of these, since it is literally twice as fast as the GTX 680 Mac Edition, and I currently run a GTX 670, though it does have 4 GB of RAM.
I WANT ONE SO BAD!!! Ha! Not happening anytime soon.
Your best bet for one is this one from MacVidCards which is $835 plus shipping, the cards has been flashed for Mac so you get the full startup with it (which I annoyingly don’t have with my GTX 670).